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Alpine ticket rates,New England 2012-13

billski

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Just for yucks and sport, I track prices - full day, adult, peak/holiday season rate. Non discounted, not online

HALL OF FAME
For those who chose to keep their prices at parity or lower than last season
Average $57
Median $60


Resort 12-13 Yr-Yr Change

Titcomb $20 -20%



Jay Peak $69 -8%


Cranmore $64 0%

Attitash $70 0%
Berkshire East $58 0%
Burke $70 0%
Butternut $60 0%
Cochran's $20 0%
Eaton $13 0%
Gore $79 0%
Crotched 59 9%
Dartmouth 45 5%
Gunstock $72 0%
Hermon $25 0%
Granite Gorge 45 7%
Killington $88 0%
King Pine $47 0%
Lonesome Pine Tra$20 0%
Lost Valley $45 0%
Magic Mountain $59 0%
McIntyre $34 0%
Middlebury $46 0%
Mt. Abram $49 0%
Loon 79 4%
Northeast Slopes $15 0%
Lyndon Outing Cl 15
"Powdershouse Hil$5 0%
Ragged $71 0%
Saddleback $59 0%
Shawnee Peak $59 0%
Smugglers $70 0%
mden" $35 0%
Stowe $92 0%
Mt. Greylock Ski 150/season
Mt. Jefferson 20
Stratton $87 0%
Okemo 88 5%
Sugarloaf $79 0%
Suicide Six $64 0%
Wachusett $58 0%
Quoggy Jo
Waterville $73 0%
Whaleback $40 0%
Whiteface $84 0%
Ski Ward
Wildcat $70 0%
Windham Mountain $72 0%

HALL OF SHAME
Those places who chose to increase their rates higher than that of the 12-month, all category CPI of 1.7%

Resort 12-13Yr-Yr Change
Jiminy Peak $ 7410%
Pats Peak $ 603%
Pico $ 673%
Hunter NY $ 703%
Cannon
$ 703%
Bolton Valley $ 713%
Bromley $ 713%
Mad River $ 723%
Bretton Woods $ 803%
Mount Snow/Haystack $ 852%

HALL OF HIGHEST PRICES, above the $60 median

Resort 12-13
Stowe $ 92
Sugarbush $ 89
Killington $ 88
Stratton $ 87
Mount Snow/Haystack $ 85
Whiteface $ 84
Bretton Woods
$ 80
Gore $ 79
Sugarloaf $ 79
Mount Sunapee $ 77
Jiminy Peak $ 74
Waterville $ 73
Mad River $ 72
Gunstock $ 72
Windham Mountain
$ 72
Bolton Valley $ 71
Bromley $ 71
Ragged $ 71
Hunter NY $ 70
Cannon $ 70
Attitash $ 70
Burke $ 70
Smugglers
$ 70
Wildcat $ 70
Jay Peak $ 69
Pico $ 67
Cranmore $ 64
Suicide Six $ 64

Feel free to prettify this table if you care to.

Have at it.
 

drjeff

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Billski, you might want to remove "Haystack" from your "Mount Snow/Haystack" listing. Its been 7 or 8 seasons since you could ski both of them on the same ticket!

Plus now Haystack costs a $20,000 or so initiation fee and then I believe about $5000 in annual dues :eek:
 

billski

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Billski, you might want to remove "Haystack" from your "Mount Snow/Haystack" listing. Its been 7 or 8 seasons since you could ski both of them on the same ticket!

Plus now Haystack costs a $20,000 or so initiation fee and then I believe about $5000 in annual dues :eek:

Thanks for the suggestion. I keep records going back over 10 years. Since this isn't anything I'm getting graded on ;) I just rip it out of my spreadsheet.

"What do you want for nothing, rubber biscuit?" - TC, 1956
 

legalskier

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Interesting info- thanks. Hopefully those in the Hall of Shame/ Highest Prices will take notice.

Btw, is mden" Camden Snow Bowl?
 

Cornhead

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Hall of Shame nominee, Greek Peak $64...no wonder they're in chapter 11.
 

thetrailboss

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Why does a resort get classified as being in your hall of shame if they increase their rates by 3%? In most industries a 3% increase would be low and almost nothing. It seems that if any resort increased their rate then you ding them.
 

billski

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Why does a resort get classified as being in your hall of shame if they increase their rates by 3%? In most industries a 3% increase would be low and almost nothing. It seems that if any resort increased their rate then you ding them.
'cause I did all the work! You've got my data for free. Go for it boss!

btw, was your raise > 3%?

p.s., read the fine print - the answer to the question you ask is right there!
 

thetrailboss

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'cause I did all the work! You've got my data for free. Go for it boss!

btw, was your raise > 3%?

p.s., read the fine print - the answer to the question you ask is right there!

Relax Bill. Don't take it personally. You put it out here and we're going to comment on it.

Yes I saw that you used CPI as your yardstick. And I know you've used that before. I'm sure that most resorts would LOVE if their costs increased 1.7% over last year but I'd wager that most places really took a hit with such a terrible season. Which leads me to the point that using CPI might be arbitrary for the ski business and not really applicable.

So calling out Jiminy for a 10% increase, yeah maybe. But making a big deal about the 2 and 3% increases I'm not so sure about that. And we don't know if Jiminy made some big improvements or something that would justify the value for the price.

That said, notice how a lot of places, for whatever reason, did not increase, at least according to your research.

I'm not going to comment on my compensation. To ask someone in public what they make is bad form but I guess you didn't get a 3% increase if you made that comment.

And BTW you need to add Dartmouth, Granite Gorge, and Crotched to your Hall of Shame since I see that they have increased their day rates by 5, 7, and 9% respectively.
 
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C-Rex

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I'm really conflicted when it comes to Jiminy Peak. On one hand I it's a great mountain. The trails wind around in a way that makes great use of the limited vertical, and they have plenty of variety, and more challenging trails then most Berkshire areas. The parks are generally well built, and they even have some glades, both low angle and pretty steep. The have solid snow making and I think their grooming is pretty top notch. The "village" is pretty nice, and there are plenty of nice lodging options.

But on the other hand, I just feel it's over-priced. They consider their main competition to be Mount Snow, but despite all the nice things I just said about them, I feel the only way they compete with Mount Snow is in drive time from CT, NYC, and NJ. The $74 lift ticket wouldn't be so bad if they offered more in the way of off peak discounts but it's pretty slim. Even employees can only get $10 off of a guest pass, and they can only get 1 per day. I guess they prefer to market themselves to the more affluent crowd. It just sucks because my girl's family lives about 10 minutes away, making it a perfect go-to mountain for me. But, for the money, I'd rather drive the extra 30-40 minutes to Catamount, Butternut, or Mount snow.
 

ScottySkis

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All I know is I was very happy to pay $20 to ski Plattekill yesterday through my Potterbothers flex ticket. Most people in the lodge ever at Platty for a race even at 1 pm bar was packed and lodge and boy wad the owner of the hill directing his ppl in the morning. :thumbup::thumbup::):);););););)
 

bheemsoth

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I'm really conflicted when it comes to Jiminy Peak. On one hand I it's a great mountain. The trails wind around in a way that makes great use of the limited vertical, and they have plenty of variety, and more challenging trails then most Berkshire areas. The parks are generally well built, and they even have some glades, both low angle and pretty steep. The have solid snow making and I think their grooming is pretty top notch. The "village" is pretty nice, and there are plenty of nice lodging options.

But on the other hand, I just feel it's over-priced. They consider their main competition to be Mount Snow, but despite all the nice things I just said about them, I feel the only way they compete with Mount Snow is in drive time from CT, NYC, and NJ. The $74 lift ticket wouldn't be so bad if they offered more in the way of off peak discounts but it's pretty slim. Even employees can only get $10 off of a guest pass, and they can only get 1 per day. I guess they prefer to market themselves to the more affluent crowd. It just sucks because my girl's family lives about 10 minutes away, making it a perfect go-to mountain for me. But, for the money, I'd rather drive the extra 30-40 minutes to Catamount, Butternut, or Mount snow.

For people coming up 91 from Connecticut, Jiminy doesn't even necessarily have a drive time advantage over Mount Snow based on the routes to get there. That's why I haven't been there despite hearing good things. I would guess most of their business is derived from Western Massachusetts and the Albany region.


Sent from Samsung Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk 2
 
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SIKSKIER

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I would never put Cannon in the hall of shame for a $70 lift ticket.Along with JPWildcat and Smuggs,it is the cheapest big mountain ticket in the east.
 

billski

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Sorry about that TB; the lack of upper atmosphere moisture has caused serious dehydration, impairing my ability to act in a mature manner

My criteria for HOS is my salary and the cpi are inconsistent with the rate change, neglecting discounts for a moment. It become an exclusionary strategy, making skiing more inaccessible year over year to the ordinary salary wo/man. I would most certainly support needs-based scholarship ticket pricing! Now, if the demand is for a superior "product", with pricing to match, then clearly the exclusionary forces are in play. I had been hopeful that 12-year accoutrements and real estate would soften the blow, but it seems that it only encourages the exclusionary forces.

It's no wonder that I see so many people taking one ski trip in many, many years. It's a rare treat that they imbibe in.

What criteria would you for HOS? It seems like affordability is your only metric. Looking at the west, it seems that all but a a few areas are not topping the $100 window rate, with only a small amount of single/multi-day discounting going on.
 

Scruffy

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Jiminy has been upping their game for a number of years now, positioning themselves as as premier resort in easy access to Albany, it's 30 miles from Albany to Jiminy, about 40 min or less. To get to Hunter from Albany is 60 miles, but 1 hr 15min because the route is not as direct. Also Jiminy is almost in a straight line up the Taconic Parkway from NYC, no hassles with the Thruway traffic. They have been building out their infrastructure for a number of years now. Every weekend I go there, the place is swapped. In fact if it's a weekend, I'll go to Hunter over Jiminy because of the crowds. A lot of high end autos in the lot on the weekend too, so they obviously feel they can command the price. I think a lot of resorts feel that if people will shell out ~$80 for a round of golf ( what 4 hours tops ), they'll pay equal the amount for a whole day of skiing.
 
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thetrailboss

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Sorry about that TB; the lack of upper atmosphere moisture has caused serious dehydration, impairing my ability to act in a mature manner

My criteria for HOS is my salary and the cpi are inconsistent with the rate change, neglecting discounts for a moment. It become an exclusionary strategy, making skiing more inaccessible year over year to the ordinary salary wo/man. I would most certainly support needs-based scholarship ticket pricing! Now, if the demand is for a superior "product", with pricing to match, then clearly the exclusionary forces are in play. I had been hopeful that 12-year accoutrements and real estate would soften the blow, but it seems that it only encourages the exclusionary forces.

It's no wonder that I see so many people taking one ski trip in many, many years. It's a rare treat that they imbibe in.

What criteria would you for HOS? It seems like affordability is your only metric. Looking at the west, it seems that all but a a few areas are not topping the $100 window rate, with only a small amount of single/multi-day discounting going on.

I think that looking at the market and picking the outliers is probably a better way to do it. If you did that you'd see that there are many who held at 0%, many that went up 2-3%, and a few outliers who went up more than that.

As to out west it depends on where you go. Yes Jackson, Deer Valley, Aspen, Vail, and PCMR are all near or over $100, but Snowbird is $84, Alta is $75 or $70 if you have an RFID card, Snowbasin is $82, Loveland is $61, and A-Basin is $79 so there are plenty of good options.

And you are assuming that folks only buy rack rate day tickets when you say that people go less. The best value, by far, is to buy a season pass. And, of course, you are forgetting about the plethora of deals out there that many places run. Fewer and fewer folks pay the full rack rate.
 

billski

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TB-mod:

I purposely avoid any season passes, discounts etc. I've always compared with the highest rate available, since it is the most predictable and reliable metric. It's for you to infer what the relative market of things are. Not intended to be authoritative. Other rates are all over the map, including multi day, discounting, weekday, online, advance purchase, affinity cards, etc.

I've certainly got all the data to meet your criteria.
http://www.iabsi.com/public/ski/intro.htm No time to get it all right until mud season! There is enough data there to get at your criteria. Have at it!.

I'm off looking for sneaux!
 
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