An Open Letter to Stevens Pass
posted by on December 21 at 14:29 PM
Dear Stevens Pass,
We came up last week, had a great day, love the mountain, love the way you staff the lift lines and keep ‘em moving. But I have a couple of questions.
What the hell happened to your website?
Your new site is impossible to navigate. I know you’re trying to do something cool here, something that “no other resort” is doing, but it is hackin’ retarded. There’s a reason 99% of all ski resort websites look like they do: they’re structured so that you can get the info you want as quickly as possible before you head for the hills and start shredding.
But so much of the info we’re looking for on your website is hidden from view and the paths to find that info are not very intuitive. I swear I sat looking at the site for 15 minutes before I figured out where to click to find the snow report! And you put this big pictures up in the background, often with very light or white colors (snow is white, you know), and then you lay a white font on top of that? Do you know how hard that is to read?
I know you hired some company to do this, and their “designers” raved about it. But Stevens? This site revamp was a bad idea. Last year the only picture prominently displayed on the front page of your site was the web-cam. You know, a picture that actually shows you the conditions on the mountain…
If you’re going to make riders pay extra to go into the park, could you tell us before we get there?
It came as a surprise to me that the $85 I paid to ride with my kid the other day did not cover entry into the terrain park. You made me and my son sit and watch a video, fill out a waiver, pay $5 and wait in line for 15 minutes to get a pass—at the top of the lift!—just so we could jib some rails. That was $10 extra that I wasn’t expecting to pay, and it’s not mentioned anywhere on your lame website. STUPID.
And that video?!? Who put that together? P.J. Walker talking in “dude”-speak? (Sample dialog: “When you see this lame sign, it’s actually cool, even though it’s lame, you know, so, like, check it bro.” Actual quote!)
And it’s great if your going to push helmets—my kid is wearing one this year—but then don’t have the boarders featured in the video talk up helmets and then show the same boarders performing every trick in the video while not wearing helmets.
Oh, and when I asked the checkers at the top of the park why we had to pay $5 extra, they said, “To pay for us to check that you got your pass.” So… you have to pay $5 to get the priveledge of having some shmoe check to see if you’ve paid your $5 extra. Brilliant scheme!
Outside of that, it was a lovely day, and we had a very enjoyable time.
Yours,
Terry Miller
PS. Seriously, fix your website.
UPDATE: Stevens Pass must have been feeling my hate vibes all the way from Seattle. Because in between drafting and posting this item, they made some changes to their website that make the thing much, much easier to navigate. So the website bitching is withdrawn, I guess, and thanks for the changes, Stevens. Now do something about that video.
poor, poor Terry...he's fixated on ski resort websites while his boyfriend is fucking Brad Pitt in the ass in various cities across America, and knowing what a globe trotter Brad is, probably all over the world...
Terry should have NEVER grown that moustache...
Well, either that or realized that websites don't work when you turn off the intrusive cookies and scripts using the more secure Firefox or Opera browsers ...
I found current conditions w/ two clicks.
Yeah, poor Terry... out snowboarding while his boyfriend is stuck here amusing us on Slog...
Can mountains read?
I don't know, I went to the site, and it seemed pretty user freindly. Kind of has some pictures that could use burning on it, to bold and Old Navy looking.
Hm... they appear to have changed the site since last night. I'll check on this.
yeah, it took me 15 seconds (1/2 of which was spent looking at the pretty pictures) to find the snow report. dont shit on good design jst because it isnt *exactly* what you want.
Same here. Two clicks, from the GIANT Weather report window on the front page.
And I saw nowhere where white text sat on the background image.
I'm going to assume you're not a moron, and suggest that you check to make sure you're using a current browser with scripts turned on. Preferably Firefox.
The rest is spot on.
It is very tough to be Terry Miller. Very.
@10
That's a little uncalled for, but okay..
The closest I've ever been to Stevens Pass is riding under it on the Empire Builder, so I can't comment.
But I just did anyway. I'm a very rebellious sort.
ive been using the SP web site for the past few weeks to check on snow and cams and nothing has changed. there is on-click access to cams, hours, and weather from the front page.
Not to mention that there are that you can watch w/o even needing to go to their site.
and poe, THIS is completely uncalled for.
No, some dude, that is awesome.
Please show up more often Terry, we sloggers need new people to abuse
I just realized that the guy who made all those ski movies is Warren Miller, not Terry Miller. Which is good because I was going to ask how the famous ski movie guy ended up blogging here but now I don't need to have that all explained to me.
Thanks!
First of all, we are non-skiers. We will be visiting the area (Stevens Pass and Leavenworth) around Christmas and would like to know if we can simply take a ride on a ski lift (up and back, of course) just for the experience and views ... and, if so, what would the price be for the two of us? Thanks for the help!
Terry,
In addition to the fixes mentioned above, you should go to your browser "Preferences" and check all settings for appearance, colors, etc.
Terry, if you don't leave the page open but refresh it, it reloads the new page ... sometimes it's a good idea to "quit".
@18, call the place and ask.
Oh man! I was so pissed about being forced to watch that video to be graced with the priviledge of going through their crappy terrain park. I didn't pay the $5 by the way. You only have to do that to get a permanent pass showing that you saw the video.
And I agree with you. The video teaches you absolutely nothing about park safety. You still have kids sitting behind jumps where you can't see them or cutting you off.
Why do we all of a sudden have to watch this crap? Did some kid with rich parents get injured in the park last year?
BTW Stevens - you might want to start checking signatures on the waiver we turn in after watching your terrible video of stoned famous riders. I didn't sign mine as I want to be able to sue the crap out of you for my own stupidity as somebody else did. Free money!
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