Where are Storms when we need you?? Waste of $50

Last Year, as part of the "employee appreciation program" at R.'s work, there were several discount packages and coupon packages available for purchase. I know, instead of performance incentives and awards, they get this at year's end. Lol.

Anyway, R. called me on the phone and asked if we wanted to get a package or two since we had not gone on vacation or anything for over a year. The first thing on my mind was "I'd like to learn how to snowboard this winter season" so, I asked him to buy a ski/snowboard package. He bought a package for $50 that gave 8 lift tickets, two "Learn how to ski/snowboard" tickets, and a couple of Buy One, Get One free lunch tickets. It's basically a coupon package for Mt. Baldy in California. It's the most local place to go skiing. I didn't want to drive to Mammoth or anything too far. It seemed like a good deal at the time.

I should have paid more attention to the weather. Of course, California has suffered and suffering from a prolonged drought season with little to no rainfall/storm events and since we bought that package, I have been checking every weekend to see if there is snow or not and there hasn't been an opportunity to use this package at all. Why did I pick, of all seasons, this season to buy a ski/snowboard package without doing more research.

Of course, since the tickets were bought in October 2013 for the 2013-2014 ski season, so there was that possibility/hope that we'd have at least one chance to go snowboarding. Now, the only option I have left is to use the tickets for "scenic lift ride"....which is basically, getting into a rickety lift ride that goes up and down a mountain with some trees to gaze at. We'll still do that just so that we are not just throwing $50 away but I'm not sure if we would even be interested in going to Mt. Baldy four times (8 tickets, two of us).

I guess, at this point, I'd be happy to have any getaway even if it's not going to be as spectacular as we had hoped.

Has anyone used/bought any discount packages through the "employee appreciation" program and not regretted it?