Ski Club?

[St. Bear]

Thanks for the input everybody. I guess I'm going to have to do some research this weekend and figure out what's the best fit.

Mainly, I'm looking to join a ski club to take advantage of the purchasing power to get discounted tickets and other promotions. I have family and a lot of friends in NH/MA, so I'm not interested in bus trips and I don't need a lodge or a place to crash.

 

[Geoff]

go to

www.newjerseycouncil.org

there are about 30 ski clubs, most have houses in Vermont and discount tickets & trips are offered.

marital status does not matter, usually just have to be 21 years of age.

Garden State in Maywood has about 400 members and owns a house near Killington. $40 a year.

There is a National Ski Council Federation. All the eastern ski councils are listed here:
http://www.skifederation.org/east.html

If you're just looking for discounted tickets, I believe ACE is the cheapest to join. The AE Ski Club (Connecticut) is also inexpensive ($30.00 for a single). The Connecticut Ski Council clubs are more Vermont-centric and their bulk ticket buy deal is in late-September for the Vermont areas.

Last winter, Killington had a "Club Card" product and didn't participate in the ski council bulk buy ticket voucher programs. They're paranoid about people selling vouchers in the parking lot so it's now difficult to come by a paper voucher. Last year, you could buy 4 days of skiing for $200 + tax and then reload the card. Initially, they had a November cutoff for buying it but slid the date out to December. They also relaxed the rules for use. Initially, the card was only good for one ticket per day. They relaxed it to two tickets per day sometime during the winter. I presume that product will be back. You need to show a club membership card with a ski council logo on it when you pick up the card.

 

[playoutside]

Thanks for the input everybody. I guess I'm going to have to do some research this weekend and figure out what's the best fit.

Mainly, I'm looking to join a ski club to take advantage of the purchasing power to get discounted tickets and other promotions. I have family and a lot of friends in NH/MA, so I'm not interested in bus trips and I don't need a lodge or a place to crash.

Definitely check out www.skicmsg.com. They haven't posted this year's discounts yet, but they are usually good. I think membership is $15 or 20, they don't care if you attend meetings. It's all about volume buying. Last year they had discounts for any day to places like Sunday River, Killington, Wildcat and a few others. Also most weekends they had at least a discount for one of the weekends to a specific area like Sunapee, Okemo, Stratton -- this approach is cool, because you order your ticket and travel on your own terms for that day. The deals on these selected days are about the best I've seen, so if they choose mountains you like it's great.

 

[OppositeGeorge]

I belong to two CSC clubs with lodges, but since you don't need that look at the Goodmen Club (www.thegoodmenclub.com). They're CSC and skivt members and only cost $25/year for a single membership. They don't require attending meetings as far as I know. I don't belong to them but they are legit (their president is very high up in the CSC.)

CSC bulk orders usually get taken in late September and are almost always Vermont-specific. Usually very, very good rates on Stratton (sub-50 bucks last year,) Sugarbush and Stowe. Mt. Snow, too, but maybe a little less discount there. There may be a couple/three more areas that get involved in the CSC bulk deals; honestly it changes from year to year.

Also CSC Awareness days are great -- about 100 days over the season, mostly on weekends, where CSC members get ridiculous discounts on tickets (last year's avg. price was ~30-35 bucks.) They have a preliminary 2009-2010 Awareness Days flyer already on line here: http://www.skiclub.com/documents/CSC-Awdays0910.pdf

I'm membership director for a CSC club and also a delegate to the CSC so let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Geoff]

I belong to two CSC clubs with lodges, but since you don't need that look at the Goodmen Club (www.thegoodmenclub.com). They're CSC and skivt members and only cost $25/year for a single membership. They don't require attending meetings as far as I know. I don't belong to them but they are legit (their president is very high up in the CSC.)

That's good to know. They're $5 cheaper than AE Ski Club for individual memberships and $10 cheaper for couples memberships. I'm going to start pointing people in that direction when they're looking for the cheapest way to get access to the bulk buy ticket deal, the Killington ski club card, and the council awareness day deals.

 

[madskier6]

I also am a member at a CSC affiliated club (Central CT Snow Snakes) & absolutely recommend any of them for great savings & benefits. I pay $40 membership for my whole family (me, wife & 4 children) & get tons in savings. We do the CSC Awareness Days most weekends. I have never gone to a meeting.

 

[tcharron]

I belong to two CSC clubs with lodges, but since you don't need that look at the Goodmen Club (www.thegoodmenclub.com). They're CSC and skivt members and only cost $25/year for a single membership. They don't require attending meetings as far as I know. I don't belong to them but they are legit (their president is very high up in the CSC.)

CSC bulk orders usually get taken in late September and are almost always Vermont-specific. Usually very, very good rates on Stratton (sub-50 bucks last year,) Sugarbush and Stowe. Mt. Snow, too, but maybe a little less discount there. There may be a couple/three more areas that get involved in the CSC bulk deals; honestly it changes from year to year.

Also CSC Awareness days are great -- about 100 days over the season, mostly on weekends, where CSC members get ridiculous discounts on tickets (last year's avg. price was ~30-35 bucks.) They have a preliminary 2009-2010 Awareness Days flyer already on line here: http://www.skiclub.com/documents/CSC-Awdays0910.pdf

I'm membership director for a CSC club and also a delegate to the CSC so let me know if you have any questions.

Has CSC ever considered teaming up with EICSL?

 

[OppositeGeorge]

Has CSC ever considered teaming up with EICSL?

An excellent question that I don't know the answer to. I'll ask around.

What advantages do you see from a team-up? That's the first thing they'll probably ask me so let me know what you're thinking about.

 

[billski]

Has CSC ever considered teaming up with EICSL?

That's an interesting thing, but I think it comes down to historical and cultural differences. EICSL is primarily Mt. Washington-based clubs with ski houses, and most people live in Southern New England. It just sort of grew that way. ACE is actually the outlyer in the consortium, with no ski house. EICSL does not do "trips", assuming people can get "there" but does a lot of inter-club parties, even a shuttle bus from house to house. They also do team racing up there.

I can't imagine EICSL teaming up CSC because it is culturally so different. Perhaps teaming up to buy tickets, who knows if either can get better deals. Each of these clubs negotiates directly with the resorts of high interest, so it's unlikely you'd see a Dartmouth or Ragged on the list, but who knows - the negotiating is underway as we speak.

Because of the onerous new SkiNH restrictions (no bulk ticket sales) ACE decided to team up with EICS on tickets this year. EICSL traditionally buys NH and Maine tickets. The trick to EICSL is that you have only one small window to by tickets, like November and one small window to pick them up (one meeting.) The ACE rep to EICSL orchestrates it and delivers tickets to a meeting location in Westford/Littleton. That makes it nearly impossible to get tickets in hand until late December, so purchase carefully.

With regard to which club to join, there is somehting for everyone out there. Skiclubs.com is a fair first start, but it is far from complete. It would be vastly easier for you to say what your situation is and what you want from a club. We could then give you a specific recommendation.

 

[deadheadskier]

I'm also a member of ACE. http://www.aceskiandboardclub.org Have you guys already bought your tickets? As far as I know their ticket sale has not happened yet this year due to problems setting stuff up with the ski areas. Or maybe I dropped the ball?!

I passed on the club this season. I'm getting a pass to Ragged and will search out other deals. I skied quite a bit in Vermont last season where there were great deals through ACE. I'll be skiing mainly in New Hampshire this season and the deals aren't all that great.

I see many Saturdays at Ragged followed by Sundays at Wildcat or Sunapee. Wildcat was typically $29 for the afternoon through liftopia last season or you have the $25 NH resident afternoon if I feel like sleeping in. Sunapee is $32 on Sunday afternoons for residents. Hopefully some $30 resident Wednesday's at Cannon too. And free days up on Washington.

I will certainly be a member of Ace again in the future, I just need to save some $$$ this winter on both tickets and travel, hence the decision to stay local and get a pass.

 

[St. Bear]

I passed on the club this season. I'm getting a pass to Ragged and will search out other deals. I skied quite a bit in Vermont last season where there were great deals through ACE. I'll be skiing mainly in New Hampshire this season and the deals aren't all that great.

I see many Saturdays at Ragged followed by Sundays at Wildcat or Sunapee. Wildcat was typically $29 for the afternoon through liftopia last season or you have the $25 NH resident afternoon if I feel like sleeping in. Sunapee is $32 on Sunday afternoons for residents. Hopefully some $30 resident Wednesday's at Cannon too. And free days up on Washington.

I will certainly be a member of Ace again in the future, I just need to save some $$$ this winter on both tickets and travel, hence the decision to stay local and get a pass.

I ended up joining both skicmsg.com and thegoodmenclub.com. It cost me $45 to join both, and I was encouraged by the examples of what discounts they offered from both last year and this upcoming year. I didn't want to join a club if I was unsure of what kind of benefit they offered. Also, I am looking to ski primarily in NH, with an occasional VT trip thrown in.

 

[deadheadskier]

Those indeed look like great club offerings.

 

[tcharron]

An excellent question that I don't know the answer to. I'll ask around.

What advantages do you see from a team-up? That's the first thing they'll probably ask me so let me know what you're thinking about.

That's an interesting thing, but I think it comes down to historical and cultural differences. EICSL is primarily Mt. Washington-based clubs with ski houses, and most people live in Southern New England. It just sort of grew that way. ACE is actually the outlyer in the consortium, with no ski house. EICSL does not do "trips", assuming people can get "there" but does a lot of inter-club parties, even a shuttle bus from house to house. They also do team racing up there.

I can't imagine EICSL teaming up CSC because it is culturally so different. Perhaps teaming up to buy tickets, who knows if either can get better deals. Each of these clubs negotiates directly with the resorts of high interest, so it's unlikely you'd see a Dartmouth or Ragged on the list, but who knows - the negotiating is underway as we speak.

Because of the onerous new SkiNH restrictions (no bulk ticket sales) ACE decided to team up with EICS on tickets this year. EICSL traditionally buys NH and Maine tickets. The trick to EICSL is that you have only one small window to by tickets, like November and one small window to pick them up (one meeting.) The ACE rep to EICSL orchestrates it and delivers tickets to a meeting location in Westford/Littleton. That makes it nearly impossible to get tickets in hand until late December, so purchase carefully.

With regard to which club to join, there is somehting for everyone out there. Skiclubs.com is a fair first start, but it is far from complete. It would be vastly easier for you to say what your situation is and what you want from a club. We could then give you a specific recommendation.

Well, honestly it's the 'all around' discounts. For me, I'm in a location where Vermont, NH, or ME, they're all simular in terms of distance. I really like CSCs discounts, but I'd really *love* to also have things like the EISL discounts to Black. I assume that many resorts look at these purchases based on overall cash potential, and the combined 'totals' would be much better (total speculation, honestly).

Every year I've planned on joining ACE, but I never get around to it. Now looking at other options, I'm really leaning twards CSC (specifically, thegoodmenclub), as their 'appreciation days' seem much more encompassing then Ace's. Also, thegoodmen offers a family membership for me, steph, and the kids, much cheaper. Still can't figure out how the 'club points' thing works.

Sorry, I'm the eternal pessimist. :-D I'll join ONE of them someday!

 

[riverc0il]

Every year I've planned on joining ACE, but I never get around to it.

+1

I know it is outside of the club's control, but having to pre-purchase tickets so early is difficult. Especially when I would prefer to see most of the cards on the table including season pass prices. As an example, Jay seems to be pretty much holding ground on their pass price that was just released this week. If discount tickets are increasing in price while a season pass stays the same, a pass may make more sense financially for my preferences. But I couldn't find out about the Jay pass until well after the Ace prepayment was required.

Have the CSC clubs had to prepay for tickets yet? It would be much more helpful to see what deals are being offered prior to making a commitment. But then again, I can understand why things are done the way they are.

Interesting that NH areas are cutting back on discounts. Cannon has been doing that for a while and their skier numbers are way way up. I think NH in general has really benefited from the down turn in the economy. Surprising in some ways though that they don't offer the same discounts as VT but are not losing visits. Then again, NH is way cheaper to ski than VT by a substantial amount. Quality of product isn't not the same on average though...

 

[OppositeGeorge]

Have the CSC clubs had to prepay for tickets yet? It would be much more helpful to see what deals are being offered prior to making a commitment. But then again, I can understand why things are done the way they are.

CSC orders get taken by the clubs in September, and get submitted to CSC the first week in October. CSC negotiates with the areas before the order period, so folks know what they're ordering. I'd guess the prices are already set by now. The clubs will definitely know which resorts are participating and the ticket prices by the end of August.

Typically clubs will order some extra tickets so people who join closer to the season don't get completely shut out. How many depends on the club.

One nice thing about the CSC vouchers (don't know if this applies to EICSL or ACE) is that the resorts pledge to credit back at the end of the season for unused tickets up to some percentage of the total vouchers sold (typically 10-15%.) This means if you have a couple unused tickets at the end of the season, you turn them into your club and you get a credit towards the following season's purchase. To my knowledge, they've never hit the limit, meaning that end-of-season credits have been for full value.

 

[OppositeGeorge]

Oh, and though Goodmen is a great club if you don't need a lodge, if you're looking for cheap lodging (15 - 25 bucks/person/night) in Vermont, check out one of the clubs with a lodge. The two CSC clubs I'm involved with (Danbury and Sterling) each have lodges -- Danbury's is a big old farmhouse in Weston, which is less than a half hour from Okemo, Stratton, Magic and Bromley, and less than an hour from Mt. Snow, Killington, Pico and Ascutney. Can't beat the location. Sterling has two lodges, one in Brattleboro and the second on the side of Mt. Ellen (ski to SB North, 10-minutes drive to SB South and MRG, half-hour to Bolton, 45-60 minutes to Stowe.) Between the two of them a day trip to any Vermont resort is not out of the question.

Because these clubs have lodges, the annual membership costs are higher but still very reasonable. Basically the savings from one trip with a lodge stay pay for the membership.

Anybody with questions on either club feel free to PM me.

 

[tcharron]

Oh, and though Goodmen is a great club if you don't need a lodge, if you're looking for cheap lodging (15 - 25 bucks/person/night) in Vermont, check out one of the clubs with a lodge. The two CSC clubs I'm involved with (Danbury and Sterling) each have lodges -- Danbury's is a big old farmhouse in Weston, which is less than a half hour from Okemo, Stratton, Magic and Bromley, and less than an hour from Mt. Snow, Killington, Pico and Ascutney. Can't beat the location. Sterling has two lodges, one in Brattleboro and the second on the side of Mt. Ellen (ski to SB North, 10-minutes drive to SB South and MRG, half-hour to Bolton, 45-60 minutes to Stowe.) Between the two of them a day trip to any Vermont resort is not out of the question.

Because these clubs have lodges, the annual membership costs are higher but still very reasonable. Basically the savings from one trip with a lodge stay pay for the membership.

Anybody with questions on either club feel free to PM me.

Meh. Every one I've seen is, no kids allowed, so they're all totally out for me.

 

[Geoff]

Interesting that NH areas are cutting back on discounts. Cannon has been doing that for a while and their skier numbers are way way up. I think NH in general has really benefited from the down turn in the economy. Surprising in some ways though that they don't offer the same discounts as VT but are not losing visits. Then again, NH is way cheaper to ski than VT by a substantial amount. Quality of product isn't not the same on average though...

I suspect the NH results depend on the particular ski area. I'll bet the day trip areas with easy access from metro-Boston had a very good year. Loon, Waterville, Cannon, Sunapee, Gunstock, ... The barrier to entry is a tank of gas and enough cash for a day ticket. I'd be surprised if the North Conway-centric places did as well since they're outside of the easy day trip range of Boston. ...and I'd bet many of those places saw people driving up on Saturday mornings to do one hotel night for the weekend rather than two and a lot of people who stepped down a notch on hotel quality. Vermont saw lodging revenue hit way harder than skier visits. I'd think the more remote New Hampshire ski areas saw similar results.

 

[deadheadskier]

New Hampshire club prices are a joke for the most part. The biggest areas, Attitash, Bretton Woods and Loon are $60 and those a step down in size, Cannon, Wildcat, Waterville, Sunapee, Gunstock are $52.

All of the majors in Vermont were $48 last year.

The difference in value for what you get in Vermont on club prices over New Hampshire is huge. Perhaps the NH areas are happy with their revenue, but I don't know anyone who would as an example pay $60 to ski Bretton Woods, when Okemo, Mt Snow or Stratton can be had for $48.

 

[gymnast46]

Ski Clubs - Mt. Laurel Skiers recruiting new members

Connecticut residents have a lot of great options through the Connecticut Ski Council. There should be a club to satisfy pretty much anyone. They range from "virtual" clubs who rarely meet and are just a resource for discount tickets, to full social clubs which are as active in the summer as well as the winter. Typically, members tend to be older skiers and clubs like mine would like to recruit younger members.

I run the website for Mt. Laurel Skiers based out of Stanley Golf Course in New Britain. We have a lodge near Okemo that sleeps 38 (7 bathrooms!). Open House is September 16th. Unlike some clubs, we do require that you participate on an active basis, at least for the first year. With 500+ members, we enjoy a very active year-round calendar and have had a great deal of success in inter-club competitions. Check us out!