Vail to the North (Stowe). Vail to the South (Okemo). Vail to the East (Mt. Sunnappee).
... and of course Vail to the West (Crested Butte, Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breck, Park City, Whistler, Heavenly, North Star, Kirkwood, ..........................., Wilmot, Afton Alps)
My beloved Killington in central Vermont is now boxed in by Vail. Last year, VR bought Stowe. Today they announced an agreement to purchase Okemo (visible from the top of Killington) and Mt. Sunnappee (60 miles to the East.)
Epic pass pricing will destroy New England skiing. We're heavily reliant on expensive snowmaking, not just to open the season but also to keep it going. That snowmaking capacity lets K open in 4 hours of marginal October or early November weather and pull off the risky world cup Thanksgiving weekend races of the last two seasons. But it costs a small fortune to maintain and operate.
Whoever let the Vail beast out of its cage, please clean up your mess.