lift tix and travel expenses
Jeff Hornick
Emilio Trampuz
It's interesting that Europe can be cheaper than many US ski resorts these days.
In an earlier posting here in this Forum, I mentioned that I was surprised at the super high day ticket prices at Jackson Hole. But I forgot to mention that lodging in Jackson, Wyoming, is even more expensive than lift tickets.
Everywhere else along my route in Wyoming, I can find lodging for well under $100 a night. Some places as little as just $50 a night. But in Jackson, Wyoming, almost all lodgings cost over $200, and many cost as much as $300 or even over $400 per night. Who can afford that?
If I were to stay in Jackson for around $250, and ski at Jackson Hole ($256 in late February), just one day would cost me around $500. And that doesn't include any meals. Plus, on top of that, Jackson Hole also charges for parking -- $35 on week days, and $45 on weekends. Add the meals and the parking, and suddenly the cost of a day of skiing is approaching $600 per person.
So, yes, Europe suddenly looks much more inviting. And Canada too, because we are close enough to Canada that we don't even have to fly there. We can simply drive our own car into British Columbia or Alberta.
Emilio
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Linda or Bruce McGavin
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Diane Z
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Linda or Bruce McGavin
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George Yun (George)
Come on, the ski industry changed its economic model more than 10 years ago. Where have you been? If you want to chase powder, you need to get EPIC or IKON, or both. Whistler also offers 5 or 10 days Edge card for WA and OR residents. For example, I bought 5 day Edge card in April 2025 and it gives 5 days skiing plus free days before Dec-12. When Hood was bone dry, Whistler was open about 25% in early December. I went and skied Whistler for free for 5 days and I still have 5 days left on my pass. I paid about U$350, so I will end up paying $35 per day - at Whistler!
I have the Ikon also, so I was able to ski 2 powder days at Panorama and 7 wonderful days at fully open world class Banff resorts - Sunshine, Lake Louise, and Norquay in prime condition when neither Timberline or Meadows were closed. There are so many Iconic resorts within 1 day driving distance. For example, I can pack up and leave for Jackson or Big Sky tomorrow if I see a major dump coming their way. Not arguing the day tix is outrageous but just saying there is a way to do it cheaper if you want to chase powder... definitely cheaper than chasing women ;-)
Emilio Trampuz
Well, yes, the ski areas are raising their day ticket prices in order to force us to buy their season passes, like the EPIC or IKON. If you ski a lot at either EPIC or IKON ski areas, this makes sense. even though these passes cost something in the vicinity of $1,000 each. That's why, to make it work financially, you need to ski a lot of days at their ski areas.
Personally, I prefer the INDY pass, which gives you 2 free days at over 200 ski areas. That's a total of 400 free ski days. You could be skiing free every day all winter if you are willing to travel to all these places. And the EPIC pass costs something around $300. I can't remember exactly what I paid for it, but it was in that range. Oh, and by the way, Mt. Hood MEadows is on the INDY pass too, so I get 2 free days at Meadows.
And people who alreaqdy have a MEadows PAss can buy the INDY pass as an "add on" for only around $200. These $200 gives you access to over 200 ski areas.
I like that the INDY pass is based on mutual cooperation between ski areas, rather than one powerful conglomerate buying up other ski areas, which is what Alterra and Vail Resorts are doing.
Also, I prefer the freedom of a road trip, where I can drive to a variety of ski areas and ski them all. In fact, I am trying to ski all the ski areas in the West, everything west of Denver. And such road trips (ski safaris) are the only way to do it. But, that means that I have to rely on day lift tickets, except at a few places where my multi-ski-area pass works. And Vail Resorts and Alterra are ruining things for me.
However, I am lucky that I have already skied at most of the big names, the famous ski areas, the ones that now cost an arm and a le to ski. So, most of the remaining ski areas that I have yet to visit are small or medium sized ski areas. Some of them are even quite large, but they are unknown hidden gems that serve mostly the local population and have very few visiting tourists. Two good examples are Marmot Basin and Castle Mountain, both in Alberta, Canada. They are both huge, they offer more terrain than you can ski in a day, a lot of vertical, and great powder. At Castle Mountain, much of the terrain is scary steep.
These less well known ski areas and ski hills have the following advantages:
- No crowds on the slopes.
- No lift lines, or very, very short lines.
- Very affordable lift ticket prices, some as low as $15 or $20. One is free on certain days. One operates on donations only.
- Very affordable cafeteria prices, with each item under $10. Compare that with a $25 burger at Sun Valley.
- A relaxed atmosphere. Nobody is in a hurry.
- Powder snow lasts much, much longer than at the crowded expensive places. I was once really late at arriving at a smaller ski area. I got there at about 11:30 am. There was only one powder skier there, a local guy. He left some tracks in the fresh powder. I immediately skied figure 8s against his tracks, and then proceeded to explore other untouched powder stashes.
Emilio
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George Yun (George)
Hi Emilio, the club used to take 2 or 3 trips per season and I would think the cost of EPIC or IKON will make sense to most folks with taking only 2 trips, and of course you can take as many as you like. Take a pick - Big Sky, Jackson, Whistler, Alta/Snowbird, Deer Valley, Sun Valley, Squaw Valley, Copper, Steamboat, and Bachelor to name a few. I would be happy to spend an entire season at any one of these resorts.
I looked at the list of Indy resorts. I agree there are a few good ones but mostly lame and I’d get bored within an hour of skiing those places - but that’s just me. If I’m going to travel all that way to get there, I’d much prefer a destination worth going to and stay at least a week. And once you factor in all the travel cost, I don’t think there is much difference whether you take the indy or Epic/Ikon route.
As to crowds at mega resorts, it’s usually the initial morning load at the base that takes some time. I rarely run into long lines at any of these resorts afterwards. Once I’m up I can find ways to avoid crowds and so far managed to find untracked lines well into the afternoon at these “mega crowded” resorts. I had one of the most memorable powder days at Panorama on Saturday and Sunday with hardly any lines. Same thing at Red last year on weekends.
Anyway, it does not really matter where you go as long as you are having fun.
Emilio Trampuz
You make some really good points there. Not everyone likes ski safaris (aka road trips). Many people prefer to stay put in one place for a whole week. Karen Michels proved that when she organized a whole series of week-long ski trips to Canada.
People didn't even seem to mind paying more for more luxurious lodging, when one year we offered them a choice between two types of lodgings at Silver Star. That was the first year. Then, the next year, we didn't even offer the cheaper option any more. Everyone went to the more luxurious place.
So, you have good ideas. And you have a good choice of places we could go to. Would you be interested in organizing a trip like this, based either on the IKON or EPIC pass? We are seriously in need of new trip leaders.
Emilio
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Felicia Gavett
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George Yun (George)
Emilio, thanks for the promotion but I can’t even organize my closet and I must decline. : ) Also I no longer plan ski trips several months ahead of time. The beauty of having Ikon/Epic pass is the flexibility to choose where to go on a moment’s notice. The quality of the skiing experience depends so much on snow conditions and weather that I will decide where to go based on next week to 2 week’s snow forecast… even then the forecast can be a miss. Anyway, I would love to connect with people with Ikon pass that can leave on a moment’s notice and chase the powder/storm.
Emilio Trampuz
No problem, I understand
But, hey, post a message right here in this All-club Forum (which is a Google Group). I mean, start a new Conversation titled something like "Let's use our IKON passes!" And ask if there are other people who would be willing to join you when the snow is good.
There are two ways you can post a new message, a new conversation:
1. Go to our website, mthigh.org, click on the All-club Forum button in the menu, and then click on "Start a new conversation", which should appear somewhere in the upper left corner of the screen.
or
2. Simply send an email to: MtH...@googlegroups.com
The result will be the same either way.
Or, if you prefer, you can leave a message in the Mid-weeek Forum. The email address for the Mid-week Forum is: mthigh-...@googlegroups.com
Emilio
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