Mount Bachelor Fast Tracks

Mount Bachelor's New Addition of Fast Tracks

Mount bachelor has come up with a new pass option called “fast tracks” to be able to skip the ski lift line due to the excessively long lines there has been in the last 3 to 4 years.

By Charlie Cooper

The fast pass that bachelor is going to be selling this season is clearly meant for tourists and visitors being that the locals won't be purchasing it because they already own passes. I think that is a terrible idea because the locals won't get the perk of getting to skip the long line. After spending a ton of money on a season pass now, we will have to wait in an even longer line as the tourists get to go pass us lap after lap while we stand waiting all day to get on the lift. I can understand why Powder Corporations (the owners of Batchelor) are doing this because there have been a lot of complaints about the long lines. But it feels like a real slap in the face to the locals being that after spending $1300 on a pass we have to wait for even longer.

The lines at Batchelor have been getting ridiculously long the last 3 to 4 years as the mountain gets more popular. People have been complaining about this being that you can be standing in line for up to an hour and a half for a 5-to-10-minute long run. They have tried to fix this by changing up the lift line orientation and running one of the older lifts every day in hopes to move people around. They even put in a brand-new chair lift. Although seems to me the addition of the new chairlift only brings more people to the mountain which means more time in the line. Powder Corporations have now come up with a fast pass to solve this issue.

Yes, the fast passes or as they call them the “fast tracts” option will bring in quite a bit more money for Batchelor which can help with whatever repairs or upgrades, they need to do to the resort. But I can tell that the same thing that happened last year with the parking passes will happen with the fast passes this year. Last season Powder Corporations wanted to manage the amount of people that were on the mountain due to Covid-19. To do so they made parking passes that you had to purchase weeks in advance before the day you plan to go up. All riders were obviously frustrated with this being that you don't schedule going to the mountain weeks in advance, you often times decide to go the day before. There were many complaints about this last year so this year they thankfully took it away. I have no doubt that the same thing is going to happen with the fast passes this year so instead of going through another season of frustration and anger why not shut down the idea before skiing/ snowboarding starts.

Dan Cochrane, started a petition to stop the fast passes from becoming a thing. Dan describes the feeling of waking up early, getting in line before the lifts start turning, and getting the first chair, that first lap of the day. Now imagine standing in line for 30–40 minutes only to have someone step out of their car, walk past you, and get on the first chair that you waited for. Right, that’s irritating! “Is unfair to those who can afford it and or who already have a pass” Dan said. Coming to bachelor is expensive whether you're visiting from far away and renting a place or live here and are just going up for a day. The fast tracks option is $49 on top of a regular day pass. To most people who ski here an extra 50 bucks is like nothing so everyone is going to buy them. And to make things even more unfair for the people buying the fast pass, Powder Corporations can raise and lower the price due to the mountain's conditions. So, if it's an amazing powder day they can jack up the price and if it's a crappy windy icy day they can lower it. Now the base price which is raised to $100+ on a great ski day, now it doesn’t sound so affordable.

I think it is a bad idea because all its going to do is upset the locals and cause more issues later in the ski season. Powder Corporations is doing this mainly because it is another way to bring in money. They know that with the addition of the fast pass more people will come to Batchelor knowing that they won't have to worry about long lines therefore bringing more people and more money. Now they are saying that they will only be selling a certain amount of fast passes a day but I can tell that the demand from visitors is going to presser them to sell more each day. And hey more tickets sold equals more money. The same thing happened with the parking passes. People were demanding more parking so they ended up selling more parking passes therefore defeating the purpose of keeping less people on the mountain. Just like how they are going to oversell the fast passes defeating their only argument that the limited number of passes sold won't affect the main lift line. The ski/ snowboard season starts November 20th so we will see if Powder Corporation decides to listen to our requests and hopefully take away the fast pass.