It is February school vacation week here in Massachusetts. Those who are most concerned about climate change are flying 4,000 miles round-trip to ski rather than driving 45 minutes west to Mt. Wachusett. Here’s a group Facebook chat::
Friend 1: Met two families from [Happy Valley] on this flight to Utah and two from Wellesley.
Me: Did you ask them about their carbon offset purchases?
Friend 1: One of them is a perpetual complainer about racism (Indian herself) and male patriarchy.
Me: Who paid for her plane ticket?
Friend 1: Her husband is a CFO of [medium-sized company]. She is a wantrepreneur/housewife.
[Wikipedia shows that Indian Americans such as the “complainer about racism” have the highest median household income among all Americans; $101,390 per year compared to $59,698 for the average white household.]
Where to stay when the whole family is displaced to the mountains?
Friend 1: [wife] found a great market inefficiency. Those who buy time shares eventually can’t make it to their condos and put them online so you can grab it at a fraction of their cost we have a townhouse right on the mountain – next to a lift ski-in and ski-out essentially right next to Four Seasons.
Friend 2: That is what I am doing [at a New England mountain]. Taking advantage of moron who got time share. $250 for two nights and 2.5 days of lift tickets and I am getting a ride there.
Friend 1: [wife] negotiates hard with these dudes since she knows their cost structure. so we got this 4 bedroom townhouse in Utah for 4 grand for 9 days. We take two bedrooms and our friends from SF take the other two. so it’s 2k for 9 days. Waldorf Astoria right next to it is $700 per night for 1 bedroom.
Readers: How has the skiing been this year?
Colorado skiing has been pretty bad, lots of friends looking north (Big Sky, Jackson, BC) for next year. Things are improving now, but bookings are down. However, some ski areas (ie Steamboat) now seem to offer “theme weeks” – Texas Week, Music Festival Week, etc which of course means lots of people and not many people on the slope. But good for people who own property.
I guess there is climate change here but not north of us. Sad, very sad.
Great skiing this year so far. My local mountain (Mt Baker) has gotten almost 500 inches of snow this season.
Skiing in Tahoe is also mediocre. Only 60% or so of Heavenly is open. And that stuff is mostly man made snow. Their giant snow making system lets Heavenly keep the runs groomed great and well covered. So the skiing is good on the groomers but nothing off piste or in the trees is open. .
The other resorts in Tahoe like Squaw and Sierra and Kirkwood are in similar situations. Only about 50 percent of the runs are open due to insufficient snow. They have only received 70-90 inches of snow all season. Last year they got 500 inches. And in town we do not have any snow on the ground at all.
In Utah we are dealing with the least snow in the past 30+ years. A storm over the past weekend has finally blanketed the area. There are plenty of beginner, intermediate, and connecting runs open but until recently little of the wide open bowls have been open. The lack of precipitation will make for a very intense wildfire season this summer. Last year was one of the best in the past 30 years for snow.
Bill: I haven’t bothered to go up this year. I love cross-country and there just isn’t any snow. Not purchasing a season pass was the best decision I made last year.
This is the first year since about 1975 that I have not skied. Last year was great. But not this year as I will not be able to ski at all for health reasons. I guess I am not missing much.
So, where do we snag these great timeshare deals, anyway? Asking for a friend.
vrbo.com or vacationrentals.com
New England’s winter vacation is usually not a vacation in other places so it is easier to get fairly good deal. It is unlikely to get such prices for Xmas. Last minute car rental was around $2K per week in SLC this year.
very poor in California. We are hoping for a “miracle march”. We need more snow.
Went skiing in Slovenia in early Jan, was fantastic, lots of snow. Hotel for couple w two kids €100/night including excellent buffet breakfast, dinner, unexpected kid friendly pool (big enough a Croatian swim team used 1/3 of it to practice), and shuttle to slopes. Lift tickets worked out to maybe €20/person/day. Kids got private lessons each day one hour/€20 or so.