Big Boulder Mountain — Attraction in Kidder Township

Absolutely the worst experience I've ever had in a ski resort. First of all, we were staying there for the New Year's week, busy season, and they had most of the slopes closed. Second, they are very rude and scammers. My son loved his last year's private ski lesson from Shawnee mountain, but since Boulder mountain was way closer to where we stayed, we went there. No one ever picks up the phone there to create a reservation, had to go in person. Was told they are booked for today and tomorrow morning, next available time to join their Snow Monter program for 5 years old kids was next day at 1pm. Payed 112$ for it, was given receipt and told to arrive at an exact same counter at 12:15pm. Planned to do their snow tubing with rest of our friends while son is taking 3hours program which is not to be interfered by parents. So the very next day I'm bringing my son to said resort at 12:15pm, and there are very few cars there. As soon as I started walking under the main entry, one gentleman jumped out of the gift shop and in a very rude tone of voice said "May I help you?". I said "Yes, we are here for 1pm Snow Monster program." "The resort is closed, only snow tubing is open". I asked why I wasn't notified and what am I to do and was told it's my fault and I should go to take this class in their sister resort. I said "But I won't make it there on time", he said "not my problem". Very nice way to treat paying customer, and especially harassing in a way woman in front of her son. Basically he said to get out of there and use my prepaid lesson at that other resort if I manage to fly there. I went to another resort, Jack frost, the line was huge to enter (without parents of course) their learning center area. After standing there for a while, got to the lady, she said go to obtain lift ticket with your receipt at the next window, while she was already gearing up my son. Went to next window and guess what - my receipt was not valid at that resort. Different accounting system. They made me pay second time. I did, cause my son was already past the "no parent" point and I didn't want to break his heart. I was told that gentleman from Boulder Mt resort must be parking attendant and has no idea what he is talking about. I also asked why would my 5 years old who is taking beginner lessons on small hill even needed that lift ticket that he won't be using for sure and was told with big pride in his eyes :"So you can look at our 2 million dollar equipment". I was also told to go to the trouble of contacting first resort for a refund. My husband and our male friend jumped in the car with my receipt right away and went to the first resort , somehow located accounting person. She said that since one receipt is from 12/30 and another from 12/31 (that day), I've used both and just trying to trick them to make some money back. The fact that it was prepaid class for the 12/31 didn't matter to her :-) Then she agreed to refund, but obviously lied, because it is 1/21/2019 and I was was never refunded for the first transaction. I'm attaching both receipts side by side and not only this resort made me pay 224$ for 112$ class, they also wasted a lot of my time, energy and nerves. Also they ruined our plans to do snow tubing as a group while my son who hates tubing but loves skiing was taking that class. You know why? While their Big Boulder Mountain resort was closed, tubing there was open with the opposite situation in Jack Frost - snow tubing was closed, so we obviously couldn't use it. No tubing at all this year. Thank you for making this ski vacation "magical". I was actually about to purchase 3-day beginner skiing package, cause I'm the only one who doesn't know how to ski, and boy I'm...

I came around February after a nice run at Jack Frost. Based on what I saw from all the YouTube videos, I was hoping this would be a great place to practice my freestyling on the terrain parks.

Unfortunately, the last thing I did was take on features. I'm too chicken to olley a simple roller that barely had anything on it, and there were no rails that were safe and fun for a novice. The mountain is even smaller than Big Bear mountain and has a lot of competition surrounding it, making it one of the most underwhelming mountains I came to.

Not to mention, they seemed to make the schedule rather uncomfortable because night time can be one of the most dangerous times to be out on the road. I only came for two hours because I'm only an apprentice driver and I am unable to stay on a mountain until closing. Worst part is, that even if I can be creative, I'm not advanced enough to make the most of the underwhelming experience, so I'm not sure if I would be able to have fun simply riding the trails or practicing olleys and all sorts of ground tricks.

My advice to Vail is to simply study the culture around a mountain. Don't buy mountains just because they're included in a package, there's something called Spin-offs and if you're planning to keep Big Boulder with the current schedule and culture it has, you're better off spinning it off, since it's only going to be unprofitable due to it's damaged reputation.

The good news is that if you buy online and potentially cost some people's favorite side gigs (working at a ski resort), you can enjoy going to Jack Frost and then Big Boulder in one package, but the new hours make it hard to be a "make your schedule" sort of thing, which would have been a cool gimmick that would at least forgive Big Boulder much more than it does right now.

So... Take the $64 as the price to ski on Jack Frost and if you want a small bonus for free, you can go to Big Boulder in the afternoon. It's okay value, but unfortunately, it will make this mountain forgotten among the rough riders (terrain park riders) of the east.

Thank you for listening to...

I had the most strange experience at this snow resort. I would never recommend it to anyone visiting.

I was hoping to have a peaceful vacation time with my kid and friends who all have children. I walked with my friend and three 4-8 years old kids from our rental house to the slope shops, looked around to figure out where everything was located and were excited to hit the slopes. When one of the staff members (woman) approached us and, in a coarse and high voice, told us to leave the snow. I had been to numerous slopes in the USA, St. Mortiz, France, and other parts of the world and had never come across someone so rude, impolite, and inappropriate. I was lost for a second and asked what do you mean we cannot stand on the snow? Then she called for help on the radio and a man arrived on a snowmobile. She saw another victim who was looking at her child as he skiing and started yelling at her to leave. The staff member (man) told us we could not stay in front of the shops and by the foot of their mountain on their SNOW if we did not purchase lift tickets. Really? Their snow... We were trying to tell him we were looking before going and buying the tickets. However, the man was so intense that he started yelling even in a higher voice and threatening to call the police. We said sure; we would wait for the office to arrive. His high tones scarred four years old kid, who started crying, not understanding what we were doing wrong. We were all just on our way to have a skiing experience, which was ruined without a start. Ultimately, we decided to leave and drive to other slopes in the area and not give our business to these phycological challenged business-run people. We were not in the way of skiers, we were not trespassing, just entered from the parking lot to the left prior going to their cashier, unfortunately they lost our whole company...