The weather’s changing and Stowe Mountain Resort general manager and vice president Bobby Murphy is getting amped.
“I know people in town are getting excited,” Murphy said. “It’s go time.”
The resort opens less than a month from now — opening day is scheduled for Nov. 17 — and Murphy and communications director Jeff Wise outlined the resort’s plans for the coming ski season.
The highlights? More open uphill policies, strong programming for schoolchildren and — hopefully — better parking.
Oh, and get your Epic Pass soon, if you haven’t already — sales close Sunday, Nov. 19, for the rest of the season. After that, you’ll have to buy day passes. Bought online 48 hours in advance, adult day tickets are $99 during peak season, children’s tickets are $84 and senior tickets for the 64-and-up set are $92. Ticket window and day-of prices have not yet been set. Last year, they were $124 for adults and $104 for children at the ticket window.
The Epic Pass is currently priced at $899, less than half of a Stowe Mountain Resort season pass before Vail Resorts took over ski operations.
The FourRunner Quad will open daily at 8 a.m., and on holidays and weekends, it will open at 7:30 a.m.
The Gondola, Meadows Quad and Meadows Carpet will open at 8:30 a.m., and the rest of the lifts open at 9 a.m.
Parking up the right tree
Murphy and Wise’s biggest hope is that parking and resort access will improve this year, thanks to investments in parking infrastructure and parking attendants, and an emphasis on public transit.
“The importance of improving access is the key,” Murphy said.
“The new parking is the most significant capital investment that we’ve made,” Wise said, referring to the two parking lots adjacent to the Midway Lodge that add a total of 140 spaces to the resort’s roster. “It’s a really great spot where people can either ski right out, if they have their passes,” or reach Midway Lodge conveniently, Wise said. “It couldn’t be any closer, right into the action.”
The resort is also waiting on a state land use permit to extend a gravel parking lot at the cross-country center another 200 spaces, to increase staff parking to 425 spots.
“That will increase guest parking as well, because it enables us to move more of the staff cars,” Wise said.
Expect more people to help you put your car where it needs to be, too. The resort plans to hire more parking attendants, and give them better training. Wise said being able to park cars “in a more orderly fashion” will help the resort pack more cars into the parking lots.
“We really want to accommodate the carload full of families that need more slopeside assistance than the single-car driver that’s just going to throw their skis over their shoulder and head straight for the lift,” Wise said. “We want to make sure we’re providing the conveniences that people with extra needs for families have.”
Families will still be allowed to drop their kids off at Spruce Peak for the Adventure Center and school ski and ride programs, Wise said. Kids who ski and ride at Spruce Peak are dropped off there; kids big enough to take on Mount Mansfield can be dropped off there.
Another key component to a successfully-parked winter? Strategic snow removal.
“You remove snow from the lot so that the existing parking spots that we have don’t get taken up by snow load,” Murphy said. “We’ve committed more resources to taking care of the snow load.”
Stowe Mountain Resort partners with Dale E. Percy Inc. of Stowe to haul hefty snow.
Despite parking pass pricing reportedly increasing at other Vail-owned resorts, Wise and Murphy assured the Stowe community at least one thing will still be free.
“We are not charging for parking,” Wise emphasized.
Murphy says don’t be surprised if you see him or any of the rest of the management team out there slinging snow or directing traffic.
“I’m excited to see ourselves out there grabbing flags and being part of the solution. We’re all jumping in. You’ll see us out there,” he said with a chuckle.
As for public transit, Murphy said Stowe Mountain Resort leaders are still in conversation with Green Mountain Transit and the Agency of Transportation to increase and upgrade the transit system.
Vail Resorts’ top brass is also working with Stowe town officials, Stowe Area Association and other local businesses to create a public transit plan that will benefit the community.
“There’s an opportunity to increase ridership,” Murphy said.
Murphy and Wise also mentioned a smartphone app that would allow people to check on buses. Another smartphone app, Epic Mix, even allows Vail Resorts guests to check wait times at lift lines, and post to social media. The Epic Mix app will likely drop at Stowe Mountain Resort next year.
Good vibes with the town
The resort’s relationship with town officials and the business community are of the utmost importance, Murphy and Wise said.
Stowe Mountain Resort holds a seat on the board of Stowe Area Association.
“We see the Stowe experience as starting the second you cross the border into town, and doing everything that we can to work with every stakeholder and business to make sure we’re all providing a seamless experience” is key, Wise said.
The Stowe Mountain Resort sales team has partnered with local inns and lodges to send “pre-arrival messages” to people who have booked day tickets for certain days, or are planning to use their Epic Passes.
“We want to make sure people know about mountain access, how the cards work, best practices for parking, things like that,” Wise said.
Oh, and speaking of the cards, here’s an insider’s tip: You’ll still need an Evolution Stowe card this year, in addition to your Epic Pass or day ticket, since the card readers that work at Vail-owned resorts aren’t at Stowe yet. Vail Resorts is waiving the $5 fee; your Evolution Stowe card will be free, as well as your first replacement (don’t go losing more than two, though, or you’ll have to pony up). Vail Resorts is also mailing cards to people within a certain geographic distance who have bought Epic Passes.
Some good news for pint-sized winter warriors: The school skiing program, affectionately known in Stowe as “Friday program,” will remain unchanged, Wise said.
The new paved lot near Midway could allow for more space for more programming.
Twelve schools, and more than 1,000 area children, participate, Wise said.
For every two days a coach volunteers with the school program, he or she gets a voucher for a free ski day.
Wise coaches Friday program, and wants to encourage other people to coach, too.
“The community members that volunteer to coach the program, most of them are people like me, parents. My kids are in the program. I want to spend more time on the mountain with the kids,” Wise said. “That’s one of the things that motivates me to do it.”
Mountain hosts also ski for free, as in past years. This year, they’ll wear the traditional blue jackets; next year, they’ll switch to Vail Resorts’ color-coded jackets.
Esbert Cardenas has volunteered as a host at the mountain for eight years, and plans to head up there again this year as part of the resort’s 35-person host. Some are volunteer; others are paid.
Cardenas says he likes volunteering because of the variety of people he gets to meet.
“It’s actually an amazing experience, when you get to cater to people and nine out of 10 of them are on vacation, and the other 10 percent live here because they want to live here, that’s a recipe for happiness,” Cardenas said.
Epic Pass sales
Epic Passes are selling well, according to Wise, but he didn’t have exact numbers. Murphy estimated sales were up 17 percent.
Season pass revenue increased about 23 percent in the last fiscal year, which ended July 31, according to Rob Katz, Vail Resorts’ CEO.
That translates into an increase of about 17 percent in Epic Pass units.
About 12 million skier visits were logged at Vail Resorts between Aug. 1, 2016, and July 31, 2017.
Last year, the busiest days at Stowe Mountain Resort, pre-Epic Pass, brought about 8,500 skiers and riders to the hill.
Wise couldn’t pinpoint the resort’s exact capacity, but said the mountain and the lifts can all take more skiers than that.
“There are resorts with (fewer) skiable acres and less of an uphill capacity, i.e. the lifts and the type of lifts and how fast those lifts get people to the top, that get less skier visits than Stowe,” Wise said.
He didn’t have projections for how many skiers and riders Stowe Mountain Resort is expecting this season.
All uphill from here
Want to head uphill? That’s fine — in fact, Vail Resorts wants to encourage it. Details are still being finalized, but “we are expanding on that access,” Murphy said. “We will have multiple routes up the Mansfield side in the morning, and we will have multiple routes up in the afternoon, one on the Mansfield side and one on the Spruce Peak side for afternoon skinning and uphill access.”
During the day, access up Easy Mile will be open.
“If somebody wanted to get a quick skin up, we have committed that area,” Murphy said. “It’s the right thing to do, because the community is asking for it.”
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