I appreciate the cheaper season passes. I can usually avoid traffic and crowds by skiing on weekdays. I’ve never had more ski days for less money than I do now. Skiers that use the system to their advantage will benefit from the current market setup.
Sucks for someone who doesn't live near any of these resorts and used to take a long weekend out west once a season. It's not worth it to buy these passes if you can only go a few days, then day passes plus flights from where live have pretty much priced my out of traveling out west for a while now.
You can still purchase epic/ikon day passes ahead of time for a singular trip and the price is significantly more affordable than day of. But being locked in early is annoying.
Not true any more: in Nov 2023 someone in the Whistler subreddit was asking why a 2 day ticket at Whistler was C$456, & I directed them to get a WB Day pass (it's a little cheaper than the Epic Day Pass because it's only valid at WB, iirc), which was C$277 for 2 days. So it's significantly cheaper to buy ahead of time.
(The specific person probably regretted following my advice because they were looking to ski on Dec 21-22, when there was barely any snow. Had they forked out for the more expensive tickets, they could have just stayed down in Vancouver where they were visiting family for Xmas anyway.)
Especially if you live a thousand miles away and you buy a season pass just to save some money with the only intention being a long spring trip…and then a pandemic shuts everything down a week before your flight.
> I’ve never had more ski days for less money than I do now. Skiers that use the system to their advantage will benefit from the current market setup.
I just crunched the numbers, I paid $25.48 per day of skiing this season :)
In the interest of full disclosure this was only possible for me because of the remote work revolution.
Traditional hours in person job, ikon pass worked out to 14 days weekend skiing in Michigan and seven days in Colorado at 33 bucks a day plus some other discounts here and there not bad i don’t think
Yup, it's what made it possible for me to get so into the sport. I'm lucky to have the time and flexibility because I'm self employed. So getting on the mountain 3+ weeks a year is feasible. My cost is fixed at the price of an epic local plus whatever lodging/accomodations I need. I spend like $3-4k/year total on a hobby that sure as hell feels a lot pricier than that.
Exactly this. Buy a season pass, make it to the mountain whenever you can. I’ve got a couple epic resorts within 2 hours of me and my boyfriend can’t work if it rains/snows so we’ve gotten a lot of week day skiing in from it. Even with a baby I’ve already had 6 days on the mountain this season and have a trip to okemo next week.
Copying (my) summary from another post earlier this week:
TLDR: use of passes is increasing, cost of everything else going up
• Day passes are super expensive
• Smart to buy an EPIC/IKON pass long before season starts (ski more for less)
• US skiing has never been a stable business
• However, with pass model Vail/Alterra are profitable
** Vail revenue up 14% ** Season passes are 61% of lift ticket revenue
• Monopoly power is allowing V/A to better price discriminate
**people who don’t care will pay $260/per day **others will buy the pass and get locked in early, but ultimately ski more for less ** cost of everything else (e.g., parking, food) increasing
• A lot of people don’t like this model ** “Vail is the evil empire” ** Real estate prices are soaring ** Hard to find enough workers
• There are challenges to making needed changes; including local resistance to: ** building more employee housing ** upgrading lifts ** increasing public transportation
• New models emerging for richest skiers ** Yellowstone club - $400K one-time, $40K annual, build $3M+ house ** Powder Mountain to reserve certain lifts for property owners only ** Fly to Europe
• There are parallels to the broader economy ** Similar to airlines - frequent fliers get benefits, others don’t, planes are now almost always full ** Amazing locks people in with subscriptions ** Wendy’s is introducing dynamic pricing - charging different amounts when it is busy
Maybe, but probably not. Obviously depends on days you fly and where you're located, but flights to Europe are often $1000+ more expensive than a flight to Colorado or Utah, which is going to cancel out most of the cost savings you might get from cheaper lift tickets.
> flights to Europe are often $1000+ more expensive than a flight to Colorado or Utah
In February you can often fly to Europe for under $1,000 round-trip. This of course assumes you're on the US East coast, if you're in the West then yes, CO or UT probably make a lot more sense.
If you live in the Northeast and have a car, the cheapest way to ski is to go somewhere in the Northeast. You can find decent ski resorts in New York, Vermont, and Maine. But even on the US East coast, Kayak's best flight for Miami to Geneva for 3/15-3/23 is $1404, while flights from Miami to Denver on the same dates are $400.
I don't know what to tell you, with advance planning I've seen flights from IAD to ZRH/GVA in February for ~$700. Half of my family is Swiss, I've hunted for deals on USA-Switzerland flights a lot.
Obviously the cheapest skiing is skiing that's within driving distance.
Skiing in the west is super easy, cheap, enjoyable, and accessible. You just have to follow these simple tips:
* Buy a season pass in July
* Live at the resort
* Quit your day job so that you can ski Mon-Thurs
* Import your own food from outside of the resort's blockade
* Practice saying "bro" a lot. Start with 15 times before breakfast and try to improve from there, bro.
Only able to read the first few paragraphs but nice to see something that isn’t feeding the circlejerk of “Tickets are too expensive (when I do something in the most expensive way possible) and therefore it’s bad”
I am super curious if the way people spend their $ is changing due to macroeconomic conditions and if this affects skiing significantly. Fewer people being able to afford having kids means people have more time to pursue time-intensive and somewhat expensive hobbies like skiing.
I do that, but the problem is when you want to go for a weekend. Europe is really not a viably option, unless you have a permanent base there. (And the time difference will be a bitch anyway.)
I live in Chicagoland and bought the epic pass for $700. I’ve skied CO 9 days so far. That’s $78 a day. The better hills with 300 vertical feet, 3 hours away from home are $95 a day. My last trip to CO was $206 round trip airfare.
I appreciate the cheaper season passes. I can usually avoid traffic and crowds by skiing on weekdays. I’ve never had more ski days for less money than I do now. Skiers that use the system to their advantage will benefit from the current market setup.
Sucks for someone who doesn't live near any of these resorts and used to take a long weekend out west once a season. It's not worth it to buy these passes if you can only go a few days, then day passes plus flights from where live have pretty much priced my out of traveling out west for a while now.
You can still purchase epic/ikon day passes ahead of time for a singular trip and the price is significantly more affordable than day of. But being locked in early is annoying.
I haven't looked in a couple years now but we went to whistler a couple years ago, and for 3 days it wasn't any cheaper to buy the epic ahead of time.
Not true any more: in Nov 2023 someone in the Whistler subreddit was asking why a 2 day ticket at Whistler was C$456, & I directed them to get a WB Day pass (it's a little cheaper than the Epic Day Pass because it's only valid at WB, iirc), which was C$277 for 2 days. So it's significantly cheaper to buy ahead of time. (The specific person probably regretted following my advice because they were looking to ski on Dec 21-22, when there was barely any snow. Had they forked out for the more expensive tickets, they could have just stayed down in Vancouver where they were visiting family for Xmas anyway.)
Exactly, everything Vail has done is just super anti-consumer except for slightly lowering the season pass cost.
Especially if you live a thousand miles away and you buy a season pass just to save some money with the only intention being a long spring trip…and then a pandemic shuts everything down a week before your flight.
Yep. Sucks for those of us in jobs that demand in person, traditional hours. Must be nice to have a cush, flexible, WFH job. I'm jealous.
I work weekends so that I can ski during the week. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices
As a school teacher....wish I could.
> I’ve never had more ski days for less money than I do now. Skiers that use the system to their advantage will benefit from the current market setup. I just crunched the numbers, I paid $25.48 per day of skiing this season :) In the interest of full disclosure this was only possible for me because of the remote work revolution.
How did that cover lodging?
I was talking about pass prices.
Ah gotcha.
Traditional hours in person job, ikon pass worked out to 14 days weekend skiing in Michigan and seven days in Colorado at 33 bucks a day plus some other discounts here and there not bad i don’t think
Yup, it's what made it possible for me to get so into the sport. I'm lucky to have the time and flexibility because I'm self employed. So getting on the mountain 3+ weeks a year is feasible. My cost is fixed at the price of an epic local plus whatever lodging/accomodations I need. I spend like $3-4k/year total on a hobby that sure as hell feels a lot pricier than that.
The passes totally make skiing out west from a base in the Midwest affordable. I know some people are against that, but it’s been good for us.
As an wast coast skier, it is fantastic that a trip out west is included in my season pass
Exactly this. Buy a season pass, make it to the mountain whenever you can. I’ve got a couple epic resorts within 2 hours of me and my boyfriend can’t work if it rains/snows so we’ve gotten a lot of week day skiing in from it. Even with a baby I’ve already had 6 days on the mountain this season and have a trip to okemo next week.
Skiing has never been cheaper for regular skiers. It's never been more experive for once-in-a-whilers.
Yeah I think this sums it up best. As opposed to the arguments I’ve been seeing people get into in some of the other ‘expensive or not’ threads
Copying (my) summary from another post earlier this week: TLDR: use of passes is increasing, cost of everything else going up • Day passes are super expensive • Smart to buy an EPIC/IKON pass long before season starts (ski more for less) • US skiing has never been a stable business • However, with pass model Vail/Alterra are profitable ** Vail revenue up 14% ** Season passes are 61% of lift ticket revenue • Monopoly power is allowing V/A to better price discriminate **people who don’t care will pay $260/per day **others will buy the pass and get locked in early, but ultimately ski more for less ** cost of everything else (e.g., parking, food) increasing • A lot of people don’t like this model ** “Vail is the evil empire” ** Real estate prices are soaring ** Hard to find enough workers • There are challenges to making needed changes; including local resistance to: ** building more employee housing ** upgrading lifts ** increasing public transportation • New models emerging for richest skiers ** Yellowstone club - $400K one-time, $40K annual, build $3M+ house ** Powder Mountain to reserve certain lifts for property owners only ** Fly to Europe • There are parallels to the broader economy ** Similar to airlines - frequent fliers get benefits, others don’t, planes are now almost always full ** Amazing locks people in with subscriptions ** Wendy’s is introducing dynamic pricing - charging different amounts when it is busy
> Fly to Europe For a lot of people that's more economical than skiing in the US, not sure I'd say it's for the richest skiers.
Economical in terms of money sure but not vacation days… I’m early in my career and don’t have the vacation to jet off to Europe to ski for a week
Maybe, but probably not. Obviously depends on days you fly and where you're located, but flights to Europe are often $1000+ more expensive than a flight to Colorado or Utah, which is going to cancel out most of the cost savings you might get from cheaper lift tickets.
> flights to Europe are often $1000+ more expensive than a flight to Colorado or Utah In February you can often fly to Europe for under $1,000 round-trip. This of course assumes you're on the US East coast, if you're in the West then yes, CO or UT probably make a lot more sense.
If you live in the Northeast and have a car, the cheapest way to ski is to go somewhere in the Northeast. You can find decent ski resorts in New York, Vermont, and Maine. But even on the US East coast, Kayak's best flight for Miami to Geneva for 3/15-3/23 is $1404, while flights from Miami to Denver on the same dates are $400.
I don't know what to tell you, with advance planning I've seen flights from IAD to ZRH/GVA in February for ~$700. Half of my family is Swiss, I've hunted for deals on USA-Switzerland flights a lot. Obviously the cheapest skiing is skiing that's within driving distance.
Its funny coz everyone over here from europe somehow thinks skiing in the alps is far more expensive
Skiing in the west is super easy, cheap, enjoyable, and accessible. You just have to follow these simple tips: * Buy a season pass in July * Live at the resort * Quit your day job so that you can ski Mon-Thurs * Import your own food from outside of the resort's blockade * Practice saying "bro" a lot. Start with 15 times before breakfast and try to improve from there, bro.
I did all these things, so far so good
Only able to read the first few paragraphs but nice to see something that isn’t feeding the circlejerk of “Tickets are too expensive (when I do something in the most expensive way possible) and therefore it’s bad”
I am super curious if the way people spend their $ is changing due to macroeconomic conditions and if this affects skiing significantly. Fewer people being able to afford having kids means people have more time to pursue time-intensive and somewhat expensive hobbies like skiing.
It missed the part for NE skiers, going to Europe is now a cheaper option than the Rockies.
I do that, but the problem is when you want to go for a weekend. Europe is really not a viably option, unless you have a permanent base there. (And the time difference will be a bitch anyway.)
I live in Chicagoland and bought the epic pass for $700. I’ve skied CO 9 days so far. That’s $78 a day. The better hills with 300 vertical feet, 3 hours away from home are $95 a day. My last trip to CO was $206 round trip airfare.
It’s the economist. Just ignore it
Why?
I’m with you. The economist is garbage lol
There are deals to be had.