Monthly Archives: May 2012

back on feb 22, 2012, vail resorts bought kirkwood mountain resort. since then things have been downhill. twice the resort has had to close or seriously curtail operations for inbounds avalanches. their airbag came out of it’s restraints and blew across the base area until derailing chair 6, an express quad, thus requiring an emergency evacuation. whilst these are extremely rare events, they are nowhere near as rare as the managerial screwups that closed out the season.

• vail resorts announced that kirkwood would be open “until the snow is gone”. they are closed with a huge base by any other resorts standards. alpine (whose base is 1,000′ lower) is still open from the base.
• for the first time ever midweek and 6-wood holders were denied access when their passes weren’t good on closing weekend despite the fact that kirkwood was closed all week when their passes would have been good.
• vail resorts brought in security that went through backpacks and pulled passes on closing day. a typical vail move; atypical for kirkwood (and any other resort that cares).

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