High Priced Lift Tickets

[Smellytele]

Talk about cheap lift tickets, if you are someone that skies the vail resorts in PA or NH and typically only skies 5 days a season (which includes a lot of people and most 1 week a year vacationers), you can get a pass excluding holidays for about $240 or with holidays for about $275. I know its been said before, but the key to making this work to increase participation in the sport, is getting the word out to the general public. For Vail and Alterra, it only takes one season to get a new customer the information about pre-purchase your lift tickets.

Vail has cheap pre buy but Alterra doesn’t

 

[Smellytele]

Pretty good program at the little resort where we purchased our condo.

https://granbyranch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023.24-GCSD-Program_8.30.23_for-web.pdf

Wouldn’t help you unless you actually lived there. Have to be going to school in that school district correct?

 

[BenedictGomez]

Vail has cheap pre buy but Alterra doesn’t

But with Alterra you get a free Paramount+ subscription. That's gotta' count for something!

 

[cdskier]

But with Alterra you get a free Paramount+ subscription. That's gotta' count for something!

I had no idea they had this benefit...just looked...too bad it is only a 3 month trial. If that was a full year I actually would take advantage of that.

 

[Great Bear]

I just looked at Killington website and you apparently can get 8 lift tickets for $800. The includes 8 k-tickets to be used at anytime by anybody (buy 7 and you get the 8th free). As far as Vail resorts, its even cheaper. Their epic day pass can get you 2 adult tickets and 2 child tickets (12 and under) for 2 day each, for $500. That's an average price per day of $62, which seems pretty reasonable to me. I guess the biggest problem is getting the word out to new people that the most cost effective way to ski at these resorts is to pre-purchase your lift tickets. The "on a whim" people/families are the ones the get stuck with the online purchase price during the season or worst, the window rates. I got to figure that most intelligent people in this category will eventually realize the best and most cost-effective method and take advantage of it during the next season.

Indeed - Killington's K-Tickets / Epic or Ikon day packs are for sure a way to reduce the per day cost - but I think that just as most occasional skiers are not candidates for a season pass, most also don't have the bandwidth to think about pre-purchasing skiing tickets in September / October. It is much easier for all of us as regular skiers to thing about this type of thing.

I know I have mentioned the K-Tickets to my brother in laws family, but at that point they never know if their kids will have basketball tournament's etc so just don't feel they are in a position to buy as they don't want the risk of paying for something they don't end up using - and even at that early purchase rate - 4 people x 2 days = appx $800 - that's an expensive weekend and still a tough sell.

I know that even myself as a regular skier have had to "eat" Epic Day tickets that I didn't end up using - and then the question becomes if it is worse to pay the crazy window rate or pay the early purchase / September rate and then have them go unused?

 

[Smellytele]

Indeed - Killington's K-Tickets / Epic or Ikon day packs are for sure a way to reduce the per day cost - but I think that just as most occasional skiers are not candidates for a season pass, most also don't have the bandwidth to think about pre-purchasing skiing tickets in September / October. It is much easier for all of us as regular skiers to thing about this type of thing.

I know I have mentioned the K-Tickets to my brother in laws family, but at that point they never know if their kids will have basketball tournament's etc so just don't feel they are in a position to buy as they don't want the risk of paying for something they don't end up using - and even at that early purchase rate - 4 people x 2 days = appx $800 - that's an expensive weekend and still a tough sell.

I know that even myself as a regular skier have had to "eat" Epic Day tickets that I didn't end up using - and then the question becomes if it is worse to pay the crazy window rate or pay the early purchase / September rate and then have them go unused?

Ikon day packs? Sugarbush yes but not really any of their others.

 

[Great Bear]

Ikon day packs? Sugarbush yes but not really any of their others.

Ikon has 2, 3 or 4 day "Session Passes". Current adult price for the 4 day is $469. I am not sure if the rate was cheaper earlier in the summer or not.

 

[Smellytele]

Ikon has 2, 3 or 4 day "Session Passes". Current adult price for the 4 day is $469. I am not sure if the rate was cheaper earlier in the summer or not.

Like how they charge 179 for a 2 day ticket for 4 and under…

 

[Great Bear]

Like how they charge 179 for a 2 day ticket for 4 and under…

Thats just crazy...

 

[4aprice]

Wouldn’t help you unless you actually lived there. Have to be going to school in that school district correct?

For that program, correct.. But it's just an example of how smaller areas can help get more people into the sport for a reasonable amount of money.

 

[mbedle]

Montage down here in PA has a great ski deal with $40 lift tickets with rentals Monday - Wednesday and $35 college lift ticket with rental on Thursdays.

 

[jimmywilson69]

Yeah I've taken Montage up on the M-W deal I think when I did it, it was $38. This was pre-Covid

 

[Great Bear]

One of the keys to the future of the sport, and so many small(er) area near more populated regions, get this very well, is the after school/after work programs, and many of these small(er) places are still independent.

The 2 that I am the most familar with, and have experienced a bunch the last few years due to Highschool Ski Race coaching are Wachusett and Mount Southington. They are BUSY most nights of the week. They understand how to attract and retain various schools as well as youth and adult race programs. Which is great to see.

I truthfully feel, having been a part of the smaller, evening scene pre Covid, during Covid and now post Covid, that these small(er) areas did very well, arguably better than the large(r) one's at having to re-imagine what the skiing/riding experience can be, and were able to make the changes (outdoor food truck like vendors/sheds, how to handle the lodge bathroom/bag storage thing, programs to get people out of their house and outisde doing things that are close to home, etc) in a way that wasn't the "one size fits all" that many of the mega pass resorts went with.

If one spends some time on many small(er) hills midweek, during the evening, you certainly get a different perspective as to the health of the sport when it comes to bringing in new people. And I know that this is a BIG focus of the National Ski Areas Association

While I personally do not go very often at all, A couple of the small local ski hills near us (Nashoba Valley, Ski Bradford) also seem to be fairly busy on weeknights / week afternoons with school "ski bus" groups, youth race programs etc. I assume without those groups neither would be in business.

One thing that is interesting - looking at Ski Bradford, the land itself has to be worth more than 10x what they could ever make in a winter season of lift tickets / passes so I assume it is a labor of love. I've also heard that it would not be viable if the owners didn't already own the property outright (meaning there would not be enough incoming revenue to also carry a mortgage on the place) - so I'd guess that if the next generation does not want to take it over, it will end up on NELSAP and sold to developers who will build condos/housing developments - I obviously don't know for sure but it sounds accurate to me based on what I can see.

 

[BodeMiller1]

I know I've predicted this 1000 times but there will be repercussions from this, but it will take some years for it to achieve a scale at which it will become apparent.

Never piss off the folks who spend money at your business. Short term gain long term not good.

Serinity now insanity later.

 

[kbroderick]

Funny that Sugarbush already came up—I went to look up their under-five pricing (because I know my local Ikon-affiliated resorts only get $30 for a child pass), and the main page currently has a two-tickets for $99 deal, with an additional nudge for the four-packs and passes.

And their four-and-under pass is $25.

The Ikon 4-and-under is showing now at $149, which I suppose is a nod to having DTL access at all the Alterra and partner resorts (and maybe someone on the resort list charges real money for a four-year-old, although I'd be surprised). I have to admit that if I were planning multiple trips west with our toddlers, paying an extra $200ish right now to know that I wouldn't need to go near a ticket window or machine while on the trip might be worth it. Hard to say, though, as it would really make more sense if it was going to be $25-50 somewhere per kid.

 

[Smellytele]

Funny that Sugarbush already came up—I went to look up their under-five pricing (because I know my local Ikon-affiliated resorts only get $30 for a child pass), and the main page currently has a two-tickets for $99 deal, with an additional nudge for the four-packs and passes.

And their four-and-under pass is $25.

The Ikon 4-and-under is showing now at $149, which I suppose is a nod to having DTL access at all the Alterra and partner resorts (and maybe someone on the resort list charges real money for a four-year-old, although I'd be surprised). I have to admit that if I were planning multiple trips west with our toddlers, paying an extra $200ish right now to know that I wouldn't need to go near a ticket window or machine while on the trip might be worth it. Hard to say, though, as it would really make more sense if it was going to be $25-50 somewhere per kid.

Crazy how 2 days is 179 and a whole season is 149. Why on earth would they do that?

 

[Great Bear]

Crazy how 2 days is 179 and a whole season is 149. Why on earth would they do that?

That doesn't make any sense at all? Weird?

 

[kbroderick]

Crazy how 2 days is 179 and a whole season is 149. Why on earth would they do that?

Do they cut off pass sales at some point in time, leaving the two-day as the only option?

 

[BodeMiller1]

I have too, for years; but now I live on top of one thus that option is no longer realistic.

But frankly, so many resorts have been acquired by Alterra & Vail that you don't even need to be immediately local for avoiding them to not be realistic. For many it's now almost all of their options in a given drive time.

Out west there have been a few tram houses and lodges torched by tree huggers. Thankfully in the east we vent on ski blogs. At any rate the cost of skiing, staying at the mountain, food and weed have gone up pretty fast. The problem with skiing is it is addicting (for some). The big resorts know this. And they know we can't stop.

MEOW

 

[mister moose]

Even small pats peak is just about $100 a day to ski.

I'll see your Pat's Peak and raise you Whaleback at $50.