Stowe sets New England record with $147. lift ticket

[ski diva]

From NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com:

Focusing on selling Epic Passes and online advance tickets, Stowe's weekend retail ticket window rate is now reaching $139, not including Vermont sales tax.

Vail Resorts does not publish ticket window rates, but has listed window rates for January 5th in the online store, the first non-holiday Saturday of the year. In addition, Vail now adds Vermont's 6% sales tax on top of its advertised ticket price. Bundled with the sales tax, Stowe's window rate is $147.34.

Stowe was the first ski area in New England to cross the $100 threshold in 2014 and has seen annual increases of an average of $10.

Killington and Stratton have the next highest weekend day prices in New England at $129.

 

[newboots]

Ugh.

 

[tinymoose]

At least online tickets are still under $100?

 

[santacruz skier]

Sounds like Heavenly & Northstar. Think around $150. Met a guy on the lift who was doing a 3 hour private at Northstar in the afternoon for $600.... What? No wonder I don't take lessons.

 

[SuperSkiMom]

At least online tickets are still under $100?

You have to buy that in advance and don't forget the tax.

 

[marymack]

Its unfortunate that the only people this hits are the once a year skiers, the new skiers and the not-in-the-know-casual skiers....no wonder there is less than a 20% conversion rate of new skiers to returning skiers. People see prices like that and think "I could never afford to be a skier". However if you are a little in the know you know there are ways around it. I didnt get a pass this year but picked up a ton of lift tickets at the ski expo and dont intend to spend over $50 on lift tickets for any ski day. I know economics says the more returnees you get the better and loyal customers are worth a lot....but the ski industry could be headed for a dangerous collapse if enough new skiers and riders get turned off by the prices before they learn the work arounds.

 

[Abbi]

Sounds like Heavenly & Northstar. Think around $150. Met a guy on the lift who was doing a 3 hour private at Northstar in the afternoon for $600.... What? No wonder I don't take lessons.

I NEED a lesson but am choking on the cost. And yes I get paying for skills since the one time (vs a package at lower rate) rate my studio charges for me to teach is $80 an hour. I’d be thrilled to only pay $80 an hour for a private lesson skiing!

 

[ski diva]

I think the whole point of these high walk-up window rates is to push the sales of Epic, Ikon, or regular season passes. These passes do a good job of locking you in to specific resorts where yes, you'll spend on food, lodging, lessons, etc. Yes, the ones who suffer are the occasional skiers or people who just wake up in the morning and decide, 'hey, let's go skiing today.' You're right, @marymack, it closes out a lot of new skiers and makes it completely unaffordable. There has to be a better way.

 

[MissySki]

I think the whole point of these high walk-up window rates is to push the sales of Epic, Ikon, or regular season passes. These passes do a good job of locking you in to specific resorts where yes, you'll spend on food, lodging, lessons, etc. Yes, the ones who suffer are the occasional skiers or people who just wake up in the morning and decide, 'hey, let's go skiing today.' You're right, @marymack, it closes out a lot of new skiers and makes it completely unaffordable. There has to be a better way.

Good point, I guess it does make you really want to buy a season pass! Stinks that they essentially shut others out though. I certainly am open to skiing other mountains than what's on the Ikon, and if I were making a last minute decision to go somewhere other than those locations I definitely would NOT choose somewhere like Stowe charging such an obscene price. I'm not a big Stowe fan in general though, so I would never think this pricing structure was worth what I'd get out of skiing there.

 

[Jilly]

One thing to look at is, what is the price for a round of golf? Golf usually only last 1/2 day. Lift tickets are good for a whole day. (or some places have 1/2 day, 4 hour, 2 hour etc).

But, yes, that once a year, just trying it out etc.....that's $$$ Add in rentals, food....ugh!!

 

[Jenny]

All that means is that golf is overpriced, too!

 

[MsWax]

We have season passes in NH, but were going to visit friends at Stowe for a weekend. Then I figured out that even buying early it would cost my family of 5 almost $1k for lift tickets for the weekend and we had to change our plans. It's outrageous!

 

[MaineSkiLady]

I think the whole point of these high walk-up window rates is to push the sales of Epic, Ikon, or regular season passes. These passes do a good job of locking you in to specific resorts where yes, you'll spend on food, lodging, lessons, etc.

^^ This. For sure.

 

[marzNC]

Having just skied at non-destination places in NH in the past week, it's been interesting to see how well some mid-size mountains are doing. They are building new lifts, adding snowmaking infrastructure, adding more non-skiing activities, looking at more ways to bring in 4-season revenue, and generally looking forward to growing the business in the near future. Obviously some places have gone out of business in the last couple decades, but that's true of many industries. The leisure industry keeps evolving.

Fair to say that the people I've talked to often have no idea that online ski forums exist, and have little need to look around for alternative places to ski. They are happy where they ski for assorted reasons.

Cranmore, Attitash, Bretton Woods all have pretty good packages for beginners. The seasonal programs and race programs for kids and adults are clearly one reason that many families drive farther from Boston on a regular basis. I met seniors who ski Cannon midweek but also have a season pass to Loon as a backup.

Have to say it still surprises me when I mention Alta and someone has tells me they have never heard of it. One person said that it must be a small unknown mountain. But he's never skied outside more than a half day's drive of his house. His kids grew up skiing. His young adult son has a good job and is starting to get curious about going out west. But he seems quite content to ski locally as he can fit a day or two into his schedule without a season pass. Price increases at destination resorts have no impact on his choice of where to go.

 

[tinymoose]

You have to buy that in advance and don't forget the tax.

Still better than that $147 mess. lol. That's a hell of a discrepancy between online and ticket window.

 

[newboots]

I suppose the resort owners know enough about marketing to make the calculus, but it does seem as though first time skiers will be quickly turned off by these prices. My son-in-law’s only experience skiing was years ago, but at Killington, where they paid the window price and rented skis and boots. (A friend’s family had a condo.). No lesson, didn’t have much fun, and had no interest in skiing after that. It could have been otherwise.

 

[VTsnowflower]

I NEED a lesson but am choking on the cost. And yes I get paying for skills since the one time (vs a package at lower rate) rate my studio charges for me to teach is $80 an hour. I’d be thrilled to only pay $80 an hour for a private lesson skiing!

Several thoughts here about lessons:
1. Not quite your $80 threshold, but an early bird (8:30 on a weekend or holiday) 1 hour private at Okemo is $115, and booking it 7 days in advance gets you a 10% discount, according to their website.
2. Midweek adult group lessons often end up as private or almost private. Worth taking a chance? (2-hour group lesson at Okemo is $80.] I had a one on one ‘group’ lesson at Sugarbush once for ‘free’, because lessons were automatically added on to the lodging and lift ticket deal we had.
3. And then just think about what the instructors earn... East coast instructors that I know earn as little as $9/hour (in PA). At least Vermont has a minimum wage of $10.50!

 

[kiki]

At whistler this year my annual pass was $1289 canadian plus gst so about $1350.
If a friend wanted to just come up for the day, for example this Saturday, the online price Including tax is $172 Canadian. The daily rate is prohibitive!

 

[marzNC]

At whistler this year my annual pass was $1289 canadian plus gst so about $1350.
If a friend wanted to just come up for the day, for example this Saturday, the online price Including tax is $172 Canadian. The daily rate is prohibitive!

Have you checked the prices of the other ski areas within a few hours drive of Whistler? Obviously not in the same class in terms of terrain or resort amenities. I'm just curious what the options are in the region.

In the northeast, there are a lot of options for fun skiing within two hours of Stowe and Killington, especially if meeting up with a friend. I thoroughly enjoyed Pico (right next to Killington) skiing solo a few years ago. Prices at Pico this season are $80/85 at the window or heavily discounted online at least 24-hours in advance from the Pico website.

 

[MissySki]

Have you checked the prices of the other ski areas within a few hours drive of Whistler? Obviously not in the same class in terms of terrain or resort amenities. I'm just curious what the options are in the region.

In the northeast, there are a lot of options for fun skiing within two hours of Stowe and Killington, especially if meeting up with a friend. I thoroughly enjoyed Pico (right next to Killington) skiing solo a few years ago. Prices at Pico this season are $80/85 at the window or heavily discounted online at least 24-hours in advance from the Pico website.

Do you know if you can ski Pico with the Ikon, I've heard mixed things? I haven't been in a really long time, since I was a very timid beginner. Would love to do a day there this season to check it out now.