Sharing/Selling passes?

[Nobody]

^^ Agreed. that's why I think , that despite my long lasting desire to "ski the west", I am afraid that I won't ever be able to.

 

[Jerez]

Hourly, Flex or Pay-as-you-go passes won't work at a lot of mountains that only scan at the base area. installing gates at all the lifts would be a congestion nightmare and too expensive.

 

[Nobody]

Well, in Italy, each and every lift has gates. That is so because there is not one single owner at a "resort" and the earning are shared proportionally by passages numbers at each lift. No gate, no counts, no money. Congestion happens only at key points of any given area and hours, like lifts giving access from one place to another, or at special key days and so on.

 

[crgildart]

Hourly, Flex or Pay-as-you-go passes won't work at a lot of mountains that only scan at the base area. installing gates at all the lifts would be a congestion nightmare and too expensive.

How do they manage RIFD conventional tickets? Half Day (9-1), Full Day (9-4), Twilight (1-9), Night Session (5-9), Super (9-9).. I ski a couple places with flex, 4 hours or 8. The time is to the minute and printed on the ticket when you purchase it.

 

[dovski]

^^ Agreed. that's why I think , that despite my long lasting desire to "ski the west", I am afraid that I won't ever be able to.

You can but you need to plan in advance. Your plan will center around which multi resort pass do you buy and then from their which resorts do you ski. My family likes the mountain collective pass as it gives us 2 free days at each participating resort plus a bonus day at the resort of our choosing, after that lift tickets are half price. So when I do Alta and Snowbird I get 2 days at each resort. In Banff I get 2 days each at Norquay, Sunshine and Lake Louise plus have the option of driving 3 hours to Revelstoke for another 2 free days. From Revelstoke you can then drive to Sun Peaks and get another two days free ..... I think you see where I am going with this. If you plan in a smart way you can get in a lot of ski days for very little $$, but you have to plan and book things way in advance. We use air miles for free flights and book early to get the best rates on accommodation and car rental. This makes these ski trips quite reasonable for a family of 5. We also end up with profiles at a ton of different resorts and a stack of RFID cards too boot.

 

[crgildart]

Skiing most places gets way more affordable and accessible in April/May when the cool kids are cleaning/tuning their bikes and getting their golf clubs sorted out.. Same thing late Feb/March where the season winds down at that time.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

Me too, hence the new call sign Lil Ripper

Apparently @Andy Mink took your suggestion.

 

[dovski]

Apparently @Andy Mink took your suggestion.

Too funny. Right now @Andy Mink is one of my favorite people just for doing this lol

 

[crgildart]

Apparently @Andy Mink took your suggestion.

Back in the day a couple forums ago an admin changed @Tricia's profile photo for a joke. It was legendary!

 

[Carl]

I doubt pay-as-you-go will be adopted in the U.S., especially with Vail Resorts. The Epic pass sales program has proven to be a great business model. It gives them a big pile of cash up front to work with going into the ski season. Cash on the balance sheet also helps in raising money for capital expenditures they have planned.

 

[Jerez]

How do they manage RIFD conventional tickets? Half Day (9-1), Full Day (9-4), Twilight (1-9), Night Session (5-9), Super (9-9).. I ski a couple places with flex, 4 hours or 8. The time is to the minute and printed on the ticket when you purchase it.

They don't sell those. Or they only sell half day PM lessons. Can't get up the first lift before a certain hour. No AM half days.

 

[FlyingAce]

Years ago, Snow Valley sold a daily ticket that was good for X amount of runs. The ticket was good until you used up all your runs. That was perfect when my son was 4. We could leave whenever he got cranky! I do think a shared parent pass is best for folks with one kid too young to ski. At least they can shift off lodge time.

Now that you mentioned it, I remember a similar pass at Mt High with limited # of runs and those were transferable. My husband and I were new snowboarders back then and we could spend all day sitting on the slopes. We would scan the pass twice and it just deducted the runs from our total. Totally legit.

 

[crosscountry]

Depends on the resort you go to, but these days at many resorts if you do not buy in advance online they may be sold out when you get to the window

"These day" you mean since the pandemic!

I've never encountered capacity limits prior to 2021. Even the famous Deer Valley never actually refuse to sell tickets despite people were standing shoulder to shoulder in the locker room!

Like I said, I only buy day tickets when I have a coupon or some sort of discount. So no, I didn't have to buy in advance. And, I bought buddy tickets for several of my buddy at several of the Alterra mountains as recent as in 2020. No need to disclose personal detail beyond just the name.

Last but not least, when buying only day tickets, there's no rule saying you need to give valid personal information (besides the ones used in the credit card verification, which doesn't includes birthday!). I absolutely refuse to provide real personal information when it's clear it will only be used for marketing purposes. I always fill out the birthday as 01/01/2001. That makes me old enough to buy ticket. That's all they'll get from me! These days, I even have the option to check "other" for the gender box.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

"These day" you mean since the pandemic!

I've never encountered capacity limits prior to 2021.

Actually, Big Bear Mountain Resorts (separately and combined) had capacity limits UNTIL being purchased by Mammoth and then by Alterra. The busiest days at BBMR have been during the pandemic.

 

[crosscountry]

Hourly, Flex or Pay-as-you-go passes won't work at a lot of mountains that only scan at the base area. installing gates at all the lifts would be a congestion nightmare and too expensive.

I guess it would be too expensive and congested in New Mexico?

How do they manage RIFD conventional tickets? Half Day (9-1), Full Day (9-4), Twilight (1-9), Night Session (5-9), Super (9-9).. I ski a couple places with flex, 4 hours or 8. The time is to the minute and printed on the ticket when you purchase it.

Though not in Massachusetts ( Jiminy Peak )

They don't sell those. Or they only sell half day PM lessons. Can't get up the first lift before a certain hour. No AM half days.

Jiminy Peak does 4 and 8 hours tickets.

When I was skiing in Japan, they do time slot tickets too. Sounds like some European mountains do that too.

 

[dovski]

I guess it would be too expensive and congested in New Mexico?

Though not in Massachusetts ( Jiminy Peak )

Jiminy Peak does 4 and 8 hours tickets.

When I was skiing in Japan, they do time slot tickets too. Sounds like some European mountains do that too.

In Europe there are a lot of areas where you have different companies operating the lifts in one area vs a resort that owns everything. In these areas you buy a pass that covers different regions very similar to public transit or Euro Rail pass. In some case you can even set up an account where you pay by the ride. This a unique and special experience that does not exist in North America, but I highly recommend it. What is really cool is the fact that at altitude and throughout the mountain you have different bars and restaurants all individually owned. This puts even the top resorts in America to shame and creates a completely different ski atmosphere. The other aspect that I really appreciated was how affordable skiing was in Europe. Similar to Canada you could ski these amazing mountains and not even break a C note. Now that said everything was digital and you had to have a personal account to activate a pass this was just how they operated.

What was even funnier to me was that you had the option of buying Alpine rescue insurance. Since the lifts and establishments on the mountain all have different ownership, should you have an accident and need an emergency evac or high altitude rescue you needed to buy insurance or risk paying for the service out of pocket. The Alpine rescue service is yet a different organization that covers a specific geography. I would hate to be on the hook to pay for a helicopter rescue like this so gladly bought the insurance.

This is a photo of an Alpine rescue in the French Alps from a few years back. Crazy how these pilots land on a steep slope with them main blade inches from the mountain.

 

[Nobody]

Well, that chopper belongs to the "Gendarmerie" (French military police). Akin to the italian "Carabinieri"...
And their rescue services on snow are/were "free of charge", only in the last years, if an "undue reason" for their call is ascertained, then the "offender" is going to be billed for the chopper/rescue services, at least it is so in italy, in France, not so sure, in Switzerland and Austria it will cost you, a lot, whatever the reason for calling them, since the rescue chopper servies are carried out by private ventures, for all that I know. To my knowledge, in Italy, an injuried (thus someone with a righteous reason) skier who is calling the on piste medical assistance is not going to be billed a dime. This said, and for the reason stated above that one is never sure wether it might be billed or not, an insurance coverage is a good thing to have. "Good thing to have" is an understatement, since it has become compulsory to have such coverage, and also - compulsory from jan 1st - a civil liability package. Most packages offered are valid and cover the whole of Europe...if multi sport, even activities other than skiing (but need to read the fine prints).
The reference you make, @dovski , is , again to my knowldege, specific to Switzerland, not sure it is available in other countries, if not for limitied and specific areas. Yet again, if one purchases a multi-days skilifts ticket at my home mountain , can board public transportation means , busses/coaches, and use it move freely in the area (in the whole valley, that is), during the winter season of course. This in an effort to limit private traffic that could clog the road system in peak holiday (Christmas, Carnival, Easter, etc.) times...

 

[crgildart]

Though not in Massachusetts ( Jiminy Peak )

Looks like Wachussett does multiple time session options and I can verify they have RIFD. They've had it at least 5 years..

 

[Tricia]

Back in the day a couple forums ago an admin changed @Tricia's profile photo for a joke. It was legendary!

Shrekchick
Edit: If you google Shrekchick, it appears that you have shared this in other forums

 

[fatbob]

^^ Agreed. that's why I think , that despite my long lasting desire to "ski the west", I am afraid that I won't ever be able to.

But not really - if you're willing to invest say $700 upfront in a megapass you can easily stitch together a 3 week roadtrip and be paying less than $40 per day for the actual skiing. Of course if you want slopeside or walk-in accomodation like the average Euro tourist seeks there is a heavy premium put on that most places so you need to be a bit more creative with accomodation to bring it down to Euro prices.

Of course it's well documented how Vail have screwed the pooch in many Epic pass resorts this year so nothing is risk and/or hassle free......