Dear Members and Passholders.
As we are approaching the final month of this ski season, we wanted to make sure we were giving to the most people possible the opportunities to ski. Our corporate community has really been stepping up to the plate with E360s has enabled our local children to not have to buy tickets for the remainder of the season. LNGC has supported our community library ticket program and progressively has been able to support tourism by offering complimentary tickets to out of town visiting passholders from closed mountains. Many others have bought advertising, sponsored events, or programs to show their support.
Our Coop Members and Passholders Appreciation Weekend is just around the corner.
Season Passholders and Coop Members receive:
- Early chair access from 9am on both Saturday and Sunday!
- One Free Lift Ticket – Coop Members and Passholders can use the ticket themselves or treat a friend to a day at the hill. (Free ticket based on your season pass age category, tickets must be used on March 2nd and March 3rd, 2024)
- Our Staff discount (25% off) on all food and retail purchases
- Demo Day – Icelantic Skis will be at the ski hill on March 2nd for a Demo Day!
Why are we doing this so close to the end of this season?
We need people to want to ski next winter when conditions are expected to return to normal. We also need more destination visitors next year. We are ringing the dinner bell so to speak.
The time has come to start thinking about the 2024-2025 season. We have decided to launch our Frozen Early Bird pass sale March 1st. This allows us to split the payment over 10 months with the first payment being under $300. In addition, anyone purchasing their pass in March will either receive 3 complimentary buddy tickets which will be valid until the end of the 24-25 ski season, or a season pass for the last month of the 23-24 ski season if they did not already have one.
Due to adverse weather, and not delivering the powdery conditions we are accustomed to, our attendance is down 30%. We do not believe this will be a profitable season for the Coop. We do believe our losses will be limited to depreciation expenses.
(Depreciation is an accounting practice used to spread the cost of a tangible or physical asset over its useful life. Depreciation represents how much of the asset’s value has been used up in any given time period.)
Our goal is to focus on our future. We want to continue to maintain the trust in season pass products, while setting ourselves up for success next season. In doing so we will maximize food and beverage revenue and other subsidiary revenue at Shames. We will put “butts in seats” and make sure that all our fun events, activities and performances are well attended, even without the legendary snowfalls we are used to. Our pricing committee will be re-starting to examine our position and look at difficult decisions around pricing. We intend to survey our membership regarding the direction for next season. We will also have a town hall meeting to go over the season, and the plans for the following one.
Last year, our surveys showed that our membership: preferred a reduction in operating days over increased prices, wanted more events bands and entertainment, wanted brown bag lunches to be reintroduced in some way upstairs, and wanted a junior menu introduced in the kitchen. Having delivered in spades, we look forward to hearing suggestions on where and how we can improve things for our membership and guests for the 2024-25 ski season.
March is packed with a plethora of fun events you won’t want to miss! Hoping to see as many of you there as possible!
Christian Theberge
General Manager
My Recreational Mountain Cooperative,
Shames Mountain
This is Our Mountain, Come Join Us!
