Who are you?

Anecdotal evidence is a bit of an oxymoron but if enough anecdotes keep being repeated there may be evidence that the anecdotes are based in truth. Let’s talk ski area and let’s talk anecdotes for a minute. Let’s talk getting volume to this place vs. getting fewer people who spend more money. I know this will get me in trouble with my friends in the Axtel Building but so be it…

*More than one on-mountain employee has commented to me something to the effect of, “Well, CBMR is finally getting its message out that there isn’t enough intermediate terrain. There hasn’t been anyone here all season. Except for President’s Weekend and big powder days, the lift lines are non-existent.”
*Two ski industry types visiting this winter both commented to me that CBMR doesn’t seem to realize they aren’t really competing with the high-end resorts. As nice as Mountaineer Square is (and I think it is pretty nice), they pointed out that it is an average conference center found at any resort or even most airports. High-enders are used to the Four Seasons, Little Nell or the Ritz with super attentive service and posh accommodations. “It almost seems like they think if they say it enough, it will be true,” commented one.
*The town of Mt. Crested Butte held a business forum recently and the resounding theme from local business owners was “We need volume or we aren’t going to survive.”
*Events like the Extremes and Prater Cup bring in people. Remember Country in the Rockies? President Carter’s annual event? More of those bring in more good energy.
*Before the surface lifts started taking people back to the Headwall, the Face and the Glades in January, Crested Butte was extremely limited. Any decent skier could ride the entire mountain pretty much in a day and be understandably bored after a few days. Friends visiting from New Zealand in January missed the storm that opened the back by a weekend but that is their assessment. It is in fact the assessment of the resort executives when they argue for Snodgrass expansion. But lift ticket prices are the same today with twice the terrain open as they were the first week of January—$87 a day is the window price.

Let’s move from anecdotes to facts.

A quick look online Tuesday morning shows that window prices at the country’s highest-end ski resorts are similar to ours. Deer Valley, which brags it has been named the Number 1 resort in North America the last three years, has a ticket price of $86. It charges less than CBMR. Sun Valley is $85. Squaw charges $82. Beaver Creek and Vail take $98 a day to ski if you buy a ticket at the window while Aspen is a mere $96. Our friends in Telluride charge $92. Alta is cheap at $66. Conventional Wisdom might say we should be more in Alta’s class. Both are historic, authentic resorts that hold killer terrain but not the patina of glamour coating an Aspen or Vail.
Is Crested Butte really an $87 mountain? I would argue it isn’t even close without the Extremes. But what do I know? So, knowing nothing about the ski industry, I will suggest that perhaps the resort could get all innovative and get more people here with a $60 general lift ticket and $25 add-on to ride the NFL and High Lifts. This would give great value to the family of four that has two college kids who want to try snowboarding and so won’t ride the t-bars but has a mom who wants to rip Dead End Chutes. This is a tangible suggestion from someone who doesn’t know much about the ski industry but uses the Internet a lot when taking a trip.
I expect the resort to argue… and will ask them for their opinion for next week’s paper… that few people pay the window lift ticket rate. Ok, so let’s look at packages.
If you call the central reservation numbers for CBMR, Aspen/Snowmass and Steamboat and ask for a nice two-bedroom, two-bath ski-in/ski-out condo for the week of February 28 to March 7 with four six-day lift tickets, how much cheaper is Crested Butte? Now, remember the terrain is frankly exponential in Aspen compared to Crested Butte with availability to four ski mountains, the amenities of Glitter Gulch and easier access to get into the airport at the base of the mountain. The same could be said for Steamboat in terms of easy access and amount of terrain.
Two couples could go to Snowmass for the week for a total of $6,600. They could head to Steamboat for $6,000 “at the nicest condo project in Steamboat.” Coming to Mountaineer Square would cost them… $6,600. So wait a second—Crested Butte’ s value is the same as Aspen and Snowmass? Really? And Kayak.com on Tuesday showed a roundtrip plane ticket from Chicago to Gunnison on the 28th is $685 per ticket while the same ticket to Aspen is $584. In a similar vein, a private ski school lesson cost more in Crested Butte over the holidays than in Aspen. So Aspen is actually less expensive than Crested Butte in some ways. Wow. What ever happened to “Heaven Forbid we should be like Aspen?”

Look, don’t get me wrong. I like Aspen but I am proud of this mountain. I want the resort to be a success and think they’ve done some good things up there. But, like it or not, my success (and pretty much the success of everyone living here) is tied to the success of the resort. It is a skier’s mountain. It is steep and there are rocks. The resort pounds home the fact that intermediate terrain is limited. So while pursuing Snodgrass, maybe move this summer to glade more intermediate terrain off East River. The town of Crested Butte is as much a selling point as the mountain itself. Maybe chill out on the evil eye aimed toward Elk Avenue. Business owners both on the mountain and downtown keep singing the refrain of needing volume to be successful.
People come here for a different (and I will argue a more down to earth) vibe than Fat City. But let’s be honest about what we are as a ski town. That’s the first step to making real needed changes to get people coming back here. It’s the return guest rate to CBMR that has recently been challenging. The resort says about 55 percent to 60 percent of people come back here after visiting, compared to 80 percent for other resorts. It’s the vibe and the value of Crested Butte that get the people to return. If one is out of whack, it all gets out of whack.
Question: Is it better to be the lowest guy in the top tier without the material amenities to really compete or the highest guy in the middle tier with expectations exceeded when people finally get here? Which is a better value? I’m not judging, I’m asking.
As much as some might want to think that Crested Butte can compete with Aspen or Steamboat or Deer Valley… is that real? But what do I know? Like the ski-industry insider observed, if we all say it enough, maybe it will come true. But I have my doubts. Let’s be real and let’s start looking for a way to get Crested Butte back in whack and it could start with innovative pricing that reflects what we really are, not what some wish we were.