Ticket Prices 06-07

[billski]

I did another casual annual survey of ticket prices nationwide for the largest area and the New England area. It's based on web published prices. I use weekend, high season, full price walk-up adult tickets as a baseline. (The sticker shock is greatest.)

Some areas achieve intended ambiguity by not selling single-day tickets or requiring some other form of multi-day extortion. I have not included those notes, simply excluded them from rankings. Corrections and updates are appreciated.

Stowe ($76) maintained the same price from last season, but let it's #2 ranking slip behind Aspen, which takes the #1 spot again, this year at $82 followed by Copper, Steamboat, Teluride and Mammoth all beat out Stowe for the top spot.

Stratton is only a buck cheaper than $towe at $75.

What is interesting is the number of areas that have elliminated midweek pricing, so I added a high season midweek adult walkup ticket price too. Stowe $76 midweek. Killington $72 midweek. Loon $67 midweek. Ouch!

Killington, Mount Snow and Okemo follow next at $72.
Most of the midsize-to-bigger mountains are now in the mid to high $50s.

The "value" range of $40s includes most of the Berkshires, Bloton, Wachusett, Crotched, Saddleback, Pats, Dartmouth, Magic,

The ones that are blank, I simply ran out of time or interest... Happy to take updates.

Glad I joined a club that buys SkiVT and SkiNH tickets in bulk in July...

See the details here http://www.iabsi.com/public/ski/ticket_prices_200607.htm

 

[andyzee]

You put together some nice stats, between this and the lifts and vertical, but damn, you must have a lot of time on you hands! Hey, have you considered holiday periods as well. That would put Stowe at $78

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

based on say a $75.00 average lift ticket, 8 hours of operation (8a-4p) that comes to $9.36/hour...i think most of us spend more per hour in a bar, so $9.36 an hour to outside skiing enjoying nature really isnt that bad....

 

[theguy10]

based on say a $75.00 average lift ticket, 8 hours of operation (8a-4p) that comes to $9.36/hour...i think most of us spend more per hour in a bar, so $9.36 an hour to outside skiing enjoying nature really isnt that bad....

I WISH I could pay by the hour. Then I wouldn't feel like I need to keep riding while the lifts are spinning, I would make more trips that way. I would probably break even in money spent but right now I keep going till the end of the day because I feel guilty dropping $120-$150 for tickets for the wife and I.

 

[from_the_NEK]

based on say a $75.00 average lift ticket, 8 hours of operation (8a-4p) that comes to $9.36/hour...i think most of us spend more per hour in a bar, so $9.36 an hour to outside skiing enjoying nature really isnt that bad....

How often do you spend 8 hours in a bar drinking 2 drinks per hour? :beer: :blink:
I would be SLOSHED! Then I would need a $15 dollar cab ride home

 

[billski]

let

You put together some nice stats, between this and the lifts and vertical, but damn, you must have a lot of time on you hands! Hey, have you considered holiday periods as well. That would put Stowe at $78

Not really, I have less time than ever before in my life. I have however mastered the fine art of multitasking and effectively using my time. I spent between 20-30 minutes a day over a month compiling it last year. This year, the whole thing took me 30 minutes in large part because the links to ticket prices didn't get moved much by the resorts.

I considered holiday periods, but it would give inconsistent results, not room for comparison (and lack of my time.) Not that many of the resorts rob you twice (read: holiday rates), so I left it out for now.
This year, I'm skiing on MLK day (only because my employer insists I take the day off), but I'm heading towards a no-name, low-interest area to check it out and have a little fun back-woodsing it... I normally run away from holidays at the slopes - too scarey, too many never evers, too many on the slopes. I want to burn it up without terrorizing people or waiting in nasty lift lines....

 

[billski]

I WISH I could pay by the hour. Then I wouldn't feel like I need to keep riding while the lifts are spinning, I would make more trips that way. I would probably break even in money spent but right now I keep going till the end of the day because I feel guilty dropping $120-$150 for tickets for the wife and I.

Imagine if they would let us pay by the run. A whole new dynamic!

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Thanks for the info! But to clarify, many resorts do charge a holiday rate higher than peak season weekend. Interestingly a quick check looks like that pricing is changing. The ticket pricing for the resorts that used to be owned by Intrawest are changing too. If your going for just one day your going to pay thru the nose but they all have deals for multi-day(2 days on the weekend works). At Stratton it's $55.

Sugarbush as far as I can remember has never had a lower mid-week price, a big mistake in my book. They did, a few years ago, when they were trying to increase business over at Mt Ellen....I think you could ski at Mt Ellen on Wed for $25.

One positive change is now you can buy a SP and day tiks for just Mt. Ellen for a lot less than for the entire resort. Lots of great skiing over at Mt Ellen.

 

[tcharron]

Know what I'd personally love to see? The same kind of chart, but comparing costs of season packages. ;-)

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

the variable that would throw off a chart comparing daily rates to season pass is that you'd have to assume that with the pass you'd ski everyday (which is doubtful) you have to divide the cost of the pass into the amt of days you ski

 

[tcharron]

....

Assuming the same amount of skiing at each area should lead to a comparable result.

But your points well taken ;-) Maybee just a season pass entry on the above chart to give you a ballpark, and not take into consideration the multi mountain passes.

 

[billski]

....

Assuming the same amount of skiing at each area should lead to a comparable result.

But your points well taken ;-) Maybee just a season pass entry on the above chart to give you a ballpark, and not take into consideration the multi mountain passes.

I did that last year: http://www.iabsi.com/public/ski/resorts_sorted_by_ticket_price.htm

 

[tcharron]

I did that last year: http://www.iabsi.com/public/ski/resorts_sorted_by_ticket_price.htm

Thanks! Exactly wat I was looking for.

Trying to plan ahead on what to do next year, depending on what the family usage of our pass at Crotched this year is. While it is a smaller mountain, it's 15 minutes away, 2x adults, 2x kids unlimited skiing for 1,100$ seems like a good deal, considering we'll be able to go once a week at least.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Nice work. Good information to have. Thanks!

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Just my opinion but I am starting to see a new trend, very interested in seeing the numbers after this season.

People are starting gravitate away from the big resorts, especially the ASC ones, kmart and Mt Snow in particular, to the smaller hills. Some do have lodging so the popular reference term "feeder hill' desn't really apply anymore.The decline in skier visits showed this last season but, of course, one season does not make a trend. You can't blame the weather as everyone has that to deal with.

I think the smaller hills, some with lodging some without, have picked up on this and are ramping up to take advantage of the opportunity. I am totally impressed with places like Crotched, Jiminy and others.

If you want your skiers/guests to come back, not meeting expectations is a very bad thing, meeting expectations is a good thing, exceeding expectations in a great thing regarding getting them to return. That's what Crotched and others are doing.

My personal opinion on what started this or at least plays a major role in this potential trend is the cheap All41 ASC season pass.

 

[tcharron]

Just my opinion but I am starting to see a new trend, very interested in seeing the numbers after this season.

I think the smaller hills, some with lodging some without, have picked up on this and are ramping up to take advantage of the opportunity. I am totally impressed with places like Crotched, Jiminy and others.

If you want your skiers/guests to come back, not meeting expectations is a very bad thing, meeting expectations is a good thing, exceeding expectations in a great thing regarding getting them to return. That's what Crotched and others are doing.

My personal opinion on what started this or at least plays a major role in this potential trend is the cheap All41 ASC season pass.

For me, I guess it's the general feel of Crotched that I like best. It's not crowded (HUGE in my book, honestly), and while they do have smaller hills that the big boys, their trails are always in VERY good condition, and they just have the feel of being modern, yet personal, if that makes any sense at all. The ability to purchase a family pass for 1100 bucks is a HUGE plus for me, while it's alot of money, it's still cheaper then buying 2x adult season passes + 2x kids season passes. Personally, I'm hoping that Crotched Mt can start getting capacity skiing going and give Peak Resorts a reason to consider opening up the entire other side of the mountain.

Come to think of it, that may be another reason I like Crotched. When I was in like 4th grade, I lived in Bennington. It's where I originally learned to ski like 20 years ago.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Chris Bradford of Crotched posts over at snowjournal.com and he talked about expanding over at the ski hill formally known as Bobcat. I tried to find it but could not.

There was an interesting article about just this subject in the NY Times recently and Chris/Crotched was a big part of the story. If your interested I did find that thread and I could link it up for you. If you haven't checked out NELSAP here is some info which you might find interesting
http://www.nelsap.org/nh/onset.html

 

[RISkier]

based on say a $75.00 average lift ticket, 8 hours of operation (8a-4p) that comes to $9.36/hour...i think most of us spend more per hour in a bar, so $9.36 an hour to outside skiing enjoying nature really isnt that bad....

There are certainly occassions on which I spend money much more foolishly than $9.36 for an hour of skiing, but those ticket prices add up pretty fast for a family. Take a family of four, two adults and two children. I'll assume the children get a reduced rate and it only costs $40/day for each child. In that scenary, lift tickets alone end up costing around $230 / day. The good news is that you can almost always find much better deals on multi-day tickets. But it's sometimes tough to find good deals on single day tickets.

 

[tcharron]

Chris Bradford of Crotched posts over at snowjournal.com and he talked about expanding over at the ski hill formally known as Bobcat. I tried to find it but could not.

There was an interesting article about just this subject in the NY Times recently and Chris/Crotched was a big part of the story. If your interested I did find that thread and I could link it up for you. If you haven't checked out NELSAP here is some info which you might find interesting
http://www.nelsap.org/nh/onset.html

The NY Times article is at http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/12/...rss&adxnnlx=1165525056-scG/LpXkhUeYQjCufBgAEQ I believe.

And yes, I read the article. I haven't hiked out to the other side of the mountain yet, but I'm planning to this spring.

 

[riverc0il]

i think an interesting comparison would be break even point day tickets vs. season pass pricing... some sort of mathematical comparison showing that the ski areas with the highest per day pricing have some of the lowest break even days on their season pass. same with multi-day deals and ski and stay packages. obviously, the big resorts have decided to totally ignore day trippers in favor of season passes and ski and stay deals. chances are, if you are skiing a place like stowe on a full price single day ticket, you are going with friends or a group for the day and thus your destination has been decided for you without consideration of price. i suspect the amount of people paying full price at places like stowe for a single day lift ticket are quite low, at least relatively compared to other ways tickets are sold.