High Priced Lift Tickets

[Smellytele]

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

Whaleback had no more than 4 trails open for most of last year

 

[MidnightJester]

Here are the sky high prices of Lift tickets this year. : ( I don't think this is the full peak season prices at some mountains.
Wild thing is how fast young children quickly qualify as Adult(13yr+) prices at a lot of the mountains.

Single-Day Lift Ticket Prices Exceed $300 at U.S. Ski Resorts This Holiday Period - SnowBrains

Here are some absolutely staggering prices across U.S. ski resorts for holiday lift tickets this New Years weekend

snowbrains.com

Here are some of the highest prices found from Friday, December 29 to Monday, January 1 throughout the country.
California

• Heavenly-$259
• Mammoth-$259
• Northstar-$269
• Palisades-$279

Colorado​

• Aspen-$244
• Beaver Creek-$284
• Steamboat-$299
• Vail-$299

Utah​

• Snowbasin-$209
• Powder Mountain– $229
• Deer Valley– Sold out (likely $289)
• Park City-$299

Other​

• Mt. Bachelor-$215
• Sun Valley-$245
• Big Sky-$249
• Jackson Hole-$255

Other (east coast)​

• Killington-$189
• Sugarbush-$189
• Okemo-$189
• Stowe-$219

 

[BenedictGomez]

Imagine having a "season pass" to a mountain & then being told you can't ski because they're "sold out". I bet that's frustrating.

 

[Smellytele]

Imagine having a "season pass" to a mountain & then being told you can't ski because they're "sold out". I bet that's frustrating.

Imagine having a multi-mountain season pass but really only ski 2 of the areas because the others are 2 1/2hrs or more away and then the 2 near you only have one way down from the top or none?

 

[BodeMiller1]

There's a point where others will enter the market. And when the snows good they're turning people away.

Sunday River. $75.

 

[snoseek]

Imagine paying that much to ski northstar???

 

[AdironRider]

Imagine having a "season pass" to a mountain & then being told you can't ski because they're "sold out". I bet that's frustrating.

Does this happen? Every place I know of lets full season pass holders ski anytime they want.

 

[joshua segal]

Economics 101: If they are charging a price (regardless of how outrageous it may seem) and selling out; supply and demand curves indicate they are not charging enough. Remember: Corporations are nothing more than a legal fiction TO MAKE MONEY to keep their stockholders happy.

 

[ss20]

Does this happen? Every place I know of lets full season pass holders ski anytime they want.

Not out here. Or rather... "you can ski but you can't park"... becoming relatively common out west.

Or in BCC/LCC... "you can ski but you can't park... or take viable transportation anytime there's more than 2" of snow or it's a top 20% visitation day"

 

[AdironRider]

That is a different thing than what was said.

It also isn’t a new development. Day trips, parking and general lodge use is very different West vs East.

My most gaper moment of all time was showing up to Jackson for my first ski day, bags of gear in tow, and asking where the lodge was. Took like seven people just laughing at me before someone took pity and told me tiny shoe lockers were the closest I was going to get.

 

[Edd]

Eastern ski area approach to base lodges is preferable to me. Occasionally I find a western area that operates similar. Lake Louise comes to mind.

 

[urungus]

There's a point where others will enter the market. And when the snows good they're turning people away.

Sunday River. $75.

Not $75 until March 1 (and even then, that rate is for tickets bought in advance and is advertised as a 40% discount). Here are this week’s online prices for Sunday River. Based on the discounts they are claiming, the walk up rate is $159

 

[Great Bear]

That is a different thing than what was said.

It also isn’t a new development. Day trips, parking and general lodge use is very different West vs East.

My most gaper moment of all time was showing up to Jackson for my first ski day, bags of gear in tow, and asking where the lodge was. Took like seven people just laughing at me before someone took pity and told me tiny shoe lockers were the closest I was going to get.

I've heard similar about parking even out east on occasion. IIRC there were a few times at Stowe and Sunapee where they ran out of parking over the past couple of winters - at Killington we definitely had a few weekends last winter where people were parking as far down as the lookout and in the breakdown lane on route 4 down by skyship - i'm not sure that is much better than running out of parking entirely.

Hilarious about your story at Jackson - we had a similar gaper experience years ago at the Canyons (before it was connected to Park City).

 

[BodeMiller1]

Not $75 until March 1 (and even then, that rate is for tickets bought in advance and is advertised as a 40% discount). Here are this week’s online prices for Sunday River. Based on the discounts they are claiming, the walk up rate is $159
View attachment 60212

It was the first price I saw on the website. SR does or used to price by open terrain. At least in the beginning of the season.
Thanks for the reality check.


Moo

 

[BodeMiller1]

ASC had significant blackouts. Major holidays and school vacation weeks. But, with prices at other resorts fairly cheap it was easy.

Gold No black outs
Silver so so,
Bronze need to ski when the masses aren't.

I always got silver, one year I got the price per day to $12ish.

From what I know Les Otten pioneered this kind of pass structure. He knew how to keep you at the mountain.

I can remember my first day at SR, we had to park in a huge lot. I was mad because we had to hump our gear...
Then my buddy said here comes the shuttle, so we sipped a beer and proceeded to tear the mountain up.

 

[eatskisleep]

I miss the ASC!!

 

[zyk]

There's a place day trip distance from me... $30 midweek. It's fun anywhere there is snow.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Economics 101: If they are charging a price (regardless of how outrageous it may seem) and selling out; supply and demand curves indicate they are not charging enough.

That is simply not even remotely close to what's happening.

The ticket prices are intentionally artificially high, and 99.999999999999999999999999999% of the "sold out crowd" is actually on a "season pass".

 

[urungus]

That is simply not even remotely close to what's happening.

The ticket prices are intentionally artificially high, and 99.999999999999999999999999999% of the "sold out crowd" is actually on a "season pass".

According to the 2022-23 season-end report from the national ski areas association, “standard day tickets” still make up 33% of national ticket sales:

https://nsaa.org/webdocs/media_public/press/2022-23/2023_August_UpdatedSkierVisits.pdf

 

[drjeff]

I miss the ASC!!

Had they had a better business model, you maybe still could be enjoying them!

And as I am posting this I am sitting next to the artificial Christmas tree in my condo at Mount Snow that we have decorated with old season passes my family had, including thousands of dollars worth of old ASC era passes for my wife and kids and myself!