Where’s the Love for Snowboarders?

I really don’t care if any particular ski area company allows snowboarders on the slopes or not. On the other hand, if a resort is going to expect snowboarders as customers, it should accommodate their gear.

Recently I was at Lutsen, which has perhaps the finest lift-served terrain in the Midwest. It has a shuttle bus–an old school bus–that takes customers from the parking lot to the base area.

That’s good. What could be better? Start with the outside. It has a rack for holding skis. And not snowboards. The slots are simply to narrow to hold a board, meaning that snowboarders must take the bus on board.

(The shuttle bus is like one of these, but it’s painted red–and probably quite a bit older–and has a rack with slots for skis.)

My board is on the long side (162cm) but not outrageously so. But I had trouble maneuvering it through the narrow, relatively short door and up the steps. There’s not much room between the seats, either–this is the kind of bus, after all, that transports children to school. The bindings on my board don’t collapse, and they fell at just the “wrong” places on my body and against the back of the seat in front of me.

Not having a storage space for snowboards outside the bus affects everyone who takes the bus, not just snowboarders. Snowboarders, I suspect, must take some extra time to get themselves on and off the bus, which slows down loading and unloading for everyone else.

The solution? Put a second rack on the outside of the bus, one that is wide enough to fit boards.