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Lift ticket $ Insanity

fatbob

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I do have sympathy for those who've seen their home mountains become overrun with mega-passers as that's happened to the mountain where I have an individual season pass. I figure it will eventually work out under the laws of supply and demand, but it could take a few years for each individual case/resort.
It's all pretty interesting and far from guaranteed to work out. A lot will depend on who replaces the boomers and Gen Xers ageing out of skiing. And probably a fair dollop of influence of the economy (as in housing cost v healthcare v retirement saving inter alia).

Having said that it looks like more and more ski resorts are financed by actual ski resort ops not just speculative real estate ramping so the bumps may see less fall out.

I think it will take a brave move to turn off the cashflow security of the advance passes. That's probably the biggest hurdle to surmount. People don't really want to pay full boat and give you the cash 8 months upfront. I mean no doubt skitalkers would but not sane people.
 

dbostedo

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no doubt skitalkers would but not sane people.
"We are not sane people" would be a good tagline for SkiTalk.

STSane.jpg
 
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tball

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Lift line insanity at Steamboat over the weekend:

1675108390059.png


Are IKON crowds worse than Epic now?
 

slow-line-fast

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Looks real bad. But does sound like a perfect storm, reports of great snow, but ops needs to deal with that great snow to make it safe.

I recall, some time ago, powder-day liftline before opening of KT22. Everyone was ancy but keeping the order. One guy walks up to near the front of the line to where he saw his ‘friends’. Crowd boos. Lift op approaches, after a brief conversation and escalating body language, lift op grabs the guy’s skis and hurls them (highland games style) way far away. Crowd erupts in applause and order is maintained.

That lift op was awesome.
 

Pajarito-bred

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#2 - Look just 10 days away from the $300 ticket. $39. Yes that's right. Flex pricing can provide values if you can plan ahead. So it's not a terrible thing.
Yes, I can plan ahead.
But I don't want to....
I'm headed down to Flagstaff next month, was planning ski a weekday or two at AZ Snowbowl, since I haven't skied there since the 90's. But that $39 price only applies if I commit now, and it's spent regardless of whether or not the snow conditions, weather, and my schedule cooperate.
My alternative is to just ski the prior days at my local hill, season pass already amortized. I can ski those days, part of the day, or not, included at the baked-in price I paid in April for the season.

The worst part about the $300 day ticket is that those likely to be the absolute worst days on the mountain, with long lines for lifts, food, beer, bathroom, parking, etc.
 

PinnacleJim

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Just want to correct a couple of errors that have been posted here. Both Copper and Killington/Pico are owned by POWDR and are Ikon partner resorts, not Altera resorts. At Killington you get the 5 or 7 days depending on which Ikon pass you have. As a Killington condo owner, I ski more than 7 days there so Ikon doesn't work for me. However if you sign up for the Killington 365 pass which includes mountain biking, golf, etc. they throw in an Ikon base pass. Cost is a big step up from the full ski pass however. At Copper you get unlimited access with Ikon. This is a carryover from the days of the Rocky Mountain Super Pass when Copper and Winter Park were competing with the new Epic pass for business from Denver area skiers.
 

4aprice

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Lift and terrain closures can cause havoc. I just want to say, I've seen all sorts of pictures of horrendous lines at Vail Resorts and now here at Steamboat and usually if you dig deep enough you hear there were other problems on the mountain causing the major problem. It's a weekend, Steamboat's having a great year and It was a powder day I believe as well, I'm not surprised it was crowded. But, I saw a picture the other day (on another site) posted by someone who does not like the idea of a "Mega Pass" and makes it known, that was really kind of dishonest IMO. It was of the base at Winter Park, taken at an angle that showed the Gondola,, fixed triple and HSQ down at the end and the lines, made it look like a sea of humanity, but I doubt any of those lines were longer then 5 maybe 10 minutes for the gondola and once up on the mountain, so many options. I get that not everyone likes the mega passes but lines like those are exceptions not the rule.
 

pete

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Lift line insanity at Steamboat over the weekend:

View attachment 190895

Are IKON crowds worse than Epic now?
yikes! Just about sharts my pants seeing this, then thinking it due to the powder day. Just looked, this at ~10:30am Steamboat time ... sure hope it eases a bit next weekend when I'm out.

if it weren't live and with more blue sky, I'd think they were the same pic.

Steamboat Lift Lines 2-5-23.jpg
 

pete

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I'm planning on starting to go 2-3x a week next week. I just don't have the excited feeling I used to get, when the weather is this crappy. I do have a short trip up to Sunday River with my SIL planned the following week; hopefully that will help increase my stoke.

kinda negating my frets of lines above but any ski trip for me is fun even if conditions aren't great.

you just need to put a positive mindset upfront to have fun. I somewhat learned this from my BIL and SIL who often would note how poor conditions were, I'd mark it up to (maybe) expectations due to cost of trips.

I can have fun just for the experience. I recall some really crappy weather/conditions which now are stand out memories.

So stoke up !!!
 

Wendy

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kinda negating my frets of lines above but any ski trip for me is fun even if conditions aren't great.

you just need to put a positive mindset upfront to have fun. I somewhat learned this from my BIL and SIL who often would note how poor conditions were, I'd mark it up to (maybe) expectations due to cost of trips.

I can have fun just for the experience. I recall some really crappy weather/conditions which now are stand out memories.

So stoke up !!!
I can do that for travel trips, but for day trips, it can be a little harder. ;) If I'm with friends on a day trip, then it's way easier. If it's solo, then that's where it can be difficult if it's crap conditions.
 

noobski

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kinda negating my frets of lines above but any ski trip for me is fun even if conditions aren't great.

you just need to put a positive mindset upfront to have fun. I somewhat learned this from my BIL and SIL who often would note how poor conditions were, I'd mark it up to (maybe) expectations due to cost of trips.

I can have fun just for the experience. I recall some really crappy weather/conditions which now are stand out memories.

So stoke up !!!
Agree.

Coming from the midwest it's a lot easier for us to get pumped up about any conditions. I think if I lived out there, I'd have a totally different mindset and be picky and pack in the prime days.

For example living here technical fly fishing is world class, so I'm super picky on what days and times of the year I'd go out, whereas when friends visit, they could care less. They just want to be on the water.
 

mdf

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However if you sign up for the Killington 365 pass which includes mountain biking, golf, etc. they throw in an Ikon base pass.
A lot of resorts do something similar (Taos for example, with their most expensive pass.) The problem for me would be that it seems you can't upgrade to a full Ikon.
 

crgildart

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All if this is driven by the fact that the demand for skiing is off the charts. I'll only go and pay $$$ per day of skiing peak season when a kid or really good friend can only go then. Otherwise now I'll only go before Christmas break or after President's Day when it's like 40% less for a day ticket.
 

Ken_R

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You could say $309 is a market signal to say we're at capacity don't come. But they could just put up a sign to that effect and not sell any tickets. Problem with the price is that suckers will have been caught out and ending up having to pay and still more will have shown (at all the cost involved) for the pleasure of saying "hell no".

People have been saying for years the US corporate ski industry is in a greed spiral. The demand (boosted by a good snow year thus far) doesn't seem to be letting up. But the "casual" demand could yet be killed in a recession.

Capitalism goes both ways and when consumers say hell no the corporations are left hanging on to their overpriced tickets. That said dynamic pricing is very common nowadays and im pretty sure the algorithms are crazy good.

Damn just checked that the Loveland day ski pass window price has just about doubled in the past 5 years.
 

locknload

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How many resorts will go to the Deer Valley model which simply limits the amount of passes sold on any given day..inclusive of season ticket and Ikon Holders? This is the way. Now..I don't know what their total number are skiers are on a given day and how may Ikon pass holders (7 total days on the Ikon pass currently) they project to been the mtn. An IKON pass holder is guaranteed a spot as well as any "buddies" they are bringing on their buddy pass. Obviously this model only works at certain resorts and there are a lot of details behind it...but I do like it.
 

johns80050

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Next time I take my family of 4 skiing, I'm heading to the Alps. € 50 - € 100 per person per day for lift tickets at most places. € 100 / night for decent lodging. Even factoring in the airfare, I'm convinced I'll save money in the end.
 

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