Daily Trail Pass Fee Increase

[Cat401]

The other day at the local coffee shop this same topic came up....trail fees.

One comment that seemed to be agreed upon by many was a lower fee for those who produce proof of avalanche training. Say $20.00 for those with a certificate and $60.00 for those without. The extra cash raised can go to search and rescue.

Any comments???

 

[maxwell]

The other day at the local coffee shop this same topic came up....trail fees.

One comment that seemed to be agreed upon by many was a lower fee for those who produce proof of avalanche training. Say $20.00 for those with a certificate and $60.00 for those without. The extra cash raised can go to search and rescue.

Any comments???

no. thats the most unreasonable thing i have ever heard.

talk about killing the sledding economy.

how many people do you think will just stay home.

lots

i have avy training so dont unleash on me it just doesnt make busienss sence to resrtict use when your trying to get ahead.

 

[Modman]

If you want to do it fair, there shouldn't be a yearly membership, period. Charge a daily fee for a usage fee. Otherwise all that is happening is those that travel, subsidize those that live close. You want smooth trails and want to ride every weekend, your gonna pay $50 every weekend. You ride 5 days a week, you pay $125/week. Simple and fair. As many of those that have stated, its cheap....right?

I guess your not really getting it. I'm not bitching about yearly memberships. I don't live local anymore, but yes I've purchased the yearly membership when I lived in Calgary and I purchased daily passes when I lived a little further away, as we usually rode Blue Mountain, Eagles Nest, Area 51 etc, all week, so it didn't make sense to purchase the full year at times.

Back to the topic at hand. My point of what I am truly trying to get across is $100/year is waayyyyyy to cheap for a membership. Every time you head up the hill on a groomed trail, is one rider closer to needing to be groomed. There is a cost, why not make the actual users pay? If you did it this way, there would be plenty more money to pay for fuel, etc. Who said anything about nickel and diming the local clubs? I say, pay more and give them more. I have no problem paying a daily pass every time I ride. Part of the cost. Do you?

P.S. Yes, my taxes are already higher if I drive further. Ever heard of gasoline tax? It's 50% of the cost of fuel by the way.

No, apparently I'm not getting it. In one post you state that there should not be a yearly membership, 2 posts later you say that the yearly membership is not enough (and I'm assuming that you mean to abolish it, hence it being "too cheap" and just make the actual users pay, as you state). Problem is, if there are not enough "users" riding on the weekdays to cover the costs of the groomer, you won't have a groomed trail to ride on Saturday.

What you are proposing is this (from my understanding): You show up at the trailhead and pay your $18 bucks and then you ride a nice groomed trail to the alpine.

The reason this won't work is simply as I stated above: Someone still has to front the cash for the groomer to actually groom "before" you show up on Saturday with your $18. Clubs are not psychic and cannot predict how many sledders are going to show up on a given day. Lets say two sledders show up on Monday, pay the fee and expect a freshly groomed trail, their combined $36 does not cover the cost to groom, they are pissed off they paid for a "fresh" trail and got Sunday's leftovers, even though they "paid" for a groomed trail. They can get a refund and leave or they can head up. If the groomer goes up the trail for just two riders then the club loses money.

In this scenario - no one would pay until the trail was actually groomed. A minimum # of riders would be required before the actual groomer hit the trail, to ensure that costs of running the groomer would be covered. I'm not interested in sitting at the bottom of the hill waiting for more riders to "fill the spots" like some carnival ride before they hit the "start" button. Yearly memberships are in place to provide capital on the premise that riders will actually ride.

Clubs would go broke grooming for the "anticipated" number of riders. Yes they could groom every night (or every two nights, whatever frequency) in advance of the next day, but again, if not enough riders show up the next day AFTER they have groomed, they just lost money. Your idea would probably work great in places like Revy and in mid season with lots of riders each day/weekend, but towards the beginning and end of the year when riders are a little more sparse, the club would be hemorraging $$$$ keeping the trails groomed for 20 people each weekend. Also, smaller areas would still need to charge the yearly membership where they simply do not have the capital raised to account for how much grooming is required through the year.

The membership also pays the capital for the clubhouse downtown, the cabins, new groomer purchases, gas for chainsaws for trail maintenance (although this could be donated by volunteers I don't know for sure), maintenance on the groomers and skids, advertising, fighting to keep riding areas open, etc etc. An annual membership does not just pay for the grooming.

I realize these costs would then be rolled into the "daily pass" but then the daily pass costs would be significantly higher, not just a few $$$, likely double what they are, and then you would have people whining about why they should have to pay for the full day pass, when they don't care about advertising or the cabins since they don't use these services. Essentially the same debate we are having now. The non-cabin users would be subsidizing the cabin users. This is the nickel and diming I'm talking about, how is the club going to break down every cost? Different coloured wristbands for cabin vs non-cabin users? This isn't a practical solution IMO. If no one pays for the cabin, it simply won't exist. Or the few that do pay for it, would be paying a higher premium to use it. I'd rather our sport of sledding not go down this path.

Annual memberships pay for much more than just the grooming, and so I think it would be really hard to separate costs out just for "grooming" and bill those to the occassional user vs the everyday user.

 

[acesup800]

I'm really not trying to get into an internet argument. I'm only trying to offer a slightly different opinion for discussion. If you read a little closer, my two posts state the same although stated slightly different. Either abolish yearly memberships or raise em' up high enough to cover actual costs. Kinda the same thing. I apologize for the confusion.

I guess where I am confused is how the yearly memberships make everything all better to go ahead and groom on a Friday without knowing how many will travel on the weekend. I can guarantee charging a user fee will generate more revenue then the current system does. Who cares if you lose money one weekend, if the next weekend you double the current revenue. Its called a "yearly budget", which I can assure you the club has. At the end of the year, the revenues need to be more than the expenses. Not sure where you get the idea that they try to get enough revenue to pay for each weekend?? I can't imagine you think they have weekend budgets. That's kinda of silly. As I stated numerous times and I will try and state again, a user fee (and maybe a lower user fee than current) would generate more YEARLY revenue for the club. Which is the entire point.

I understand why there are yearly memberships (I have had one, and you obviously have one) but the 100+??? guys who ride Revy with a membership and ride 30+ times a year aren't paying their fair share of the costs. That only works out to around $3/ride. Not covering the expense.

Anyway, cheers to those that completely disagree. :d:d

 

[08summit]

I agree with the $20 charge I really don't want the change in my pocket all day riding anyway...lol. Lots of good ideas on here...put the extra towards the cabins, emergency fund or like someone else said give it to a charity. $20/day is cheap for a good trail and hats of to Revy which in my opinion have some of the best groomed trails there are.

 

[HIGHTEC REDNECK]

Starting Fri. Jan. 29 the Snowmobile Revelstoke Society will be raising the cost of a daily trail pass from $15 to $18.
This increase is due in part to increased operating costs and the expansion of the grooming program by adding a 3rd groomer to the operations.
BCSF members from other clubs in B.C. will still get their discount with proof of membership.

is the increase due to the fruit boarders blowing through the trail pass both

 

[Powder Puff]

no it`s not, just the increase in the cost of doing busines.
Nice to finially meet you Hightec, wondered for a long time who you were :d