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The 10 Most Expensive Lift Tickets in the US
- Thread starter ski diva
- Start date
santacruz skier
Angel Diva
Without doing any research, we were wondering the same thing @DeweySki . Especially with season passes so cheap now. My only conclusion is there are way more people with season passes than ever before that is is the odd tourist or occasional skier ponying up the money... I know my SIL told me she paid $135 a day for two days in early December at Heavenly. But I also know I have traveled out of state/country and paid whatever for a 6/7 day pass. It is cheaper to ski in Europe though.. Especially if you're over 50...(which you're not)!!
santacruz skier
Angel Diva
So true! Wasn't like that last time at Whistler.
just jane
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I think Copper must lose $$ on DH and me. We get the season pass (abt $400 each), always pack a lunch, park in the free lot and take the free shuttle. I don't get up there as often as I'd like - maybe 10 times a season. Very rarely more, occasionally less. DH usually makes it up a few more days than I do. I did buy some new goggles on the mountain a couple of years ago - on sale, at the end of the season. I'll indulge in a hot chocolate every now and then. So I guess that comes out to about $40 a day for me, a little less for DH. What a bargain!
bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I usually get about 30 days at Breck ... um ... 20 bucks a day maybe? (can't remember exact cost of epic local).
Got the RMSP+ this season, but it doesn't look like we'll break even there, nor on the MCP. Our condo makes it just too easy to stay at Breck.
pinto
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Copper isn't losing money on anything, because they've stopped spending money period!
snow addict
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Crazy prices! And people are complaining here that Zermatt is expensive.... Where you can ski in 2 countries and take underground lifts, and staff is paid Swiss wages.
Mom of Redheads
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I think it all depends on how you look at it. Yes, some of those full price single day tickets are high... In some cases almost twice as much as a typical New England lift ticket ($85-100). BUT you get larger mountains and let's not even consider snow conditions...
Just because I'm, well, the mother of geeks and they have to get it from somewhere, I made a few calculations. For the purposes of this exercise, I used as close to a full price single day lift ticket and the "skiable acreage" as best I could find it on each resort's website.
Using simple division...
Vail... $165 lift ticket/5,289 acres = .03 per acre (i.e. 3 cents)
Deer Valley... 6 cents per acre
Sunday River... 10 cents
Tremblant... 13 cents
Sugarbush... 22 cents
Hunter and Whiteface... 33 cents
So skiing in New York is actually eleven times more expensive than Vail!!
The state run New York resorts are offing a Ski3 season pass good at all the state park resorts. At full price it's over $1,000 for the combined 898 acres of Gore, Belleayre and Whiteface. I didn't feel like adding up the acreage of the resorts covered by the Epic Pass... But I'm sure it's considerable...
Just because I'm, well, the mother of geeks and they have to get it from somewhere, I made a few calculations. For the purposes of this exercise, I used as close to a full price single day lift ticket and the "skiable acreage" as best I could find it on each resort's website.
Using simple division...
Vail... $165 lift ticket/5,289 acres = .03 per acre (i.e. 3 cents)
Deer Valley... 6 cents per acre
Sunday River... 10 cents
Tremblant... 13 cents
Sugarbush... 22 cents
Hunter and Whiteface... 33 cents
So skiing in New York is actually eleven times more expensive than Vail!!
The state run New York resorts are offing a Ski3 season pass good at all the state park resorts. At full price it's over $1,000 for the combined 898 acres of Gore, Belleayre and Whiteface. I didn't feel like adding up the acreage of the resorts covered by the Epic Pass... But I'm sure it's considerable...
Mom of Redheads
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh! I forgot the most expensive resort I found... Right here in New Jersey. Go figure.
Mountain Creek ... $69/167 skiable acres = 41 cents an acre!
Mountain Creek ... $69/167 skiable acres = 41 cents an acre!
deannatoby
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I thought Telluride cost a fortune, too. Like in the mid 100's, but it's not on the list.
Good comparison, Mom of Redheads! What I hate is when passes go up because they want to include multiple mountains. No matter how much I try, I have never been able to ski in more than one place at a time, which means the pass price goes through the roof, but my ski days stay the same. That's one price trick I hate.
Good comparison, Mom of Redheads! What I hate is when passes go up because they want to include multiple mountains. No matter how much I try, I have never been able to ski in more than one place at a time, which means the pass price goes through the roof, but my ski days stay the same. That's one price trick I hate.
snowski/swimmouse
Angel Diva
I guess I"ve been totally ignorant. Reading this thread has me completely in shock!!!!! I thought anything over $89 a day was ridiculous !!!!! I've skied at most of of the top 10 most expensive resorts but, I guess because of the size of our group, I'd no idea a day ticket could be so out of sight! Incomes where I live would NOT support such expenses!!!One annual trip I always knew was a bargain (but apparently waaayyyy more than I knew) is our weeklong trip to Steamboat;
It includes 7 nights lodging, 6 days lift tickets, 5 full days of lessons, 3 lunches with your class, a welcome wine & cheese (enough for dinner), a keg party (also enough for dinner), an apres ski party, a bar-b-que at the top of the gondola with band, a formal dinner the last night, racing and smart wool socks. Only this year did ALL of this go just over $1,000!
Now I see that the lift tickets alone would cost almost this much! ACCK!!!
santacruz skier
Angel Diva
That's a deal... where did you find such a deal?
One annual trip I always knew was a bargain (but apparently waaayyyy more than I knew) is our weeklong trip to Steamboat;
It includes 7 nights lodging, 6 days lift tickets, 5 full days of lessons, 3 lunches with your class, a welcome wine & cheese (enough for dinner), a keg party (also enough for dinner), an apres ski party, a bar-b-que at the top of the gondola with band, a formal dinner the last night, racing and smart wool socks. Only this year did ALL of this go just over $1,000!
Now I see that the lift tickets alone would cost almost this much! ACCK!!!
snowski/swimmouse
Angel Diva
Crescent Ski Council; One must join one of our 20 or so "geographically challenged" ski clubs ($30-$40/yr) in the Southeast, but you do NOT have to live there to do so! 1 or 2 other trips are sponsored each year (Breck 01/17) for the whole council and one can go with other clubs who sponsor their own trips. To learn more enter: "Crescent Ski" and press search.
santacruz skier
Angel Diva
Thanks.. I did several trips to Europe with the Texas Ski Club as I had a friend who lived in San Antonio. Great prices and always nice accommodations ...
snowski/swimmouse
Angel Diva
Yes, you'd find the same with us. Sometimes there are even two price levels i.e. hotel or condo, but all are nice. And there are always fun events included, such as the scavenger hunt, which I love because they usually take us to parts of the mountain that we might not otherwise see. Last year we went to Snowmass Aspen (4 mountains) and during the scavenger hunt I found myself at Buttermilk, where the X games where being held, which I got to see each time I rode the lift-bonus!
santacruz skier
Angel Diva
Thanks.. Will check it out. Sounds great
RuthB
Angel Diva
Welcome to my world. I do have a pretty accurate idea of how much our family spends on skiing per annum, but it would make most people look like this
. To be fair we don't often pay walk up rate for lift tickets, but to be honest they are not a major influence on price. Skiing with a family it is usually the accommodation charges that make your eyeballs bleed, (and for us airfares are the other major expense).It takes a lot of dedication to be a transient / tourist skier and there are some amazing highs and advantages, and some real lows and huge disadvantages. It is definitely not an easy way to keep skiing. You get a whole different perspective of a ski area when you are a tourist. It is amazing the amount of variation in the attitudes to non-locals you get. While terrain and snow reliability are important, the "attitude" that you encounter is a big influence on whether we want to return (and yes we do have three lists - places we haven't been and want to go to; places we have been and loved, and want to go back to; and places that we have been and are not in a hurry to go back to (and only one or two of these are because of terrain).
I do wonder if the ski industry has their model slightly wrong. There are heaps of cheap never ever packages, but virtually nothing for those that are beyond that, but have to travel to ski, So many people we know don't ski anymore because it is too hard to organise and most importantly costly.
surfsnowgirl
Banned
We are members of our local ski club and part of the CT and NY ski councils and if we are ever going to hit a resort not on our normal radar we try to do it via a ski council day where you can hit places like Stowe and Stratton Vermont for less than 50 bucks. We also do a ski trip with the club a year. I think we may do an out west trip next year with them, the pricing is just so good...... flat price includes airfare, lift tickets and at least 1 to 2 meals a day.
