Perhaps the more noble thing to do would be to keep day tickets prices and same and further limit sales, or heck, stop selling day tickets and only let people with season passes on the mountain if the goal is really to limit crowds for COVID. But Steamboat, or Alterra, is a business, and if people are willing to pay $225 for a walk-up holiday ticket, why not charge that? Ultimately is boils down to supply and demand: despite what’s been said for years about flat skier growth, skier visits are clearly growing in places with rapidly increasing populations like Colorado, throw in COVID and the increased demand for outdoor recreation, and you get a situation where they can charge $225 for holiday walk-up day tickets.
We’ve had threads about the crazy prices of walk-up tickets before, so I won’t rehash al of those discussions here, but I will say this: the price of a walk-up ticket is less relevant now than it ever has been. When Alterra bought Steamboat, the season pass price went down, and that pass now includes access to some of the best mountains on the continent. Skiing is no longer a sport where you show up without doing your research and assume that walk-up prices will be reasonable. Like so many other events we go to or purchases we make, research is required to compare prices, look for deals, or buy tickets in advance. Lots of great deals exist, from Ikon/Epic or regular season passes for hardcore skiers, to quad packs or the Indy Pass for less regular skiers, to beginners or first-time skiers packages at some resorts, to simply deciding to forgo the most terrain or the fastest lifts and patronizing independent resorts in favor of the big guys. How much is a walk-up ticket at Cooper, or Monarch, or Loveland?
Of course, my last suggestion above gets more and more difficult as the demand for skiing in fast-growing areas of the country increase, and Vail and Alterra expand their footprints. Long-term, how do we keep skiing from becoming too expensive or too crowded, or at least more of both of these than it is now? In most industries, when demand outstrips supply, the answer is to increase supply. Build more ski areas. Give people more options, more choices. For a variety of reasons, this is difficult to impossible in the US.
What will the future hold? I’m feeling pessimistic. The rise of the cheap passes is making skiing, especially destination skiing, very affordable for hardcore skiers, but is contributing to rapid crowding. The backlash against these passes - for example, imagine if Jackson Hole or Alta pulled out of the Ikon Pass next year - could help with crowding and make locals happy...but the result would be that skiing becomes more expensive at these areas for many. How much do 5 lift tickets cost at JHMR or Alta, bought in advance, compared with what you paid for your Ikon Pass with all of your other usage factored in?
www.steamboatpilot.com
Not surprised.
