TOP FIVE FRIDAYS: SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
Lead Image: Snowboarding?!? On SkiEssentials? No, your eyes don’t deceive you. If you haven’t already heard, we started selling snowboards this past season, and we’re super excited to share our first ever Snowboard Test. More on that below!
#1: We’ve Just Launched Our First Ever SkiEssentials.com Snowboard Test!
As we continue to bring snowboarding into the fold here on SkiEssentials.com, we’re excited to have just launched our first ever snowboard test! If you’re in the market for a snowboard this season or know someone who is, be sure to check this out.
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the September 23, 2022 edition! As you might have noticed, we skipped last week’s update for what we’re pretty sure is just the second time since we started this series back in the summer of 2015. While we know (or like to think) many of you were refreshing your inbox all day, just waiting for the latest news update to come in, we’re pretty sure we have an adequate excuse: we were incredibly busy tying off the loose ends so that we could launch our first ever snowboard test.
That of course, brings us to our first highlight this week: the SkiEssentials.com 2023 Snowboard Test is now live! Due in part to the resoundingly positive feedback that we receive on our ski test each year, and due in part to constantly being asked, “when are you going to start selling snowboards,” we slowly began bringing boards into our offering last winter. As we did, we knew that if we were going to be serious about becoming a snowboard retailer, we’d have to treat our snowboarding content the same as our skiing content. While we’re still working on bringing our snowboarding program up to speed, we’re extremely excited to say that we were able to run our first ever snowboard test in parallel with our ski test last spring! In doing so, we’ve created an equivalent test where our staff, local friends, and industry legends such as the lauded JG were all able to spend a few days on snow, rapidly testing a number of different snowboards. Just like with our ski test, the goal of our snowboard test is to provide feedback that highlights the different characteristics of each board, helping to ensure that you purchase the perfect board for your ability and style. On that note, if you’re interested in seeing our thoughts on the latest round of snowboards, or if you have a snowboarder in your life who might find this content useful, we’d appreciate it if you checked it out! You can do so right here.
#2: Mt. Bachelor to Offer Two Tiers of Pricing Next Year, Based on Willingness to Sign a Liability Waiver:
If you consider yourself fiscally responsible, a risk taker, or both, then Mt. Bachelor’s new release of liability based discounted lift ticket option might be particularly appealing to you. Image: cMt. Bachelor on Facebook
With that major announcement out of the way, let’s get into some ski industry news. We start this week by sharing a headline that we missed last week, but one that’s certainly intriguing enough to share with you now. As you might already know, there’s been a recent uptick in lawsuits filed against ski resorts in Oregon where plaintiffs have been injured at the resort and are now suing the ski area for compensation. The most significant case in which this has happened was actually the result of a mountain biking accident, and resulted in the Mt. Hood Skibowl settling with the plaintiff out of court to the tune of $10.5 million. In the wake of that news, the Mt. Hood Skibowl ended its mountain biking operations indefinitely, citing the inability to protect itself against future lawsuits of a similar magnitude. Then, just last month, we shared with you a similar story from Mt. Bachelor, where another lawsuit had been filed against an Oregonian ski resort as the result of a catastrophic injury. This time, the parents of a child who tragically died at the resort are seeking $49 million in damages.
With these two stories in mind, we bring you last week’s update: Mt. Bachelor has recently announced plans to offer two-tier pricing for lift tickets this upcoming season. For those willing to sign a standard release of liability, a lower price will be offered. For those wishing to forgo the liability release, a higher priced lift ticket will be available. At the moment, that’s really all we know. Details haven’t been released in regards to the pricing of the two ticket options, or the release itself. But, that’s really all we need to know about the story to recognize it as a possible first step in coming to a new solution for this growing concern. While the lawsuit issue has currently only impacted resorts in Oregon, it feels like something that could potentially become a wider problem in the ski industry if precedent continues to be set by successful cases. If that’s the case, ski resorts will need to find a way to get ahead of the issue before it becomes too risky to operate. With that in mind, the question ultimately becomes, will this tactic work? On one hand, it seems obvious that most guests will elect to sign the waiver in favor of what we’d assume is a significant discount. On the other though, what about those who don’t? How much legal risk is Mt. Bachelor undertaking by allowing guests to ski and ride at the resort without releasing their liability? Furthermore, what about those who might see this as an opportunity to purposely incur injury at the resort without signing a liability release in an effort to file a lawsuit with a promising payout? The answers to these questions are yet to be determined, and as such, this headline feels like the announcement of an experiment, the outcome of which will hopefully be beneficial to ski resort operators everywhere. To learn more about this, check out the report from Central Oregon Daily.
#3: Aspen Announces the Return of “Tenants for Turns” Program, Incentivizing the Community to House Employees:
Aspen is no exception- there’s a significant employee housing shortage there too. This year, the resort is bringing back its “Tenants for Turns” program in an effort to incentivize the community to lease their rentals to resort employees. Image: Aspen Website
In other intriguing ski resort news, we also learned this week that after a successful inaugural season, Aspen will be once again running their “Tenants for Turns” program. Now to be totally honest, we somehow missed hearing about this program last season, but we’re pretty happy that it finally made its way onto our radar as it’s a pretty interesting concept. Here’s the gist: in Aspen, as is the case with many ski towns, there’s a housing shortage which makes it particularly difficult for the resort to provide adequate housing for its employees. Being a mountain town, it’s in the best interest for all who live there that that mountain is able to find adequate staff to run a smooth operation. Recognizing this dynamic, Aspen has put together an interesting proposal: anyone who can provide housing for an Aspen employee will receive their choice of an Aspen Snowmass Premier Pass, 10 Single Day Ticket Vouchers, or a $1,200 credit for use at any Aspen owned business. In other words, in exchange for providing housing for an Aspen employee, you could receive a full season pass (including an Ikon Base Pass), 10 lift ticket vouchers that you can give out to friends, or $1,200 which can be used for lodging at the resort, ski gear, luxurious experiences, or anything else that money can buy (from Aspen).
Now, if you’re like us, you might be wondering, “Ok, but what’s the catch?”. Well, we did some investigating and so far, we couldn’t really find one. Our first question was whether or not this incentive program acts in place of rent, but it doesn’t- it’s in addition to. Those who find housing for Aspen employees can still charge rent as they normally would, this is just an added incentive to rent to employees. Then we wondered if only rentals meeting strict criteria would be eligible, but all told, that too seems pretty lenient as the wording for the announcement says, “The program offers incentives to homeowners willing to rent a unit, a guest house, an ADU, a mother-in-law unit or even an extra bedroom to an Aspen Snowmass employee.” Furthermore, there isn’t even a geographical limitation. If an employee is willing to commute from the rental, it’s fair game.
Finally, our last question was whether or not this incentive was per-employee, or per-landlord. In other words, if a landlord rented to 10 employees, could they receive 10 season passes, for example? The answer to that is also positive, as Aspen is allowing landlords to take advantage of one of each of the benefits, meaning there is incentive to find housing for up to three employees. Noting that, this feels like an incredible opportunity for someone with a three unit property to rent it to three employees, receiving a free Premier Pass (which, again includes an Ikon Base Pass), 10 day tickets to give out to friends, and up to $1,200 worth of spending at Aspen- more than enough to buy an entirely new ski setup and then some. All in all, it seems like a pretty sweet program, and one that does a great job of balancing the interests of both Aspen and the local community. To learn more about this program or to apply for eligibility, check out the post on the Aspen website.
#4: It’s Time to Get Excited About “Nexus”, a Female Ski Flick Produced and Edited Entirely by Women:
Finally, we end this week with a highlight that we’re really excited to share. A few weeks back, we included the trailer for “Nexus,” an all female ski film, in our edits of the week. If you watched that edit, then you know that Nexus is an upcoming film highlighting the experience of several women in the world of professional skiing. Unless you paid close attention to the credits on the trailer though, or clicked through and read a description on YouTube, there’s a chance you missed some of the exciting details of the film, just like we did. That’s where this week’s news comes in.
In a post on TheInertia.com, writer Andrew McLemore helps share the bigger story behind the film through citing a number of quotes found across social media, as well as the film's website. Ultimately, that story is this: Nexus isn’t just a ski flick focused on empowering women, it’s a ski flick that’s being created almost exclusively by women. In the trailer, we hear Michelle Parker talk about how she used to be told that only one female was needed for a ski trip or a film, and the compounding negative effect that had on her. In recent years, that trend has been bucked in a tremendous way as women have made their presence known in the industry as business leaders, athletes, and creatives. Now, with Nexus, that trend is pushed even further as we’re about to receive a film that not only features women in front of the camera, but is being created almost exclusively by women. From the direction, production, and editing of the film, to the photography and cinematography, the credits are dominated by women. In fact, the only role in which men contributed to the project is with cinematography, and even then only half the crew involved were males. While this distinction may feel academic, Michelle Parker points out that this is the first time that an entirely female team has had the chance to create something of their own, the importance of which can be summed up by her own rhetorical question, “Who better to tell women’s stories than female creatives?” Ultimately, that’s the bottom line with this story. For the first time that we’re aware of, we’re about to have a female ski flick that’s been created entirely from the female perspective, without the dominating input of a male. That feels both significant, and like it’s been a long time coming. To read more about this, check out the article on TheInertia.com.