Why is the cost of skiing disproportionately aimed at ski resorts?

[techcrium]

Yes lift tickets are expensive and they are forcing you to get into the season passes.

However:
-Many skiers today have 2+ sets of skis (etc one for powder one for carve) with some die hards having 6+ (Cost: $1500-$3000). Ski equipment, is just like any other commodity and don't last forever. Eventually they would have to be replaced and the industry average is around 7 years.
-Skiing specific clothing. Most people have 1-2+ skiing specific jacket that isn't really worn anywhere else. Waterproof, pass pocket, snow waist trap etc. As well, snowpants, thermal socks, gloves, etc (Cost: $300-$1200)
-Ski helmet $50-$150
-Ski Goggles. High end ski goggles can go upwards of $250. Cost: $50-$250
-Ski wax and tuning each year ($50 per set)
-Cargo roof: More and more people spend upwards of $1000 for those Thule cargo systems
-Gas costs: Depending on where you live, it costs anywhere from $15-$40 (1hr-3hr) per day trip to your local resort. If you go 20x, thats $300-$800
-Winter Tires: Depending on where you live, you would have to get winter tires that you otherwise wouldn't have bought. Cost $1000+
-Ski Vacation: Not going to estimate this but definitely in the $3000+ and even $10,000 for a family of 4

As you can see, we have quite a few costs beyond the price of a pass/lift ticket yet the majority of the discussion about costs are aimed at ski resorts...
I have yet to see anyone lament paying $300 to tune their 6 sets of ski gear...

 

[scott43]

Is that you Alterra!!??

 

[firebanex]

Skiing is cheaper than riding bikes. *Stares at the $7000 mtb that doesn't get ridden for 6 months of the year*

 

[crgildart]

Because you can't get a lift ticket from a thrift store. Every other single thing required can be procured for a song if you look around.

I've not paid more than $300 for skis and bindings delivered since the 1980s. Hilarious that the three pairs out of my 10 pair skiable quiver I use the MOST OFTEN each cost less than $20 including bindings.

Jackets, gloves, helmets, boots, all of it procured via online auctions and thrift stores.

But, the ski pass? That's the one thing I can only find a good deal on once a year.. Appalachian Ski Mountain has $10 lift tickets every first weekend in December. That and weekday non-holiday rates if I take Jan 3rd off. Rest of it is weekend/holiday rates. $100 per day for 2-3 more days ends up being hands down the highest cost.. and I don't buy food there LOL! The price of a day ticket is the same as 5 pairs of skis and bindings that I actually use. Most are 2010+ gear too.


Sure my goggles only go down to the bottom of my nose, and most of my jackets have old style rain flaps over the zipper. But, out on the mountain my turns are as good as anyone's and my smile just as big.

 

[scott43]

We buy the kids stuff in the summer. I don't think we've paid more than $50 for any jacket/pant combo yet for them. I haven't bought outerwear in twenty years.

 

[techcrium]

Because you can't get a lift ticket from a thrift store. Every other single thing required can be procured for a song if you look around.

I've not paid more than $300 for skis and bindings delivered since the 1980s. Hilarious that the three pairs out of my 10 pair skiable quiver each cost less than $20 including bindings.

Jackets, gloves, helmets, boots, all of it procured via online auctions and thrift stores.

But, the ski pass? That's the one thing I can only find a good deal on once a year.. Appalachian Ski Mountain has $10 lift tickets every first weekend in December. That and weekday non-holiday rates if I take Jan 3rd off. Rest of it is weekend/holiday rates. $100 per day for 2-3 more days ends up being hands down the highest cost.. and I don't buy food there LOL!

Actually you can. Most of Alterra and Vail mountains are premiere mountains. There are tons of much cheaper ski resorts around Denver area that aren't Vail or Alterra owned. They are the thrift equivalent. Killington/Stowe are the premiere mountains of NE. The smaller ones like Mohawk, Shawnee would be the much cheaper options for locals there.


As well, I seriously doubt that the majority of posters here are buying jackets/helmets/boots all thrift.

 

[techcrium]

We buy the kids stuff in the summer. I don't think we've paid more than $50 for any jacket/pant combo yet for them. I haven't bought outerwear in twenty years.

I seriously doubt the majority of people aren't buying outerwear every single year. Otherwise how are ski clothing companies growing their revenue exponentially every year?

 

[crgildart]

Reworded, Yes, the cost of "looking cool" is up there too, but that has nothing to do with the cost of skiing.

 

[crgildart]

Actually you can. Most of Alterra and Vail mountains are premiere mountains. There are tons of much cheaper ski resorts around Denver area that aren't Vail or Alterra owned. They are the thrift equivalent. Killington/Stowe are the premiere mountains of NE. The smaller ones like Mohawk, Shawnee would be the much cheaper options for locals there.


As well, I seriously doubt that the majority of posters here are buying jackets/helmets/boots all thrift.

Show me ONE place where the average weekend holiday walk up day ticket is less than $80. That's FOUR pairs of thrift store skis. And skiing being expensive applies to everyone, not just this demographic posting here. If ti wasn't there would be more people posting here.

 

[skiki]

Actually you can. Most of Alterra and Vail mountains are premiere mountains. There are tons of much cheaper ski resorts around Denver area that aren't Vail or Alterra owned. They are the thrift equivalent. Killington/Stowe are the premiere mountains of NE. The smaller ones like Mohawk, Shawnee would be the much cheaper options for locals there.


As well, I seriously doubt that the majority of posters here are buying jackets/helmets/boots all thrift.

Not helmet or boots for obvious reasons, but the rest is almost always thrift, resale, or NOS. Oh wait, helmet and boots are usually NOS, just not used.

 

[techcrium]

Show me ONE place where the average weekend holiday walk up day ticket is less than $80. That's FOUR pairs of thrift store skis. And skiing being expensive applies to everyone, not just this demographic posting here. If ti wasn't there would be more people posting here.

So you are telling me that you are willing to buy some crap skis for $20 that probably have chipped/rusted metal and then you are willing to ski with those same skis at Deer Valley, Sugarbush, Vail, or Stowe and then proceed to complain that the lift ticket ruined your ski experience??

 

[crgildart]

You can find NOS or used twice 3-5 year old boots for really cheap if you look Liners can be heat molded twice.. Most reputable boot fitters will work on them. Same with helmets and everything. Gear is only expensive if you feel it's important to be seen out there rocking the latest and greatest. Way more gear options than lift ticket options when looking for value/deals.

 

[crgildart]

So you are telling me that you are willing to buy some crap skis for $20 that probably have chipped/rusted metal and then you are willing to ski with those same skis at Deer Valley, Sugarbush, Vail, or Stowe and then proceed to complain that the lift ticket ruined your ski experience??

None of my skis have any core shots, no rust. Most were skied two to three times tops before I bought them Here is my quiver about 5 years ago. I've added a brand new pair of 2015 COREupt Lunatics. They were $110 shipped. I mounted my own bindings.. Boots are now Salomon Falcon 10 bought without a single mark on the soles. Goode carbon poles with the detachable straps $5. Like 5 other sets of nice poles for that or less.. I was using LEKI poles yesterday.

 

[crgildart]

My intermediate adult son is skiing a pair of Atomic Nomad Smokes. They were $9.99 and looked like they had NEVER been skied. He used them five seasons now. So they've got about 15 days on them now. You cam pay a lot more to be seen on the latest gear, but unless you're racing high level, gear from 2015 performs well enough.. There really hasn't been much tech innovation that matters and would be noticeable to 90% of us. Cooler tip and tail shapes, stuff like that that is cosmetic..

Looking cool is what costs a lot. Having totally adequate and well performing 5-10 year old gently used gear is totally doable and affordable.

 

[scott43]

So you are telling me that you are willing to buy some crap skis for $20 that probably have chipped/rusted metal and then you are willing to ski with those same skis at Deer Valley, Sugarbush, Vail, or Stowe and then proceed to complain that the lift ticket ruined your ski experience??

I don't think the ticket cost ruins the experience, it just factors into the feasibility of the sport. People only have so much dough and they have to pick where to spend it. If they pay a lot and the experience is crap for whatever reason, that may be it for that family. Skier visits are up so the cost of tickets is seemingly not that penal at the moment..

 

[scott43]

I seriously doubt the majority of people aren't buying outerwear every single year. Otherwise how are ski clothing companies growing their revenue exponentially every year?

My experience may not be representative but my uncool gear from 2000 works for me. I can't speak for the fashion slaves..

 

[dovski]

So I like Arc'Teryx ski gear, and the retail price on this stuff is crazy expensive .... but I have never paid retail for any of my Arc'Teryx. In fact my go to ski jacket is the same one I have had for the last 6 years and I bought at a crazy good closeout price over the summer at about a 70-80% discount. While I do have 3 pairs of skis, I have not bought a single pair in the last 2+ years and my powder skis are about 7 years old. Again bought most of this stuff over the summer so avoided paying full retail or in season prices. With my kids we have done the same thing and we also pass down gear when we can. So yes if you add up the retail price of all the gear we have as a family of 5 it is a lot, but if you look at what we actually paid and amortize it over multiple years it is actually not so bad. Plus when the kids outgrow stuff we sell it or trade it in - last year we traded in 4 pairs of skis at Powder7 and got enough credit for two new pairs of skis with bindings for the kids .... my point is if you invest the time you can make your ski dollars go much much farther. Likewise when it comes to ski trips we book stuff over the summers so we get the best deals possible and in general our ski vacations are quite reasonable.

Now I used to build out spreadsheets to figure out how to save the most $$ on lift tickets and that used to be a combination of our local ski hill with a mountain collective add on plus an Edge Card for Whistler, PNW pass for Stevens, occasionally Liftopia or indy mountains ... and we used to get some great deals there, but prices have gone up and Epic and Ikon mountains have become pervasive. We now just buy our local mountain pass because we are there so much and an Ikon Pass and plan our skiing to maximize the use of these. This is our single biggest expense each year and each year it increases. Without these passes, which are expensive, skiing would not be viable as the price of day passes has gone through the roof.

To be clear what we as a family pay for passes has increased exponentially where as what we pay for ski gear and even our ski vacations has remained relatively flat ... not to imply that ski gear or ski vacations are cheap mind you. Bottom line this is an expensive sport even when you are spending wisely, but our single largest expense and the one we have the least control over is the price of ski passes/lift tickets, so I do think that holding ski resorts accountable for this is justified. Now I am not complaining either as we get a lot of mileage which makes our per day cost palatable, but for a family that is new to the sport this does present a huge barrier to entry as they likely will not be logging that many ski days compared to us, so the daily cost to ski is super high for them.

 

[crgildart]

What's also a big expense resort wise is that if you don't ski more than 10 days a year due to work schedule or geographic limitations the Epic or Ikon does not help. If you can't ski weekdays you're going to be paying $100/day on average just to ride the lift.

 

[johnnyvw]

None of my skis have any core shots, no rust. Most were skied two to three times tops before I bought them Here is my quiver about 5 years ago. I've added a brand new pair of 2015 COREupt Lunatics. They were $110 shipped. I mounted my own bindings.. Boots are now Salomon Falcon 10 bought without a single mark on the soles. Goode carbon poles with the detachable straps $5. Like 5 other sets of nice poles for that or less.. I was using LEKI poles yesterday.

View attachment 220332

I gotta find this place....

 

[crgildart]

So I like Arc'Teryx ski gear, and the retail price on this stuff is crazy expensive ....

I saw an Arc'Teryx (not the Walmart ARTIX or whatever) at Goodwill about 5 years ago. It was really nice. $15.00 I didn't like they layout of the inside pockets as much as my TNF that was the same color scheme so I left it there to make someone else/s day.