The last several weeks since traveling to the North east and Mid Atlantic states is bearing fruit for new members deals. Discounts on lift tickets now includes
Monarch Mountain in Colorado with member savings of up to $8 daily on lift tickets. New personalized coupon capability will appear on the site by the middle of October as the site is relaunched with a new and improved look and feel.
A few new highlights of Mountain Sports Club members includes the following:
When the site relaunches there will be resort information available on over 600 resorts and savings on lodging and lift ticket lodging packacges at most major destination resorts throughout North America. Mountain Sports Club members will be guaranteed the lowest rate at over 1,000 hotels and condominiums at your favorite resorts in Colorado, New England, Wyoming, Utah, Canada and more.
Send us your reviews and any updates on discounts you see in the marketplace.
September 4, 2006
Labor Day Ski and snowboard sales have launched the winter 2007 season from coast to coast. These preseason sales once were more pervasive than currently is the case. Preseason sales blowing out last year’s gear began in the weeks right after July 4th and hit their peak this weekend. They will continue sporadically though out the fall until around Columbus Day. These sales are often combined with swaps where you can bring you old gear and try to sell it and use the funds for the new upgrade you just got to have.
These sales surely can be a lot of fun and often combine a festival feel with resorts on hand selling season passes, discount cards and prepackaged sets of tickets at a discounted rate for committing to the local resort now. Colorado has traditionally and continues to be one of the leaders in great deals on gear and passes. The retail wars go back to the middle of last century when two retailers Gart Sports (Now The Sports Authority) and Cooks Sporting Goods would have competing sales. The two that now face off are TSA and Colorado Ski and Golf each Labor day Weekend – The sales are respectively called Sniagrab – bargains spelled backwards and Ski Rex. Great deals and many resort deals abound at each. Even the new gear tends to get discounted close to 20% on the opening weeks of this sale. One word of advice. If you are getting to one of these sales and the special you are looking for is sold out, make sure to get one of the sales reps to go digging for that item. They sometimes will pull one of these hot deals off the rack and hide them if the competitor dropped the price too far. I have personally worked at these sales and seen this done at Colorado Ski and Golf. Then they mysteriously re-appear at a higher price a few weeks later. Be insistent since they have advertised this special.
Keep looking at the deals as they add new ones for the first several weeks in September. Also many of the sales reps can make a deal with you to ensure you do not walk out, so always ask, “Is this the best you can do? Are there any other deals available?”
Now with the increased competition of online retailers ask for comparative pricing. Many will match or beat any verified price on an item that is the same make, year, model, size and color.
Hot deals at resorts: All Colorado Resorts and most nationwide are in the midst of season pass sales. If you are skiing and riding enough, buy them now. This is the best deal of the year and often includes bonus features. One great special on the marketplace is Steamboats Special early season sale offering discounts of up to 25% on lodging and lift tickets that are pre-purchased and prepaid. Steamboat really does not discount so this is a real value if you know you are headed to Steamboat.
Jackson Hole – I know, No TRAM and that is a travesty flat out. But the place still rocks and the skiing and riding is world class.
Alpenhof Lodge at the base of Teton Village is offering a 25% discount on stays of 4 nights or more for Mountain Sports Club members.
This is truy a distinctive alpine Bavarian flavored mountain lodge. The dining is excellent and rooms are inviting and comfortable.
Well as summer comes to a close, more and more deals are coming in the door for Mountain Sports Club Members. We just added a new retailer wth special offers in the
marketplace -
Mountains Plus is an outdoor specialty retailer offering great deals and savings for mebers on all the top brands. They specialize in backcountry, adventure travel and outdoor categories. In the marketplace we just loaded
magazine subscriptions available at a discounted rate as well for members.
NorthEast Summit - Schedule a meeting at the upcoming North East Summit in Bretton Woods at Mount Washington - September 5 - 7. I will be in attendance at this event and scheduling meetings from Tuesday through Friday at the trade show and at resort locations. Call now to schedule a time to meet an discuss how best we can promote your resort this coming season.
Travel desk and service powered by Travelocity. The
Mountain Sports Club is pleased to announce a partnership with Travelocity to power our online Travel Desk. This private label program will bring the wide selection, service and value offered by Travelocity to our branded Mountain Sports Club Travel Desk for our members. This service will be lanched in conjunction with our redesigned site scheduled for the middle of October. Just in time for the start of the new ski and snowboard season. This service will not only provide discounts on travel packages, but lodging, hotels, lift tickets, services and activities.
I finally made the trip and rode thye Antelope access to the Hall Ranch ride out of lyons, colodao on Sunday(8.13.06). After one year plus of several good riding buddies trying to convince me to ride the new access to Hall Ranch outside of Lyons, Colorado, I made the trip and ride. Living in Boulder, I often ride the south end of town due to time, but with the family gone, and no need for a permission slip out I went. We met first right on town just before the main drag turns right to Estes Park or left to the main Hall Ranch access, at the Barking Dog Cafe for Java and a scone.
This local coffee shop is a must do for the caffeine fans in the crowd. They have a wireless connection as well if you feel compelled to check your email.
To get to the Antelope Trail access one heads up 36 toward Estes Park out of town. As you head up the canyon look for Apple Valley Road on your left. This is the first turn, take it and follow a couple of miles till you see the next signs for the Antelope trail head access. The parking lot fills quick so more and more folks park in town and ride up. From the trail head it is a nice steady climb up to the main Hall Ranch trail, but nothing too narly. For this rider this approach was so much more doable, nd enjoyable, compared to the front side of Hall Ranch, which always does a number on me. I walk significant sections of the front side. Here I was comfortable yet challenged. The trail was much smoother and the entire ride was very enjoyable.
I will be back and make this a regular ride in the future.
Last week saw two significant new additions to the members benefits in two different areas. On the resort side we published a daily $9 lift ticket savings for members valid all season except holiday periods. This repeat offer provides exceptional value for our members skiing and riding in the Tahoe area. In addition to this savings there are two for one lift ticket, beginner lesson packages available mid week non holiday. More details in the
Diamond Peak Mountain Sports Club listing.
On the gear side of things new vendor
BentGear.com, an online specialty ski, snowboard and outdoor retailer added savings and the entire online store for our members to browse and shop from. Currently a
Back to School Sale is underway with an additional savings of 10% and
FREE shipping . This relationship will be a foundation on which additional deep and extended product and service offerings will be provided to MountainSports Club members.
Currently we are still offering
FREE memberships as a special introductory offer.
Join now and Save Hundreds this winter ski and snnowboard season at resorts nationwide - From California to New York to Colorado to Vermont, Wyoming and more....
As we open new sections of the directories and resort towns new deals and merchants keep coming in. Today we just turned
Killington live with a commitment from
The Cortina Inn. This is and has been one of my favorites to stay in for decades. A true value for those heading to the
Killington Pico area.
Earlier this week I was in
Summit County and stayed at
The New Summit Inn. They are currently listed, but the deals are up in the air. If you are headed there tell them you saw their listing at MountainSportsClub.com and they will extend an offer. In Frisco the classic lodge on Main Street
The Frisco Lodge just came online and they are extending benefits to our club members. This historic lodge is a real gem, cozy and friendly right on main street.
To add depth to member benefits we just added these 3 sports shops -
High Trail Sports, High Summit Sports and High Road Sports. Value vouchers are now posted online with savings on purchases and rentals.
Jackson Hole becomes another resort addition with member values now available at the
Alpenhof Lodge nesteled in the heart of Teton Village. Next town will be Hunter Mountain outside of New York in the Catskill Mountains.
The past week showed a pick up in across the board in terms of visitos coming to the shop and browing for information. New activity is leading to visitor's starting to click on ads generating revenue wiht the Google ad sense program. So visiotrs and members please remember to use our site as a resource.
The shopping and shops category is quickly growing with news from the Ski, snowboard and Mountain lifestyle catalog and online store MOuntain Chalet. Really great and hard to find items at this store and great Mountain Sports Club offers. This coming week we wil be adidng more Colorado Resort towns and listing new offers in Breckenridge and throughout Summit County, Colorado.
Look for the first East Coast resort listings an benefits, Hunter will be live by weeks end for those living and playing in the New York City area. Taos, New Mexico as well as Whistler an dother Colorado resorts are to start appearing live this week. STay tuned as we keep building deals and resort information. Send us reviews on resorts, hotels, inns, lodges, trails, capgroups you name it.
Talk to you about the mountains soon.
John Siewierski
Been a while since the last post, but not because nothing is happening. Site is starting to build out and deals are coming in. Just got shop deals on purchases and services at the following - Sun and Ski Sports 16 stores 6 states and their web sites. Also Ski Chalet 3 stores in DC/VA, then Alpine Sports Outlet, Boulder Outdoor Center in Boulder and Steamboat Ski & Bike Kare.
Several other deals are for in store and for online shopping, with several more vendors soon to close. We will have hundreds of dollars in savings for online shopping by the time we get to the Fall. This is a huge value add from the old Ski Card days.
On the resort front I have gotten a signed partnership with INSA and Washington areas on enclsoing a coupon for a FREE membership with all Passports. There are other association programs we will do this with as well. I will start building resort and state areas there and for New Hampshire next. Today SKI NH committed to the same promotional passport program as the resorts in the NorthWest.
Merchant, lodging and resort deals are starting to come in. Make sure your resort is listed and providing your promotional offers for this coming winter season. It is not far away.
Initial Travel Desk Partner is Whitewood Tours. Welcome and look for more travel desk news to come. This now combines with RiverRaftTrips.com to give us winter and summer product offerings.
Back in Steamboat working with clients and prospecting new participants for the Mountain Sports Club. On the ride up I remind myself why we are so fortunate to live here. Blue skies with temps in the 80's and cool nights. All the mountains are green with the reservoirs and streams being full of water from peak run-off. Lots of fishing, rafting and kayaking taking place.While in Steamboat I dined at one old faithful restaurant - The Steamboat Pub and Grill for lunch and one I had not been to before - Antares.Both are located downtown. The Steamboat Pub and Grill is located on Lincoln Street, the main drag and has been there since I have been visiting starting in 1979. Good pub food with big screen TV's made for a great environment to watch the France/Spain World Cup soccer match. The one item on the menu that I sampled was an Elk Sausage with an jalapeno sauce. It was excellent. While most of the menu had classic pub sandwiches I wanted to try something different and the elk was what I was looking for. I will return again to watch sports events and enjoy good pub food and atmosphere. Service was friendly while not be over eager.Antares is one block South off Lincoln just across the street from the Eighth Street Steak House on 8th Street. A little more upscale with a great selection of seafood, pasta, Thai and varied cuisine. I ordered the Routt County Leg of Lamb with the house salad. The salad included apple, romano cheese, lettuce and fresh greens and was delightful. The rack of Lamb was good as expected but done a little more than it should have been, resulting in it being dryer than desired. The Martini was too dirty and the service help did not offer to tell me any of the specials and after dinner went right to the check as opposed to offering desert. C for average service. Food and ambiance was nice but service and attention to detail should have been better. I did order desert, flourless Chocolate torte with rasberries. Delightful to say the least.The menu selection was interesting an I may try again.Please provide your dining experiences at these and other restaurants in any mountain town and we will post online at
www.MountainSportsclub.com. These reviews will be posted on that site in the respective town and dining sections. Email reviews to
reviews@mountainsportsclub.com.These reviews are also posted at
www.MountainSportsClub.com resort and members benefits guide, located in the Steamboat Springs, Colorado - Dining section of the guide.
New deals on lodging and resort activities are coming in and we are listing new partners. See sample listings and
Value Voucher for
Mountain Resorts Inc in Steamboat Springs. These guys are the biggest property management company in Steamboat Springs. They have a wide selection on condo's at various sizes and price ranges. I have stayed with them over 20 years and their check in facility rocks. Easy to get in and get to your condo. Units have pools, internet connections, work out rooms and more. Sorry NO Pets though.
Also new this week is the first sports shop deal with
Boulder Outdoor Center. Nice deals on ski rentals this winter. They also have the largest selection of raft tips that you can book online at
www.RiverRaftTrips.com. In the winter they have backcountry avalanche classes as well as snowcat tours ready for online bookings as well.
Off to Steamboat again next week and will post new merchant offers and listings then. Register your membership at
www.MountainSportsClub.com now while they are Free and tell your friends.
Please provide trip and merchant reports and review to us and we will post them online. Send to
Reviews@MountainSportsClub.com.
June 14- 16 - Steamboat Springs, CO
The annual meeting of executives and key members of the 26 member resorts in Colorado gathered for 3 days to review the past year, rekindle friendships and look forward to the future.
The season past was one to celebrate as the state set a record for skiers visits. The member resorts posted over 12. 5 million skiers visits - one person buying one day lift ticket - up over 700,000 visits from last year and over 500,000 from the previous record. Over 1 million skiers/snoboarder visits from the International markets. The bountiful snowfall that lead to record snowfall and over 400 inches in Steamboat built the momentum which carried through to the last resort closing in June at Arapahoe Basin.
I was here to promote the launch of the Mountain Sports Club of NA and work with resorts and businesses in Steamboat Springs, CO to ensure a collection of valuable offers for our members. The initial lodging properties will have their offers appearing in the coming weeks. Resort lift tickets savings will also begin to appear in the member directory as well over the summer months.
Welcome to the Mountain Sports Club of North America. Over the coming months we will unveil a service that will offer mountain sports enthusiasts discounts on services at mountain resort locations throughout North America. These services will include lift tickets savings, discounts on lodging, at restaurants, shops, travel and on activities.
The site is located at
www.MountainSportsClub.comCurrently our team is busy building informational directories and gathering content. Directories will lsit key information to be used in planning one's next mountain adventure and outing. The services will include user generated reviews from skiers, snowboarders, hikers, backpackers, cyclists, fisherman and more.
Tell us about your favorite trail, run, lodge/hotel, restaurant, or instructor. Share your experence with us and others wtih in our community.
List your business here as well to ensure our members visit your establishment.
Contact us at:
Mountain Sports Club of North America
3360 Dover Drive
Boulder, CO 80305
303.829.1699
info@mountainsportsclub.com
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