Noah Lemas on Mt. Bachelor
I moved to Bend, originally, to snowboard. After college, a year or two of mountain living seemed very appealing, so my new wife and I re-located to Bend, Oregon, where we assumed we would snowboard for or while and then move on to “real life.”
Well, a funny thing happened; we started a business, we bought a house, we had kids, and before we realized it, we had been in Bend for 16 years. During those 16 years, we had always prioritized snowboarding.
Until now. I had always teased friends who moved here only to become what I like to call ”noboarders,” without much sympathy for why they might have lost interest. To me, it generally seemed as though the reason you’d endure these winters was to ride the mountain.
But after two kids and three knee surgeries (with two more suggested by the good doc), it has become increasingly difficult to bring as much enjoyment out of the sport as I could in the good old days. Working in the snowboard industry for twelve years certainly didn’t help, either. While I met a few great people during those years, the truth is that far too many of the stereotypes are true.
But, really, the final straw has been a change in Mt. Bachelor’s lift ticket options. For years, Bachelor offered a “points” or “runs” pass, meaning that you paid, essentially, by the run rather than by the day. As soon as I started getting too few days to warrant buying a season pass (a situation created by my declining knee health), the “runs” pass is what allowed me to go take three or four quick runs in the morning, on fresh snow days, before the ache in my knees sent me fleeing (to the Original Pancake House) in pain.
As of the 2009-2010 season, Mt. Bachelor has eliminated the “runs” pass option. Upon inquiry as to why, I’ve learned that the powers that be will spin this subject to the point of inducing dizziness, but the end result is that you either buy a day pass or some variant of a season pass, or Mt. Bachelor’s really not interested in your business. When I complained, they did their best to up-sell me to a 12-day season pass but, really, the “runs” pass was the only option that worked for me. Rather than acquiesce to their expensive suggestions, I’ve decided instead to not patronize their establishment. Sure, I realize that they’re not going to miss the $200 or so that I would have spent on “runs” passes this season, but there needs to be a cost to them for eliminating a worthy, and unique product. Simply, Mt. Bachelor has eliminated the ticket option that best served families, the injured, and the elderly. Nice work.
So I’ve opted to not ride this year. I may go out to Hoodoo for a couple of night powder sessions, but I’m done with Mt. Bachelor for awhile. It’ll probably be good for the health of my knees anyway.
Not sure about the dizziness. Or course we also offer 4 weeks of skiing for charity at $25 a day. Not a bad option for the occasional shredd. Here’s why for those interested:
Though it may be cold comfort, here is the reason why the flex-ride product went away.
We’re aware that there are some folks who used the flex-ride exclusively for their skiing and riding, and that these folks will be most impacted. The discontinuation of the program is less to get these folks to buy full day tickets, but to eliminate our most frauded program.
This year two products have gone away (non holiday season pass and flex ride) and two new ones have been created (club card and 12 day). It is unfortunate when the actions of a few impact many, but that was the case. People would ski with a points pass in their pocket while using a friends season pass. We caught many people doing this repeatedly. When stopped they would show the points pass, though it was not being scanned, or it might have had no rides on it at all. Some guests used this tactic all year long even after being caught.
I do grant that the points passes were very helpful for the folks who would come up to get a couple runs. Sadly it was also the weapon of choice for those stealing our product, which was its demise. It has been eliminated at other resorts as well for the same reason. I do hope I have at least shed light on the topic – though I grant it’s not the desired outcome.
I feel that dizziness coming on again…
Well, Alex at Mt. Bachelor has been great about engaging me in all of this. I truly believe that Alex has the best of intentions.
However, heaping the blame on the faceless mass that “steal our product” is perhaps just a little too convenient. The fact is that the mountain could easily have opted to issue me a season pass (for which I’d be willing to pay the nominal production cost) that charged me by the run; simply, every time I clicked through the turnstile using such a pass, my credit card would automatically be charged $5 or $7 or whatever might be the actual cost of a single run. Instead, they eliminated the ticket option altogether. Since the solution is SO SIMPLE, one can only deduce that the mountain wasn’t as interested in solving the problem as they were in eliminating the ticket option.
Had Mt. Bachelor opted to explain the elimination of the option as, say, “simply, it’s not profitable for us…sorry,” I would have been much more understanding (albeit still grouchy, I readily admit). But to find such a convenient scapegoat (criminal and anonymous no less), and then ignore the simple fact that there were feasible means to an easy solution, suggests that, indeed, a certain spin was being manufactured, the dizziness induced dependent on one’s tolerance for spin.
Given the choice between nutting up and admitting that they’ve eliminated a ticket option that wasn’t fiscally viable and spinning, the mountain has chosen the spin. And that’s no knock on Alex, who seems to be a hard-working, and impassioned, marketing director. He’s merely deflecting the spin from above, which is his job.
But I do appreciate and respect your efforts, Alex, I truly do. Thanks for stopping by (Google Alerts rock, don’t they?)
Not sure about dizziness and spin. That’s the reason they went away. You don’t have to like that reason if you don’t want to, granted. I’m not trying to tell you it is a good thing for you. But that is why for those interested.
We are looking at other options that will make it more insulated against the segment of our society that is more interested in stealing. And again, that’s the same reason it went away at Alta for instance. The CC option sounds good, but when it is attached directly to a CC, people just contest the charges and we can’t prove they were here and the CC gets refunded. Lame people impact non lame people. But we are looking at other options..
As an aside – Nice looking blog Noah.