Who is going to the Ski Expo (Boston or wherever)?

[Sky]

Here's the link's advertiement:

Kick off your winter season at the Boston Globe SnowSports Expo November 17-20, 2005. Everything you'll need to prepare for skiing and snowboarding this season including mountain resorts with great deals on season's passes and vacation packages, equipment manufacturers, travel destinations, and winter-themed entertainment. Ski Market Multi-million dollar equipment sale will have incredible pre-season sales on ski and snowboard equipment and accessories.

So...I know some of you (us?) are contemplating a day of skiing 11 Nov. Would you opt for a day trip to the expo? I might...seeing how the weekends get jammed (for me anyway). I'd consider leaving work @ lunch to see the show.

 

[teachski]

I'll be working at the New England Ski Museum Booth again this year...probably on Saturday. I may also work at the National Ski Patrol Booth some too.

 

[riverc0il]

always amuses me that folks are going to an expo show to prepare for the skiing season after it has already started. while everyone at the expo show is thinking about skiing, i'll be making turns a lot of money to essentially subject yourself to advertising but i hear you can occasionally score a give a way to make price of admission worth while.

 

[salida]

ahem... looking at ski stuff or actually doing it

 

[Vortex]

I'm with Steve. I'll be skiing. I use to work these for 5 years or so they were fun. All my ski prep is done. Just waiting with very little patience.

 

[RossiSkier]

It's been an annual rite of passage for my wife and I for the last three years. We go to the Albany Expo.

 

[thetrailboss]

We've had good luck scoring tickets during the last two times, but this year I'm not in Boston. Hopefully will be skiing.

 

[Sparky]

I'll be going to the Albany show. If you work it right you can get some decent deals.

 

[molecan]

Well, the 17th is a Thursday, and the Expo is about 2 1/2 miles from where I live.

I'll be there to get any FREE/Discounted passes, stickers, and assorted cruft and schwag, as well as picking up some new goggles for wifey and me.

Also, a good chance to try on a ton of brands of helmets. Perhaps I'll buy one this year.

 

[kickstand]

I'll probably head in to one of the shows in Boston. Anything that's free, I'm all about it, especially the stickers. It's the little things, y'know. Plus, going to pick up some lit from a few areas the wife might be interested in.

 

[awf170]

i hear you can occasionally score a give a way to make price of admission worth while.

yep, me and my mom both one any day lift tickets to cannon last year, and my dad won a snazzy key chain that said cannon on it...

 

[thetrailboss]

Yeah, Cannon's 'free tix' last year were 'buy one get one free' deals for like April. :roll: Not a really great deal in hindsight....but no complaints.

The stingiest mountain was Wildcat by far though...spent 20 mins talking with and listening to a rep blab about their mountains. I expressed a high level of interest..."never been there...would like to try it...any good deals..." she didn't really get it and we left...with not even a sticker! So we ended up skiing elsewhere.

The "never skied there" approach DID work with Crotched. The guy gave us a buy-one-get-one-free ticket deal for ANYTIME and was very informative.

Read my review of last year's show and compare to this one.

 

[awf170]

Yeah, Cannon's 'free tix' last year were 'buy one get one free' deals for like April. :roll: Not a really great deal in hindsight....but no complaints.

no, there was a game where you drop the ball down between some pegs and if it lands where the free ticket was you won a free anyday ticket

 

[Geoff]

I did the Boston ski show last November. I hadn't been to one in a very long time. It seemed like half the hall was taken up by the Ski Market selling crap intermediate packages and low quality clothing & accessories. I didn't stumble across any world-beater deals.

I booked some midweek days at Sugarloaf pre-Presidents Week at a pretty good price. That was the only actual discount I found all day. I won a Sugarloaf hat. BFD!

I got the business card with email address of the international sales manager for Termas de Chillan. That was extremely useful in booking my summer trip.

I got some moderately useful information about Taos for a January trip to Ski Santa Fe, Taos, and Wolf Creek I was putting together. The lodging I found on my own was much better than what they were recommending.

I was hoping to find a deal for the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City but they didn't have any deals at all.

I walked around asking at pretty much every destination resort booth I'd be interested in visiting if they had any kind of show special and never found any.