How cheap can you ski?

Smellytele said:

I only ski weekends for the most part and ski larger areas but the deals are out there. I can keep it down to around 30 a day per person. 10 days skiing in CO last year at 6 ski areas (Breck, Copper, Abasin, Wolf creek and Taos) and I had it right around 30 a day/person

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If you take out the Colorado days, what was your average?

xwhaler said:

+1 I love the diversity of skiing different mtns as they all have their own unique vibe/culture. I can find positives in just about any mtn if I set my expectations accordingly. ...

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I too, love the diversity of being at a different area every day. And being retired, I have options that the younger folks don't have. There was a period in the 1970's when I would have blown off skiing at a big area to collect a lift ticket from some dippy hill. In 1976-7, I maxed out at 42 areas skied (56 days in total).

At this point in time, my objective is 100 days: 80 at my home area and 20 elsewhere. There is something wonderful about being a mountain-insider with a collection of powder stashes and knowledge of all of the off-the-trail-map glades. There is also the opportunity to experience the evolution of the ski season from the guns going on in the fall to hiking the hill after the lifts quit for the season.

That being said, it is also great to check out what else is out there. What you don't see me doing any more, is taking a day out of my season to ski places like Living Memorial, Northeast Slopes, etc. just to say I've been there.

VTKilarney said:

If you take out the Colorado days, what was your average?

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well as I noted early in this thread, I have a free pass to the local hill but still skied 15 days else where besides the free and Co days and probably averaged right around 30-33 skiing at K, Magic, Saddleback, Sugarloaf, Cannon, and Sugarbush.

jimk said:

Keeping costs down when you prefer not to be tied to one ski area requires a lot of scrambling.

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I consider that work a labor of love.

I have no desire to ski the same area over and over and over again. Plus, I'm a storm-chaser, and I'll head to whichever area got the goods. I imagine this will all change when I have kids, as the Season Pass must really keep costs down at that point, but until them, I'll stay Mountain Promiscuous.

Smellytele said:

well as I noted early in this thread, I have a free pass to the local hill but still skied 15 days else where besides the free and Co days and probably averaged right around 30-33 skiing at K, Magic, Saddleback, Sugarloaf, Cannon, and Sugarbush.

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How many of those $30-$33 days were weekend days? If there were several, I am indeed impressed.

VTKilarney said:

How many of those $30-$33 days were weekend days? If there were several, I am indeed impressed.

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I had three weekend days last year in that range. Plus two half days less than $35. If I had followed the ski and ride card tour last year there would have been a few more.

VTKilarney said:

How many of those $30-$33 days were weekend days? If there were several, I am indeed impressed.

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Almost all my weekend days are that or less, but in addition to pre-bought vouchers, I achieve it with BOGOs.

Scruffy said:

What the hell are you guys doing to your boots I just retired a pair of Tecnica Icon race boots, they were my everyday boots for 15 years, they seen lots of bump duty - loved them. I have another pair of recent tecnica race Infernos I use for racing. I replaced the old Icons with Dalbello Lupos.

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I had a pair of Tecnicas for 6 years - 6x60days = 360 days. I replaced the heels about 300 days in. But they just didn't fit so snug anymore - in the bumps unless I cranked them down real tight - my feet would slide around. Then cranking them tight made my toes fall asleep or my foot/calves hurt. I like control.

So have 4 days on my new Tecnica Mach 105s - LOVE them. Have the control and comfort I need without the pain and aggravation. Can't imagine getting out another year on my old boots - it was becoming unsafe.

You guys are good!

VTKilarney said:

How many of those $30-$33 days were weekend days? If there were several, I am indeed impressed.

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All except for 4. 2 days a K, 1 at Sugarbush and 1 at Saddleback. Magic were all holidays (wife had a free whiteout pass)

Come to think of it Killington weekdays were technically Holidays. Thanksgiving day and good friday

SkiFanE said:

I had a pair of Tecnicas for 6 years - 6x60days = 360 days. I replaced the heels about 300 days in. But they just didn't fit so snug anymore - in the bumps unless I cranked them down real tight - my feet would slide around. Then cranking them tight made my toes fall asleep or my foot/calves hurt. I like control.

So have 4 days on my new Tecnica Mach 105s - LOVE them. Have the control and comfort I need without the pain and aggravation. Can't imagine getting out another year on my old boots - it was becoming unsafe.

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If you're cranking them down to get a good fit, then yeah it's time for new liners or boots. I guess I was luck with my old Tecnicas. I ski with loose buckles, unless I'm racing. For free skiing I prefer a softer boot, probably comes from years of tele skiing. I use to tele ski in leather boots, bumps, steeps, crud, pow, all mountain ( still do for BC only ), and that teaches you to pressure the ski without a stiff boot and solid binding connection. I'm also lucky in that, with orthotics, and perhaps the shape of my feet, my feet are firmly planted in the bottom of my boot and I can ski without cranking the buckles to get my feet to keep from slopping around.

The new Tecnica Mach series looks like the bomb. Good luck with them.

Scruffy said:

If you're cranking them down to get a good fit, then yeah it's time for new liners or boots. I guess I was luck with my old Tecnicas. I ski with loose buckles, unless I'm racing. For free skiing I prefer a softer boot, probably comes from years of tele skiing. I use to tele ski in leather boots, bumps, steeps, crud, pow, all mountain ( still do for BC only ), and that teaches you to pressure the ski without a stiff boot and solid binding connection. I'm also lucky in that, with orthotics, and perhaps the shape of my feet, my feet are firmly planted in the bottom of my boot and I can ski without cranking the buckles to get my feet to keep from slopping around.

The new Tecnica Mach series looks like the bomb. Good luck with them.

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I grew up on crap hand me down equipment, I can ski on crap quite well But I really didn't feel in control in the bumps/trees with my old ones anymore.

I love the new boots so far - and it seems like i got the last pair in my size - the entire line is sold out for this year. Whatever that means (hard to belive sold out by Nov.)...but they were hard to find. Luckily I don't need any bootfitting - I can fit my feet fine in Technicas, but orthotics do sound nice. Maybe someday (as 12 years of college tuition hit our budget....probably not for 13 years lol).

VTKilarney said:

If you want to keep daily costs as low as many people are claiming, you need the flexibility to ski on weekdays. People who are limited to weekends should not be fooled into thinking that they can average $12 per day if they intend to ski at larger mountains.

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I ski weekends almost always! Only mid week is night skiing at Gunstock for $16 on Tuesdays. Deals like the FOX 44 card are huge if you can visit most of them. Comp tickets are significant as well. The years we have done best are years our kids had Passports in VT and NH. Comp tickets are often hard to come by but do drop your average significantly.

Last year our average was $20.21 What killed us was the early and late season skiing (9 days) that averaged $33.16 while ski season between 12/24/2013 and 04/12/2013 we averaged 15.89 (27 days)

I also love the diversity of different places. When I skied 15-25 days a year I spread that over a dozen places/year. But in the past 5 years I've bumped up to skiing 50-80+ days per year. In order to get that many days, and in order to be able to afford it I've traded off some diversity. I still ski ~6-8 places per year. But I could never afford or get to >50 days if I had to be driving far each time and finding deals. I'm always balancing a mix of quantity-quality-cost-convenience-diversity.

Cannonball said:

Right now I'm at ~$550 per day for this season. Hoping to get that down a bit to ~$15/day.

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What a bargain hunter!!

Cannonball said:

Right now I'm at ~$550 per day for this season. Hoping to get that down a bit to ~$15/day.

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MadMadWorld said:

What a bargain hunter!!

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Now I'm at ~$225/day. Closing in!

uphillklimber said:

You wanna talk cheap? Work at the mountain and they GIVE you a pass, good for every day and night off. Of course, with ski mountain pay....

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I always looked at that as part of your compensation. Working at a ski area just for the pass never made much sense to me. If you enjoy the work, that's a different story. But it seems to me there are quicker ways to make money on the side to pay for a ski pass.

uphillklimber said:

You wanna talk cheap? Work at the mountain and they GIVE you a pass, good for every day and night off. Of course, with ski mountain pay....

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A number of years ago, I computed the cost per hour to ski. I included everything in the cost: cents per mile, wear-and-tear on equipment, etc. Then I noted that as a ski instructor, there was an unpaid commitment that seriously cut into my skiing time. I subtracted the amount I was paid and divided by the number of hours skied.

Then, I went back and redid the calculation adding in the extra skiing hours plus the cost of a season pass. As much as I thought I saved as a ski instructor, it wound up costing me $0.50 per hour more to be a ski instructor than to buy a season pass!

That being said, as I enter my 37th season as a Snowsports instructor, the intangibles of being part of a ski school are priceless and I will continue to do it for the foreseeable future.

joshua segal said:

A number of years ago, I computed the cost per hour to ski. I included everything in the cost: cents per mile, wear-and-tear on equipment, etc. Then I noted that as a ski instructor, there was an unpaid commitment that seriously cut into my skiing time. I subtracted the amount I was paid and divided by the number of hours skied.

Then, I went back and redid the calculation adding in the extra skiing hours plus the cost of a season pass. As much as I thought I saved as a ski instructor, it wound up costing me $0.50 per hour more to be a ski instructor than to buy a season pass!

That being said, as I enter my 37th season as a Snowsports instructor, the intangibles of being part of a ski school are priceless and I will continue to do it for the foreseeable future.

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I guess this is getting pretty far off the skiing cheap topic, but for JS:

Bravo! Really admire the way you've woven some of your religious beliefs into your love of skiing and instructing. Inspirational! I never really had the time to be an instructor. But more importantly, I didn't have the motivation or personality for it. When I'm on a ski slope I just go into this bonkers fun mode. I greatly enjoy skiing with folks, but can't get interested in coaching them or even being coached much myself. I just want to play. I suppose it's kind of selfish, but I share in other ways, for example taking and sharing photos of friends or posting useful trip reports (at least I hope some of them are useful).

This will be my son's fifth consecutive season as an instructor and he seems to be really hooked on it. Initially, the big draw for him was all the coaching and clinics he could get from ski school trainers and examiners when he is not personally instructing students. This has certainly paid big dividends with the improvement of his skiing skills. I think he has also grown to enjoy the camaraderie with his fellow instructors and unlike myself he has the patience and temperment to find rewards in the process of introducing a newbie to the sport. His salary is strictly to help cover gas costs to the ski area and it probably doesn't even do that. He started instructing around age 19 or 20 and I've seen great benefits to his people skills, public speaking, and just overall maturity and self-esteem. His natural tendency is to be an introverted computer geek (real job is software engineer), but in the winter his love for skiing turns him into an outdoorsy people-person.

joshua segal said:

Then I noted that as a ski instructor, there was an unpaid commitment that seriously cut into my skiing time.

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After teaching in CT for five years felt the same way too - just without the precise calculation. I was committed to skiing at the small area where I taught every weekend. (Mt Southington and Powder Ridge) I always got a lesson Saturday morning but not always in the afternoon and almost never on Sunday. It got to be a drag after and even though I got near 100 days one season I concluded that I'd get a lot more satisfaction from less skiing.