Kirsten Lynch: Yes. I think €“ so the Rockies or the Colorado Resorts, I think we continue to be pleased with the results that we’re seeing in that segment and believe that we are set up for a strong spring, meaning the conditions are fantastic. The timing of Easter is actually very conducive to vacations occurring over spring break. So I think we’re set up in a good spot. The other place that has been very strong and we’re really pleased with is Whistler Blackcomb. We have seen a very strong return of destination visitation to Whistler Blackcomb, incredible momentum, a return of international visitation, and all of the trends and indicators continue to support that we should be set up for a strong rest of season at Whistler Blackcomb.
David Katz: Understood. Am I permitted one quick follow-up? I just wanted to ask on the cost side of things. It’s an area we’re trying to get our arms around and €“ are some of the costs increases, it sounds like we’re unexpected and we should treat those as really a separate driver beyond the 175 that we talked about last year at Analyst Meeting, right?
Kirsten Lynch: Yes. We, as you know, made a very deliberate investment in our employees. We invested $175 million in staffing and wages. And we have not changed that investment. We are fully committed to that investment. We do see other cost impacts though directly related to the severe weather disruptions in the East as well as in Tahoe because the impact of the severe weather when it limits or constraints or impacts our business operations can drive costs up in the form of more snowmaking, more grooming and the related labor associated with that. So that is what I would put into that category of not something we were planning for. We always budget for normal and I would say the East and Tahoe have been dramatically abnormal.
David Katz: Understood. Appreciate the insights and thanks for taking my questions.
Kirsten Lynch: Thanks, David.
Operator: Our next question is from Brandt Montour of Barclays. Your line is open.
Brandt Montour: Hey, everybody. Thanks for taking the question. So first, another one on skier visits. I’m just trying to get my arms around this. This same-store excluding Andermatt of 3.6% growth. But I think on a reported basis, it’s up low-teens. Is it fair to assume that that’s on €“ how much of that is Andermatt and so €“ and how should we think about sort of the rest of the season since it’s a pretty big gap there?
Kirsten Lynch: I would say that the biggest drivers of our skier visit number are the momentum that we see with Whistler Blackcomb, the Rockies, and then the negative impacts on demand that you see from the East and Tahoe and the impacts on closures and resort operations that has constrained demand at those resorts. Andermatt has faced some challenging conditions this year, but we do not see that as a material impact on the full-year visitation for the company.
Brandt Montour: Okay, great. Thank you for that. And then the buyback program, you guys upped the buyback program, but we noticed that you didn’t buy any stock back in this quarter. So I guess what kept you out of the market this quarter? And what kind of €“ are you thinking of something more programmatic or more opportunistic and help us think about how you’re thinking about buybacks?
Angela Korch: Thanks, Brandt. We did get an authorization to increase our share repurchase authorization from the Board and that’s kind of indicated that we’re intend to be more aggressive in our share repurchase programs with that authorization. There’s no long-term change to our disciplined approach to capital allocation. We always prioritize high return capital projects, investing in our people strategic acquisitions. And then this is one part of returning excess cash to shareholders and we did both the increase in the dividend and the increase in the share authorization really shows kind of how committed we are and how we still believe in the long-term stability of the business and the growth outlook.
Brandt Montour: Okay. Thanks so much.
Operator: Our next question is from Patrick Scholes of Truist. Your line is open.
Patrick Scholes: Hey. Good afternoon, everyone.
Kirsten Lynch: Hi, Patrick.
Patrick Scholes: Hi. There’s been some negative media attention both in print and social media about hours for the J-1 in Colorado. I wonder if you can just touch based on that, was that sort of an over hiring situation? And in that regard, do you see less hiring of J-1s going forward, especially in Colorado next year? Thank you.
Kirsten Lynch: Thanks, Patrick. J-1s represent less than 10% of our workforce at Vail Resorts. And on average the hours for J-1 employees are on target. The goal that we have as a company is to always be very disciplined about cost and always be flexing and adjusting. And this is normal. We do this every year. It’s our responsibility in running the company that we’re constantly flexing, adjusting our operations based on demand, based on the business, based on the time of week and based on the time of year. And that’s a normal way of how we operate our business. I understand that that may not meet some of the expectations of some of our employees and we try to support them in helping them address that. But to be clear, we do not guarantee hours and we always as operators of ski resorts adjust and flex based on the needs of the business and the demand.
Patrick Scholes: Okay. Thank you. That’s it.
Kirsten Lynch: Thanks, Patrick.
Operator: Our next question is from Omer Sander of JPMorgan.
Omer Sander: Hey, Kirsten, Angela. Thanks for taking my question. I was hoping you can talk on days where your resorts are open and accessible. Can you just talk about what you’re seeing from a skier visitation standpoint relative to your initial expectation specifically for the Epic and Epic Local versus some of the day passes?
Kirsten Lynch: In terms of utilization of the passes, we don’t disclose pass utilization details. What I will say on a macro level is the overall utilization of our passes is up and we feel great about that. It certainly sets us up well going into the next selling cycle. The most obvious reason why utilization would be up is because we had a very poor early season last year where people did not get out and weren’t able to ski during that early season time period as we had some challenging snow conditions that led all the way up to Christmas. And so this year, I’m very pleased with what I see on a macro level with our utilization and generally we see that it matters that our pass holders feel like they’re getting the use out of the pass, that they’re getting out and enjoying the resorts. So I think that puts us in a great position as we head into our pass sales for next year.
Omer Sander: Okay. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from Ryan Sundby of William Blair.
Ryan Sundby: Hey. Thanks for the questions here. I wanted to touch on your comments about dining underperforming expectations somewhat as guest behavior hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. Any more color on why you think you’re seeing more of a lag there versus some of the other business lines? And is there a geographic or resort specific piece to that? Or is this kind of occurring across all your resorts?
Kirsten Lynch: Yes. Our dining is on-mountain, right, predominantly, and we spent two years Ryan basically putting in significant restrictions to that on-mountain dining for our guests and basically €œtraining€ our guests to go find other alternatives. The growth in our dining line of business is incredibly strong versus prior year, but it is lagging getting all the way back to where it was. And I think there’s just a more work that we need to do to sort of undo the two years of restrictions and sort of training of our guests to find other options and bring them back into those on-mountain dining resorts. I am completely confident that we can actually do that. It’s just that we didn’t get all the way back to that consumer behavior in this season and I’m quite confident that we will be able to get back there.
Ryan Sundby: Got it. That makes sense. And then I guess as my follow-up on the $40 million in pass revenue that was pulled forward because of some of the resort closures. Just from a modeling standpoint, are there any costs tied to that pass revenue? Or should we think about that dropping straight to the EBITDA and does that then fully reverse in Q3 or is it kind of a back half?
Angela Korch: Thanks, Ryan. Yes. The movement in the pass revenue from Q2 into Q3 relates to two things. One that we disclosed in the prior year of the impact from the operating days moving more out of Q2 and into Q3 last year and then this year some of the early openings. And so the combined impact of that is the $40 million that we disclosed and that has some variable cost associated with it, but it’s very minor.
Ryan Sundby: Okay. Great. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from Jeff Stantial of Stifel.
