What is you lift ticket strategy?

Edd · Mar 12, 2015

I get a couple of multi-mountain passes every year. My GF has connections to get me free lift tix from time to time and I spend $ on Liftopia every season at some point.

I'm lucky to stay with some friends in the MWV many nights a year so I rarely balk when I have to cough up a few bucks for lodging in other areas.

drjeff · Mar 12, 2015

Season passes for the family. Then with kids in racing programs, you get to travel around to a bunch of other ski areas to watch them race and take advantage of "parent tickets" offered when you pay the race registration for your kid, which are typically 30-50% off the window rate that day.

Add in a day here and there that doesn't fall under my pass or a race day ticket, and come season's end I can usually get my per day cost for the season into the $25-30 range

CoolMike · Mar 12, 2015

This year I got a season pass. In prior years I've done a combination of deal hunting and full price or near full price (10 bucks off is easy to find the day before you go riding).

In the past I've had a very flexible schedule so I would simply ski mid-week at whatever mountain had a nice lift ticket deal. I got a lot of days in at less than 30 dollars. Once or twice a month I would pay full price or near it though.

This year I've only really skied weekends. The season pass has been a huge benefit. My per day rate is already <$30. We did spring for lodging this year which split 7-8 ways added up to $1300 per person. It was definitely worth it. Also - its cool to be able to say your all payed up for the years worth of skiing in October or November.

thetrailboss · Mar 12, 2015

Season Pass covers the wide majority of my visits. So far it has covered 24 out of my 29 days. The other five days were through deals.

ss20 · Mar 12, 2015

I work at my 400 vertical foot pimple of a mountain, so when the work ski season ends (this weekend), I will HAPPILY spend all the money it takes to do some real skiing up in VT. Once I get my PSIA certification next year I'll get dirt cheap or free tickets virtually anywhere. Can't wait for that.

Hawkshot99 · Mar 12, 2015

A industry job....
I paid out $110 so far for tickets this year, bringing my per day <$3.50.....

chuckstah · Mar 12, 2015

I made an early purchase of a midweek seasons pass. It is under $10 per day as of now. Also bought a fox44 card and skivt3 pass to fill in some weekend days. The skivt days will be my most expensive days of the season. Bought resident tickets at the window a couple of times for $25 or so. Final purchase was a Killington/Pico spring pass to keep the season going. This could add a bit to the per day cost if I don't get many days on it.

Grizzly Adams · Mar 12, 2015

the ski club at my college does trips most Saturdays Jan-March, they work in a good variety of areas and charge $65 for the bus ride + lift ticket, pretty damn good deal considering some places the ticket alone costs $100+

medfordmike · Mar 12, 2015

I look for a good value season pass (this year was Pico). I still look for deals but often I just go where I feel like going and ticket cost is a secondary concern. I have a family weekend place in NH so I don't have to pay hotels, dinners out, etc. for most days out. So I can pay the lift ticket rate of where I want to go but the trade off is I don't head out west, or hit Maine often since it is harder to justify in my head.

abc · Mar 12, 2015

ss20 said:
Once I get my PSIA certification next year I'll get dirt cheap or free tickets virtually anywhere.

Seriously?

abc · Mar 12, 2015

I work a 9-5 job during the week, so I'm stuck skiing weekends. But for my limited and very valuable weekend ski days, I go where the snow is, which changes week to week.

I do a combination of almost all of the above because that's the only way it would work out.

- I don't ski in one place long enough to warrant a season pass.

- And in years past, even buying multi-pack pre-paid ticket can be risky. The snow may not be there and I "have to" use the pre-paid tickets. I don't buy pre-paid tickets any more.

- So for the most part, I deal hunt. The best venue of "deals"? Ski club! Sure, half price of $90 is still $45. But I'm happier to ski powder or soft bumps for $45 over skiing frozen crust for $20.

The only "exception to the rule" is my Rockie Mountain Super Pass Plus. It's technically a season's pass. It covers for 2 mountains unlimited and 3 more with limited days. I say it's only "technically" a season's pass, it's because I only use it for limited days, more like a super-cheap multi-day ticket. It's cheaper than ANY multi-day deal out there. And it does give me (occasionally) discount as a "season pass holder" from other mountain. I still file that under the "deal" category rather than "season pass" category.

C-Rex · Mar 13, 2015

steamboat1 said:
My club costs $200 per year for dues & maintenance fees. Save a lot more than that in reduced lodging costs, not to mention ski club discount days. Haven't purchased ski club bulk ticket discounts in years but they are also available.

I'm assuming your club has a property somewhere? I'd love it if ours did but I think it'd be more trouble than it's worth for us club officers. I'd love to see more partnership with lodging companies and private owners though. I'll have to look into that...

hammer · Mar 13, 2015

I have had season passes before but unfortunately I just don't get out enough to justify them. Usually just do pre-purchases through Liftopia and hope for the best.

dlague · Mar 13, 2015

xwhaler said:
Deal Hunter as I like both the cost savings and the variety. + the "thrill of the hunt" in finding the deals has been fun for me!

Some days I only have the AM to ski so hunting deals to smaller places nearby like Crotched, Pats, Whaleback, Gunstock etc. makes me able to do that.
Should end the season approaching 40 days and 22+ unique mtns at a cost of around $18/day.
I think if you look at my signature you can see my mix of mountains runs the gamut which I like.

Sounds like something I would have written!

Gforce · Mar 13, 2015

There are 5 of us, so its a blend of season passes and vouchers. Vouchers or full price tickets For the kids who have other activities and can't get to the break-even point of 10 ski days. Buy the passes between now and the summer cut-off for the best pricing.

There are good spring ticket deals where you pay now to ski through the end of the season and you can apply that cost to a '15/'16 season pass. Essentially free spring skiing.

C-Rex · Mar 13, 2015

I'd love a pass, but there isn't a mountain close enough to me to really justify it. I'd get sick of the crowds at Mount Snow, and probably a little bored with the Mountain. Plus their pass is expensive. Berkshire East has a good deal, but without good natural snow I think it'd be kinda lame. I'm waiting to see how their new snowmaking does next year. Anywhere else is too far to drive all the time. I just need to move farther north. That would solve a lot of my problems.

The Max Pass is really tempting. I'm definitely on the fence with that. Between just Stratton, Killington, and Pico, that's 15 days at $46.60/day. Not too bad. Throw in a long weekend up to Sugarloaf and Sunday River and it just gets better. Then add a trip out west...Gravy!

gmcunni · Mar 13, 2015

i join CSC and try to take advantage of the different discount days. but what really matters is where i can go that has good snow. my skiing is really turning into day trips so from S CT my options are limited.

cheap lodging actually has more impact on my selection than cheap skiing. having not been further north than Mount Snow this year is a bit depressing.

abc · Mar 13, 2015

gmcunni said:
cheap lodging actually has more impact on my selection than cheap skiing. having not been further north than Mount Snow this year is a bit depressing.

Yep, I'm in the same boat.

(That said, cheap lodging typically comes with compromise in quality. Cheap lift ticket is pure saving since we're skiing on the same mountain)

Bumpsis · Mar 13, 2015

I try to save where I can, but I'm more concerned about the quality of the ski experience (good snow, low crowd density, my choice of a mountain), so I end up usually paying walk up.

When taking my whole family, if Liftopia or resort specific promo doesn't apply (like twofers at Cannon or Sunday Family specials at Sunapee), we'll maximize our experience by skiing on 1/2 day tickets. Since we mostly do drive up day skiing, this works out well and getting close to 4 solid hours on the mountain is actually pretty satisfying. And it's nice not have to have to rip out of the house by 5:30 AM.

We also do an annual trip to Sugarloaf during MA school vacations in February and I really don't see any deals to help out with the price of the lift tickets during that time. We just simply budget for that and pick and choose the most optimal snow/weather conditions when we're there. As a family, we also really enjoy the host of much less expensive snow sports such as XC, snowshoeing/winter hiking. So the pain of paying walk up from time to time on a really nice snow day, be it powder or spring corn, isn't such a terrible bite. We just budget for it and save where we can.

The downside of that approach is fewer days on slopes, but then, my recreational time is really limited anyway so I just try to maximize the quality of the experience.

bigbog · Mar 13, 2015

Deal Hunter = Resident Wednesdays @SL, but most often up have skinned up local/commuteable bc mtns where the deeper snow has been.
Do a day/.5day now and then....

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