NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail
The good, the bad and the ugly about NorthStar California ski resort and Vail Resorts
The reader who shared the picture says that “…people are placing their ski or snowboard equipment up in the front of the lift line in the morning, then go hang out in their warm cars until about ten minutes before loading the lift.”
Source: https://snowbrains.com
..just witnessed the chair directly in front of us fall off the haul rope during a wind hold on the peak 8 superconnect at Breckenridge’s Peak 8 SuperConnect. The chair was close to the top terminal and fell about 20 feet. ski patrol was already there and the guy riding the chair is ok.
brettmgoldberg1 via Twitter
The lift involved was built by Leitner-Poma in 2002 and connects Peaks 8 and 9 with three stations. There are normally 190 chairs on the line.
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This is the second carrier to fall from a detachable lift in North America this season. Earlier this month, an empty gondola fell from Mont-Sainte-Anne’s gondola, an incident blamed on human error after a grip attach fault. Last season, an occupied gondola cabin fell from the Sunday River Chondola in high winds. Prior to that, a chair detachment at Camelback, Pennsylvania injured three people in March 2021.
Liftblo
We went up to Northstar for 4 days and could only ski for 1 day. 2 Of the 4 was simple conditions and being shut down for good reason (rain and unexpected amounts of snow). However, on the 4th day: New Years Day, the day AFTER 36 inches of fresh powder had been dumped on the mountain, we arrived early (lifts were to open at 9:am). We parked, we arrived at the Gondola, only to be informed that the Express Lift is Closed and would likely not open and then we were instructed to get on the gondola line, which was so long that it weaved down and around and back up to where we just were.
Sean B. via Yelp
We have had the same problem with Northstar before: they are under staffed and this morning, the excuse was “our people can’t get here”. We need a skier’s Bill of Rights! They charge big money for blackout day tickets so that you can expect to get on the mountain during peak days. However, and once again, we felt like the customer doesn’t matter and the Vale group doesn’t take their responsibility seriously to get people on the mountain! That’s the business they are in!
I sat out two days waiting for this day and fought off the family who wanted to to go home rather than sit around saying “these will be the best conditions ever”. So why doesn’t the lifts open on the best day of skiing? I talked to a manager and said this: I said “You do realize that thousands of people have spent hundreds of dollars per person per day to enjoy skiing here today. It is Northstar’s business to provide safe and timely access to this beautiful day of perfect ski conditions. Do you realize that that’s the business you are in? The manager said – Do you know why we aren’t open? I said, because of lack of staff which happens here virtually all the time- he replied no, we have plenty of people, they just can’t get here. I said, with the money you are charging and all the costs for people to get here, you should have places for people to STAY HERE AND OPEN UP. He said- wait for it – ” We don’t have the resources to do that.” I said “I am done. We waited, got here, and now we are going to wait for two hours to wait for the gondola line to start which will be 2 hours minimum (that’s what they told us!) We
Are out of here. This resort sucks. Our friends arrived in Palisades and jumped on the slopes. What a waste of time and money.
Vail can’t hire competent managers to run the resorts and don’t care enough about front line employees. Profits over people all day everyday.
Joe Zimmerman via Facebook
Vail has to be one of the worst run companies I’ve ever seen. They pay their employees far less than competitors, and then blame anyone but themselves when they don’t have enough workers to operate the mountains that all of us paid thousands of dollars for passes on. They don’t care, they already have everyone’s money. I know Stevens Pass in Washington, at some point only 1 of the chairlifts was being operated by the lifts department, the rest were being run by other departments like rentals and ski school, simply because they couldn’t find enough suckers to work for their pitiful wages. I’ve heard from instructor friends that they went from 6 people per instructor, to an unlimited number of people per instructor, and my friend had 17 kids in her class. I can walk from my condo to the gondola in Vail, and next year I plan on driving to Copper Mountain and getting an Ikon pass instead. Vail Mountain is great, but the company that runs it can’t go bankrupt soon enough. Maybe then someone else will step in and actually run things the way they used to be.
Tommy Newnes via Facebook
I’m trying to find a way to make a official post to bring attention to what Vail Resorts is doing. OBVIOUSLY the WORST lines, services in many years. SO, since Vail is going to keep taking everyone’s money and NOT HAVE ENOUGH employees there is a solution. Our Government has a program which allows immigrants to come into the United States of America. It is a Visa called H2-A which allows U.S. Employers to bring in as many as they want. The H2-A visa is based on mainly ONE FACT. That is that there are NOT ENOUGH citizens of the United States to do the SEASONAL WORK which QUALIFIES the Employer as well as the immigrants. This Visa program I mainly designed for farmers and landscape companies during the season. What do you think?? I personally think that I myself would rather stay in a WARMER CLIMATE. If you like what I said please post it out there. And please check out the Government program H2-A Visa. It is VERY CLEAR. GOOD LUCK. and by the way SHAME ON VAIL ASSOCIATES for trying to be the WALMARTS of the SKI INDUSTRY. They are ruining it for EVERYONE
Peter Wolff via Facebook.com
Worst ski experience ever. If you like waiting in long lines for lifts and dining come on down. 30 minute lift lines and they continue to sell ski passes at the base. Lots of snow but 30% of mountain open making congestion all the worse. After buying 5 epic passes per year for 10+ years I am done. Ikon or mountain collective here we come.
Leonard Feiner via Facebook.com
Source: skinorthamerica100.com
Vale Ski Resorts is putting their customers, their season pass holders at risk for Omicron at Heavenly Valley South Lake Tahoe!!! By insisting on grouping multiple parties in the small Timberlodge gondolas. Worst there’s no reason for doing this nonsense; especially on weekdays. Many of these strangers aren’t wearing masks! I’ve been a season pass holder here for as long as the resort’s existed but if they are going to intentionally put my family at risk for Omicron by crowding strangers in these small gondolas then I’ll be looking closer at other resorts and end a near 20 year relationship as season pass holder
via Yahoo Finance board
Capacity control is a joke. Terrible logistics. 1 hour traffic jam, 3 hours waiting for rental gear, 40 min wait for lift and you’re stuck on it for another hour cause some random issues. Count how much you get for your $200 ticket
Eric P (via Google reviews)
It’s 12:20pm and we’ve been in so many lines that we haven’t been on a single run yet. What a massive waste of time.
Oh, and their lift tickets are more expensive than Squaw’s. Why?
Quit peddling waffles and focus your investments on building new lifts and logistical infrastructure.
This place just isn’t what it used to be in the 90s
Kevin H. (via Yelp)
My family are season passholders while I’m a non skier. When they ski I normally sit in the lodge. Not at Northstar. They are now charging $40 for me to get on a gondola and ride to the lodge (because I get a ride) or the other option is taking a gondola up to the Ritz where I can’t stay because I don’t have a room. There is no other ski resort that charges for a non skier to sit in the lodge. They have lost our families business as we will not be returning to ski or do anything else at Northstar!
Mandi M. (via Yelp)
On sSunday there were 20-30 minute waits on every single lift. completely packed with people. limited occupancy is absolutely a lie. i get it, you need to have people buy food to get a beer. to charge be $15 for the cheapest entree (tiny bowl of chili) and another $14 for a beer i feel is just disrespectful. at sierra they have $2 hot dogs which is totally fair. and, on top of all that the snow quality was absolute garbage. which is kind of out of their control. but they do advertise that their snow base is 18″-35″ which from what i can see is also a lie. there’s exposed dirt on almost every run when i was there and exposed rocks all over the place.
so if you’re going to take something away from this.. byob. screw their rules. i would also suggest not even going. at least until it snows again. definitely not worth the full price of a lift ticket.
Darrick F. (via Yelp)
NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail 