# Crotched Mountain 12-19-20 unmitigated disaster #VailFail



## deadheadskier (Dec 19, 2020)

Got there for opening today with my five year old.  Got him started off in his private lesson.  Day started with just the Rocket and the Carpet.  No signs of any staff at the West Double or Valley Quad.  No queue lines set up for either lift either.

One run into my sons lesson the carpet went down.  He had to spend the rest of his lesson earning his turns with his instructor.  I'm never one to ask for a refund, but paying $90 for one lift ride, thirty plus minutes of hiking and fifteen minutes of instruction tops my threshold for bad value.  One of the managers said he would contact me in a couple of days to try and make things right.  Said they weren't told from Vail corporate yet how to deal with customer complaint resolution.  We will see what they say.

Valley and West finally got going around 10:20.  No one had an answer for why they weren't spinning.  Apparently a power surge, but I can guarantee those lifts weren't staffed and scheduled to open until 10.  The result was monster lines at the Rocket which is a real problem as there is no space for people to line up when it's that busy and the lift capacity cut.

It was an absolute shit show of crowds by noon with hundreds of people still waiting for tickets.  Read on FB some folks waited two hours for tickets.  I drove out the back of the parking lot when we left at noon to see just how full it was.  Probably 95%.  If they were capping reservations, it sure didn't look like it.   Apparently in the afternoon the town police and fire department showed up and shut down the parking lots and were very close to telling the mountain to close. 

Vail has a lot of work to do to figure things out.  I know times are tough, but to not even have line queues set up and ready to go for opening bell?  Total amateur hour


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## kingslug (Dec 19, 2020)

WOW...


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## Conrad (Dec 19, 2020)

Man! How soon will skiing shut down in an entire state on account of what is happening at one or more Vail owned ski areas?


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## abc (Dec 20, 2020)

deadheadskier said:


> Said they weren't told from Vail corporate yet how to deal with customer complaint resolution.


See my post on "VAIL SUCKS" on their one-size-fits-all "corporate" heavy handed policy.


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## thetrailboss (Dec 23, 2020)

Remind me....is this their first or second season owning Crotched?


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## deadheadskier (Dec 23, 2020)

Second.

From the sounds of it, they got their act together for Sunday.  

They also did make good on our lesson experience by offering a second lesson at no charge.


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## dmort (Dec 25, 2020)

I was there on the 23rd, no issues other than a 15 minute wait to pick up the card.

Lines weren't terrible, lift lines were staffed. Lifts turned, etc.


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## DoublePlanker (Dec 30, 2020)

Was there on Monday the 28th.  Waited 45 minutes to pick up free tix for my 5yr old.  Was a total shitshow.


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## elks (Jan 1, 2021)

Things are improving at Crotched imo. While parking lots fill up, it's not necessarily a capacity thing. The mountain is seeing a lot less carpooling than usual. The bottleneck at the ticket window is tough, but hopefully an early season issue. Once you've picked up your RFID season pass or Epic Day card, you can just reload the card online before every visit. (You can also have it mailed to your home with some advanced planning.) I didn't see anything unusual crowd wise at Crotched on 12/31 and lift lines were no more than 5-minutes at the busiest times of the day.


deadheadskier said:


> One run into my sons lesson the carpet went down.  He had to spend the rest of his lesson earning his turns with his instructor.  I'm never one to ask for a refund, but paying $90 for one lift ride, thirty plus minutes of hiking and fifteen minutes of instruction tops my threshold for bad value.  One of the managers said he would contact me in a couple of days to try and make things right.  Said they weren't told from Vail corporate yet how to deal with customer complaint resolution.  We will see what they say.


Have you heard back? I work in their seasonal program. Happy to move this up if needed. Just PM.



thetrailboss said:


> Remind me....is this their first or second season owning Crotched?


Second season owned by Vail, but first one where Crotched and its employees are integrated into their systems.


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## deadheadskier (Jan 1, 2021)

Thank you Kelly.

Tom made good on things and offered a replacement lesson.  

I've always been very pleased with CM ski school.  Since I got him started at 3, I've had him take about 5 private lessons and 5 mini radical group lessons at Crotched.  Always been pleased.

Both times back this season since the bad first outing have been good.


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