How Corporate Consolidation is Killing Ski Towns

Watch the Logistics of X right now and get $20 off an annual subscription by signing up at Nebula.tv/wendover
Watch the Logistics of Ski Resorts here: nebula.tv/videos/wendover-the...
Watch Jet Lag: The Game at / jetlagthegame
Buy a Wendover Productions t-shirt: standard.tv/collections/wendo...
Subscribe to Half as Interesting (The other channel from Wendover Productions): / halfasinteresting
KZbin: / wendoverproductions
Instagram: / sam.from.wendover
Twitter: / wendoverpro
Sponsorship Enquiries: [e-mail]
Other emails: [e-mail]
Reddit: / wendoverproductions
Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

[@syper9113]

There are not enough 80’s movie style ski offs to save their towns from big corporations.

[@thanksyoutubefortakingmyhandle]

Not 80s but out cold was the best haha

[@Alexiscool782]

It’s too late anyways. Frank just fracked the mountain for oil.

[@williambrasky3891]

Shut up, Stan Darsh!

[@BobbyGeneric145]

@@thanksyoutubefortakingmyhandle go to the bathroom in the cup...

[@KRYMauL]

No, but there may be enough Reservations to give the towns to.

[@shangerdanger]

the employees pay for parking??? LOL. Another thing not mentioned about finding housing is that you won't get approved if you don't make 2x or 3x the cost of rent.

[@akamesama]

It is terrible, but not that unusual when parking space is at a premium. In theory, the funds would be used to build more or vertical parking, run a free shuttle for people willing to park further out, etc (it is what my local university does with SOME of the funds they make off parking fees). Though there is little incentive to do this when employees are basically paying to work for the company, like in the case outlined in the video.

[@Stingyray1]

That's nothing. The public hospital in my town in Canada charges the nurses and doctors a parking lot fee. I find it hilarious though.

[@ryanmack99]

They planned to make all the lots at Whistler paid parking and locals lost it. That was years ago now. Gouging for lift passes already sucks, but making people who drive from local areas is just ass

[@arevolvingdoor3836]

This actually isn't that uncommon, I worked a summer job at a large university that charged $90 a month for parking. Approximately 1 days worth of work, went directly back to my employer. Also keep in mind this was summer session and most parking lots were empty.

[@tomassakalauskas2856]

@@Stingyray1 why? It sounds so strange to Europeans that North Americans feel entitled to free parking everywhere. In Europe employers can offer free parking as a job perk but it is not a given and if they do then they also have to offer compensation for public transport ticket for those who are not driving.

[@Lukas.Cancelosi]

I grew up in Frisco, Colorado, it's one of the hub towns for these resorts. I saw all of this happen, everyone thinking the epic pass would bring so much more to our small town's economy. Then vail pressured local governments to eminent domain acres of land and set living density maximums that only applied to everyone else, making it so building anywhere near the ski resorts as a private citizen was illegal unless you were vail. Nothing takes "free" out of "free market" like monopolies i guess.

[@honkhonk8009]

Leave it to the government to always find a way to weasel into private sector matters, and fuck everything up for everyone. The idea of seperating state and church back then, was the same idea as seperating state and corporation right now. There should be ZERO reason why the state should ever interact with the private sector, except for a few offchances. Its a braindead business model. Letting the government handle anything related to money, is just asking them to be bribed

[@Wooooptywoop]

Ive been in Steamboat for 10+ years. I caught the tail end of what we call “ski bumming” Alta (Aspen) bought the resort a couple years ago.. now Aspen is pushing for small town USA to be the second largest ski resort in the state by next year. The locals have been pushed out… our day passes in peak season are pushing $300+/per day… Steamboat is now Aspen and there are no more locals or housing. All the homes/condo’s sold to cash offers before hitting the market (Blackrock). We dont have neighborhoods anymore. We dont have community anymore. Its just wealthy individuals driving the prices up… pushing the locals out… sourcing employees from J1 Visa Transfers from out of country or illegal immigrants from Mexico… im not racist. This is fact. Its done. Skiing is done. The mountains are full of Jerry’s and wealthy business owners who rent airbnb or vacasa rentals… locals are now pushed into the once upon a time hotels where the visitors once stayed… now the hotels are bought by (blackrock) and the price of those rentals are nearly 2k… no kitchen. Communal refrigerators that dont work. Literally almost slave housing. They bought the hotels and claimed to offer affordable housing for those being pushed out of their housing… only to pay more for less… its pathetic and the city is corrupt

[@Froz0nPh0enix]

I work in vail now and I absolutely HATE what vail has done and continues to do. Hate the way it clogs I70. I hate it all

[@sunmand6136]

"Nothing takes "free" out of "free market" like monopolies i guess." - Comment of the decade if not the century. Nailed it!!!

[@tatumsh9]

I just payed $45 for a large pizza in Frisco.

[@khaithesnail5385]

I was born and raised in Crested Butte. My family used to live in town along with lots of local neighbors. Once Vail bought it up though, we and many others were forced out. Almost no one lives in the actual town of CB now and nearly the entire workforce is teenagers. Calling it a ghost town in the off seasons is no exaggeration. Pretty much every house and apartment in CB and the surrounding neighborhoods are second, third, or fourth homes. It's been really depressing to watch my beloved hometown be gobbled up by corporate ski resorts and second homeowners. The worst part is, I'll never be able to live there again because of the prices.

[@psalmsurfer1]

sorry to hear..let them eat cake huh?

[@sethgsf4120]

Sounds like a good place to do break and entery lol

[@AlexAnder-rv1gu]

@@sethgsf4120 Sounds like a great place to send all those unwanted migrants in NYC... (how do I make the upside-down-smiley emoji)

[@joelcoll4034]

You can live there in the off seasons

[@Demopans5990]

@sethgsf4120 Even better, there's probably no cops around for miles if the cops themselves can't afford to live in the town

[@anon84931]

The one place that has figured this problem out is Jasper National Park. The townsite in the Rockies only allows people to buy a house there if they have a job in the town. Even though there is a lot of demand to live there for the ski resort Marmot Basin in the winter, or the trails, hot springs, and wildlife in the summer, it's not possible for investors to buy up land unless they actually live and work there. So the homes stay affordable for the townsfolk who make it such an awesome place to visit in stark contrast to places like Whistler, BC.

[@catchampjade]

This is a problem i had with the video is that Vail or vail like corps are blamed for everything and while they are bad they DONT actually own lots of the land in town. Yea they own a hotel or two and some restaurants most of the stuff right at the base but everything outside of that is owned by the vulture investors. When vail buys a new resort they may purchase some things in the area like close local lodging but they dont do a full buyout of the entire area. immediately after all the locals start getting offers from other investment companies. Real estate speculators, chain restaurants, ski equipment chains, and other things of that like all come out to try and force the local businesses out instantly with offers that for most owners would allow them to retire comfortably regardless of age This is on the towns not banning short term rentals or only allowing locals to purchase. They are so greedy for the extra property tax revenue that they will gladly let locals get forced out then the NIMBY policies that your new multi millionaire residents want are easy to supply them with allowing for reelection after reelection.

[@noahhanington2351]

This is partially true although as a local I can say housing for the most part is not by any means affordable. There's lots of multiple property owners who ask for ridiculous prices to rent. Most properties to outright purchase also cost upwards of a million dollars. That said I am very happy this town isn't turning into a giant corporate mess like lots of others.

[@ptwlt]

Sorry but you're completely misunderstanding the 'right to reside' that Parks enforces in Jasper, Banff, Lake Louise, and Field. Anyone can buy property, you just can't use it as a vacation property or live in it if you don't have a right to reside, which in most cases means you need a job in the town. Also, no one owns land in any of these towns, all land is owned by the crown and leased to the property owners.

[@ptwlt]

Also, average house prices in Jasper in Banff are some of highest in the province...

[@anon84931]

@@ptwlt thanks for the clarification!

[@olivervantiel1513]

I'm a high schooler in Crested Butte and I've spent my entire life here. I work two jobs in the winter season, three in the summer season, and then during the off seasons the entire town empties out completely. At the restaurant I work at, wait times during spring break were easily 2+ hours for a table, but the next week, it was half empty the entire night. The restaurant closes twice a year cause there's nobody there, and then the summer comes and it's even worse, wait times sometimes exceeding 3 hours for a table, all of the tourists coming and destroying the surrounding nature and ecosystem, and then yelling at workers when they learn how long the wait is. I've seen customers throw menus at the host, threaten to punch servers, and then go back to their multimillion dollar homes that sit empty for most of the year. The town used to be a place where you would walk down the street and know everybody, but now its full of tourists and you don't know anybody. There's so little housing available that we have to wait in hours-long lines to get our mail at the post office because there are so few people working there. It used to be a nice, cozy little town, but now its a disaster

[@standingbear998]

when do you go to school?

[@PhaseSkater]

whys crested butte more crowded in summer? its a ski town?

[@davidlamb1107]

If the wait is that long during the season, why not simply raise prices until the wait is reasonable?

[@sephikong8323]

Damn, that really sounds dystopian I live a tourist hotspot myself but it's not even that bad, even though....... yeah, most houses are only secondary homes that sit empty most of the year and rent/housing prices are comparable to the capital because of it and a big part of the restaurants close for the off season, it's still a perfectly livable city, and even the tourists aren't that bad (granted, entitled Upper/Middle Class Americans are possibly some of the worst ones in the world so if it's almost all of the tourists you get, I understand how messy that can get)

[@SuperReviews4you]

If Vail bought Crested Butte in the middle of 2018 then wouldn't that mean property prices went up from $425,000 to $625,000 just in 3 and a half years before Vail purchased the resort? That also would mean the price was already steadily increasing before Vail purchased them and the price increased at about the same rate until 2020. When the pandemic hit everyone wanted to move out of the city and into places like Crested Butte almost doubling the price. This really had nothing to do with Vail buying the resort.

[@jharricam]

I spent two years in Whistler Blackcomb right when Vail purchased the resort. I was stunned by the systematic abuse of workers. I'll never forget when I started my first job at Whistler, I asked my employer (Black Tie Ski rentals) why I wasn't getting enough hours, I need to make a living, they replied "We hope you have some savings to rely on". Living there was both amazing and ruthless. Housing was a nightmare, many people going homeless. Many people sharing rooms/beds and living on top of each other. Grocery prices were out of control. I'd move back there in a heartbeat if it was viable, but living like a Ski 'BUM' was not worth it.

[@rickjaszyn6804]

I was in Big Sky two years ago, the covienience store was selling $300 bottles of wine! Millionaires are now the middle class, billionaires are the upper class, guess where that leaves us.

[@bad3032]

You should cover how it's impossible in ski towns to rent apartments because air BnBs have decimated availability. Ski resorts struggle every year houing their employees

[@microwave311]

Not really a worthwhile topic.

[@bababababababa6124]

I feel so bad for people living in tourist hotspots, I feel like this type of thing happens all over the world

[@wut7640]

It does. As someone who works in the hospitality industry at places like resorts and national parks the locals usually get screwed once the summer/winter season ends. Especially the ski towns. Its sad to see

[@SalMinella]

Billy Joel wrote a great song about this called Downeaster Alexa. A Downeaster is a type of boat. In the song the boats name is Alexa (who is the daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley). The subject is a man being forced to work to the bone because his hometown has been invaded by tourists and city money.

[@jgrywacheski]

It's not always as bleak as the video makes it seem. For many of the locals they look forward to the offseason, when they get their sleepy town back. Most will either have stable, decent paying local jobs that they've had for years or they'll be in their retirement years. The basics are still open ( groceries, bank, coffee shops, family restaurants) and that's all they really want. A nice quiet life until the hustle and bustle of the tourist season kicks off again.

[@jakeroper1096]

The rest of us thank you for your sacrifice

[@jokuakinyele6502]

Jackson Hole is next

[@maximusaugustus6823]

Over 10 years ago, my childhood dream of living in a quaint Colorado town came to an end as the entire western mountainous regions transformed into exclusive playgrounds for the affluent.

[@everythingpony]

Lol you didn't do you'r dream then

[@edm9760]

They are effluent, NOT affluent

[@philhoughton420]

So what you're saying is you want the lifestyle without going through the trouble of earning it.@@edm9760

[@imadethisaccountocommentk486]

You could go to gunnison skiing nearby and its not a tourist town. It is near crested butte though

[@PolPotsPieHole]

@@imadethisaccountocommentk486 I live near Canon City, Gunnison is my favorite area, never busy, laid back, great views, though I was there one morning and it was -25F, lol

[@joeytrust4393]

One of my favorite phrases from those working in Colorado’s ski towns is, “The help doesn’t live here.” I experienced this first hand while working at a dispensary in Aspen. I had to commute from Glenwood Springs. Hell, some folks would even commute from as far away as Rifle. Even then though, my wife and I could hardly make ends meet. At the time we had a 1 year old, but we couldn’t afford childcare. My wife worked nights and I worked days while we played hot potato with our daughter. By the way, according to Zillow the cheapest house in the Roaring Fork Valley right now is $670K. The projected monthly mortgage payment is shy of $4K. As a single person you’d have to make well over 25 an hour just to keep that roof over your head, but that doesn’t account for all the other expenses in life.

[@johnflesner8086]

Some of the service workers commute from Parachute. 93 miles from Aspen.

[@assortedmountainlife]

$70/hr for 36% housing allocation from gross income

[@patsypopejoyCO]

Yep I can relate. I live in the Valley too in a studio apt.

[@ban80]

What kind of loser can't get a job better than working at a dispensery to support a 1 year old

[@TennisEuphoria]

Hahahahahaha Colorado is so fucked

[@chupacabra3331]

The biggest issue is really the huge numbers of D bags you’ll find in Vail, Aspen and Tahoe. I believe the concentration is 990/1000 people. Tons of smug, makes it hard to breathe while you’re skiing or keep down that $100 lunch you just had. I just can’t physically hang out with those people very long.

[@kylejanoczkin9202]

You aint kidding, Im from NJ and even we can see how that mostly California crowd is out of hand. I am good for 1-2 verbal altercations every trip out there to ski from people talking so nasty/entitled. Although Breckenridge I noticed is less smug compared to Vail/Aspen, and comparably less expensive for both food and lodging. If you find any NJ people make friends with them, we are bred to not tolerate that BS and disrespect

[@chupacabra3331]

Yeah, I’m not saying all wealthy are bad, I’ve hung out with some millionaires and they had no attitude at all. I just don’t get the attitude. You would think that because they’re rich that they would actually have less attitude. Once money is no issue, any cares when it comes to housing, vehicles, food or gas prices should melt away and you should be the best human being possible but you just don’t see it happen like that. The more money, the more of a dick you can be.

[@visitor72537]

We have voted on a law in Switzerland which restricts the number of secondary residences in every town, to say that more people should stay as full time residents versus temporary tourists

[@xRob]

And yet Vail bought their 1st resort in Switzerland in 2023....

[@branchandfoundry560]

Once Officials get their pockets lined, votes mean nothing.

[@MrChemStuff]

Our votes don’t mean shit here frenchie and ain’t shit we’ll do about it

[@danielfassler8900]

​@@MrChemStuff alright canadian

[@BanBootlicking]

​@@branchandfoundry560 Plutocracies pretending to be democracies.

[@bkm8556]

My sister and her fiance worked for Vail staying in their assigned housing and it was an absolutely awful experience. Dorms were treated like a religious school with strict curfew, gendered housing, and managers that could walk and search your room whenever they pleased- mind you most employees were in their late 20's. Because of the prohibitive parking, many people opted to sell their cars and ended up being trapped by the system, unable to afford to leave. It was an awful experience and nearly ended their marriage, they were fired with no reason given after my brother in law broke his arm at work- I wonder why...

[@supersleepygrumpybear]

I'm from a ski resort town, and a friend told me most employees just sleep in their cars.

[@brettmcclain9289]

I think he could sue for that.

[@thanksyoutubefortakingmyhandle]

They can't do shit about the marijuana cause it's legal right? I wouldn't care come in smoke a jay maan

[@bkm8556]

@@thanksyoutubefortakingmyhandle they can fire you for violating the housing rules, even if they can't prosecute

[@Collaps_ing]

@@bkm8556 for breaking an arm?

[@kilroywashere9678]

I live in a tourist town on a lake, similar situation with housing. Boomers from California are selling their houses and moving here and driving up prices, investment firms are buying up houses and turning them into vacation rentals essentially killing the local rental market. In 5 years the median house price went from $280k to $600k, rent almost tripled from $900 to $2100 a month. Result, displaced pissed off locals. It’s starting to implode in real time and it’s fascinating, housing prices have dropped by 30% and all new developments have stopped dead.

[@GoombGoombus]

Tahoe?

[@lucasstandridge835]

I’m a long time Vail employee (no longer) and this is so cool to see. I really hope that people who have no connection to the winter sports industry see the connection between the Vail monopoly and our access to the the outdoors. Outside is a publicly shared and non-owned resource. Our only responsibility is to keep it healthy

[@dolphdangles1322]

the amount of times i see the word "monopoly" used in these comments is insane. Vail owns 40 of the almost 500 resorts in the US and you call them a monopoly lol.

[@parkerh9688]

@@dolphdangles1322 hey! I live in the vail valley (about 20 minutes away from the town of vail) and they're not exagerating when they say its a monopoly. Vail Resorts own almost every single restaurant and buisness in the town and it's almost impossible to get a job with out working for them.

[@casval-pj5tb]

Tell that to anyone who benefits from crappy policies involving our wilderness. I've grown up and spent alot of time in Arizona Montana and Colorado. All the things I used to do because it was just something I did is now marketed to the point where you can only really pick a handful of hobbies. Look at the douchery of the grand canyon permit systems, the lottery system for hunting in Colorado has been monopolized, 10+ dollar pints of beer that are just ok. The only ones in the industry who really could affect what the resorts do don't care, and the people who work for them are silent until thier knees are shot or they quit. The young and stupid they convince that thier service working for these resorts justifys a lift pass. They bend you over and the employees take that company dong, in trade for the scraps.

[@smokeythebear1633]

Land is absolutely an owned resource. WTH are you on about.

[@smokeythebear1633]

@@dolphdangles1322 Wendover is pure commie propaganda, and the lemmings that watch him eat it all up.

[@TiananmenPrism]

Corporate consolidation is killing way more than just ski towns

[@xp8969]

You will be assimilated, resistance is futile

[@SteTVon]

Vails major shareholder is.... Blackrock.. What a surprise (8.8%) Plus Blackrocks other company The Vanguard Group, Inc. who owns over 9% too.

[@Kaiserboo1871]

@@SteTVon Can Blackrock and Vanguard be outlawed and their assets refunded back to their customers. I despise these companies with a burning passion.

[@Nalehw]

I wouldn't look at this video as "here's something totally unique that doesn't happen to any other industry" but rather as "here's a case study."

[@PSNcharlie97]

@@Kaiserboo1871 That would change nothing? The problem isn’t the individual corporations it’s the force that guarantees corporate consolidation pretty much no matter what lol. The assets would just change hands, and the companies would change names, but the dynamic would remain identical.

[@sarahbrown6493]

I'm from Truckee, a ski town in Norcal that was mentioned early on in the video, and I can't say how much I appreciate someone talking about this. Vail is definitely the most extreme example of the issue, but the trend we're seeing all over the country to Vail-ify these communities is really horrible. I was born here, and I've lived here nearly my entire life (I left for a while for college but decided to come back) and the shift I've seen in my town over the last few years has been really disheartening. There are a few more things I'd like to mention about this (although the video does a great job of breaking the problem down): 1. Ski resorts and their social media encourage people to drive in incredibly unsafe conditions for the 'fresh pow'. Northern California has received record snowfall this year and the drive from the San Francisco bay area to where I am requires driving across Donner Summit which is an incredibly treacherous trip in bad whether (if you've heard of the Donner Party before this pass is where they got trapped, if that gives you any idea of what it's like). You end up with a lot of people who are not experienced driving in blizzard conditions trying to come up to ski, getting into crashes, and forcing Caltrans to close the highway which disrupts things like food deliveries into my town. 2. The traffic to get to the ski areas can build up so much that it gridlocks all the communities around them. Vail has a transport system, Palisades Tahoe and Northstar (our biggest resorts) do not, so the morning ski traffic is ridiculous. For context, one day that this happened it took my coworker 45 minutes to get to work and her commute normally takes about 5 minutes (Truckee is about a 30 minute drive from both these resorts without traffic, they are not close to us). 3. Degradation of the environment, entitled attitudes, and disrespect towards service workers in the community. Some people who are on vacation like to act like everyone else should know they're on vacation too. They get to demand whatever they want and treat the space around them like shit. It's definitely not everyone and locals can be just as awful, but at least in my community there's a lot of resentment towards vacationers (or as most people call them: Tourons and Cityits) because of some entitled tourists that treat us like we're below them. Again, it's the minority of people but just a few loud, horrible people can make everyone a little bit bitter. Anyways, I just wanted to share a little more about what it can be like to live in a town near these ski resorts. There's a reason why so many people work their asses off for very little money to live here, it's a beautiful place with really cool, down to earth people. If you choose to visit a ski resort, just pick up after yourself and try to be polite to people. Most of us want you all to be able to enjoy the cool stuff here just as much as we get to :)

[@GrahamGibby]

Fellow Truckee resident here to verify everything above, and add that in conversation, many long-time residents (not me) remember when visitors would come into town after a day on the mountain. Now the villages at Northstar and Palisades take much of that business.

[@rainmaker3700]

Transportation in the Truckee area has been issue for 30+ years now, it's a shame it has never been "seriously" addressed.

[@mopsnuf]

Man... ieks. Good luck, all the best!

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

The saying "This is why we can't have nice things" seems apt here.

[@themarcusismael13]

👏👏 Locals’ perspectives are invaluable

[@drivebarefoot]

I worked and lived in Vail from 2010 to 2016, right up until the 50th anniversary of the resort. It was a helluva time to be there. My second winter there I worked at a private club that the CEO at the time, Rob Katz, would frequent. I remember someone informing me at one point that Rob was entertaining the European CEO of a Vail Resorts equivalent. It felt at the time like I was getting insider trading information. Never acted on it for the record! I feel incredibly fortunate to have lived there when I did. It was also incredibly wild to witness how much the mountain changed the in that brief period as well. A number of chairlifts got upgraded from relatively simple models to ones that dumbed down the loading process with conveyor belts and could carry 6 people instead of 4. Plus, a chairlift from the bottom to MidVail was replaced with a gondola that had heated seats. Seeing Vail spend such money to attract such a specific clientele, knowing what it would do to the “town”, with absolutely no regard for the people on the ground making it all happen was so tough

[@rileynicholson2322]

It seems to me that the obvious solution is either running ski resorts as co-ops or having them owned and operated by the nearest town/municipality. The current system of Vail owning everything, even the housing for workers, sounds disturbingly like the history of company towns in the US.

[@maggiegrl6068]

Yes, it is the same as company towns but made for the rich, not the employees.

[@NoName-fo7mz]

Lmao sure bro

[@jpe1]

I’ve been a skier for 50 years and I will concur with Sam on everything in this video, but he left out a huge problem: once people buy their Epic pass, Vail has their money for the season, and there is no incentive to make snow or groom slopes beyond the bare minimum, because the season pass decoupled lift ticket sales from skiing conditions. For example, in February I was skiing Stowe and the Front 4 were *all* closed the entire week that I was there, as well as many other black diamond and all double black diamond trails, basically only the blues were kept operating. If I were buying my lift ticket on a daily basis, I wouldn’t have bothered with Stowe and would have gone elsewhere, but since I have an Epic pass, I have no financial leverage over the company what so ever, they would be pleased if I _didn’t_ ski. Vail has not only wrecked the ski towns, but is actively wrecking the sport of skiing for anyone who skis at an “advanced” or “expert” level, those skiers aren’t the most profitable, so no reason to accommodate them.

[@jasonmcclelland9264]

Good point- not only that, but when you have epic years where it's snowing all the way til June- they still close in early April because they've already made their money back in November and December.

[@TeachAManToAngle]

Don’t buy an epic pass then. Vail in the business of making people happy over the long run. If they don’t, they lose sales.

[@jpe1]

@@TeachAManToAngle you aren’t wrong, but if I boycott Vail owned resorts, then what’s left? Mad River Glen is a great mountain and I love to ski it (when I can) and there are a few others mountains that still cater to advanced and expert skiers, but the fundamental problem is that the most profitable demographic for ski resorts is beginner and intermediate skiers, and there aren’t that many advanced and especially not many expert skiers, so for long term bottom line profitability *all* ski resorts would be prudent to follow the example of Vail and focus on the occasional intermediate rather than the regular expert.

[@NoirMorter]

Does Vail own the mountain and ski trail or just the lifts to get there?

[@jpe1]

@@NoirMorter depends on the mountain; in Western states they often have a complex lease agreement with the Bureau of Land Management or other government agency, and basically own the infrastructure with a limited right to use the land, in the Northeast more often than not they actually own the land itself, as well as all the improvements, but even there sometimes the land is leased from the State.

[@stealthybaguette]

Vail is awful. My dad is a ski instructor at one of the mountains and the way they've been treating employees is just awful. And they can't unionize either- They can easily fire employees for trying to unionize. The punishment for doing so? Paying the fired employees their paycheck. Essentially, paying them what they would be making anyways. The system is completely broken and Vail is absolutely ruining a mountain I've been skiing on since I was a toddler.

[@jonboobalot]

They are butchering the Lake Tahoe mountains I grew up with too. Wankers.

[@mattdisalvo6594]

When you say paying the fired employees their paycheck, I must be missing something. Meaning that they get fired but still get paid? Not sure I understand, can you explain?

[@jowi4039]

@@mattdisalvo6594 I do not know about vail but in general it works like this: A union fights for better wages for their members but the employer pays the better wage even for the employees that did not fight. So the workers have not that much motivation to unionize and fight. In the end the union gets weaker and fights less.

[@JurisKankalis]

Yeah! Cancel the mountain! Cancel the skiing! Cancel the dad! Awful treatment! Unbelievable! We need to fight this! Throw mashed potatoes at paintings! Demolish party's headquarters! Run naked on F1 tracks! Wait... those guys were "requesting" something completely different. Oh, wait, I know - we can ski down the mountain naked! Yeah! Woke Solution!

[@bryanturnbow8189]

@@JurisKankalis Come now. Lay off the sauce.

[@cat_alyst6306]

I have worked in Vail, grew up in Leadville, and lived in Avon/Beaver Creek. And it’s soooooo true VR took over this beautiful place and shoved all the locals down or out. 😢

[@californian2344]

I’ve skied all over the western US and lived in CO for 7 years. Personally, I feel CO is the epitome of making ski towns like Disneyland. But there are some places you can avoid this in CO. Go to Monarch, Sunlight, A-Basin, Eldora, or Wolf Creek. Unfortunately none of these really have a town at the base, but these don’t make you feel like you’re at Disneyland at least.

[@DeadAlienGaming]

I am from Telluride, a mountain town in southwest Colorado. My family was pushed out by rising house costs, and corporate greed that continues to get the once bustling community it once had. It’s gotten to the point where surrounding towns have outright been purchased just for the workers to live there, and other towns have become Airbnb hotspots with barely any available housing for lower income families. Seven generations my family has lived in the San Juan mountains, and unfortunately I fear that ends with me. As it’s just too unaffordable, and unrealistic even with the good paying job I have now.

[@eksbocks9438]

It's usually because of real estate "investors." They see rich people coming to these towns. And they think they can capitalize on it. By taking all of the properties and up-charging them. So, it doesn't help the local people. Who actually have to work there. Places get short-staffed. Because people accept the same job somewhere else.

[@coolboy3848]

7 generations and your fam never bought land there? A house? That's wild.

[@tyranneous]

That heart-breaking. What I would say though - I don't think it's fair to call it corporate greed. It's simply a case of capitalism doing what capitalism does - incentivising extracting people's value and handing it off to shareholders. It's what the system is designed to do.

[@DeadAlienGaming]

@@coolboy3848 We had a Home, and my dad built homes for a living, unfortunately the 2008 housing crisis destroyed that, and we went into bankruptcy for several years. Unable to pay for our lifestyle, our utilities, and for our property we were subsequently pushed out like the rest of the locals

[@taylorlibby7642]

Same thing is happening in Durango. The billionaires are pushing the millionaires out into other towns.

[@redgrail1]

I'm a Norwegian and grew up skiing in our smaller resorts in southern Norway. I recently was on exchange in BC and I took the opportunity to ski some of the great slopes of the west coast. It was an eye opener. The skiing was great, but all the towns felt like being in Disney world, not an actual town. Whistler Blackcomb might be the worst example. Every store and restaurant was a company store, and the prices are so high I don't understand how regular people can afford to go. Skiing was never a cheap sport, but you're pricing out so many people now I can't see how it doesn't jeopardize the future of the sport - not to mention cannibalizing the towns they're in. Hopefully, when Europeans go to these places they take the message home so we avoid the Vailification of our resorts here. I'll take older lifts and less groomed terrain to keep costs low enough to allow people with normal incomes on the slopes, mom and pop cafe's, restaurants and rental joints, and avoid killing the towns they're in. Great video.

[@genuineimitation8799]

I’m an American and couldn’t agree with you more. We stopped in Vail overnight in the off season (June) and while the area is just beautiful, “Vail Village” had that same, soulless feeling you are talking about. We hated it. I don’t really have any desire to go back to that particular place, but the Colorado Rockies as a whole are absolutely breathtaking. I hate how they’ve managed to corporatize nature 😕.

[@simonkemfors]

The most modern lifts and best groomed trails I have skied on were all in the Austrian alps, where the village also still feel alive, with lots independent hotels, restaurants, etc. You even sometimes see the cows in the cellars that will go up into the mountains for their summer pastures when the skiers are gone. As a Swede, skiing in Sweden is so sad. Skistar, Skistar, Skistar, everything is Skistar. The restaurants? Skistar. The hotels? Skistar. Åre, Vemdalen and Sälen? Eveything is Skistar, and everything is as expensive as Austria, or sometimes more expensive, but also worse than in Austria. The Lifts are worse, the trails are worse, the hotels are worse, it's just worse. To be honest, I had a similar experience in Banff, Canada, although not as bad. This is anecdotal, but consolidation makes the experience worse in every regard in my experience

[@EnneaIsInterested]

Community land trusts and worker ownership could just be the silver bullet.

[@zamdrang]

Regular people can't afford to go, you nailed it

[@formes2388]

@@EnneaIsInterested You would need a sale structure to the employees and they can't afford it, won't be able to provide the collateral for the loans, and share holders would rather not. This crap has occurred as a result of huge wealth disparity accelerated through money printing since the end of the gold standard somewhere around 1970. Big business has an incentive to take loans against assets, combined with earnings, to buy more assets in order to avoid paying taxes. Large stock holders have the same sort of incentive. And it is only the wealthy and large corporate entities that benefit from the money printing. The silver bullet starts with a return to a hard currency that can't be printed at will, coupled with regulatory changes that make government money transparent, and probably to tie politician incomes to minimum wage to create strong political motivation to push the minimum wage up, while the economic interests of private business push against creating a degree of balance and forced compromise. Ban corporate ownership of residential properties might go a long ways as well - and do it on the basis that commoditization of a basic need is immoral. Capitalism is great. Unfettered Capitalism is really really bad. And let us be perfectly honest: While you may think employee ownership is great - ownership comes with responsibility, and knowledge requirements that most people don't really want. If more people were interested they would be toying with taking idea's and turning them into businesses. So while I think Cooperations are a great business model - I'm not sure they are a silver bullet, as the existing problems with corruption exist, and mob rule is never a great outcome. And so we have to go back into the history books, look at when the money supply explosion started, where the government debt problem started to balloon and start looking at the policy changes that enabled it. There are no easy one stop answers - it is a series, and what is here is a tip of the ice burg so to speak... and there is a choppy sea stocked and full of em that need resolving before we can start to fix the problems.

[@mikeburdick927]

Im from here, former Vail mountain employee. Thank you so much for making this. The gentrification of Colorado is so sickening to me. No one I grew up with could afford to live there so for Colorado residents, these new ski town monstrosities are going to reek havok to the already ABSURD cost of living. Go ahead and ask anyone in CB if they’re a Colorado native, or especially native american, and I you’d probably be surprised to see where all the money is coming from. Hint:denim ski pants. 🤠

[@markvandenberg4606]

This video is beautifully produced, but that can’t hide the fact that there are a few arguments to be raised against its premise. I live in Stowe, Vermont, where I own a small hotel. Stowe may be the exception in that its businesses are for the most part independently owned. Even before Vail came on board Stowe Mountain Resort had been imagining and creating a village-like experience up on the mountain with its own shops and restaurants, but you’ll spend $10 for a Bud Light in those places. The average person skis on the mountain and then drives down the Mountain Road to eat and sleep downtown, where prices are still high but not astronomical. The video touches upon a lot of issues which also affect Stowe, the affordability problem being the most prominent. It’s increasingly difficult for a middle-class family to live and work in this town. The video’s blind spot, however, is first of all that this trend was started well before Vail swooped in, and secondly, that it treats this issue as if it occurred in a vacuum with no other factors influencing anything. The fact of the matter is that the pandemic changed everything for us. U.S. cities all of a sudden turned into undesirable wastelands (for reasons beyond just the pandemic, let’s say). Homes in high-value rural towns were sold, often sight unseen, for a million dollars or even two or three by people desperate to get out of the cities as soon as possible. Their new owners were, without exception, folks who fared incredibly well in the pandemic economy, fueled by excessive government spending and the fact that our dollars could only roll in a few directions due to the lockdowns. Another problem that’s not even mentioned in the video is short-term rentals. Every other home that’s sold in Stowe now becomes an AirBnB. This takes housing inventory away from normal folks in need of a place to live. This is a tricky problem, and now the cat is out of the bag I’m not sure there’s a way to solve it. Either way, its rapid growth is clearly a sign of an asset bubble, and in fact the short-term rental market in Stowe is crashing as we speak. A third problem is that there’s simply too much red tape to build affordable housing in Stowe. Government regulations play a role, but so does, frankly, the NIMBY attitude of its wealthier inhabitants who’d rather see our land gobbled up by the land trust so they can hike or walk their dog there than for it to be developed so actual people can live on it. I’m all for land preservation, make no mistake, but there are trade-offs to be made in life and our choices have consequences. None of this is to say that Vail hasn’t influenced or even exacerbated any of the above, but the problems in ski towns are clearly more complex than portrayed in this video. Many factors have contributed to a perfect storm in which those who owned their homes here before 2020 are grateful for that fact, but those who buy homes today are either very well off or go elsewhere. For better or worse, it’s changed the nature of our town. All this said, Stowe is still a great place to live and local, independently-owned businesses here are doing extremely well. Happy to live where I live.

[@soojunglee425]

Laws that ban air bnb and other models like it. Cities across the globe are starting to do this and demanding homes are owned by people living in the city for x amount of the year.

[@JaredG_WV]

AirBNBs were indeed mentioned at beginning of the video. He mentions Breckenridge and how during the summer, your neighbors would be on the next block, not next door.

[@markvandenberg4606]

@@JaredG_WV Fair enough, but none of that takes away from the fact that he’s attached a straw man. Vail is not the primary issue.

[@jasoncirkovic]

As someone who is from Vail and worked in Aspen, it's such a shell of its former self. You can't find a room to rent that is under $1500, there is no sense of community because because everyone has to work 2 jobs, if you don't love skiing or hiking, there is nothing but a ton of cocaine issues and DUI's.

[@BobbyGeneric145]

Theres a lot of blow in mountain towns?

[@Corkoth55]

@@BobbyGeneric145 gotta stay awake to work 2 jobs

[@joevuch7981]

a coworker lived in CB through the early 2000's. Lotta stories about nose sugar...

[@BobbyGeneric145]

@@Corkoth55 thats the worst way to stay awake if you're working two jobs! 5 bucks in crystal will have you sprinting through 2 shifts!

[@brainchildguru]

@@BobbyGeneric145tons. They call it snow for a reason.

[@himabimdimwim]

It's scary how much you know about something that is my life, employment, and housing. This video even showed my daily coffee shop, the road I walk everyday, and the slopes I have memorized like the back of my hand. This feels surreal.

[@justinklenk]

Ditto! 😅/😢

[@tbillington]

So, is it as fucked as it's made out to be? I know here in Australia tourist towns are getting destroyed by wealthy people moving there.

[@v12tommy]

@@tbillington Very much so. He painted Fail Resorts in a much better light than I would have as a local. I literally made a trip to Crested Butte back in 2018, because I wanted to experience the town before Vail had a chance to ruin it. I'm glad I went when I did. I do the same thing now. I'll make the 4.5 hour drive to Telluride, and even though locals complain, it hasn't slid downhill as far as Vail has yet. Locals haven't given up hope, and I go out of my way to encourage others to spend their money at local businesses instead (usually with lower prices and better customer service), but I don't see conditions improving anytime soon.

[@thecricket1564]

Lying

[@AndrewAlex92]

Sam has mentioned in other videos that he is an avid skier. I'm sure that has something to do with it.

[@karukun0212]

Terrifically well-done video. With my native Colorado destroyed, I pray for the survival of my local hill (Eagle Point Utah) and beloved Montana mom and pop lifts. In Colorado and at Park City, the peaks still look the same, but that is about it. I am glad to be an old geezer and have good memories of what was, as I yet today meditate and search hard for the backcountry stashes and runs.

[@aidanschuttler4371]

As someone born and raised in Colorado, this is such a cathartic video. Even outside the mountains, this is such a huge problem. It feels like half of Denver is owned by people from California and Florida who make the whole place ridiculously expensive. It's such a massive problem, thanks for talking about it

[@magicunicorn6535]

The Californians moved there because the tech CEOs, house-flippers, Air BnB, and wealthy foreigners are buying up all our decent towns and housing.

[@nate.draws.things]

It's become a problem here in Michigan too. Buying vacation homes and just renting them out when you're not there has become more popular, and now it's impossible to find reasonable housing anywhere near the lakes.

[@ZombieBacon13]

And the problem isn't when someone buys like a mansion, its when they invest in properties that normal people would go after just to rent it out to those same people.

[@Noxx55]

Same, and yes, it sucks hard :(

[@Moosh-py8zp]

As another fellow Coloradan that was born and raised here. There is definitely a problem with people from California and Texas destroying the local environment because the environment is seen more as a vacation commodity versus a place that people and animals live.

[@loafofmilk7680]

I am from Durango Colorado. A ski town just like the ones referenced during this video. Heavily reliant on our tourist economy. Our local mountain has stayed out of the grasp of Vail, as well as other conglomerates of ski resorts. But it breaks my heart to watch the town I grew up in slowly slip towards mediocrity and soulless corporate acquisition. It’s not helped by rich tourists driving up property prices and making our town unlivable for the locals. It warms my heart to see someone actually addressing this pretty niche issue.

[@emptyshirt]

Think about the government of a town like that. None of the low income workers are permanent residents. This is a model for the dissolution of all small communities. The poor will be concentrated in the cities and coaxed to self eradicate while the rich flea to their summer homes in the countryside that were seized from the poor when the property taxes became too great.

[@deserttortoise2227]

Maybe we should do what the local Utes and Navajo do? Ban all corporate ownership of land, even the individual tribe members can't buy land.

[@feliciafelicia6965]

Durango has a decent student population and the jobs that relate to that.

[@zenokada2278]

I’m British but skied in purgatory this year. I went to Tahoe once as well that seemed much more corporatised while most people here seemed like locals but it seemed like there were many empty homes in our late season trip. We stayed with a family who own a house there as a second home and occupy it for about 120 days a year. I don’t think that’s the worst thing in the grand scheme of things and I hope these more local resorts can stay fairly independent, they’re wonderful. Also all the staff seemed to love it and be treated really well. Hopefully these resorts can stay independent and be accessible to the locals affordable

[@scarface548]

@@deserttortoise2227 locals don’t want to do that because they benefit from tourist economy and property appreciation.

[@sirena7116]

My dad worked on the national ski patrol in the 70s, and I grew up skiiing when I had the chance. I stopped skiing ages ago and thankfully lost the love for it. The last and only time I've ever skiid at or even been to Vail was about 10 years ago when I was invited, and then saw the day ticket prices and was astonished. The price for parking alone was enough to make me gag! That was years ago and prices have easily doubled. I went skiing when day passes were blow $50 per day (I'll avoid really ageing myself). I live in Denver and when I talk to people outside of Colorado, they often ask how how the snow is and if I ski. I tell them the dark reality of snow sport in this state. It's possible if that's all you do in the winter, and you have a substantial income, and you live very modestly and are willing to put up with far worse traffic than anywhere else. It's really horrible. They cold improve the 70 and put another lane in, but that would be cost, time, and well ethically prohibitive. Considering that that's exactly what most locals in those small towns don't want to have happen. Even then, another lane (thanks to Not Just Bikes) wouldn't solve the problem that it would claim to. I think that in order for things to become more affordable, the sport is going to have to decline in popularity. Another very sad part is someone, or a group of people are climbing that corporate ladder at Vail resorts at the cost of people's lives, livelihoods, and the environment.

[@johngillon6969]

All of the small towns i remember my dad driving us thru in the fifties along route 66 have vanished. There were so many with nice city halls and churches and stores. soon they were all just gas stations, now they aren't even remembered. dust in the wind.

[@ryanmack99]

I live in Vancouver and was lucky enough to grow up skiing in Whistler. I worked as an instructor on weekends through high school and Colledge, but one year into the Vail takeover, all my students dropped after the price hike for lift passes. Never thought I would miss Intrawest...

[@TippyHippy]

l put my hamster in a sock and slammed it against the furniture

[@krishnastarz]

​@@TippyHippy I'm glad

[@darrendowns]

Agree - Same here. Vail killed Whistler for the more casual local skier (i.e 5-10 per year). I know that RMOW is also not entirely thrilled with the current Vail takeover/encampment. The pandemic was good to shake it up a bit since all the foreigners were locked out so the locals had to be welcomed back again . . My first time skiing was at Blackcomb - - paid $13 for one day of beginner group lesson and ski pass - - - - that's how you guarantee a future generation skis . . . .

[@dannyluelee]

A professor at my university is actually doing research on the gentrification of rural mountain towns by mostly rich individuals. Pretty interesting. Hoping I can get involved in it.

[@ab-ul1yz]

We have the same problem in Florence, Tuscany. Sometimes I wonder: could we fix it by hyper-taxing empty homes for each day in which they're empty? If it wouldn't save our towns, it would at least generate some revenue that's way more sustainable than regular VATs, right?

[@boboutelama5748]

@@ab-ul1yz We have this problem in Switzerland. With rich peoples buying themselves access to the Alps. Gstaad is wordly known for that, but Crans Montana and other Zermatt are all subject to this problem. We tried a secondary residence ban. Imposing that peoples in alpine areas, all are primary owner and user of their houses. But this doesn't seem to have brought the wanted results. Everybody wants to do money, without any consideration for the locals. The population herself is on a direct heading for self destruction. My idea is to have parts of the alps that can't be used for leisure and pleasure. They are simply closed sanctuaries where only the popluation and the farmers can live. This would already help the local population. As the tourists could no longer access those places, and it would make no sense to rent or RBnB in those locations. Easing rent prices and house prices.

[@haydentravis3348]

Their research will just be used to improve the scam. And the people it might help will never hear of your professor or their work.

[@lucas_dameron]

@@ab-ul1yz Hmm i don't know how it is for you but in france accommodations are owned by individuals. There's so much constructions that it's more and more difficult to rent, and in the meantime the older apartments get, the higher the level of charges get in order to maintain the building. Profitability is already dropping seriously excet if you can afford buying a really large / luxury home. So i think this would really benefit to the gentrification

[@westenicho]

What school is he doing this at?

[@shalehausler4383]

I applied at a ski resort, as the head of maintenance a number of years ago. I withdrew from the idea after I found out the pay for the position. The person who had all the responsibility to keep the place running,(from the lifts, electrical and computer networking) did not pay enough to purchase a home close enough to live in, and instead was offered "employee housing" I could rent from the company. In my opinion, when that kind of position does not pay enough to purchase a local home, the company is greedy, and not a place I can work.

[@LoseCTRL61]

I work as a lift operator in the winter, and Vail bought out our hometown resort here in Ohio. Due to the merge, I was able to work in Colorado for part of the year as well, which was a great experience, but Vail as a company has so many issues. They charge way too much for their passes, the employee housing and scheduling is rough, and employees have to pay for parking and other random bullshit that should be a given. Even their communication sucks, I didn’t know I had the job out west until the week of my supposed first day . I called them daily to see if it was confirmed. Had to pack up and move cross country within days. I work there because it allows me to afford snowboarding, but I don’t want to always be working for Vail. Greedy fucking company man.

[@miraclemax6241]

Like many of these commenters, I have had the same experience. I grew up in Silverthorne. We moved in when it was halfway between the bust side of a boom town and a world-class vacation spot. It was beautiful. I remember wading the Blue River, hiking Ptarmigan in the snow, neighbors plowing off a nearby lake for a skating rink, climbing Buffalo in the summer, and afternoon thundershowers crashing over the Gore Range most summer afternoons. Silverthorne is not a ski town, but pretty much all of Summit County has now been devoured by the sprawl of A Basin, Breck, Copper, and Keystone. We had to leave, and now I don't have a chance in hell of ever moving back to my hometown. It's been taken over by absentee landlords, the plague of short-term rentals, and multimillionaires on their second or third homes. But not only am I financially prohibited from moving back, the town I knew simply doesn't exist anymore. You can't sustain a community when the majority of both employees and visitors are seasonal. There are fewer and fewer locals left to anchor the place to anything. That also means more and more of the votes come from the gentrifiers who have no interest in preserving a community. In addition, special districts in Colorado let you vote based on property ownership. So many zoning, taxing, and service decisions are taken by people who don't even pretend to maintain a residence in the county. I can't ever get that back. My best option is to move into a town that hasn't yet become the next Aspen, but in doing so I'm only contributing to the hollowing-out of someone else's hometown. It's a tragedy.

[@DrTaftinator]

Victim

[@brianstaley6391]

Silverthorne has been one of the worst to come out of this process. I used to live in Kremmling, and the sprawl I saw just around Grand County when I lived there was pretty bad. Hope you find a good place 👍

[@hofahome]

Fellow native Coloradoan here. I appreciate your comments.

[@tnickknight]

Colorado native myself. Nonsense allmost all these ski towns were full of horrible people that exploited everyone long before tr corps came a knocking.

[@en5954]

I appreciate your experience. I grew up skiing in the Aspen valley. I still have family there but no way in hell I’m paying $200 for a lift ticket. It’s too bad because I would otherwise love to bring my son to where I grew up skiing. These resorts are screwing over the sport.

[@idomeneogames583]

Thanks for making this… I was born and raised in the (former) ranching town of Steamboat Springs. The resort on the east side of town was added to the Ikon pass a few years back, and the town almost instantly ceased to be itself. Recently, housing has gotten so bad that the city is annexing generations-old homesteading ranches and **exhuming homesteaders’ graves** to make spaces for apartments. All of my childhood friends have been priced out, and my parents gave up just recently on trying to stay and are moving to florida this year. Nowadays the town is about as true to its western roots as Universal Studio’s Hogsmeade recreations are authentic. So much history, culture, and community destroyed by a corporation who never cared about any of it, only the money that could be milked from it.

[@idomeneogames583]

Side note: I worked as a private jet service technician at our airport for a few years around the time everything went south. 20 years ago, we didn’t even have an airport capable of handling most private jets. After Alterra bought the mountain, we went from very rarely seeing private jets to needing to build a whole private jet center. We’ve gotten to the point where the winter months can see up to ~50 private jets a day, ranging all the way up to 75 million dollar commercial airliner sized jets carrying NFL quarterbacks and CEOs. Those people would have been ridiculed and mocked out of this valley a decade ago.

[@aylahughes9185]

@@idomeneogames583 this- wanabees as far as the eye can see. they have almost ruined the world.

[@rosieday7482]

EXHUMING HOMESTEADERS GRAVES!???

[@aylahughes9185]

@@rosieday7482 yup. mostly all with Chinese black rock money too.

[@rosieday7482]

@@aylahughes9185 What is chinese black rock money??

[@BrettMcNary]

As someone who has lived in all of these towns, and now Gunnison....very well done. VR has always sucked, but when I moved to Vail in 1995, skiing was actually more expensive. I drove for CME, and those shuttles cost more back then. A season pass was well over $1000. I'm not sure what the perfect ski town looks like.....but worst part of most of these towns is lack of community. In my decade of living in Vail, I had more than 30 total roommates.....not a single one of those people still live in the mountains. What we've seen in the last couple of years in real estate prices, it's made it to where housing is a major issue that affects all aspects in an extremely negative way.

[@zephyer-gp1ju]

I worked at Winter Park CO in the late 90s and into the early 2000s. This ski area is owned by the City of Denver and was really the first ski area in the state. Unlike a lot of the big resorts it was on a lot of US Forest Service land. It didn't have a lot of room for stores, hotels and condos. Thus the town itself stayed small. We didn't make much above minimum wage, though we got some raises because of a labor shortage. It offered a 4 buddy pass. 4 people could get a season pass for $200.00 each. It was a huge hit in Colorado but, killed our part time workers as they no longer had to work for a pass. Like most of the ski area jobs, rent ate everyone's check. We were lucky in that we didn't have to pay for parking and there was an employee shuttle. Though it wasn't fancy, the skiing was great and we had passes to other ski areas. Lunch time we often had soup or sandwiches for lunch but, we also had BBq grills and would do that a few times a week too. Sadly it was in need of money, badly. W.P. had the oldest lift in the state and parts had to be custom made because they were no long available on the market or the lift maker. The city opened up the idea of selling the area but, that was stopped by an outcry of people and the Mayor of Denver. People didn't want W.P. to become another Vail or Aspen. So, a deal was struck with InterWest. At the time a very large golf/ski resort company. With golf/ski resorts from the East Coast to the West Coast. Arizona to Vancouver Canada. It put money into the resort, bought new lifts, upgraded the facilities. They also killed the fun. No more BBqs at the lifts during lunch, restricted the skiing. They also got hold of some land and built of course, expensive condos. But no employee housing close by. I haven't been back to W.P. in years but, I heard that the Forest service gave up some land and some ranches down the road sold out. Looking at Google maps and Zillow, a lot of expensive condos and houses are now in the area. I heard that InterWest was bought up by Aspen. I moved on to Big Sky Ski Resort in Montana. It was an old fashion ski town for a while. They had three dorms for employees on the resort. They are gone now and multi-million dollar condos took their place. I will give credit to Boyne and The Yellowstone Club. They bought up some old hotels and built some dorms down in the valley and have shuttles. I don't know what they charge for rent. But Big Sky is just another Vail now.

[@jackolyte]

This is why I live in CO and don't ski. It's become a prohibitively expensive, bland experience. "Hey wanna pay hundreds of dollars on equipment and eye-gouging passes to sit in traffic all morning so you can ski for a few hours surrounded by crowds of people and spend the rest of your money overpriced pizza and beer? Then spend a few more hours in traffic on the way back? You're only moderately likely to suffer a serious injury!" Way better to hike and camp for free.

[@axmajpayne]

I remember going to CO to ski a few times back in the 90's. We'd usually stay in Silverthorne or Frisco for 4-5 nights and visit primarily Keystone, but also Breckenridge and A-Basin. Rentals were pretty cheap, lift tickets weren't prohibitively expensive, and we never dealt with getting stuck in traffic trying to get to the mountains. Now, taking a family trip to that area to ski would be a once in a lifetime event for most middle class families if they ever get to go at all. It's turned into Disney World with snow.

[@dkaloger5720]

Your comment was stolen by bots

[@Colorado_Ronin]

I live in Denver and ski on weekdays. Never any traffic and no lift lines. And I just bring my lunch

[@amandaarmstrong9900]

Idaho Springs native here. Same. I skied for 30 years, taught at Loveland for several. Cost and traffic increased to the point that it simply wasn't fun anymore. We back country snowshoe now and have found our mountain peace again.

[@ImOriginallyGreen]

It just sounds like you don’t like skiing enough to mitigate any of those costs/downsides. Gear lasts for years lasts for years if you take care of it, passes pay for themselves if you go enough in a season. You can bring your own food and even beer. Traffic is tough but if you leave early enough you can avoid it somewhat and if you have friends you can split driving duties and gas money, even rest/sleep/talk when youre not driving. Been skiing for 15 years and have never been injured beyond beyond mild bumps from falls. Avoiding injury is a matter of staying in shape, getting better at skiing, being aware of your surroundings. Would it even be fun if there was zero risk? You can avoid crowds on the mountains by becoming a better skier and skiing the less trafficked areas of the mountain because they’re rated as blacks/double-blacks. You can even go backcountry skiing for free. It’s definitely expensive when starting out but a little research and planning goes a long way.

[@BenDoverBush]

Ive lived here in Colorado all my life but its not even worth it to go snowboarding sometimes. Passes are through the roof, traffic can be a nightmare, and our once quiet state is just overrun with people moving here and tourists flooding the area. Worst of all is the people who can't drive in the mountains, rain, or snow

[@wut7640]

Close the mountain west to tourists haha

[@damunzy]

Time to move to Wyoming!

[@rs660alec3]

They can’t drive in perfect weather either

[@azaz20244]

colorado was never quiet bro. thats wyoming.

[@randomtinypotatocried]

@@azaz20244 It shocked me the first time being in Wyoming and how quiet it was

[@Jays-Dream]

I remember going skiing with my parents as a child in swizerland every year. Usually for a week, sometimes even two. Kids under 12 got a free ski pass, renting skis and equipment cost 5 CHF/day. We had the priviledge of having a family friend who lives close by so we stayed at their place but even a hotel would've been affordable for a family of 4 at the time. The most expensive thing about the whole vacation was parking and skiing lessons. Some of my fondest childhood memories are from these vacations. Playing in the snow behind the house, running through the snowed-in forest, eating crêpes and drinking hot chocolate at the town market. I even happily learned french at school just to be able to communicate better with the locals as I got older so by the time I was 12 I could navigate the town by myself. After I moved out, got older and got a job I stopped going on vacations with my parents. But I wanted to still go skiing so I went back to that same town. But.. it was kind of sad. A reality check for sure. The mountain train wasnt free anymore. Hell the price quadroupled from 4 CHF for a to-and-from ride to 12 CHF. I have my own skis so that was no additional cost. A ski pass wasnt 90 CHF/week but 250 CHF. The hotel was too expensive for my so I opted for a travelers hostel nearby and even that cost me 180 CHF/day. As a single person with a steady, middle class income, going skiing for a week is a luxury. I'm making roughly the same as my parents when they were my age. I cannot imagine taking an entire family skiing. Every price exploded, most have doubled or tripled, some are even 4-5x higher than during my childhood. But the sadder part is the town itself. A lot of the former houses have become tourist rentals. The small town market was expanded and is now full of shops that have none of the original charm the place once had. There are tennis courts and a golf course now, including the high end hotel resorts for rich people. All smack in the middle of old wood and cobblestone mountain houses. It just doesnt fit in, it looks jarring and off. I still enjoyed my time hiking and enjoying the nature, but I didnt feel at home in the town anymore. Thankfully I was able to talk to some locals after a nice shopkeep asked me about the pins on my jacket (got em as a kid from some town festivals 20 years ago. I still treasure them). It was nice to see at least some parts are still the same. But sad to see so much changed in such a drastic way that even the locals feel helpless and scared about the future...

[@robgrey6183]

I live in Teton County Wyoming. The two corporate ski areas (Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Grand Targhee) have changed Jackson Hole and Teton Valley in exactly the ways you've described.

[@James7995]

As you can tell by the comments this hits home for a lot of us. You’re seeing some towns try to introduce bans on short term rentals only to get voted down. I’ve seen employee housing developments get killed in zoning battles. Mountain traffic is getting worse (I-70 anyone?). There’s not a good workable solution either.

[@glacialis3329]

Whistler, BC has managed to do a little bit (and I mean a LITTLE - they have a long ways to go still) in that they have community run employee housing and a free shuttle for all their staff...but this still doesn't solve the underlying problem for the locals who can't afford anything. Inevitably you end up needing to designate regions for full time residents similar to Banff, AB, where it's illegal to buy property unless you work right in the town. Here they also made it illegal to add new buildings so as to protect land for wildlife, which has interesting implications as far as not enough hotel rooms goes, but it is nice to see a town not succumb to tons of buildings that sit empty half the year. And is there any incentive for many local land owners to vote to ban short term rentals or to approve higher taxation on the mega-corps? Of course not, since some of those land owners want to keep the gravy train rolling until they sell their property and retire to somewhere they can actually afford. So few of these people are actually thinking of the future and just want money now.

[@KojiGaming]

I'm a commercial driver. I take a tractor trailer over I-70 very frequently to deliver to places like Carbondale, Grand Junction, Gypsum, Glenwood Springs and the like. The traffic in the last five years alone has seemingly quadrupled even outside of "tourist" season. The backups, especially at Eisenhower because of the roadwork up near the tunnel, sometimes last hours. Grand Junction and back to Denver is no longer possible in a single day most of the time. 😵‍💫

[@sirena7116]

Yeh, sadly, very sadly. A lot of politicians are being bribed by large corporations. It's only a matter of time until the politician gets an offer they won't refuse. Boulder has a law preventing new housing/structures from being built. Then I read online a couple years ago that they were breaking ground in the city for a new Google office and thought, wait, isn't that not even legal? Then realised that it's Google, and they're freaky wealthy and probably bribed the town council members with tens or hundreds of millions (almost nothing to Google), and they caved. Just about everyone has a price, and it just takes one bribe to get the great feeling of easy cash going, and then everything else is comparatively easy after that.

[@westenicho]

From Gunnison. Left Colorado to make a decent living, came back to find the Western Slope as a caricature of itself and society. Sometimes I feel like this is not my home anymore.

[@AvsFan32]

@@westenichodamn. Sorry to hear that. I’m sure being away give a lot of perspective. Home you settle in again.

[@zebles200]

I was born in Aspen, grew up and live a couple towns down valley. I still live with my parents because it’s the only way I can afford to live here. My parents can only afford to live here because they bought their house over 20 years ago. I have coworkers who live over an hour away because they can’t afford anything closer. And locals aren’t just being priced out but straight up forced out. Last year a local art gallery in Aspen lost their lease, not because they couldn’t afford it, but because the owner wanted a luxury chain store to increase the value of the building. The gallery found out how much the luxury store would be paying and offered to pay more and were straight up told “we don’t want a local business”. My parents met in Aspen in the 80s and to hear them talk about how it was then compared to now is just crushing

[@en5954]

I grew up skiing the aspen valley also. I still have family there but no way I am paying $200 for a lift ticket and that nauseating homogenization of the mountain experience. It’s too bad. That place used to be very cool, like how your parents describe it. I still ski a lot but you can’t pay me to go to Colorado in the winter.

[@davidholm980]

@@en5954 Wolf Creek!!

[@Ericxnugz]

I smoked meth in aspen with Shaun white

[@sav7568]

Back in the 80s Aspen was like Disneyland for grown ups. Ask them about the slope theater, upside down margaritas, the fire breathing bartender at Tippler, sunsets at Nells ( the wooden one ), the apple strudel at Merry go Round, dancing with the cowboys at Chisholms, Andre's nightclub with the sliding roof, the ski patrollers doing jumps over your head with their sleds, the rattly old poma at Highlands, eating popcorn at Annie's, places where the food was actually cheap and there's plenty more. It was a great time.

[@ericstephenson145]

Shhhh

[@adamdanks18]

As someone who worked for Vail Resorts at Breckenridge and lived in Employee housing you nailed this video on the head!!!

[@Massivefacts1]

same but insert keystone

[@lesterma1608]

Saw this coming to Tahoe 30 yrs ago after going to corporate Vail, used to park next to the lifts and hill but when they built villages in the parking lots and you have to park so far away it’s a shuttle ride to eat the lunch you brought yourself!

[@TimeBucks]

Thank you for making this!

[@usmanlawalgambo-be5ej]

awesome

[@taimyprinceremember82]

Okay 👍 nice

[@IbrahimMohamed-lo5en]

Good

[@tabassumkhan6081]

Gud

[@Sachinrailfane]

👍

[@seanr6206]

One of the worst effects of this kind of takeover is the destruction and removal of locally owned businesses. I grew up in one of these towns that was purchased by Vail and seeing local coffee shops and restaurants being shoved out to make room for Starbucks and other shitty national chains is heartbreaking. I've since stopped skiing as much as I did as a kid, due to cost and moving to other parts of the country but man... It sucks seeing the "corporitization" and capitalism of it all just tear everything out for greed.

[@epiclasersharks1866]

I think destroying local businesses is the root of this and the downfall of other small towns. Im no government expert but it seems like the kind of thing the antitrust laws should cover right? Monopolies own the US

[@Dontbustthecrust]

Breck has a million locally owned small businesses

[@rustyshackelford5758]

You’re going to blame “capitalism” for local businesses going out of business? Lmfao. Maybe look at the difference in overhead from the last 16 years of owning a business. You sound like you vote for the same policies that destroy these businesses… Do you know what it’s like to pay 40% of your earnings to the government when you’re barely breaking even due to local goods being over regulated and taxed?

[@psalmsurfer1]

@@rustyshackelford5758 he probably means crony capitalism vs free markt system..probably doesn't know the difference lol

[@pdxshadow9819]

It’s not greed. It’s to improve the area lol. And make money. Making money is not greed…

[@nousername102]

Thank you for making this. I had the opportunity to go through the hiring process as a rookie ski lift operator in Whistler all through last year. I ended up turning it down because of Vail's requirements. Paying for a background check, as well as not having your own space. Seriously, bunk beds for the privilege of working up there? Plus, the non-refundable damage deposit. It wasn't worth it.

[@kajixp]

I'm a European but lived in Telluride during highschool, staying with family friends. As a kid I didn't realize how bad the situation was, but now looking back it's surprising how I didn't notice.

[@_eric_phillips]

Crested Butte Ski Bum here. You've done a great job of laying this narrative out that we are watching unfold right in front of us. Im a videographer as well and would love to help tell our story on a larger platform if you need more footage or help.

[@cheezitmaster2312]

What’s up Philly

[@billdavis6978]

I was last in Butte in late 90’s up to 2007 off and on year round. I visited in 2020 and made my decision easy to rush Back to a West Virginia . CB is nice to visit, but I don’t believe it’s worth it anymore. I get it, progression, but what we had back in the day will never be re created.

[@jonathanwamble9340]

your footage is so nice! I went to Western from 2002-07. I love CB and always felt like it was an authentic ski town. Sad it7s being taken over by big money. Now I'm in Niseko, japan and see the big money mixed with a lot of authentic community. Hong Kong and Australia has invested a lot here. At the same time there are many Japanese families who live here all year and enjoy the great summers and life outside the big city.

[@Francisco.Rizzuti]

​@@billdavis6978 exactly

[@PhaseSkater]

@@billdavis6978 CB is still a ghost town. no lift lines even on weekends...

[@SuperCrabbycrab]

They should eliminate "offseason" as the towns have done in the Alpes. They have begun advertising hiking, mountain biking, sightseeing and outdoor holidays. Atm Alpes are all-season towns; and as somebody who has been skiing for over 20 years. It shows the last 10 years they have changed the tourism to be all year round. Because of this. It has even gotten me into Mountain Biking also. They need to do this as well, as Snow will be a rare sight in 20 years. The North Americas are also making it too expensive.... In Europe, it's much more affordable.

[@eliorbilow8797]

This is a good point. I'll mention that many of these towns already do that. I'll speak to my experience growing up in Crested Butte when I say that it feels much more local in the summer even though there are more tourists in the summer (Crested Butte is particularly good for mountain biking and wildflowers). There will inevitably be an "off-season" in the spring (because of mud) and in the fall (because of cold weather without snow), but that's a nice thing for us locals because it gave us time to take a breath after working hard during the on-season. I think that the effect that big companies have on the town is that they aren't part of the community so they don't contribute to the town itself. That's why I didn't like Vail taking the mountain. Also, I think they do contribute to the increased housing prices by more effectively advertising the towns, bringing in more people who want to live and/or visit them. This could be solved by increasing housing availability in the towns by building more dense housing, but then the town would become a city. Furthermore, many of the home sales go to people who don't live in the town full-time, so they are wasting precious space in the valley that could be used for housing. Personally, I think that it would be okay to increase the availability of high-density housing and make the towns into small cities, but I don't think many of the people in those towns would agree.

[@gregnak07]

Snow will be a rare sight in 20 years 😂💀 just like the sea levels are going to swallow up beach front properties but the banks have no problem lending 30 year notes to 99 percent of them.

[@Bluebottlenose]

Most major mountains offer thing like moutain biking and sightseeing. Some places, like whistler and mt hood actually offer summer glacier skiing

[@PriceBrian57]

@@eliorbilow8797 the rich wont agree. I know in Granby/Fraser, us working people are begging for it. They just turn around and sell em as condos for 300K a pop the nimbys are the ones with ranches and second homes who dont want to lose the "Feel" of a small town

[@crazysanta6641]

@@Bluebottlenose hood

[@hckyroxs8019]

As someone that lived/worked in a BC, Canada ski town this is a huge issue. Only through work did i find somewhere affordable to live because they had their own accommodation. It was a winter town for skiing and a summer town for golf (I was there in the summer) and if you tried to find affordable long term housing it was next to impossible, like I knew someone that waited close to 2 years to finally find it. I'd love to live there but don't even know where to start with finding long term housing

[@55Aarronneedham]

Grew up working in the industry. First job at 15 was a ski instructor and kept that job until about 23. Eventually I ended up in VAIL where it seems like the resort/towns peaked. Everyone loved working and living there, eventually I moved and always felt like I wanted more of Vail. So, I moved back after 3 years and in those 3 short years the resort and surrounding cities changed drastically. Rarely did I meet someone who loved working and living there, vacation homes destroyed the ability to employees to afford rent. The demographic of workers there also changed from those who loved nature and high-level skiing to those who want to party and low-level skiers further driving homeowners not wanting to rent homes to employees. I lived in someone's basement in Edwards for $1800/month after utilities where the actual homeowners where some of the most disrespectful people I ever met. Loved the first 5 years I spent in the Vail Valley, expensive but the ability to still live comfortably. Now this is not possible unless you come from a very wealthy family.

[@ralphwiggam7630]

This hits close to home ... literally :( I'm from Park City Utah. I grew up there. My little town will NEVER be the same. It started with American Ski coming in and buying up my home resort, Park West (Wolf Mountain). Then Veil came to buy up the town. Now even Deer Valley got bought out and is a super corporate mess. At one point or another, I worked for all those resorts / companies. They are wrecking my town :( I could write endlessly about how things are bad now and getting worse every year. Everything that made my mountain home a magical place is long gone or on the way out. Executive level decisions made in a corporate boardroom hundreds of miles away do NOT and CANNOT have the best interests at heart for the town, the place, or most importantly for the people :( I look from a distance with a tear in my eye. It's sad that it's changing. It's sad everything that made my town great is going away.All I can do is be grateful. I grew up in a truly special place. I got to see and do and experience things that most people never will. I am from a little ski town, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. It's changing fast, and not for the better. All good things must come to an end :(

[@cvn6555]

Those towns effectively do not exist anymore. The soulless Vail company turns them into giant theme parks for the wealthy. They could have packages so that all income levels could enjoy it but they only want the people that will drop a lot of cash and not the budget-conscious. I suppose it's because they are limited in space and season.

[@ryansherry1390]

Even with all the conglomerates it’s still a magical place to grow up and live it. Sad to see it becoming ever more expensive and though…

[@ralphwiggam7630]

@@ryansherry1390 I finished school and moved away to start a career, but even then I know I'll never be able to afford to buy a house in my own town and move back ... houses in my neighborhood, Pinebrook, are all a million plus now 😞

[@at1970]

I lived in slc 40 years ago. SLC was a nice large city and PC was a fun place to bike and visit. I can’t even drive past the Wasatch front now. The entire state has populated itself into a shit hole. Too bad. Gone forever.

[@demetrius8594]

I feel you, I live in Kamas Valley. The PC/Vail sprawl is encroaching our valley too

[@michaelm9871]

My parents took me skiing every year when I was a child. Sometimes twice a year. As a child I had NO idea this was such a privilege. Most of the other kids around me went skiing too. As an adult now, I can't imagine being able to afford to take my entire family to one of these resorts once not to mention twice a year. I'm assuming like everything, skiing was probably more affordable in the 80's and 90's, even if it was still a luxury. It's like everyone has forgotten the middle class exists.

[@Olivia-W]

Yeah. It was way more affordable.

[@mattchtx]

I snowboarded all throughout high school in Utah. Even adjusted for inflation it costs more for a day pass today than I paid for a season pass back then. But that changed a long time ago. I miss being able to just decide to go up and snowboard for a couple hours because I was bored. Now I have to plan and budget for it.

[@honkhonk8009]

Yea lol. I dont think ANYONE in my entire grade went skiing in their lifetimes. Maybe like 1-2 people, but even the extremely rich amongst us never bothered. AND WE LIVE IN FUCKING BC Come to think of it, it was a stereotype that it was only the old-heads that went skiing. No one in their right mind would touch that gayass sport unless they were a different tier of whitewashed lmfao. It was seen as the equivalent of lacrosse.

[@davidwright873]

35 bucks all day in the 70's....loved it! Lake Tahoe ski resorts...Haven't skied in years. Way over priced....

[@infidelcastro6687]

The middle class barely exists at all.

[@heinrichkleist3473]

What a depressing, but well-done video. In the search for authenticity and a transcendent alpine experience, the task is getting more and more difficult. I'm super grateful to live in a small Canadian ski town and value the authenticity beyond measure. I only hope it lasts.

[@aidangutierrez5736]

What town is it?

[@ExplodingCow49]

We've suffered a similar fate in Bozeman, Montana. It's made worse by the fact that we have not one, but two large ski resorts within an hour, Big Sky an hour away and Bridger Bowl 20 min away. We also have an entrance to Yellowstone park an hour away as well, which draws a completely different, but equally temporary seasonal crown in the summer. Plus, it's a college town. Myself and other college students can barely afford to make ends meet as house and rental prices have skyrocketed.

[@TennisEuphoria]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahhaha

[@StreetComp]

One thing to keep in mind - that recent huge increase in housing costs was seen in many places outside of cities, even in suburbs, and it was due to Covid and changes in where/how we work.

[@TopHatPenguin]

My parents always talked about how incredible vail was and I finally went recently and it’s was insaine how expensive it was. Every meal, every action, every location, was not only commodified, it was prestiged to such a high level I nearly starved to save as much money as possible. This is happening across the country because of the two companies buying every mountian it’s so sad to watch

[@thanhavictus]

It's the irony of pro-corporateism propped up by right-wing ideology cranking up greed as much as possible. And small towns often vote red to keep these people in power. They're literally killing themselves with late stage capitalism.

[@christinacarophd1544]

I live in a remote but popular Alterra Ski resort, Mammoth Lakes, in California. We are experiencing the same crises with some seasonal workers resorting to living in their vehicles. Would have loved to have this video include the impact on locals that serve the community rather than tourists. Teachers, firefighters, nurses, etc. I am a mental healthcare provider and lost my housing a year ago. I’ve had to provide therapy to my patients through video as I bounce around from staying with family 6 hours away, house sitting, and occasionally crashing in my office so I can provide “in-person” service while waiting for affordable housing to come available. After this historic winter 10% of our buildings have been red tagged for structural damage from snow, displacing more people. The outlook is grim.

[@DGill48]

Yeah, same problem here, Tahoe. Probably a thousand houses took water damage from ice dams...

[@SteveTaylorTheLocalLeadPro]

I miss the real Mammoth Lakes...

[@stronghold8266]

Liar

[@Ericxnugz]

That’s why I moved from there to south lake!!! All the Rich people ruin everything and just leave all there damn homes empty all year! Just to go there for one weekend

[@TheRoafer]

Mammoth Lakes was a great town, and then the town government rushed to bow down to the big money. Read the now old book ""Downhill Slide"", it predicted every detail that is now the dreadful reality of Mammoth and so many other towns.

[@jamesmcpherson1590]

Wendover Productions is a fantastic channel! Such smart and nuanced coverage of complex topics, and a rare example of a KZbin channel that isn't constantly badgering for likes and subscriptions. I love what you do! Keep up the excellent work!

[@doml4475]

Kind of weird being a Denver native who grew up really poor. So many people have moved here, people with the means to relocate across the country for work. They always find it weird that I've never been skiing/snowboarding and even make me feel bad about it. They kind of forget that it's not something a single mom of 6 can really afford. I'm a bit older now so maybe I'll give it a try.

[@Austricken]

Thank you for making this. I grew up in Eagle and my parents have lived there over 25 years. I worked as a private instructor with Vail Resorts for 1 season in college and it was eye opening. It cost me more money to have that job that I earned from it. Most days I would drive ~20 miles each way to the resort, spend about 30 minutes getting dressed out of a shared locker, and wait 30 minutes in an office in case a lesson was scheduled. I would repeat getting undressed/dressed again at noon in case a half-day lesson was scheduled. I'd get home at least 8 hours after I left and only would get paid for the 1 hour I was waiting in and office. When I did teach a lesson, I was still paying for my own ski equipment, which had to be relatively new/expensive, I had to buy my lunch from the resort's lodges while with guests, which is still pricey with an employee discount, and I had to handle any medical expenses, which are fairly common in skiing, because I had no benefits. A private lesson would last up to 6 hours and cost over 1000 dollars for a guest, a half-day cost north of 800. The price didn't include admission to the resort, guests were paying purely for my time spent instructing for which I was paid 12 dollars an hour. Before I started the job I saw working at a resort as a rite of passage even though I knew beforehand it wouldn't be my career. Almost everyone I knew growing up spent their careers in the industry and though it wasn't easy and everyone had off-season jobs they were able to own houses and raise families. This was all before Vail Resorts existed though and I didn't realize how quickly these opportunities disappeared until I worked for them. Frankly I'm astonished that there's still people working as instructors. I'm still grateful to have grown up where I did. Skiing is a wonderful experience that everyone should be able to have but it hard to recommend the profit milking corporate venture that is Vail Resorts.

[@glisse_1]

Sound like sour grapes. You're not telling the whole story. From day one (going back generations) in any ski school, it's been understood that you "buy your own gear" (the same way mechanics buy their own tools) because it's likely some of the same gear used to recreate and have fun on during your days off. Instructors also get "pro forms" to buy gear at a substantial discount (sometimes 50% or more off retail). This discounted gear could be the same gear you shred on during an epic powder day. Additionally, VR offers 5 DOLLAR lunches to ski instructors (if they didn't already give you a free lunch voucher), and base pay is now 20 bucks an hour which is actually very generous. Furthermore, if you improve your instructor skill-set with certifications (which VR pays for if you pass the exam) and achieve other Vail Ski School pay incentives (not to mention tips from customers), your income can rapidly increase over a few seasons of HARD WORK. Yes, it's very hard work and you don't make much from the start, but that's the case in MOST CAREERS if you expect to SUCCEED in America. So, your account is not accurate, and it sounds like you gave up too soon to make it as an instructor. PS, there are many, many long time instructors who have carved out a successful and lucrative career for themselves at Vail Resorts. It's very possible, but It takes hard work, scrappiness and sacrifice! That's the American way!

[@cvn6555]

I think the people that work as instructors see it as a lifestyle rather than a career. I had a great semi-private lesson at Jackson and that guy was amazing. Ski instructor all winter in Jackson, surfing instructor in Hawaii all summer. Amazing lifestyle. Unless you get serious injury. Or want to buy a house or new car. Or have a family. We all tipped him generously and it does seem today that the resorts encourage private lesson enrollees to not only tip their instructor (after 1,200 for a full day lesson) but also buy them lunch. I make a rather good income and am generally a great tipper but after the cost of a lift ticket and the exhorbitant lesson fee, one feels a little fleeced. It's bad for the employees because I bet that most think the instructor is being compensated a lot of that dough when they are not.

[@mroregano1868]

@@glisse_1 $20 an hour plus tips will maybe get you a cardboard box under an overpass in Summit County let alone Eagle County. There are no "lucrative careers" as an instructor, ski patrol, or lifty anymore.

[@jakedehart]

I grew up in Colorado still live here. Grew up skiing telluride, and Crested Butte. These days I don't even snowboard or ski anymore due to these changes. I started this sport at 12. I watched all these towns become "just for the rich". Not even the blue collar workers in the U.S. can afford housing in these towns. The rich buying and pushing everyone out. This video hits the nail on the head.

[@voidalchemyofficial4857]

Man, tell me about it. I live in Eagle, 30 miles west of Vail, and I've seen so many people get priced out of living in this county. A lot of people I went to school with out here have moved to the furthest corners of the state like Grand Junction and Montrose cause they're the only Colorado towns that middle class people can somewhat afford.

[@777jones]

I was talking to a guy in Telluride about this. He was running for city council. I explained to him, it’s not that hard to find housing in Telluride. If you make $15 an hour, don’t be lazy. Work 220,000 hours and pull yourself up by your bootstraps. 💀

[@AvsFan32]

@@voidalchemyofficial4857eagle is booming like crazy. Every car is a brand new bmw or Audi suv . It’s really sad what’s happening. The old west culture has sure changed. 😢

[@ScoutGrey]

You will own nothing and like it...K.S. WEF

[@assortedmountainlife]

You mean not even the white collar?

[@QLyee]

I use to live in Steamboat Springs but had to leave do to prices pushing up out and forcing us to leave. Thank you for covering this!

[@jamesreads4713]

Super cool vid! Did not know about this (Vail). Happy to learn Ski Santa Fe (my local ski area) is independently owned.

[@dakotataylor6605]

This is happening in my home town. My grand parents have to keep a sign in their yard that says “we are not selling for any amount of money. Don’t ask.” Because at least once a week some one (different each week) would have an agent stop by and ask to buy their house for ungodly amounts of money. Seems like a nice problem to have but if you’ve lived on the same plot of land in the same 1 bedroom house for 80 years you probably care more about the land than money.

[@tryingmybest206]

Imagine how much more you could do with large amounts of money

[@rrrrrrrrr9027]

​@trying my best but if u read the whole comment, that's clearly not the point

[@tryingmybest206]

@Ren Kuliga well then the point is dumb. Imagine they could help their children, buy a nice house in a new place, go travelling, actually experience life. Sounds to me like they don't understand how short life is - dont stay stuck in the same place if the opportunity to do more literally arrives at your front door

[@indastu9777]

@@tryingmybest206 that’s very bold of you to think that they aren’t experiencing life and aren’t “doing more”. Obviously what they have had for generations (sounds like) is priceless. If you can’t get that through you’re skull then you should reevaluate your life choices

[@tryingmybest206]

​@Indastu your language is needlessly antagonistic, please remain civil Life experience is more important than land, the idea that land is all that matters is such an american thing. and no, they're not living life to the fullest if the land they own, owns them

[@mxg75]

A small correction at 7:00: Okemo, Sunapee, and Crested Butte were not part of the Peak Resorts buyout. They were owned by Triple Peaks, which Vail bought in 2018, when the Muellers decided they wanted to retire. The Peak Resorts acquisition didn't happen until 2019. (Also, technically, Sunapee is owned by the state of New Hampshire; what Vail bought out was the operating lease, rather than the property itself.)

[@REAL-UNKNOWN-SHINOBI]

Well at least something happy happened. Since sunapee is technically owned by the state, and by extension vail only has an operating license. So at any time New Hampshire can just tell them to get the fuck out and they would have to.

[@WoutervanTiel]

In Crested Butte, we always joke that Vail didn't really want us. They were forced to take us because they wanted the East Coast resorts. Our town was famous for their slogan - "We are not Vail". Oops, now we're owned by them, ugh. This season, they were selling the season pass with a final ski day of April 9th. All the event calendars are set for that closing date. Then they skipped in a new date of April 2nd, the earliest closing ever in the biggest snow year in recent memory. The GM wrote a pathetic letter trying to explain that decision. But it gets worse. Mark Walter bought properties with former restaurant locations. Now they are all shut down, and no new restaurants have replaced them. At one point, there were 7 buildings in a row in this little town that were empty shells where bustling restaurants were operating the year before. Boo on Walters!

[@StephenAslett]

Serious question. If total number of skiers was declining due to rising costs of day passes, and the Epic Pass solved this problem, then couldn’t one argue that more local ski resorts would have eventually closed without Vail’s consolidation? Is it possible the alternative would have been worse for most ski towns? Excellent video btw.

[@arevolvingdoor3836]

Sam continually convinces me, that he is from Colorado, with all the times he mentions the state or cities in it.

[@keenant]

He lives in/near Aspen, Colorado

[@arevolvingdoor3836]

@@keenant That would make perfect sense then. I always assumed he was from the mountainous portion of colorado, but his name always gave me pause. Because there is a city called Wendover in Utah, but he never really talks about Utah.

[@CD3MC]

He is...

[@jgrywacheski]

Born and raised in Washington DC, but has been living in Colorado since 2020. So you are correct.

[@SethMethCS]

There's a video he did about the US census where he shows a neighborhood block, which could be where one of his family lives.

[@flammedesphonix2798]

I'm glad that in Austria (Vorarlberg) and Bavaria, the operating staff as well as ski instructors are still locals. This is probably because there are no ski-towns but instead ski-villages. Additionally, there are often passes that let you ski in a whole bunch of smaller resorts. For example, the 3-Täler-Pass, which is basically a 3-valley pass, allows you to ski in 39 independent resorts all confined to 3 valleys and it costs about 500$. Most of the accommodations and restaurants are privately owned and not by one big company.

[@richardbishop6752]

I'm an American living in Bavaria and I visit Austria all the time for snowboarding and in the summer too for all the other mountain activities. I can Honestly say I love that Austria is this way, it is so much better off even from a tourist perspective for not being a cooperate conglomerate. The beauty and the culture show through in a much more genuine and pleasant way. I dread ever having to go back and deal with US Ski town cooperate bullshit. I'd probably just exclusively stick to backcountry if I had to and avoid these places.

[@mjor6406]

Austria is the best. Cheap and the ski resorts are world class even the huts.

[@Mailmanqq]

When I lived in Vorarlberg, I was truly impressed by how well the ski tourism worked. Coming from the US, I saw skiing as a luxury experience that enriched a few lucky locals but overall decimated the community. While of course the traffic was bothersome, the ski infrastructure actually added a lot to the lives of the residents. Kids grew up skiing, and spent time teaching before starting university. Over the school holidays, teens would be working in the restaurants and hotels. It was honestly fairly symbiotic in a way that I struggle to understand.

[@KapitanPisoar1]

Man I have spent two seasons working in St. Anton am Arlberg and there is barely any locals beside the business owners working there...

[@blake2456]

Back in the 90s, all the shops in Vail were small/local shops. You could walk in during the winter and they'd all have free hot apple cider. Today, every store is some name brand corporate deal charging offensive prices for the obscenely wealthy

[@patsypopejoyCO]

Yup same in Aspen/Snowmass!

[@captaindoeverything]

excellent program, I live in Whistler and our community ski hill became a Vail Resort in 2016, with it comes good and bad, I decided to stay and live with the bad and enjoy the good.

[@duncancrowley6643]

My grandfather was a 10th Mountain Vet. He was offered 2 condo plots at Aspen for $5K but didn't have the money or interest at the time. Went on to ski until he was 88 years old, and I use his skis in his memory

[@jayel604]

Damn. That wouldve been an insane investment

[@ScoutGrey]

Beautiful ... your last sentence is so peaceful.

[@gogetradical]

My grandfather was in the 10th as well. Visited Aspen in 1943 when training over the pass at camp hale. He skied until he was 92. He is why my family grew up in Aspen. Still magically beautiful, the attitude not so much anymore.

[@andybrinegar8861]

My hatred for Vail knows no bounds. I remember when CO skiing was so much simpler. They started a precedent that small resorts are up for grabs by mega-corporations and that snowball just keeps on rolling

[@brettd530]

Agreed. It doesn't help either that Vail Associates essentially owns the Forest Service too. Vail does and gets whatever it wants with little to no push back from the Forest Service.

[@k_schreibz]

@@brettd530 Maybe allowing corporations to buy politicians through lobbying and Citizens United, and then re-classifying corporations as having the same rights as people, and bailing out corporations every time they fail with public funds... has been disastrous for this country and its people.

[@SeanOzz]

Housing prices in summit sky rocketed during Covid just like they did across America even at non ski resort towns. 2020 it was insane to watch. Especially living here. Your graph shows that but you didn’t mention that reason of people getting free money while not having to work or how so many were able to work remotely so moved to mountain towns. It made housing for locals difficult due to owners selling like crazy due to the Covid price spike.

[@markvandenberg4606]

BINGO.

[@goldentrichomeshydro4260]

It happened before that. Exactly when marijuana was decriminalized.

[@typeofguyto]

Im not very old (26) but in my short lifetime ive seen a crazy change in skiing and ski towns. My family and i talk about it every winter. Growing up we would go skiing 15-20 days a year and it was always relaxed and not packed unless it was christmas week. Prices werent cheap but they werent too bad. For me i started noticing it around 2015. But now its crazy. Huge lines to get up the canyon. Crazy packed lift lines. And prices are doulbe and a half what they use to be. Ive barely been able to afford to ski more than a few days the past few years. I cant fork over 2K every single winter just to fight huge crowds. It makes me sad.

[@redjaypictures4528]

As someone who’s grown up in Colorado, this problem has more or less spread to the entire state as a whole, and now its getting harder and harder to live anywhere in Colorado, and i wish we could find a solution so that for us who’ve grown up here, moving out of our parent’s home doesn’t mean leaving Colorado behind

[@voidalchemyofficial4857]

I grew up here and still live with my parents and I'd LOVE to leave this freakin state behind now! LOL! It's easy to plan that out here too. You can save tons of money because jobs pay so high out here, and after a couple years just buy a decent house in a cheaper state that isn't filled with so many tourists and rich yuppy liberals.

[@davidfoster2629]

Its not just Colorado. Every semi desirable place to live has become unaffordable.

[@Gala-yp8nx]

It’s spread to other states that Vail owns resorts in. They’ve completely wrecked Stowe Vermont.

[@psalmsurfer1]

@@voidalchemyofficial4857 exactly..most people dont understand Democrat policies and to a lesser extent Republican policies have destroyed the entire country basically lol

[@MrChemStuff]

Rent strikes, tenants unions, civil disobedience

[@vanadar00]

I used to drive my flatbed semi thru these towns in the winter... it was insane how touristy it was, reminded me of driving thru the communities in southern Arizona during the winter times. Seemed like a fake boomtown that was only set up "for a limited time only."

[@dingo8babym20]

I lived in Vail '72 - '77. Absolutely loved it. Best mountain I've ever skied at. I COMPLETELY understand your excellent analysis, as I lived through it, eg. lived in a crappy trailer in Minturn; lived in a tent during 2 of the summers I was there. Still, there was an actual community there - we lived in or close enough to town that we'd party with friends IN town. I still remember being on the hill for the 4th of July in '76, watching the fireworks below. The hot, ski bunny I met there (that became my wife and the mother of my children), and I knew we could not stay there because of the lack of opportunity for financial stability there. I went back there a couple of times in the 90s,and was sad to see what it'd become. Oh well. That's our corporate capitalistic system at work. We kill that that we love so much.

[@Massivefacts1]

what a dream. You were given a gift. I know you know that.

[@vitaly6312]

Outside forces have destroyed most of Colorado. As a “native” of Colorado, I don’t want to live there anymore, and the mountain towns are just Disney parks for the rich. People, even those who live in Colorado, think of this as going out into nature and participating. Yet it’s not that at all. It’s paying a giant corporation to set foot in their town and use their manicured land for hundreds or thousands of dollars. I remember when I started snowboarding, ticket prices were around $100 and the epic pass was sub $400 for students. That is no more. A single ticket at one of the larger Resorts is $100+ no matter what age range or student status you hold. A domestic beer is $11+ and a meal for one of a burger and fries is $25. It’s just Disneyland with snow.

[@POWORDISC]

Bye !

[@peternakitch4167]

As you say it’s a devils bargain. It has happened in many Australian seaside towns too with many of the same characteristics, only minus the snow; another new factor has been accommodation services such as Airbnb which has turned these places into semi-ghost towns during the ‘off-season’. Traditional rentals and housing has all but disappeared and prices have skyrocketed. It’s not just tour guides and hospitality workers and many longtime residents who get pushed out or away, now you can add school teachers, police, nurses, firefighters, office workers, construction, forestry and agricultural workers, in fact most non-tourism/non-experience industry workers now can’t afford to live in these places. In these places, and with some regularity in the press business owners complain about two things: finding labour and wages being too high and yet the workers are in a no win situation - low wages don’t pay high rents and most will never be able to save a deposit to buy, unlike their parents and grandparents and slowly towns die. I live in a town with a large regional university and due to the conversion of housing to Airbnb style accommodation many of its students can’t now find affordable accommodation. And the town governments, what are called local councils in Australia are seeing their residents and therefore their revenues plummet leading to problems in the ability to provide local infrastructure and services, e.g. maintenance of roads, etc.

[@joelwexler]

Even young doctors are moving away.

[@headwerkn]

It’s happening in so many places. At least our ski fields here in Tasmania are too unprofitable for a large corp to ever bother with them. Still, I’ll skin my way up the mountain myself, thanks… 😂

[@dewdop]

What is “experience-industry?“ Corporation speak for tourism?

[@BeefinOut]

In my master's program, I took a policy analysis course, and one of the case studies was Crested Butte. After a month of research, I ended up writing a paper on how NIMBYism and zoning laws are destroying any potential for even the locals to continue living there, but honestly, the situation doesn't really seem salvageable. The only way to fix things is to hope that tons of talented, experienced people decide to put people ahead of profits, because the current situation is basically inevitable in the modern free market.

[@SethMethCS]

Fuelled by the system of shareholders and companies who serve shareholders first. Which is enabled by central banking.

[@thewhitewolf58]

Honestly the way i see it is the corperate will get too greedy and burn itself out then the skiing will go back to the locals and get some popularity.

[@thewhitewolf58]

​@@SethMethCShonestly i do believe that share holders are a virus because they make a company think short term and greedy. They also toss the reasonable man out the window.

[@Robbedem]

@@thewhitewolf58 The companies will definately get too greedy, that always happens. Sadly it will probably continue another decade like this first, then another decade of suffering due to the consuequences of the greed. And maybe after that a slow reperation process will start. But It'll probably take 50 years before things are good again...

[@BeefinOut]

@@thewhitewolf58 unfortunately, even if that happens, it'll just create a vacuum that will get filled again right away. If Vail goes under, some existing mega corp will realize that they can scoop up the missing profits, and they'll set up a similar industry within a few years.

[@tuuger]

i remember driving through beaver creek in colorado trying to find the trailhead to get to turqouise lakes (i never found it) but was so overwhelmed by how much it seemed like a tourist destination it really is crazy. i could never even imagine going to vail just looking at it driving by on the interstate it looks like a depressing place in colorado. the backcountry of colorado is still largely untouched go further into the mountains and you wont see anyone

[@aldeniw]

Great video. Primary focus was on Vail but let’s not forget Alterra is equally or more destructive.

[@ems4456]

I’m honestly constantly worried that my home mountain is next. It used to be there were a small smattering of rental cabins. Now 80% of the community stands empty year round as vacation rentals. Random people have approached me to sell my house for absolutely ludicrous amounts of money. The attitudes of the people I speak to shifts completely when they find out I’m “a local!!” It’s incredibly dehumanizing. I’m fortunate enough to have no worries of being displaced, but I am a very VERY lucky exception. I feel like I’m watching a ticking time bomb. Friends don’t let friends ski Vail indeed, but at some point what choice do you have?

[@KRYMauL]

Convince the government to open up the mountain to mountain bikers or see if you can be adsorbed into a reservation.

[@fletchercobb4398]

At least you have people approaching you to sell your house for absurd amounts of money. Other than that everything sounds awful. How do the attitudes shift exactly? I can't imagine how different it could be, but I have never been in your shoes.

[@v12tommy]

Yep. Vail is a shell of the town I moved to 12 years ago. What Fail Resorts didn't destroy, Airbnb and other short term rentals did. In my whole condo complex, I think there are 3 units that are full time locals.

[@taylorlibby7642]

Corporate consolidation is how you end up with $180 single day lift tickets, crappy service, and unlivable towns.

[@Thesupermachine2000]

Its so incredibly dystopian😢

[@vzhickok]

Vail was 275 for a one day pass

[@pw3093]

Hello Whistler Blackcomb

[@collin9085]

Wendover said that day passes were already very expensive before the consolidation. So not sure it would be significantly different price to offer the same level of amenities and service if they only owned one resort.

[@taylorlibby7642]

@@collin9085 The passes went from expensive to more expensive to outrageous. Our mountain went from private to corporate ownership and the lift prices jumped 120% with no real change in amenities or services. Same thing happened with "season passes" (sooooo many added blackout dates and times).

[@Weathernerd27]

I lived near and ski resort and was able to ski several times a winter as a kid. I got a ski pass discount for being on my high school ski team. Being able to ski several times a year was critical to me getting good enough to really enjoy the sport. I would love to teach my kids to ski but there is no way I could afford to at todays prices, its not just the lift tickets costs there is also the gas, parking, lodging and food costs. I usually sleep in a Van when I ski because the hotels are outrageous but its kind of hard to get you're family to sleep in the Van. I still ski once or twice a winter but the high cost has forced me to snowshoe/cross country ski most of the time. I hate living in a big city, I'd love to live in a ski town I wouldn't need to make alot of money I just need to make enough to not be in poverty but the jobs you find in a ski town are mostly part time minimum wage not nearly enough to get a small house in town. I hate how so many things in this country only the rich can do more and more the averadge person is expected to just work.

[@ds-iv8gn]

I’m from Wisconsin, and while it wasn’t considered a ski town, my county had one well known ski resort. It was owned by the same family for almost 80 years and it was an amazing small town ski resort. My dad grew up skiing there and took me there all the time when I was younger. About 10 years ago one of those gigantic ski resort companies bought it from the family and they just completely ruined it. It just isn’t the same anymore. It makes me sad that back in the day me and my dad had a lot of great times there together, but I wouldn’t take my kids there now.

[@grahamhaze2870]

Thank you for making this! I lived in a small town down-valley of Aspen CO, and because the priority put on out of town wealthy people, the housing market in our town skyrocketed. Now it's really difficult for any middle class or lower people to find/afford a home in the valley. These corporations need to start focusing on the people they impact the most.

[@christianwright7325]

dv gang

[@nuansd]

Lmao I think Sam lives in the same area!

[@taylorlibby7642]

They won't.

[@ChrisJones-vh4sw]

It's not the local residents voting to restrict new housing construction and watching their home values skyrocket as a result?

[@taylorlibby7642]

@@ChrisJones-vh4sw Not so much. You've got to remember that these towns aren't in the flatlands and that the available building spaces are limited to begin with.

[@StartCodonUST]

Having transitioned from being a downhill skier through college to now, paying my own bills, being mostly a cross-country skier who has done some touring, in-track, and skate skiing in the Rockies, I think I can imagine what downhill skiing used to be like before it became so corporate.

[@Redevil667]

Agreed. It's a much more satisfying experience for a small fraction of the cost.

[@ralphwiggam7630]

Get some skins and a beeper ... you can still be a downhill skier without the crowds, lines, or corporate mess 😉

[@llew777]

I live near Whistler BC and believe me it goes 12 months of the year and now with the popularity of mountain biking summer is now just as busy as winter with something happening all the time

[@GodKillerKRAT0S]

Grew up in a beautiful ski town. Having a ski hill 3 minutes from town was amazing. However now i realize how dystopian its becoming. Huge hotels being built with luxury dining and accomadtions. They all sit bassicallt empty 6 months of the year. Ski passes become more and more expensive. Food portions get smaller each year but the price goes up. The list goes on and on

[@ncaviator4232]

Sam/Wendover, I live in the Vail Valley and work for one of the towns (not the resorts). I think you perfectly summed up what’s going on. I’d love to give you and your crew a tour if you’re ever in the area. Appreciate all you do!

[@verde7595]

well he lives in Glenwood Springs

[@v12tommy]

@@verde7595 I was always guessing Denver, but figured it had to be somewhere in the state, as much as Colorado comes up in his videos.

[@thikim7056]

ok