Friedman: They’re at it again

SkiCo has decided to disappoint the locals, early birds, and ski instructors again this year by pushing forward the start time on the Snowmass Village Express chair to 9 a.m., after attempting the same maneuver last year and receiving a wave of pushback. As was said last year when they first tried this, the start time of Village Express has always been 8:30 a.m., for the past 50-plus years. It allows the locals to get a couple of ski runs in prior to going to work, it allows the ski instructors to get a few laps in and check out the best terrain to bring their clients, and it allows all the early birds to get fresh tracks and disperse across the mountain. Most of us early morning skiers and riders are off the mountain before noon, but are waiting in lift lines prior to the 8:30 a.m. opening time, which keeps the mountain manageable for crowd control.

They have given no reason for this time change, but it can’t be because of set up every morning, as the lift is running at 7:15 a.m. Lifties are boarding between 7:30-8 a.m. Employees at the restaurants are loading at 8 a.m. So what is SkiCo’s reasoning? Either they don’t have any, or they have something they know would fall flat if they announced it publicly.

The VX 8:30 a.m. start time has always been something special for us. It’s the one thing that has put Snowmass apart from the rest. By pushing the start time to 9:00 a.m., locals, pre-work skiers and enthusiastic tourists will now clash with the ski school start time and make the lift lines crowded and dangerous, as well as create unmanageably long lines up the mountain on powder days. We truly cannot think of a valid reason SkiCo has to make this change.

I know this is only a letter and probably won’t change now corporate SkiCo, but I needed to vent and have the locals aware of what is going on, many people have come to the lift for 8:30 a.m. start time and have been unpleasantly surprised that after last season they went back to 9 a.m.

We are not guests, as Skico cares to cater to. We are only local ski enthusiasts that pay sometimes over $3,000 each.

Robert Friedman

El Jebel