Firstly I’d like to wish all the loyal aussieskier.com readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Mt Buller Platinum Season Pass
Well it’s done. We waited until 20-odd minutes to go before the deadline, but our Platinum Passes for 2012 are purchased, at the princely sum of $1200ea which represents a healthy 171% of the price for every other competing resort.
What was of note was the invoice number on the receipt that was emailed to me. It basically consisted of a lot of leading zeroes and ended in a number in the vicinity of 750. Having recently been involved in the setup of a new ERP system, and observing customers who have done the same I have noticed in most cases that order numbers, invoice numbers, PO numbers etc usually start at zero when a new system is implemented.
When logging in to Buller’s site to purchase the passes it mentioned that they had instituted a new system and I would need to re-log in. Given the move to RFID ticketing that’s understandable.
So what’s the point of all this?
Basically I think it’s reasonable to assume that Buller also started their invoicing at zero and the numbers are in sequence, making my invoice (which had 2 passes on it) approximately the 750th to be issued under the new system.
This doesn’t mean 750 passes as there will be whole families on many other invoices, but I think for argument’s sake it would be reasonable to assume a generous average of about 3 passes per invoice. That totals approximately 2250 passes sold so far, with the deadline for the early-bird fast approaching.
I have heard reliably that Perisher sold about 13,000 season passes, and this figure was all but confirmed by another insider. I also heard that Hotham/Falls were in the 5k-7k vicinity – I directly asked an FC/Hotham employee with access to the figures – this person declined to confirm any numbers but stated that they were ‘very happy’ with the sales. I have no information from Thredbo.
This is all somewhat trivial and speculative, but something worth noting from an innocuous little number on an invoice – it would seem that the price war has resulted in some emphatic disparities in sales figures.
Who has purchased their pass? If you did can you confirm that your invoice number was less than 750 if you purchased prior to today? Who has defected elsewhere thanks to a cheaper pass? Let us know in the comments.
The Powder Bible has just gone live – it is available for purchase from https://powderbible.com and aussieskier readers will be the first with access! Launch was meant to be tomorrow but everything came together early so I thought I would put it out there to loyal readers of aussieskier.com as an exclusive preview.
If you choose to purchase The Powder Bible please let me know your comments either here or on the Facebook Page – I’m very keen to hear some feedback. Also if you have any issues with the e-commerce side please let me know ASAP so I can rectify it.
FYI it is image-heavy so the download is about 27MB so please be patient, also it renders best with Adobe Reader (download link)
It’s about time to give my loyal aussieskier fans a sneak peek into what I’ve been up to lately. aussieskier has been quiet since the Buller fiasco but I’ve been hard at work on a brand new project. It’s called The Powder Bible and it’s a ‘World First’ eBook on Ski Travel. As you’ll see from the Trip Reports on aussieskier I get to ski a lot of powder, and it’s not an accident, and certainly not good luck. I have a set of rules I use to make sure I head where the snow is, and it’s all outlined in the book.
First step is to visit the Facebook Page for Powder Bible: https://www.facebook.com/powderbible – then ‘Like’ the page. This will keep you up to date with the launch schedule (but I will also be promoting it here of course)
So please head across, Like the page and I’ll keep you informed!
You can also have a sneak peek at the website at https://powderbible.com – the ‘Buy Now’ links are not yet activated but if you Like the page you will be the first to find out.
It’s something I’m very excited about and very proud of, and I look forward to hearing from you all about it.
Trailer season has gone and now the bulk of the 2012 Ski Movies are available for your downloading pleasure in iTunes. Unfortunately if you live outside the US you may need to get a US iTunes gift card so you can download.
Here they are:
The Ordinary Skier – Oakley/Seth Morrison
By far the movie I have been looking forward to the most is Oakley’s biopic on Seth Morrison – “The Ordinary Skier”. This is the result of 2 seasons of filming, much in Chamonix, during which he took the time out to respond to a tweet of mine asking about the snow conditions.
In case you have been living under a rock, there’s been a season pass price war amongst Australia’s resorts. Except Buller – they put their prices up.
The story goes like this:
Perisher announced their Freedom Pass on the 4th of September and sent shockwaves through the industry. Skier numbers and participation were plummeting and they decided to act decisively to see if this was a trend they could arrest. The terms were very agreeable, $199 to be paid now and a balance of $500 due on May 1st. This offer ends today so act fast if you want one! Thredbo soon responded with their Platinum Pass which matched the Perisher terms, and on top of this included skiing for the rest of this season. Hotham and Falls Creek were the next to act again matched this with yet another $699 deal called the Hero Pass that they have since added value with ticket offers at Big White & Niseko.
It was great to see some fierce competition and innovation amongst the resorts.
Conspicuous by its absence was Mt Buller. Despite a mountain of ‘feedback’ and ‘encouragement’ on their Facebook Wall there was nothing but silence. Their use of social media was appalling this season so it was no surprise for them to continue to keep us in the dark.
For those of you who don’t know Buller well it has a very different customer base to the other resorts. Due to its proximity to Melbourne it has a large number of loyal customers who ski every weekend for the season. These people are generally tied to the mountain as members of clubs or owners of apartments, and often are families with kids participating in the various seasonal programs. I do not have access to the figures but I would estimate that just between the kids in the programs and their various family members that would be 1500-2000 season passes alone, not to mention the other recreational weekend skiers. I do realise the other resorts all have their loyal core but Buller’s is far larger. Depending on the actual number and also the breakdown between adults and kids, this would represent ~$2m of guaranteed revenue, also around Xmas for the early-bird purchasers which would be superb for off-season cashflow.
As a consequence of this I am certain that Buller did not view these customers as a flight risk when announcing their season pass pricing today, which was shocking to say the least. There were a couple of new options for midweek skiers, but the bottom line is that they INCREASED the price of their season passes for customers who want to ski on weekends.
The response has been emphatic, again on their Facebook and also on the ski.com.au forums. There is the usual anger but the main sentiment is disbelief.
For me – well it’s mainly disappointment. I know I’m going to buy the pass for next year, I’m tied to Buller through club membership – to change mountains would require a large change in circumstances, longer drives on the weekends etc which at this stage we are just not prepared to do. I only ski at Falls Creek when I’m being paid, and I don’t see Hotham like others do.
To know that every other loyal customer of every other resort has been rewarded for their continued custom is just an absolute kick in the balls. It is pure arrogance on Buller’s behalf to know that they can do what they want to their best customers. For these reasons I wasn’t expecting a deal as good as the other mountains, but to have the price INCREASED is nothing short of an insult.
It’s hard to predict the outcome of this, the Falls/Hotham/Thredbo passes have another week to run, I would love to be a fly on the wall in their ticket offices to see how many people decide to sign up after comparing the options, and if they were (or intending to be) Buller skiers.
The one thing I do know is this: Buller is now charging a Premium price point for their passes, so they need to provide a premium service in return. All the usual crap that we are often able to turn a blind eye to should be brought up with management at every opportunity. If you do ski at Buller this year I implore you to hold them to a level of service that matches the price that they are charging.
One thing that I will guarantee is that the only money BSL sees from me next season is for the pass. And I encourage you all to support the independent businesses on the mountain – they will be hurting thanks to this decision so we need to support them. Make sure you eat on mountain at Koflers, drink in the evening at Grimus & The Whitt (and Kooroora). Hire/buy/tune your skis at Black Mountain, get a photo from Woody at Fun Photos & a Dimmy at Wokworx.
Let me know in the comments below – will you be going elsewhere? Or are you ‘stuck’ at Buller and will you just have to cop it? Or is the midweek pass actually quite good and will you take this up?
AlpineReplay is a social network for skiers and snowboarders that I helped test in private beta over the course of this season. The focus of AlpineReplay is on stats. With an Android or iPhone they measure your speed, airtime, vertical, Calories, distance, and more. Your day is separated by run, with the names of chairlifts identified on each run you take. Users get a basic set of stats right on their phone and can log in when back at home to see much more detailed data, compare and compete with friends, post their visit to Facebook or Twitter, and replay their runs in 3D. They launched publicly a couple of months ago and have gained a growing and avid user base from beginners first learning to ski, to several members of the Australian Olympic team.
When logging in, the first page you come to is your dashboard. It’s great for seeing a snapshot of your season and what your AlpineReplay friends have been up to. At a glance you can see your season totals and where you rank in the leaderboard by category.
Alpine Replay - iPhone Ski Statistics and Social Network
Data junkies rejoice. The stats page is where you get in depth details on each of your runs for a specific day. Each run has the lift you took, max / sustained / average speed, vertical, calories, distance, airtime, number of jumps and a graph of speed and altitude by the second. Each visit also has a unique URL which you can share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. For example, here the public page for my last visit to Buller.
Alpine Replay - iPhone Ski Statistics and Social Network
It’s always fun to see where you compare with other people. For that there’s the leaderboard which allows you to see your ranking in the AlpineReplay universe for nearly any parameter you can imagine.
My highest current ranking is in Calories (9th) although I seem to be dropping lower and lower on a weekly basis! Good to know how hard you have to ski to earn that hot dog from Koflers!
Alpine Replay - iPhone Ski Statistics and Social Network
There are other features like challenges–enter into a competition on airtime the next time you and your friends hit the mountain–and 3D replay which is pictured below:
Alpine Replay - iPhone Ski Statistics and Social Network
All in all, the AlpineReplay ski app is very easy to use, gives great stats, and even better functionality on the website. The development team is very responsive to requests and feedback which is always nice to see with a new tool such as this. If you head to the Northern Hemi this summer, or if you’re already getting ready for next Winter, I suggest you give AlpineReplay a try!
Fair to say that this new pass has generated a lot of talk both on-mountain and online as seen by a quick look at ski.com.au.
When Perisher first dropped their Freedom pass for 2012 it was always going to be interesting to see how everyone else countered the move. While Buller continues to cop it for not coming out with a competing offer, Hotham and Falls have announced the Hero Pass.
At first glance it seemed as though there had to be a catch, it just seemed too cheap given what a full season pass cost this season ($1200 for an early bird and $1400 full whack). A season pass for $700, surely not.
While there are conditions such as putting the deposit down now and paying the rest in May is that really such a big trade off? Buying a season pass is always a calculated gamble on what the season is going to deliver. If you are only having to pay 50% when compared to last year’s price then you’d have to think a lot of people are going to take that bet. Cutting down your break even point to about seven days is massive.
One thing is for sure, it is good to see some innovation from not just Hotham but the industry as a whole with regard to what deals are offered to the skiing public and if it gets more people skiing more often then that can only be a good thing.
There was quite the inversion going on as well, brutally cold in Omeo last night. Thankfully it was ridiculously low humidity (4%) up here so the snowmakers could still do something.
Thursday was a dead set shocker, wet and foggy. Not enjoyable in anyway. The promise of the previous evening with 20+cm falling was squashed by the rain that followed resulting in a thick layer of glue.
Friday turned out to be absolute blue bird allowing everyone to dry out. Conditions not brilliant but still not bad.
Saturday was another awesome day albeit with a bit more cloud around but still plenty of good skiing. It wasn’t a day to go off piste though as Thursday’s glue had set up with the clear skies. Here are some pics of the action on Saturday.
The cover softened up today as the wind felt like it dropped off a bit. There was a very brief front that came through but no accumulation of note.
Forecast isn’t looking great but is better than when I last looked this morning.
