ADIOS TICKET WICKETS: Alta makes technological upgrade
Behind closed doors and away from prying eyes, the summer months find many ski resorts feuding over upcoming ticket prices. Despite last year’s prices, the scheming is relentless as they determine exactly how much more can be squeezed out of your new $500 Gore-Tex XCR ultra-waterproof tear-proof flame-retardant pockets.
But such is not the case with the folks over at Alta. Fortunately, they’ve kept to more of the same this summer: catering to the skier in anyway possible, planning and designing for an improved season, even when the snow’s nowhere in sight.
This week Alta announced that for the 2007-08 season they’ll be doing away with the traditional metal wicket and adhesive day passes and instead utilize hands-free radiofrequency identification technology (RFID) for both day and season passes.
So just when you found the perfect utensil to clear out that one-hitter cleverly disguised as a cigarette, now this! Stoners lament!
The product will be called the Alta Card, and for first time users, a single day pass will cost $59. After the acquisition of the Alta Card, however, “recharging” the card with single days will cost only $54. Also, skiers may reload the pass from home by registering a user ID and personalizing the card.
This practical wicket-free technology is a product of the Austrian company Axcess and has been popularized across Europe at ski areas like Chamonix. A method of delivering hassle free “ski-products” to the customer, in the U.S., the technology is just now beginning to gain ground in the industry. But Alta wouldn’t be the first Utah resort to implement RFID passes. Across the way in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Solitude Mountain Resort has been using the RFID technology for nearly a decade.
From Devil’s Castle on down to the parking lots, at Alta it’s all about the skier experience. And Connie Marshall, Alta’s director of sales and public relations, believes one way to enhance that experience is to improve skier relations with the lift operators. While it’s not difficult to have a nice, functional relationship with the lifties, for some, the burden of showing a pass each and every ride was becoming tiresome.
