Investors changed ASC's focus from skiing to slope side development. Now it's all about luxury homes, and condos. Ski areas have become but a tool to attract investors. Just like a stale donut is used to bait a bear. Make the kill - ethics be dammed...
Stock Symbol (AESK.OB)

You're so right that far too many businesses and investors grossly undervalue their customers. The asset is more than just the properties, it's also the customers who pay and come back again. Resorts (incl. ski areas), hotels, airlines all have lots of physical assets that define them, but they all are also service businesses that need to deliver consistent, high quality, and value to their customers or else the customers will choose another option just as you are so rightly proposing.

I have faith though that some new owners are exactly what's needed for a lot of these ski areas and fresh ownership will ultimately be good for the skiers.

I also have faith that new owners may infact free these resorts to improve their positions. No, there may not be a 6 resort pass for $369 anymore, but from what I've seen, so many of those cheap passes puts a ton of stress on the areas on peak days. I'd rather see people pay more, me included, on Saturdays at the River if it makes the experience better.

OK, by all means... YOU can pay more, and please pay for me too. Deal? :-) And I'll let you continue to ski the River on Saturdays, but I don't ever recommend it. Better to stick to Sundays only for that mountain.

Maybe next year we will have better opportunities for ski deals and have more choices to ski at places I miss like Bretton Woods, Loon, Wild Cat, etc.
Don't give up hope, Carey!

Maybe next year there will be better ski deals for places that we have not skied lately because we feel indentured to our pass- I miss places like Loon , Bretton Woods and WildCat.

ASC is a business, conducting business.

Sunday River and Sugarloaf are ski areas, that may or may not be under new ownership soon. Sunday River and Sugarloaf will still welcome skiers and riders with good service and good snow come next season. The resorts will still employ thousands of Mainers in the process. Not sure why all the doom, gloom and anger from the author. See him and ya'll on the slopes of Maine!

Alex Kaufman
Communications Manager
Sunday River

Alex,

Doom and gloom? Jeez, look at the headlines over the past few weeks re this deal, with mountains peeling off all over. That's enough to make any passholder question what the heck is going on and what the future holds.

I'm disappointed (not angry) with ASC, not Sunday River or Sugarloaf. The decisions are being made far away in swanky Park City, not quaint Carrabassett Valley or Bethel. Yes, business is business, we get that. But what about us skiers-- loyal skiers mind you--that have supported ASC?

Don't you feel we have good reason to feel left out in the cold as these ASC deals go down? To see a very good thing at a good price--the All for One Pass--evaporate before our eyes?

Yeah, we know that the good folks at River and the Loaf will provide for us with good skiing. But you've gotta consider: How many of us do you believe will want to return to $1000 plus season passes good for one mountain, maybe two?

The skiin' times, they be a-changin...