Single Day tickets over the holidays at Vail and Beaver Creek reach $329
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas
Somewhere I read that Vail Resorts has reached the stage that 75% of guests are using some form of an Epic Pass. The unlimited Epic Day pass can be a choice for people only planning on skiing 4-7 days during a Christmas vacation ski trip.
During the holiday period, the goal for a destination resort is to keep the number of people using the lifts as low as practical. Clearly, having day ticket prices that are sky high is one approach. Essentially the only way for Epic resorts since requiring they do not use lift access reservations at any of the resorts.
For those who haven't used Ikon or the Mountain Collective passes, there are some resorts on those passes that require lift access reservations. Rarely a problem to get a reservation with even a little bit of planning.
^Where is that good a, and is it valid on weekends/holidays?^^^
If you're limited to weekends/holidays, ski less than 5 days a year and/or don't live anywhere near an EPIC or IKON resort you're screwed either way.
crgildart wrote:
^Where is that good a, and is it valid on weekends/holidays?^^^
If you're limited to weekends/holidays, ski less than 5 days a year and/or don't live anywhere near an EPIC or IKON resort you're screwed either way.
Hmm ...
I agree that the prices for walk-up window tickets have become insane at many ski areas, esp. those (except Indy) on a megapass.
As a Virginia skier who likes to area-hop in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and ski maybe 20-25 times a year, the Indy Pass and a season pass at Timberline serve me well. I haven't seen window prices jump at Indy and non-megapass resorts as much as they have at Epic and Ikon-affiliated resorts. They still seem reasonable, but your experiences and opinion may differ.
Crgdilart, have you checked out a) the cost of a day ticket at Timberline, and b) the excellent deal on Epic one-day pass tickets if you buy ahead of, say, November 1? Timberline's "credits" system takes some getting used to, but the *net* ticket prices are a good buy imho. And even armed with my Tline season pass and my Indy, I still want to visit some Epic areas each year, so I buy 1-4 Epic one-day passes ahead of the season.
Woody
Not condoning the prices at all but last year but even with a terrible season locally my Epic local pass translated into something like $75/day. Most of that was out west on one trip with some friends and another short trip with my daughter. Obviously if I figured in flights, lodging rental cars etc. into the formula then it would be a different number completely however I've been going west at least once pert year for the past 15+ years so I tend to leave that out of the ticket equation.
This year I had to do some early season math before I bought my pass to figure out if it would be a better deal to buy some day tickets in advance ( Epic let's you buy day tickets with or without blackouts at a decent discount while their season passes are on sale) and maybe leave it more open ended as to where I went. Honestly, the math just always comes back to just buy the pass.
Next year I'll do the math again though and possibly end up back in the same place. I just miss the days where I didn't have to lock myself into a specific group of resorts and could just stay in a central location like SLC and drive to wherever has the best conditions for the day rather than being locked into PCR for example.
Steamboat Springs lift ticket window price was $309 during x'mas week. Crazy.
Sun Valley was $255 window price on 1/1/2025.
Buying a pass is definitely a better option.
I have been rotating b/w Epic and Ikon past few years. This approach has been working out well and I get to visit new places pretty much every season.
The daily lift ticket prices during holidays is definitely insane, but I would also argue that going anywhere near one of those resorts during a holiday period is also insane based on the crowd levels. (So, I suppose the crowds would be even worse if the tickets were lower.)
But even during non-holiday periods, the price of daily lift tickets has really become an impediment to getting new blood in the sport. For skiers who can put in a lot of days (and make a trip or two out west), the mega passes are perhaps the best deal skiers have ever seen. But for a new skier, or someone who can only go a couple times a season, the cost is prohibitive (and don't forget the cost of rentals and lessons). There are still some local, smaller areas with reasonable window ticket prices, but those deals are getting harder and harder to find. And with more resorts being owned by fewer entities, you're less likely to find the individualized programs that used to exist as the parent companies aim for consistency and economy of scale across their properties. There used to be a lot more heavily discounted learn to ski packages in this area, particularly early season, for example.
This problem has been brewing for awhile and it doesn't seem to be getting better. Not sure how things will play out in the long run but there needs to be an easier on-ramp for brand new skiers and boarders to dip their toes in the sport, and for casual skiers to get a few days in per season without breaking the bank.
But as a frequent skier, I will say there is a lot of good in being able to buy one pass (be it Ikon, Epic, Indy, Mountain Collective, etc.) and sample a wide variety of resorts. Experiencing multiple resorts per season would have been a lot more expensive before these passes became popular.
Just to add to this, I dug through my archives to see what things were like in past decades.
Way back in 1997, Whitetail was offering a free learn to ski voucher (including rentals, group lesson, and lift ticket valid on the beginner lifts) to season passholders, which they could share with a friend. That was a pretty smart way of prompting existing skiers to entice their non-skiing friends to give the sport a try. (To be fair, today's Epic Passes offer a few Buddy Tickets that provide up to 45% savings on lift tickets shared with a friend, but the free learn to ski package was obviously a much better option for brand new skiers.)
Liberty and Roundtop used to frequently offer special days with very inexpensive Learn to Ski or Snowboard packages. For example, on November 24, 2000, they offered that package for $15, which included all day rentals, all day beginner lift ticket, and a group lesson. In years around 2007, the Snow Time resorts provided $29 Learn to Ski or Board packages and $10 group lessons from opening day through the beginning of the Christmas holiday period.
On Wednesday nights from 5-10 p.m. in February and March around the year 2000, Liberty offered college students all mountain lift tickets for only $15, and threw in free rentals. Or for $15 college students could buy the Learn to Ski Package and get a group lesson thrown in.
Even accounting for inflation, these were pretty incredible deals and were really successful in drawing new blood to the sport, and also helped draw people to the resorts during less crowded time periods such as early season and weekday nights.
The situation varies by region. What's happening in PA and anywhere within driving distance of DC or NYC is very different than New England, the midwest, or in the northern Rockies (Idaho, Montana). The southeast, including VA/WV, has shifted with the growth of the Indy Pass to include six locations.
Also need to be careful lumping the multi-resort companies together as if they operate in the same way. How Vail Resorts operates is quite different than Alterra, Boyne Resorts, Powdr, PGRI, or the up-and-coming Mountain Capital Partners. MCP is based in the southwest and offers a free season pass to kids 12 and under, without requiring the purchase of an adult pass. MCP purchase two major resorts in Chile in the past year or so.
Listening to the long interviews with general managers from all regions about mountain operations done by Stuart Winchester of Storm Skiing Journal has been very interesting in the last few years. It helps that Stuart grew up skiing in the midwest, unlike other ski journalist who started in New England or the Rockies. He's made an effort to ski large and small resorts/hills in multiple regions in recent years.
Scott wrote:
. . .
There are still some local, smaller areas with reasonable window ticket prices, but those deals are getting harder and harder to find. And with more resorts being owned by fewer entities, you're less likely to find the individualized programs that used to exist as the parent companies aim for consistency and economy of scale across their properties. There used to be a lot more heavily discounted learn to ski packages in this area, particularly early season, for example.
This problem has been brewing for awhile and it doesn't seem to be getting better. Not sure how things will play out in the long run but there needs to be an easier on-ramp for brand new skiers and boarders to dip their toes in the sport, and for casual skiers to get a few days in per season without breaking the bank.
But as a frequent skier, I will say there is a lot of good in being able to buy one pass (be it Ikon, Epic, Indy, Mountain Collective, etc.) and sample a wide variety of resorts. Experiencing multiple resorts per season would have been a lot more expensive before these passes became popular.
Speaking of disappearing deals at the former Snowtime resorts, does anybody know if Liberty killed the Silver Streak low-cost lesson/ skiing package they used to offer Seniors on Wednesday mornings? I last took advantage of it one time a couple years ago and can’t find it offered in the lessons options at Liberty now.
If it has bitten the dust, it would reflect reductions of some of the individual characteristics of the places local to DC under Vail. In general, too, lessons seem much more expensive at the conglomerates’ resorts.
On the other hand, Liberty offers Adaptive Ski Lessons for people with various disabilities and I’m not sure that was featured before.
Time will tell if they are pricing out the future skiers. Take me for example. I've been skiing for 40 years. I got my 3 kids into skiing. My grandkids will be reaching skiing age in 2-3 years. Will their parents continue the tradition? I remember thinking I was crazy taking my 3 kids skiing and spending $200 in lift tickets (advantage pass). We always bought used equipment at ski swaps to save on rentals.
As much as I would love to see another generation on the slopes, I don't know if it's the future.
I'm afraid that there will be enough "rich people" that will keep the sport going and the "middle class" will be priced out of the sport.
Nice read that explains what happened.
As is the answer to everything... follow the money
Skiing as we knew it, is dead.
oldensign wrote:
Nice read that explains what happened.
As is the answer to everything... follow the money
Skiing as we knew it, is dead.
Based on my experience at independent ski mountains in New England, Michigan, and Colorado, depends a great deal on the region.
What Mountain Capital Partners is doing in the southwest is providing families with opportunities that didn't used to exist. A season pass at multiple locations is free for kids 12 and under. Doesn't even require buying an associated adult pass.
Read it, and agree with most of the assessment. But season passes to a particular hill were like $600 in the late 80s and 90s for a decent sized resort. Think about that now - inflation-adjusted. Certainly "out of reach" for my budget back then, but hey I was only in teens and 20s. Walk-up back then was 25-40 bucks for a lift tik. Today that model has inverted. They want their money up-front. Running what were once mom-and-pop ski resorts from afar requires some speculation; on the flip side of that, what other "mom-and-pop" would attempt to buy said non-profitable mid-A ski operation?
To me - and I'm far from being rich or whatever that might mean - the northeastern Epic pass is a bargain. I ski 10 times and I've paid 40 bucks a throw like in 1992.
With all that said, I agree - for a walk-up buyer at a premiere resort - it is ridiculous right now. I'm not sure that that equates to the "death of the sport" - but I leave that to higher minds to contemplate.
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