Who obtained the best Cost/Day ratio this season?

[jimk]

You guys skiing for $5 per day is very impressive.

Looking at this thread, you guys in New England (MA, CT, Albany, etc.) who have the season pass thing dialed-in and do relatively short day-trips to ski and/or stay overnight in cheap ski club lodging may be doing our sport as cheap or cheaper than many other places in the country?? This is a little enlightening to me since I always thought of the typical New England season pass as being more costly than many places. But lift tickets/passes expenses are only a minority of the cost in the bigger picture of a snowrider's budget. I guess people out west living close to good skiing like SLC, Sacramento or miscellaneous small cities and rural areas in northern Rockies may be doing it quite cheaply as well?

I am probably closer to $120 per ski day, but that includes lifts, transportation (gas, airfare, car rental) and overnight lodging, but doesn't include meal costs. Every single one of my 29 ski days this winter involved staying overnight away from home from between one to 14 nights per "outing". I am fortunate that about half those nights were in Utah staying with a family member at no cost.

 

[Duncanator24]

You guys skiing for $5 per day is very impressive.

Looking at this thread, you guys in New England (MA, CT, Albany, etc.) who have the season pass thing dialed-in and do relatively short day-trips to ski and/or stay overnight in cheap ski club lodging may be doing our sport as cheap or cheaper than many other places in the country?? This is a little enlightening to me since I always thought of the typical New England season pass as being more costly than many places. But lift tickets/passes expenses are only a minority of the cost in the bigger picture of a snowrider's budget. I guess people out west living close to good skiing like SLC, Sacramento or miscellaneous small cities and rural areas in northern Rockies may be doing it quite cheaply as well?

I am probably closer to $120 per ski day, but that includes lifts, transportation (gas, airfare, car rental) and overnight lodging, but doesn't include meal costs. Every single one of my 29 ski days this winter involved staying overnight away from home from between one to 14 nights per "outing". I am fortunate that about half those nights were in Utah staying with a family member at no cost.

Generally the cost/day people are talking about has been isolated to lift tickets. Of course all of the other costs matter but I know for me, those costs have been minimized as much as possible. I will get 30MPG on the highway over the course of 600 miles round trip (ends up costing like $60 in gas), $20 in tolls, $60 a night in Airbnb lodging, and ALL food is cooked so that cost is the same as being home. I split that with one person usually so ~$100 per trip most times.

So the REAL cost ends up being around $12 per day PLUS the $30-$50 per day in other costs. I consider sub-$50 per day on a weekend to be just normal operating costs though. I would spend the same other stuff either way. So skiing ends up being pretty affordable with a frugal mindset.

Most of my trips being 2-3 days in length.

 

[dlague]

You guys skiing for $5 per day is very impressive.

Looking at this thread, you guys in New England (MA, CT, Albany, etc.) who have the season pass thing dialed-in and do relatively short day-trips to ski and/or stay overnight in cheap ski club lodging may be doing our sport as cheap or cheaper than many other places in the country?? This is a little enlightening to me since I always thought of the typical New England season pass as being more costly than many places. But lift tickets/passes expenses are only a minority of the cost in the bigger picture of a snowrider's budget. I guess people out west living close to good skiing like SLC, Sacramento or miscellaneous small cities and rural areas in northern Rockies may be doing it quite cheaply as well?

I am probably closer to $120 per ski day, but that includes lifts, transportation (gas, airfare, car rental) and overnight lodging, but doesn't include meal costs. Every single one of my 29 ski days this winter involved staying overnight away from home from between one to 14 nights per "outing". I am fortunate that about half those nights were in Utah staying with a family member at no cost.

The key is staying with in the pass! We have a tendency to want to try other places and not always ski at the same pass holder resorts. This sounds funny considering the options with the Epic Local Pass, but we have also skied Cooper(2 fer), Loveland (2 fer) and Eldora (WM comp). Day tripping it for us means about $15-20 per trip also. We generally bring our own food for lunch and adult beverages. However, our weakness is our desire to eat out after skiing.

 

[cdskier]

Generally the cost/day people are talking about has been isolated to lift tickets. Of course all of the other costs matter but I know for me, those costs have been minimized as much as possible. I will get 30MPG on the highway over the course of 600 miles round trip (ends up costing like $60 in gas), $20 in tolls, $60 a night in Airbnb lodging, and ALL food is cooked so that cost is the same as being home.

There's too many good places to eat in the MRV area for me to cook all food and I enjoy going out. I'll almost always go out on Friday nights when I get up there for something quick (a burger, Mad Taco, or something else like that). Then Saturday nights I will alternate. One week I will cook. The next week I will go out.

I don't look at costs other than lift tickets though for the most part. With owning a condo, the more I ski the lower my "per night" cost would be in theory, although more usage would drive up electricity and propane bills a bit. The mortgage and condo association fees are the same no matter whether I use it or not, so those are the costs I drive down per day by using it more. And at some point the mortgage payments do go away.

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

I always come out between $12 and $15 per lift ticket which is real good for a non pass holder. I will tally this year's figures after my upcoming weekend at A-Basin. Flying out tonight. That will make 29 ski days for me, plus another 22 kids lift tickets.

We brown bag it and 24 of those days involved no hotels and only about $20 of gas.

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

Actually this season came out more expensive than most. Paid an average of $18.30 for each of the 51 lift tix I purchased this year.

 

[abc]

You guys skiing for $5 per day is very impressive.
...

That's why I don't ever bother to calculate my pass cost alone.

What I often do is sum up all the expense related to skiing each season.

(now, if I just divide that sum by the number of days skied, I'll get the cost/day. But... that's usually a pretty depressing number, due to my love of travel and try out new mountains, not to mention my love of good food eating out...) So instead, I put that sum under the "annual recreation budget", together with my Lincoln Center seasonal tickets. Now, that doesn't look quite so depressing any more!