Holy Expensive! skiing in colorado has gotten out of hand

I grew up in Denver and spent many a day hanging out on the slopes. I left Denver in 2009 and I remember Vail lift tickets had just cracked the $100 mark for a one-day full price lift ticket. I thought that was absolutely ridiculous at the time.

Today - that same ticket is $199. OMG. Ski vacation = 2 kids, 2 parents, 3 days = $2400 just in lift tickets!?! Not to mention travel, rental gear, lodging, food, lessons, etc. Does not compute.

/cheap bastard rant 

There's your data for how much stronger the economy has gotten over the last 10 years!

And here I was thinking that the local $89 for a full day was absurd

Personally, 199 clams for the pleasure of pulling a Sonny Bono while trying to avoid being a$$ berked by an irate bear sounds kinda’ steep.

i wonder if they are doing the same thing that the Disney parks do, they dont want to put a limit on how many people they can let in on any given day so they just slowly up the prices until they can maintain a happy capacity

The fact people actually spend that much money for 3 days of being cold and tired just blows my mind. 

Using the 2 parents, 2 kids, 3 days example, the lift tickets alone are double what I earned last month. 

Good thing I don't like skiing apparently. 

My father goes for 3 weeks every year.  He buys an annual pass, which is cheaper then buying 20 days of skiing, and since he is over 75, he gets a serious Senior discount.  They figure that if you are 75+, you won't actually ski much, so it's pretty cheap.  The joke's on Vail because he'll do over 50,000 vertical feet in pretty short order.  

Yep, 77 years old  

In reply to Robbie :

I think they actually ding you for parking as well on top of that. Vail is outrageously expensive all around, although it's not like any of the other resorts are that much better. My dad and I did a trip out to CO last winter and I think the cheapest ticket I bought was around $140. Vail was definitely most expensive, though. 

The Epic Pass is the only way to go. Something like $800 for the season, if you buy early enough, and you get unlimited runs at a number of resorts all over Colorado and beyond - Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, A Basin, Heavenly, Whistler...and that's just off the top of my head.  

Last weekend our local ski resort (7springs) was charging $125 for the day (they consider Presidents day a holiday weekend).

It is outrageous! 

I got a season pass for around $600 last may.  I only need to go like 7 regular weekend days to pay for it.....   I might not make that number this winter.

We just got back from a two week ski trip to Colorado.  If you want to ski more than a day or two, you have to buy some kind of pass in advance or get ready to bend over.  The last two years we went to Copper because they give out 2 for 1 passes if you bought more than 10 gallons of gas at certain gas stations.  Passes were $150 at the ticket window so we were paying $75/person/day. 

This year we did 8 days at Winter Park for ~$350 total per person (~$45/person/day) by buying "4 pack" passes back in November or December.  Could have been even cheaper if I had purchased earlier.

If you don't/can't purchase a pass in advance, you can get discounted passes on third party sites like liftopia, but I don't think Vail or Breckenridge offer any discounts on there other than rentals.

Skiing is definitely not a cheap sport.

In reply to pinchvalve :

Awesome! My great uncle lived out in the Lake Tahoe area and skied well into his 80s, and I know my dad is hoping to still be skiing at that age as well. He's 20 years the junior of your father, but at the rate he's going I'm sure he'll still be on the slopes at your dad's age and beyond.  

In reply to Furious_E :

Yeah, when I was in HS and college, the 'Epic' pass was called the 5-mountain pass (I think epic was just starting to show up in branding) and it was between $300 and $350 for the season. The main passes were the 5-mountain (keystone, a-basin, brekenridge, vail, beaver creek) but vail and BC days were limited, and I think you also did get days at other resorts around the world, but of course that didn't really matter to me. The other option was the copper mtn and mary jane (same as winter park) pass, and finally for the hardcore there was a loveland-only pass, and the one up by boulder (which I can't remember the name of now - edit: it is Eldora).

Many denver locals ski loveland or a-basin most, because they are closest to denver and don't have overnight resort facilities. They are also smaller and much cheaper.

I'm sure they find a way to hit you for parking.

Dead_Sled said:

We just got back from a two week ski trip to Colorado.  If you want to ski more than a day or two, you have to buy some kind of pass in advance or get ready to bend over.  The last two years we went to Copper because they give out 2 for 1 passes if you bought more than 10 gallons of gas at certain gas stations.  Passes were $150 at the ticket window so we were paying $75/person/day. 

This year we did 8 days at Winter Park for ~$350 total per person (~$45/person/day) by buying "4 pack" passes back in November or December.  Could have been even cheaper if I had purchased earlier.

If you don't/can't purchase a pass in advance, you can get discounted passes on third party sites like liftopia, but I don't think Vail or Breckenridge offer any discounts on there other than rentals.

Skiing is definitely not a cheap sport.

Nice work! They used to have all sorts of discounted tickets available at grocery stores and volume-discount passes, and stuff like "bring in this can of pepsi and get $10 off", the high-school fundraiser coupon books had discounted tickets, etc. Sounds like they probably still have most of that.

In reply to pinchvalve :

Excellent!

Aspen, Vail and Telluride are in a competition to see who can charge the most for walk-up lift tickets. It's a bragging rights thing. You're right, it's way out of hand.

But you never have to pay that. The resorts are aiming for the week-long skiiers. There's no interest in part-time locals, you either need to buy a pass and ski 50 days a year or you fly in and blow your wad in a week. The passes are structured accordingly. Those of us who live a few hours away and go skiing when the weather is good simply aren't part of their calculations.

You can usually get 5-day passes that give you a good deal or hotel/ski combos that really cut things down.  Aspen/Vail have the Epic pass, Telluride has the T-card (probably branded as something else these days, but it's 15% off or so). 

I don't ski at Aspen/Vail at all, just Telluride and Crested Butte.  The former because it's a great mountain with no lift lines, and the latter because it's a great town with some wicked off-piste and no lift lines. The no lift lines thing is because it's a PITA to get to either one from Denver! I've stopped buying tickets ahead of time because the hotel/ski combos make it irrelevant.

Skiing here (Colorado) has never been cheaper!  When I lived in Vail in '92-'93 a season pass was $875, had holiday block out days and was only good at Vail/Beaver Creek.  Now you can buy a unlimited pass for not only Vail/Beaver Creek but also A Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge, Park City, Heavenly for $675.

Yeah, if you're a tourist and don't do your research, you're gonna pay top dollar at the ticket window.  I have no sympathy for those that do, and if they do, they have more than enough money so they don't care.

Now if it would only SNOW out here so I could get some good turns in, then I'd be happy.  Heading up to Vail tomorrow afternoon in fact...

I wonder how long until you'll have outlaw skiers sneaking in and towing themselves up with huge overpowered multicopters or optionally-manned electric snowmobiles that can also be used for a quick getaway

(Yes I can turn anything into an idea fit for a cyberpunk novel, it's so easy these days!)

Skiing is like coke.  Overall, it's a lot cheaper just to not to start doing it.

GameboyRMH said:

I wonder how long until you'll have outlaw skiers sneaking in and towing themselves up with huge overpowered multicopters or optionally-manned electric snowmobiles that can also be used for a quick getaway

(Yes I can turn anything into an idea fit for a cyberpunk novel, it's so easy these days!)

I'm pretty sure the ticket is just to ride their lifts. If you want to walk up or do it some other way I'm not sure there is much they can do. Especially at resorts that rent the land from the government. Now, if you were driving a snow trolley up and down and charging for it, I bet you'd be kicked out quite quickly.

But if you walk, you spend the day hiking and 10 minutes skiing back to the car. And if you are into that there are much better places to ski than the resorts!

If you want to get really crafty, there are probably some places in Colorado where you can park on the side of the road and ski down to a mid-level lift. Mid-level lifts take you from say halfway up to the top of the mountain. They usually do not check for tickets at those lifts because the 'only' way to get there is to come up a different lift from the bottom, where supposedly they did check your ticket.

If you then ski that lift the whole day...

In reply to Robbie :

Or just grab a friend or two and take turns skiing/driving up and down the Loveland Pass 

Looks like I can add skiing to the list of things I will never do in my life. Much like racing.

In reply to Robbie :

Wow, that is insane. I went in 2011 and remember the lift tickets being like $120 at Winter Park (I think). This is the same price as a trip to Disneyworld!

Edit: I vote that everyone gets a dirt bike, ride for 5 days in the mountains, sell bikes when you are done. Almost certainly cheaper than a ski trip. 

In reply to Robbie :

No, there aren't any roads that abut a ski resort so you can ski down to a mid level lift.  No way to do that unless you have a helicopter.

GameboyRMH said:

I wonder how long until you'll have outlaw skiers sneaking in and towing themselves up with huge overpowered multicopters or optionally-manned electric snowmobiles that can also be used for a quick getaway

(Yes I can turn anything into an idea fit for a cyberpunk novel, it's so easy these days!)

How far are we from a drone with a lift capacity of say 250 lbs?  Something that could pick up a human and deposit said human a mile or so away?  Aside from the whole skiing thing it seems like there is a lot of potential there for rescue work and the like.

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

How far are we from a drone with a lift capacity of say 250 lbs?  Something that could pick up a human and deposit said human a mile or so away?  Aside from the whole skiing thing it seems like there is a lot of potential there for rescue work and the like.

There are already multicopters that can lift that much, but for longer than that, there have been unmanned helicopters that can lift way more.