When I was a teenager ParkWest(now part of Park City)was $24 for a lift ticket. Locals could get 50% off with a free card from 7-11. For $40 I could buy gas, a lift ticket, and a bag of weed. The good old days.
Yup and now they have more terrain, high speed lifts, more grooming/snow making machines. Diesel fuel along is super expensive so obviously they have to raise the price
I hear Park City is way overcrowded now because of these passes. I just moved to Utah but haven't skied yet this year. Actually it's been many years since I've skied. Ouch with these prices!
@@andreabontempo643 fyi. I'm talking about 1987. When ParkWest was one of the first Mountains in Utah that allowed snowboarding. I haven't put on a pair skis since 1985.
I live in Steamboat, and the main reasons prices are so high is because they want everyone to buy the $1200 IKON pass. Once Aspen and Vail started competing to gobble up all the ski mountains, they found their crowd that would drop $10k+ in a weekend, and pushed out the ski bums and locals that would only drop ~$800 on a pass, and didn't spend money on the mountain. Gentrification of the ski industry lol
Hahaha Aspen Snowmass has 4 mountains. Vail is the one taking all the spots. Aspen is in the arm pit of the roaring fork valley. Locals don’t go there. It’s no threat to the local scene. 😂
vail is POS charged me withiut refund 180 even tho they CLOSED THE PARK ALL DAY due to snow storm... had to dispute charge fck them will never go to vail resorts again, boreal is 79$ and a better park...
@@ashmomofboys Aspen and KSL founded Alterra. They've got more than a dozen resorts and are acquiring more all the time. They just bought Schweitzer this year.
For these prices, you can go to France and get WAY better views and more terrain at a similar cost. You can ski 6 days at Les Trois Vallee (Biggest ski resort in the WORLD) in France for $380($63 a day), Lodging is cheaper, a flight from the US can sometimes be comparable (if your lucky) but likely a little more expensive than a flight from Virginia to Utah. You also get 36,000 acres of skiable terrain vs 8,200 @ Whistler Blackcomb (largest ski resort in NORTH AMERICA). Snow conditions are usually better in the US/Canada but I've had great conditions in Europe also.
Yes, but it also costs thousands of more dollars for plane tickets and hotels and no one's actually trying to go to France if they're not die-hard skiers. Sure, the lift tickets aren't as expensive, but the hole trip would cost way more not to mention the hassle of flying to a different country. I would rather suck it up at Vail or Park City the to spend more money for terrain in my opinion is not as good as American terrain. (I'm more of a guy who likes to ski in the trees and not someone who like to ski on a wide-open trail.)
@@lukehiles184 you can get a week in the largest ski resort in the world for the price of not even 2 days in some of these american resorts. And there are trees in european resorts, in the worlds largest ski resorts of around 400 miles of pist, there is bound to be forest to ski in.
These prices have been driving casual skiers from the sport for years. The MBAs have crunched the numbers and found that the best way to milk the cow is to (a) get people to commit by forcing them into season passes, (b) drive local business from the resort grounds to eliminate food/bev competition and capture more of the local spend, and (c) make the real big bucks through property development via condos. All of these resorts have lost local character as the only customers that can afford them are in the upper echelons of wealth. OTOH, they also invested heavily in on-mountain development so at least the ski experience (other than crowds) has improved quite a bit. Remember life before detachable lifts?
For those very reasons we’re heading to interior BC this winter to ski great terrain serviced by fixed grip lifts at mountains that still retain their charming character.
This is spot on… After living and working in the ski industry in Europe for 17 years, the last 10 years I’ve spent in Big Sky, and your comment is so true here. Between the raising costs along with many owners selling out to make even the most affordable places into air bnb. Very sad how local flavor is starting to fade away.
But would lower costs makes the crowds smaller? No…so, if it’s “only the upper echelon” that can afford it, it seems there’s still too much upper echelon.
I book a trip for 7-9 days out west at a different big resort every year. We get 12-16 people to go on the trip every year. We rent a big cabin and split it. Not terrible at all. Lift tickets have definitely gone up the past 8 years we have been going haha.
Yeah it’s embarrassing talking to my coworkers about this, $300++ just to try it out for a day. Nobody new is entering the sport except for a few local kids and for tourists it’s children that come from rich legacy skiing families.
I have said for a long time that the western ski resorts are going to ruin the ski industry, making it only available to the super rich. I used to take my family out west for a ski vacation every year and it wasn’t cheap. But these rates are insane. Most families could not afford these rates.
Have you not been watching what the world is becoming? EVERYTHING is becoming out of reach by the common person. Everything is becoming only accessible by the rich. In 20 years there will be rich people and working class. The good times are up. Get your skiing in now before you’re totally priced out
Rising lift ticket prices have greatly incentivized the purchase of season passes. For several years, we’ve bought EPIC or IKON and absolutely enjoyed our money’s worth. The resorts on those passes live up to their epic and iconic brands, but I am likely switching to the INDY pass. The Indy resorts are a bit smaller, off brand, and more remote, and therefore less crowded. Getting back to the vibe of being there for the skiing rather than the glitz and glamor.
The lift systems at these resorts are embarrassing and terrain not very extensive. I genuinely laughed when I saw Epic resorts in Tahoe, it was like going back in time.
Glitz and glamour is ALL Aspen is about. I was there on a weekend this January (100% open). Four people in line for opening chair on Sunday. 4!😎. I was also the only person I met who had driven in. Everyone else had flown or lived (retired) there.
HAHAHAHA, in Austria you can buy a 5 day pass to a resort multiple times the size of the largest resort in the US for about $400. Those resorts come equipped with more gondolas than you can imagine, bubble chairs everywhere and on hill restaurants that make the average cafeteria in the US look like an airplane meal. No wonder I gave up on North American skiing years ago just fly across the pond for my vacation now.
Thanks for the list, I would personally title it 10 resorts reaffirming why I m done with boarding after 30 years of doing it. Between the prices, crowds, rules, and crappy attitudes, backcountry is the only thing worth doing anymore
As a kid living in Truckee I was spoiled by student rates. Olympic Valley was expensive at $7 for Sundays. My go to was Alpine Meadows at $2 for Sundays. There there was Boreal with a night pass for $100/season. Fun working at Porter Ski & Sport, grabbing demo gear and skiing with the ski bums and snowboarding every weekday night till it was too cold. oomph, $200 what???
Before vail took over whistler/blackcomb, they sold lift tickets at 7/11 in Vancouver for $69. It was packed every season. The vibes second to none. Now it's full of rich prudes and lifties.
This just isn’t true…year before vail took over, 7/11 sold tickets in 110-120 range. But agreed, vibes were better then…especially during the intrawest era 😌
279.00 was the season ticket price i paid for Snoqualmie pass Washington in the mid 90s. that included perks and parking plus 3 days skis, boots, and lessons if wanted. my kids were even less.
I used to be a ski instructor at Snoqualmie West back in the day. I of course had a season pass, but if I went to another resort I showed my PSIA badge and got a free lift ticket. Not anymore. It is a sport for the rich now.
Long post alert sharing experience from US and European perspective as I’ve lived both. I am a former PNW resident who would frequent Mt. Hood resorts (MHM) as a day pass holder, 10x pass holder, midweek pass holder, season pass holder depending on the year. Seeing demand based pricing everywhere now in the States is such a turn off now as a tourist coming to the PNW from So. Germany. Whistler is now the cheapest even compared to tiny resorts with little to offer. Ski resorts in Europe are different altogether in terms of pricing, size, snow totals/quality, and infrastructure and at least in Bavaria, and Austria the walk up rates are between 48 and 65 eur per day even at mega resorts. There are typically no lift lines to speak of (less than 2 mins) because the lift infrastructure is well thought out sometimes having two 6-10 person lifts right next to each other. Seems to me that US ski resorts have an Uphill Capacity problem that they aim to solve with jacked up rates instead of infrastructure improvements YoY. European resorts could learn from US resorts on how to open up more varied terrain and US resorts could learn from European ski resorts on how to build ski infrastructure to support growth. If you need to charge these exorbitant rates for a day pass, it’s not the customers problem, it’s yours as a business.
I'm in Switzerland, been riding my whole life, and my local (quaint, awesome, cheap and off the radar) resort had a massive cash injection a few years ago with massive hotel and lift development. A major stake was recently sold off to a large, well known American operator. Since we have gotten dynamic pricing with increases anywhere from 20% to 150% depending on the day. Having family (thus having to buy several tickets for a day) I'm priced out. And that was that I guess.
I kind of quit skiing when tickets hit $50 a day. I move on to hiking, winter backpacking and climbing. You could spend days in the woods and mountains for just the cost of gas and food. (well, some different gear too).
I decided to start traveling again to different resorts after a two year hiatus as most covid restrictions have been lifted only to discover that the rates for lodging have increased by 50-100%.
I used to golf with an old old skier. He would go to Whitefish Montana to ski because of his age they let him ski for free. He was a ski coach most of his life. He passed on a year ago but the last time I talked to him he was livid because his ski hill wanted to charge him $135 for the entire season instead of free.
Sorry but I don't feel bad for him. Everyone else was paying through the nose and he was angry about $135 for a season pass after all the years for free? Ridiculous.
For the first time in 20 years I did not buy a season pass this winter. Between the covid restrictions, insane crowds, poor snow conditions, employee shortages, lack of customer service and yes ridiculous costs for lifts, parking, food and anything else they can gouge us on I’ve said enough. If anything I’ll end up on some sunny tropical beach this winter.
I feel the same.We live in Southern Wisconsin so skiing 🎿 here is on very short crowded runs.I wanted to take my twin 18 boys out west to go skiing it would be the first time on a real hill for all of us.With the price and air fare forget it only for the wealthy 🧐
aside from pricing, all the other issues you named are not a thing this season. Resorts are empty and snow accumulation is at a historic high. Nobody was at keystone on thanksgiving weekend
I was at Keystone today (12/18), and it was nuts. Even only partially open It's got the most terrain open, more than the other I-70 corridor resorts right now. The seasons are starting later, are shorter, with the best conditions between early February and late March. Those crowds and the highway traffic condensed into 60 days is a complete downer.
Grew up in a small town right on Tahoe. While Squaw Valley (now Palisades) was always the most expensive it at least offered a year round experience with the main gondola, climbing facilities, golf, and hiking/biking trails open in the summer. Homewood was always an afterthought to us Nevada side locals since it always had the worst snow on the lake. Mindblowing to see how much it costs now. Diamond Peak and Mt Rose are much cheaper and closer to Reno and imo have better snow and terrain. I live in CO now and I love Steamboat to death, but can only get a couple days a year there now since I buy the cheapest Ikon option. The Ikon/Epic arms race has been really detrimental to the local skiing experience in the west.
Diamonds Peak is sort of a hidden gem i feel. Sure Homewood's lake views are astonishing, but for half the price Diamond Peak gives you a nice lake view as well, and its never crowded. When i lived in Reno, both Mt Rose and Diamond Peak were less than an hour so it was a no brainer.
You can buy a season pass at little-known but really nice ski areas in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for the cost of two days of skiing at Aspen or Vail or other western ski resorts. And ski areas like Big Powderhorn and Indianhead get between 200 to 300 inches of real powder snow annually, thanks to dumps off nearby Lake Superior. Everything else is much cheaper, too -- dining out, lodging, ski rentals, you name it. That is why I gave up skiing in the Rockies and Sierras years ago.
Some of the "local" season passes didn't seem too bad. I skied Mammoth from the late '60's when a lift ticket was $12, including the gondola. The last season I skied there, '92-'93, I got the "early bird" which was purchase before Sept. 1 was $600. That was unlimited with no blackout days and the season often went well into May. My last skiing was at Bogus Basin just outside of Boise. I instructed there full and part-time so it was free. After I stopped teaching, they introduced an early bird $99 season pass. Looking at these prices, I bet you could book 2 weeks in France, including air fare, for less than any of the top resorts in North America.
In the 1980s we would skip out of work early (3:00ish) be on the mountain at 4, and ski the lit runs until almost 10pm at Bogus Basin. Don’t remember what we paid for walk-up tickets, but it was cheap.
You could get that Cali4nia pass for about $600 back in the early 2010s. Sure there were blackout days but getting Squaw, Mammoth, and the Big Bear resorts was spectacular value for anyone living between L.A. and Sacramento.
I looked at a TON of mountains for my first ski trip in Feb and honestly Brighton, UT was the cheapest between lift, rentals, and lessons.. but even just lift alone, especially for weekdays. I got the Black Friday 2 day go card which was even cheaper, even tho I'm only using it on a weekday I still saved like $20. Since I'm not sure if I'll get more then 3 days this season, Brighton was absolutely the best value
I ski Alberta and the BC interior, and I just dont know why people overlook us. Big White is probably the second most expensive resort under Whistler, at $150 (~$115 USD) over holidays at the window. This year, I got a steal of a deal at Revelstoke, at $67 a day ($45 USD) buying on the last day of early season for 5 days in late August. If you can travel, please consider more than the Vail mafioso.
Silverstar? I prefer it over big white personally. Same family owns both. Revelstoke has an insane fall line. I wouldn't recommend it for most families. Silverstar is the best bang for buck for an American family ski trip in the current market. Us dollar exchange making it that way.
@@dootdoot1867 Silverstar WAS in the same ownership as big white. Silverstar is now owned by Powdr (who also own snowbird, copper & bachelor). I’ve skied both SS and BW and they are very similar. Not the most exciting skiing in North America but will deliver a solid, entertaining ski experience. And they are a bargain compared to colorado. Obviously Canada doesn’t have the same wealth gap issues that plague the US
One of the best deals for the resorts on this list is Palisade's Midweek 4 Pack. Right now it's $122/day for 4 out of 5 week days. I believe it gets even cheaper, if you buy it a couple of month before the season starts.
Snowbird's ski for free 5th night free is probably one of the best deals out there to avoid ticket prices, compared to other resorts in park city area and insuring your trip with trip insurance is a safer move for families planning a vacation. For it being ranked the #3 best resort across 30 data points, it's still cheaper than all these. Never had a bad time at snowbird.
I want to give an honorable mention to snowbowl in AZ for having absolutely dumb prices. Last Saturday was the worst I've seen. Over $170 for a tiny mountain resort that hadnt seen snow in 4 days and still had almost half of its trails closed. I've watched their prices almost double over the last 5 or so years and it's really depressing to see. To put it into perspective, they had 2 runs + a bunny hill open, and one of them feeds into the beginning of the other, and they both share a catwalk that is poorly done and large amounts of people get stuck on. Truly outrageous for their pricepoint.
Snowbowl's last minute tickets can get stupid, but by and large their pricing is ok. I bought a ticket for january a little in advance for about $60, and my brother was able to get a free beginner lesson as part of his ticket.
@@danielfay8963 fair, but when you consider the mountain they offer I used to get $60 tickets for way more when I lived in other states. Resorts almost 4x the size cost less, the problem is theyre the only real option in arizona for people who live in cities and they know it. Sunrise is also an option but a way longer trip for most people. Not to mention in the 5+ years ive lived there the prices have almost doubled
All of the Ski Resorts on this list are equal to a trip to Disney in cost. I learned to ski as a child during a learn-to-ski school program in the mid-70s in Ontario Canada at a local smaller-size ski area. I paid $5.00 Cdn for an all-day lift ticket on a Saturday or holidays. The lift prices remained relatively stable until the late-80s when yearly increases of $10 per year became the norm. My favourite local ski area closed in 2018, with that year's lift price for adults set at $65. It seemed expensive for an area which hadn't expanded in over 30 years, struggled to keep all the runs open and provided a shorter ski season; early December to the end of April in the 70s, to {maybe} Christmas to early March by the end of its operation in 2018. In-speaking with a business group interested in starting-up the area again as an all-seasons resort, a one-day lift ticket price of $150.00 for adults was suggested. Unfortunately, the days of downhill skiing being for young families, working people and students looking for some outdoor fun are over.
I get 2 free lift tickets to Homewood as a season pass holder benefit to Wachusett. Wachusett has an expensive season pass with no blackouts dates for $700. They do have night skiing every single night. It is convenient being close to home. The money you “overpay” on the season pass you save not needing to book any hotels for a weekend trip. For a small mountain, they compete with the big mountains more north. There’s something to be said when it opens up before mountains more north that have a bigger snowmaking window if they wanted to open up as soon as possible.
Go skiing in Europe, when I lived in The Netherlands I hit Kitzbuhl and a 6 day lift ticket worked out to 25 euros a day, for a massive world class resort. Granted that price was in 2002 but I know for a fact that the lift ticket is still way way wayyyyyyyy cheaper than resorts in the US. Same thing with The Jungfrau, St. Anton, Davos and Val Gardena. Resorts here in the US can stuff their insane lift prices.
les trois vallées (biggest ski resort in the world) is in peak months 360 euro for 6days. But you have other resorts where the ski pass costs only 220 for 6days and are still bigger than US resorts
The question I always have is…with “local” hills often just down the road from the mega-resorts (and often having comparable terrain, just not as much of it, smaller crowds, MUCH cheaper prices, and a generally mellow vibe) why do skiers continue to pack themselves in at these ridiculously expensive, crowded, corporate mountains!?
My local ski area recently partnered up with Mountain Capital Partners out of Colorado. Kids under 12 get free season passes. They have dynamic pricing for daily tickets. Lowest price is $9, highest is 99. Plenty of $9 on weekdays over the next several months at Willamette Pass!!!
as a SLC local, if I don't get a season pass somewhere, I don't go all season... $600 for a full season doesn't seem so bad compared to the 200+ per day at Park City
A couple of commenters have mentioned how cheap lift tickets in the Alps are compared to North America (the western half). It’s true that the Alps are a bargain and the ski experience over there is terrific except for one major drawback, snow quality. Colorado, BC, California, Montana etc all have much better snow conditions on average. No language barrier either.
@Tyrone Shoelaces Switzerland sounds nice. But you should really come to the US sometime and sample the great skiing we have out west. Americans are welcoming people and you’ll have a great time (once you cough up the cash)
I’ve been visiting Snowmass ( my personal favourite) and other Colorado resorts for about 30 years (from Australia). Absolutely love the snow quality, variety of long runs and friendliness of American people. In January we’re off to ski Austria (Zurs) and Italy ( Dolomites) to get a very different cultural and skiing experience. The accommodation and lift tickets are way cheaper than the US so if the skiing is good there’s plenty of places to ski there in the future. I’ll let you know my thoughts in February. PS any tips on Zurs or Campitello gratefully accepted.
@@rexgoulevitch I haven’t skied Zurs (planning to in 2025) but I have skied the Sella Ronda which is just north of Campitello. The Sella Ronda is spectacular and unforgettable. Try it clockwise, that’s supposedly the better direction. The Marmolada is supposedly a great run as well but I didn’t get a chance to ski it. If you ever get the opportunity, try Chamonix and the Vallee Blanche. Mind blowing.
@@dhowe5180 thanks for the tips. So many resorts to choose from in Europe. I’ve heard Marmolada is best skied in the morning so may not be able to get there in time from Campitello.
After graduating HS in '75 I went West to Winter Park to fulfill a dream of being a Ski Bum. No work, just skiing. First season for the Mary Jane. Awesome part of my life. My season lift ticket: I say my SEASON ticket: $230 !!!
yes they openly admit that, nothing secret about it. No business wants to tie its fortune to weather and other variables out of its control. Vail is not in the business of making bets about variables of ski season. Its a business not blackjack table. Makes total sense to me why that be more palatable to shareholders than a gambling business
Vail absolutely doesn’t want people to ski, ruining not only ski resorts, but local businesses, ski industry, property value and many other things connected to skiing.
Yeah, I might just save up and head to Europe, it might be cheaper in the long run. I’m from the Midwest where we only have hills, they’re fun but small and lift tickets are around $25 a day.
I used to live in Innsbruck and would get the Tirol ticket… under $500 for the whole year (summer glaciers included), and the whole Tirol region to ski 90+ resorts, including Kitzbuhl, Kaunertal, and the Arlberg region (St Anton), along with many transfer busses and trains. By far the best ski value on the planet!!! Miss those days…
These places seems nice, but I love my local ski lift, its almost empty on weekdays, one hour away, and i got 5 year season pass for $850. They say Norway is expensive, but seeing these prices i dont know ...
Homewood is headed towards being a private country club-esque ski hill. It will only be available to people who live in the vicinity. I believe more on mountain condos are coming as well. This will be, basically, Yellowstone Club West.
@@armadilllo Palisades is a pretty stupid name. I understand the need to move away from a pejorative like "Squaw" but why not call it Olympic Valley? Play up your Olympic heritage a little! Instead they named the place after a small rock outcropping. Solid work.
The big resort prices are steep, but you're at least getting a big mountain experience with actual snow. It's worse imo at those tiny resorts in the east coast that's always overcrowded, charges $100/day for like 3 trails that are like half a mile of straight up ice crust and like music festival pricing on food & drinks.
Homewood is raising rates because it WANTS to go private, but it can't because it's not private land (national forest I think). As a result, they decided that the best way to get a similar result was to make it obscenely expensive to come there.
Homewood actually isn't on NFS land. Homewood, like much of the land on the immediate shore of Lake Tahoe is private land. That said, the TRPA regulates how individuals develop their property within a fragile environment, they allow 1% of a property in a fragile area to be covered by buildings, up to 30% in less fragile areas. I don't know how Homewood is designated but my guess is it's in a not so fragile area. The owners of Homewood have hired the same land development company that designed the Yellowstone Club, so, the writing is on the wall.
@@wasabiginger6993 I remember that moto and I think it also had better advanced runs than the other ski areas with less crowds. I used to ride my mountain bike up to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon and once at the top of the road, I would continue on the ski areas service roads to the top of the mountain. I did it without stooping for a rest the entire way up.
Wow - the Homewood price-jackup is mind-boggling! I remember skiing there for $25 a day not too many years ago. I've always hated Squaw, but loved Alpine. Was sad when Squaw (now Palisades) bought them out. I used to ski Alpine on a weekday for less than $40. Northstar and Sierra-at-Tahoe had great discount tickets if you knew where to look at certain businesses in town at Lake Tahoe. I never skied weekends, as crowded lodges and 2-hour lift lines aren't my cup of tea. Instead, I just called in sick at work and skied weekdays. Mt. Rose used to have a ladies' day during the week with cheap tickets, and other resorts offered special 2-for-1 weekdays. And Donner Ski Ranch (across the street from Sugar Bowl) may have had super-slow lifts and a tiny lodge, but their backside terrain was a blast. Back in the day you could ski there on most weekdays for just $10. I always skied on a shoestring, and back then it was easily doable. I'm glad I got to ski back in the good old days, because now, between lift tickets and gas prices, a 1-day trip up to Tahoe would cost somewhere between $500-600! So sad. I think some of those places (especially Homewood) are going to price themselves right out of business someday.
Good video. As mentioned by someone else, how about a similar one for "best bang for the buck"? Since I don't live anywhere near a ski resort (Not much snow skiing in Florida), I have to fly to most places, which means more than a short trip, so that's why I like the bigger places (ie Keystone, Killington) otherwise I'd get bored after the 3rd day or so hitting the same runs over and over. Thoughts on that one?
I remember in the mid-70's, Heavenly Valley was the first area in California to go to $10 for a lift ticket. I thought, "No way am I going there. I'll ski Kirkwood for $8. The bummer back then though was we had to ski a lot more powder because there weren't enough people to ski it out.
I've just spent 4 days of skiing in Hintertux/Zilletal in Austria. Ticket price 235 Euros for the whole trip. Overall costs including meals, car rental in Innsbruck and accomodation were around 1000 Euros. Only excluded costs are travel, you need to figure that out yourself depending on your location.
Downhill Slide. A great book about the industry. It’s become a haven for real estate developers. The lift tickets are priced high to pull in those that can afford a ski shanty in aspen.
A very important video! Please consider finishing the rest of the $200+ club in another video, and do a "Best bang for the buck resorts under $100" and a "Best bang for the buck resorts under $50" video next. Don't forget about including Canada in the lists, if these videos are about North America. Many ski industry business leaders like to virtue signal about "inclusivity" while charging ridiculous ticket prices. They deserve the scrutiny.
I have lived 9 years in USA. 7 years in Bay Area and 2 years in Utah. I like skiing here. However, it only makes sense if you ski a lot and buy a season pass (EPIC or IKON). And you only do daily trips. Then you can get your daily skiing around $25-50 that is reasonable. This is going to be my last season here and soon I will return to Europe where skiing is so much affordable. Everything in the USA skiing is insane expensive: tickets, accommodation, meals, etc. I will never ski here again after this season. Even skiing is great here is it not any better than in Europe where I can take my whole family for five for a week ski trip to the Alps at $5000 including flights, accommodation at ski in ski out place, tickets and meals. I have just one question. The GDP per capita in the USA is about the same as in EU. How do you justify daily ticket to be three times more expensive in the USA? It does not make any sense!
Almost no one pays the daily rates shown in this video. That partly explains how they justify the rate. But skiing in the US is always going to be more expensive than in the EU. One reason for that is that ski areas in the Alps are run almost like non-profits. They’re owned by the local business people who make their money from the hotels, shops and restaurants.
That's kinda funny-my home Mountain is Copper, 2nd is WinterPark, 3rd is Alpine(Palisade) and 4th is Homewood. I do think, that raising the prices should reduce some of the crowds, but so far, that experiment is not quite working at Copper.
Don't forget Yellowstone Club... arguably the most expensive "ticket" you could buy since you're forced to buy a season pass if you want to ski even one day. And the season pass is to put it mildly... hefty ;)
Yup, definetly never going skiing in the US. Here in Europe (Switzerland to be more specific) even the most expensive resorts barely cost more than 100$ with most of them being much lower and big discounts for youth people and children. Some resorts even offer free passes to children and sometimes even youth people on saturdays. And then sometimes you can also get discounts if you travel there by train or some banks also offer discounts. For example a daypass in the Jungfrau Skiregion (a resort on the more expensive side) as a person under 20 in pre-season (on 12th December) with railway discount cost me 36 CHF so about 40 USD but to be fair big parts of the resort weren't open yet.
Ticket prices are way out of control. Top that off skiers are getting charged for parking now. I grew up skiing Tahoe and Homewood was my first hill and there is no way they can justify $279. This is why I go the season pass route.
The resorts quality is far away from what you can get in Europe and Europe is waaay cheaper. The prices for lift tickets there are between 30$ - 85$. I don't think there is any resort that goes higher than 100$ .
What's wild is you can go to Zermatt Switzerland and ski a HUGE resort with RIDICULOUS lifts for less the half the price of these listed here. For me being in the Houston area, it's probably cheaper me for to ski in France, Italy, Switzerland, or Austria than it is to go to Colorado. It's getting truly ridiculous.
I am going to France for skiing again this season. We are a group of 8 and will spend approximately ~500$ on Lift pass and accomodation per person for one week. Last year it was 450 for one week. WTF USA.
Prices to ski out west are the single reason I refuse to go there any more. I can ski 5 days at Sugarloaf in Maine ( weekdays) for $179, for a mountain that will challenge anyone, and no lift lines.
If I recall Homewood doesn't get as much natural snow than the other Tahoe resorts and also has limited snowmaking... that one day lift ticket sounds like a business killer on a low snow year
One trick, buy ski lessons and many of the resorts offer deep discounts of lift tickets with lessons. Lesson + lift tickets bundle price is even cheaper than the lift ticket alone on the same day.
One reason I feel blessed to ski the east, yes the mountains arents as big but atleast I can have a ski weekend with being a millionaire. Cant beat the North East Ikon pass $557 for access to Okema, Snow Mountain, and Stowe and a bunch of NH locations
Wow! In the 70’s in my 20’s I rarely paid for skiing because I worked on the mountain getting free room & board too … mostly at Alta Utah where my last job in 1978 offered me free skiing at Snowbird too. How fortunate was I?! I guess lots of resorts have found they can charge these insane rates … as long as enough folks can afford to pay them. Gone are the days I knew where lift tickets were resonable for families and young adults like I was could ski their legs out for free … best powder on the continent!
it's the same now for people working the mountains. Most resorts will give you a season pass if you agree to work as a lift operator or cafeteria server for 15 shifts that season, and they're paying ~$20/hr for lift operators and will give you a set of skiing outerlayers(resort branded). Also virtually all non-vail resorts will let employees of other non-vail resorts ski there for free, so 15 shifts is free lift tickets and a set of basic gear. Room and board is a different story though, need to sign a fulltime contract for the entire season to get a bed in the employee dorms. Someone who works at Loveland Basin or any of the other non-affiliated or Alterra resorts in Colorado for 15 days can ski for free at Alta and Snowbird all season if they make the treck out that way.
First off I do want to say that this was a great video and that i appreciate you taking the time to make it. Though I do have one criticism of it, which is the fact that this all kind of comes off as a promotion for people to buy the icon and epic pass. This to me is an issue because these passes are responsible for the high ticket prices aforementioned in this video. Just something to keep in mind. Otherwise, great video!
Wow, guess I shouldn't have complained so much about a $115 Mt Rose weekend ticket WITH a buddy discount. I live in Tahoe and have a pass so I had no idea that some of these ticket prices were so insane. Palisades is really good though.
As a European, I was already upset about paying around 53 euros instead of 45 in my home ski area in the near future, but over 200 euros per day is hard to imagine.
I bought my Senior 70+ season pass with no blackout days at Sierra at Tahoe for $200! Not many years left in these legs. So glad I skied long ago. I believe my day pass in 1966 at Holiday Hill in Socal was $3.95! That would be $34.63 in today dollars.
When I was a teenager ParkWest(now part of Park City)was $24 for a lift ticket. Locals could get 50% off with a free card from 7-11. For $40 I could buy gas, a lift ticket, and a bag of weed. The good old days.
Yup and now they have more terrain, high speed lifts, more grooming/snow making machines. Diesel fuel along is super expensive so obviously they have to raise the price
I hear Park City is way overcrowded now because of these passes. I just moved to Utah but haven't skied yet this year. Actually it's been many years since I've skied. Ouch with these prices!
@@andreabontempo643 fyi. I'm talking about 1987. When ParkWest was one of the first Mountains in Utah that allowed snowboarding. I haven't put on a pair skis since 1985.
@@reidellis1988 oh I get it . I was just commenting on how crowded Park City has become .
@@andreabontempo643 No worries. I feel fortunate to have grown up in Utah. 40 years ago, it was like Wyoming is now. Less than a million people.
I live in Steamboat, and the main reasons prices are so high is because they want everyone to buy the $1200 IKON pass. Once Aspen and Vail started competing to gobble up all the ski mountains, they found their crowd that would drop $10k+ in a weekend, and pushed out the ski bums and locals that would only drop ~$800 on a pass, and didn't spend money on the mountain. Gentrification of the ski industry lol
Hahaha Aspen Snowmass has 4 mountains. Vail is the one taking all the spots. Aspen is in the arm pit of the roaring fork valley. Locals don’t go there. It’s no threat to the local scene. 😂
@@ashmomofboys Shhhhhh dont give out this information
How much are day tickets in steamboat? I remember when tickets were i belive around 125.00
vail is POS charged me withiut refund 180 even tho they CLOSED THE PARK ALL DAY due to snow storm... had to dispute charge fck them will never go to vail resorts again, boreal is 79$ and a better park...
@@ashmomofboys Aspen and KSL founded Alterra. They've got more than a dozen resorts and are acquiring more all the time. They just bought Schweitzer this year.
For these prices, you can go to France and get WAY better views and more terrain at a similar cost. You can ski 6 days at Les Trois Vallee (Biggest ski resort in the WORLD) in France for $380($63 a day), Lodging is cheaper, a flight from the US can sometimes be comparable (if your lucky) but likely a little more expensive than a flight from Virginia to Utah. You also get 36,000 acres of skiable terrain vs 8,200 @ Whistler Blackcomb (largest ski resort in NORTH AMERICA). Snow conditions are usually better in the US/Canada but I've had great conditions in Europe also.
Yes, but it also costs thousands of more dollars for plane tickets and hotels and no one's actually trying to go to France if they're not die-hard skiers. Sure, the lift tickets aren't as expensive, but the hole trip would cost way more not to mention the hassle of flying to a different country. I would rather suck it up at Vail or Park City the to spend more money for terrain in my opinion is not as good as American terrain. (I'm more of a guy who likes to ski in the trees and not someone who like to ski on a wide-open trail.)
Or you could get to Europe and have it rain the whole time in January lol
@@12bucklemyshoes101 Got rained on in Canada in January so that is always a risk really...
@@12bucklemyshoes101 Huh? The french ski area val d'isère/tignes has the longest ski season in the world, there is way more snow in europe than the us
@@lukehiles184 you can get a week in the largest ski resort in the world for the price of not even 2 days in some of these american resorts. And there are trees in european resorts, in the worlds largest ski resorts of around 400 miles of pist, there is bound to be forest to ski in.
As a Ski Patroller retired after 27 years it has gone absolutely crazy with the money involved in the sport.
These prices have been driving casual skiers from the sport for years. The MBAs have crunched the numbers and found that the best way to milk the cow is to (a) get people to commit by forcing them into season passes, (b) drive local business from the resort grounds to eliminate food/bev competition and capture more of the local spend, and (c) make the real big bucks through property development via condos. All of these resorts have lost local character as the only customers that can afford them are in the upper echelons of wealth. OTOH, they also invested heavily in on-mountain development so at least the ski experience (other than crowds) has improved quite a bit. Remember life before detachable lifts?
For those very reasons we’re heading to interior BC this winter to ski great terrain serviced by fixed grip lifts at mountains that still retain their charming character.
This is spot on… After living and working in the ski industry in Europe for 17 years, the last 10 years I’ve spent in Big Sky, and your comment is so true here. Between the raising costs along with many owners selling out to make even the most affordable places into air bnb. Very sad how local flavor is starting to fade away.
But would lower costs makes the crowds smaller? No…so, if it’s “only the upper echelon” that can afford it, it seems there’s still too much upper echelon.
I book a trip for 7-9 days out west at a different big resort every year. We get 12-16 people to go on the trip every year. We rent a big cabin and split it. Not terrible at all. Lift tickets have definitely gone up the past 8 years we have been going haha.
Yeah it’s embarrassing talking to my coworkers about this, $300++ just to try it out for a day. Nobody new is entering the sport except for a few local kids and for tourists it’s children that come from rich legacy skiing families.
I have said for a long time that the western ski resorts are going to ruin the ski industry, making it only available to the super rich. I used to take my family out west for a ski vacation every year and it wasn’t cheap. But these rates are insane. Most families could not afford these rates.
I couldn’t agree more.
Yeah I’m lucky my family can afford it but it’s definitely became a bigger deal these past few years going skiing out in Colorado
What do you mean or “are going to?” Skiing has been been generally considered a “rich people” sport for decades now..
@RollinRat $13 in 1973 was the equivalent of $88 today. You can’t forget about inflation..
Have you not been watching what the world is becoming? EVERYTHING is becoming out of reach by the common person. Everything is becoming only accessible by the rich. In 20 years there will be rich people and working class. The good times are up. Get your skiing in now before you’re totally priced out
How can someone even have fun after paying those prices-?
🙄
Seriously
Rising lift ticket prices have greatly incentivized the purchase of season passes. For several years, we’ve bought EPIC or IKON and absolutely enjoyed our money’s worth. The resorts on those passes live up to their epic and iconic brands, but I am likely switching to the INDY pass. The Indy resorts are a bit smaller, off brand, and more remote, and therefore less crowded. Getting back to the vibe of being there for the skiing rather than the glitz and glamor.
The lift systems at these resorts are embarrassing and terrain not very extensive.
I genuinely laughed when I saw Epic resorts in Tahoe, it was like going back in time.
Glitz and glamour is ALL Aspen is about. I was there on a weekend this January (100% open). Four people in line for opening chair on Sunday. 4!😎. I was also the only person I met who had driven in. Everyone else had flown or lived (retired) there.
HAHAHAHA, in Austria you can buy a 5 day pass to a resort multiple times the size of the largest resort in the US for about $400. Those resorts come equipped with more gondolas than you can imagine, bubble chairs everywhere and on hill restaurants that make the average cafeteria in the US look like an airplane meal. No wonder I gave up on North American skiing years ago just fly across the pond for my vacation now.
yeah the food is so good at ski resorts in Europe!
Thanks for the list, I would personally title it 10 resorts reaffirming why I m done with boarding after 30 years of doing it. Between the prices, crowds, rules, and crappy attitudes, backcountry is the only thing worth doing anymore
In Finland you can buy a season pass for the one day price in the us
As a kid living in Truckee I was spoiled by student rates. Olympic Valley was expensive at $7 for Sundays. My go to was Alpine Meadows at $2 for Sundays. There there was Boreal with a night pass for $100/season. Fun working at Porter Ski & Sport, grabbing demo gear and skiing with the ski bums and snowboarding every weekday night till it was too cold. oomph, $200 what???
Before vail took over whistler/blackcomb, they sold lift tickets at 7/11 in Vancouver for $69. It was packed every season. The vibes second to none. Now it's full of rich prudes and lifties.
This just isn’t true…year before vail took over, 7/11 sold tickets in 110-120 range. But agreed, vibes were better then…especially during the intrawest era 😌
@@rezs359 or when Hugh was flying around throwing dynamite out helicopters. But 110? Hmm peak? I bought season that year.
They still sell tickets at 7/11?
@@dootdoot1867 reckon it was feb so yeh peak season.
@@Milkmans_Son lol not anymore…I think 2017 was the last year 7/11 sold tickets.
279.00 was the season ticket price i paid for Snoqualmie pass Washington in the mid 90s. that included perks and parking plus 3 days skis, boots, and lessons if wanted. my kids were even less.
I used to be a ski instructor at Snoqualmie West back in the day. I of course had a season pass, but if I went to another resort I showed my PSIA badge and got a free lift ticket. Not anymore. It is a sport for the rich now.
Long post alert sharing experience from US and European perspective as I’ve lived both.
I am a former PNW resident who would frequent Mt. Hood resorts (MHM) as a day pass holder, 10x pass holder, midweek pass holder, season pass holder depending on the year.
Seeing demand based pricing everywhere now in the States is such a turn off now as a tourist coming to the PNW from So. Germany. Whistler is now the cheapest even compared to tiny resorts with little to offer.
Ski resorts in Europe are different altogether in terms of pricing, size, snow totals/quality, and infrastructure and at least in Bavaria, and Austria the walk up rates are between 48 and 65 eur per day even at mega resorts. There are typically no lift lines to speak of (less than 2 mins) because the lift infrastructure is well thought out sometimes having two 6-10 person lifts right next to each other. Seems to me that US ski resorts have an Uphill Capacity problem that they aim to solve with jacked up rates instead of infrastructure improvements YoY.
European resorts could learn from US resorts on how to open up more varied terrain and US resorts could learn from European ski resorts on how to build ski infrastructure to support growth. If you need to charge these exorbitant rates for a day pass, it’s not the customers problem, it’s yours as a business.
I'm in Switzerland, been riding my whole life, and my local (quaint, awesome, cheap and off the radar) resort had a massive cash injection a few years ago with massive hotel and lift development. A major stake was recently sold off to a large, well known American operator. Since we have gotten dynamic pricing with increases anywhere from 20% to 150% depending on the day. Having family (thus having to buy several tickets for a day) I'm priced out. And that was that I guess.
I kind of quit skiing when tickets hit $50 a day. I move on to hiking, winter backpacking and climbing. You could spend days in the woods and mountains for just the cost of gas and food. (well, some different gear too).
I decided to start traveling again to different resorts after a two year hiatus as most covid restrictions have been lifted only to discover that the rates for lodging have increased by 50-100%.
As a retired Veteran, I pay a whopping $150 for a season EPIC Vail ski pass.
Exactly how it should be for vets 👍🏻
Yeah the prices are insane, even skiing in WV is $100 a day now which is crazy.
I used to golf with an old old skier. He would go to Whitefish Montana to ski because of his age they let him ski for free. He was a ski coach most of his life. He passed on a year ago but the last time I talked to him he was livid because his ski hill wanted to charge him $135 for the entire season instead of free.
Sorry but I don't feel bad for him. Everyone else was paying through the nose and he was angry about $135 for a season pass after all the years for free? Ridiculous.
@@cvn6555 Wait till you're our age and see if you still think this way...
@@MrIsomer Will I suddenly become greedy and ungrateful in ten years?
For the first time in 20 years I did not buy a season pass this winter. Between the covid restrictions, insane crowds, poor snow conditions, employee shortages, lack of customer service and yes ridiculous costs for lifts, parking, food and anything else they can gouge us on I’ve said enough. If anything I’ll end up on some sunny tropical beach this winter.
I feel the same.We live in Southern Wisconsin so skiing 🎿 here is on very short crowded runs.I wanted to take my twin 18 boys out west to go skiing it would be the first time on a real hill for all of us.With the price and air fare forget it only for the wealthy 🧐
aside from pricing, all the other issues you named are not a thing this season. Resorts are empty and snow accumulation is at a historic high. Nobody was at keystone on thanksgiving weekend
I was at Keystone today (12/18), and it was nuts. Even only partially open It's got the most terrain open, more than the other I-70 corridor resorts right now. The seasons are starting later, are shorter, with the best conditions between early February and late March. Those crowds and the highway traffic condensed into 60 days is a complete downer.
Grew up in a small town right on Tahoe. While Squaw Valley (now Palisades) was always the most expensive it at least offered a year round experience with the main gondola, climbing facilities, golf, and hiking/biking trails open in the summer. Homewood was always an afterthought to us Nevada side locals since it always had the worst snow on the lake. Mindblowing to see how much it costs now. Diamond Peak and Mt Rose are much cheaper and closer to Reno and imo have better snow and terrain. I live in CO now and I love Steamboat to death, but can only get a couple days a year there now since I buy the cheapest Ikon option. The Ikon/Epic arms race has been really detrimental to the local skiing experience in the west.
Diamonds Peak is sort of a hidden gem i feel. Sure Homewood's lake views are astonishing, but for half the price Diamond Peak gives you a nice lake view as well, and its never crowded. When i lived in Reno, both Mt Rose and Diamond Peak were less than an hour so it was a no brainer.
You can buy a season pass at little-known but really nice ski areas in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for the cost of two days of skiing at Aspen or Vail or other western ski resorts. And ski areas like Big Powderhorn and Indianhead get between 200 to 300 inches of real powder snow annually, thanks to dumps off nearby Lake Superior. Everything else is much cheaper, too -- dining out, lodging, ski rentals, you name it. That is why I gave up skiing in the Rockies and Sierras years ago.
As an european, I have only one thing to say : what the hell?
Early purchase of a season Epic pass in Australia is $Au899 ($US614) which is a smidge over 2 days lift tickets for some of these US resorts.
Some of the "local" season passes didn't seem too bad. I skied Mammoth from the late '60's when a lift ticket was $12, including the gondola. The last season I skied there, '92-'93, I got the "early bird" which was purchase before Sept. 1 was $600. That was unlimited with no blackout days and the season often went well into May. My last skiing was at Bogus Basin just outside of Boise. I instructed there full and part-time so it was free. After I stopped teaching, they introduced an early bird $99 season pass. Looking at these prices, I bet you could book 2 weeks in France, including air fare, for less than any of the top resorts in North America.
Seems like a lack of competition with the two main actors having a silent agreement to jack up prices.
In the 1980s we would skip out of work early (3:00ish) be on the mountain at 4, and ski the lit runs until almost 10pm at Bogus Basin. Don’t remember what we paid for walk-up tickets, but it was cheap.
You could get that Cali4nia pass for about $600 back in the early 2010s. Sure there were blackout days but getting Squaw, Mammoth, and the Big Bear resorts was spectacular value for anyone living between L.A. and Sacramento.
In Europe skipass average is 60€ /$ in the Alps , 30€ /$ in the Carpathians to as low as 10€ /$ in Turkey !!!
I pay €305 for the whole winter season and unlimited entries in Andalo, Italy🗿
I looked at a TON of mountains for my first ski trip in Feb and honestly Brighton, UT was the cheapest between lift, rentals, and lessons.. but even just lift alone, especially for weekdays. I got the Black Friday 2 day go card which was even cheaper, even tho I'm only using it on a weekday I still saved like $20. Since I'm not sure if I'll get more then 3 days this season, Brighton was absolutely the best value
That's definitely a good deal in today's world it just doesn't have a lot of steep Advanced Terrain
Yes I live here but now go out of state or down south to make it worth it.
Meh, at these rates you can fly to France for a week to ski... Not even kidding.
I won a full ikon pass reimbursement through my university ski club. I’m cruising for free this season. So yeah, I’m lit rn.
I ski Alberta and the BC interior, and I just dont know why people overlook us. Big White is probably the second most expensive resort under Whistler, at $150 (~$115 USD) over holidays at the window. This year, I got a steal of a deal at Revelstoke, at $67 a day ($45 USD) buying on the last day of early season for 5 days in late August. If you can travel, please consider more than the Vail mafioso.
Shhhhhh
Shhhh shut up
Silverstar? I prefer it over big white personally. Same family owns both. Revelstoke has an insane fall line. I wouldn't recommend it for most families. Silverstar is the best bang for buck for an American family ski trip in the current market. Us dollar exchange making it that way.
@@dootdoot1867 Silverstar WAS in the same ownership as big white. Silverstar is now owned by Powdr (who also own snowbird, copper & bachelor). I’ve skied both SS and BW and they are very similar. Not the most exciting skiing in North America but will deliver a solid, entertaining ski experience. And they are a bargain compared to colorado. Obviously Canada doesn’t have the same wealth gap issues that plague the US
just don't tell anybody about panorama i beg
One of the best deals for the resorts on this list is Palisade's Midweek 4 Pack. Right now it's $122/day for 4 out of 5 week days. I believe it gets even cheaper, if you buy it a couple of month before the season starts.
crazy is, that i can ski in zermatt for 430 dollar for 6 days. i tought that was already expensive, until i saw this.
Snowbird's ski for free 5th night free is probably one of the best deals out there to avoid ticket prices, compared to other resorts in park city area and insuring your trip with trip insurance is a safer move for families planning a vacation. For it being ranked the #3 best resort across 30 data points, it's still cheaper than all these. Never had a bad time at snowbird.
I love this channel. Keep up the great content👍🏽
I want to give an honorable mention to snowbowl in AZ for having absolutely dumb prices. Last Saturday was the worst I've seen. Over $170 for a tiny mountain resort that hadnt seen snow in 4 days and still had almost half of its trails closed.
I've watched their prices almost double over the last 5 or so years and it's really depressing to see.
To put it into perspective, they had 2 runs + a bunny hill open, and one of them feeds into the beginning of the other, and they both share a catwalk that is poorly done and large amounts of people get stuck on.
Truly outrageous for their pricepoint.
Snowbowl's last minute tickets can get stupid, but by and large their pricing is ok. I bought a ticket for january a little in advance for about $60, and my brother was able to get a free beginner lesson as part of his ticket.
@@danielfay8963 fair, but when you consider the mountain they offer I used to get $60 tickets for way more when I lived in other states. Resorts almost 4x the size cost less, the problem is theyre the only real option in arizona for people who live in cities and they know it. Sunrise is also an option but a way longer trip for most people.
Not to mention in the 5+ years ive lived there the prices have almost doubled
All of the Ski Resorts on this list are equal to a trip to Disney in cost. I learned to ski as a child during a learn-to-ski school program in the mid-70s in Ontario Canada at a local smaller-size ski area. I paid $5.00 Cdn for an all-day lift ticket on a Saturday or holidays. The lift prices remained relatively stable until the late-80s when yearly increases of $10 per year became the norm. My favourite local ski area closed in 2018, with that year's lift price for adults set at $65. It seemed expensive for an area which hadn't expanded in over 30 years, struggled to keep all the runs open and provided a shorter ski season; early December to the end of April in the 70s, to {maybe} Christmas to early March by the end of its operation in 2018. In-speaking with a business group interested in starting-up the area again as an all-seasons resort, a one-day lift ticket price of $150.00 for adults was suggested. Unfortunately, the days of downhill skiing being for young families, working people and students looking for some outdoor fun are over.
I get 2 free lift tickets to Homewood as a season pass holder benefit to Wachusett. Wachusett has an expensive season pass with no blackouts dates for $700. They do have night skiing every single night. It is convenient being close to home. The money you “overpay” on the season pass you save not needing to book any hotels for a weekend trip. For a small mountain, they compete with the big mountains more north. There’s something to be said when it opens up before mountains more north that have a bigger snowmaking window if they wanted to open up as soon as possible.
Go skiing in Europe, when I lived in The Netherlands I hit Kitzbuhl and a 6 day lift ticket worked out to 25 euros a day, for a massive world class resort. Granted that price was in 2002 but I know for a fact that the lift ticket is still way way wayyyyyyyy cheaper than resorts in the US. Same thing with The Jungfrau, St. Anton, Davos and Val Gardena.
Resorts here in the US can stuff their insane lift prices.
les trois vallées (biggest ski resort in the world) is in peak months 360 euro for 6days. But you have other resorts where the ski pass costs only 220 for 6days and are still bigger than US resorts
@@jurgen1843 I agree 100000%, the resorts here in the US are insane with the prices, totally insane.
The question I always have is…with “local” hills often just down the road from the mega-resorts (and often having comparable terrain, just not as much of it, smaller crowds, MUCH cheaper prices, and a generally mellow vibe) why do skiers continue to pack themselves in at these ridiculously expensive, crowded, corporate mountains!?
My local ski area recently partnered up with Mountain Capital Partners out of Colorado.
Kids under 12 get free season passes. They have dynamic pricing for daily tickets. Lowest price is $9, highest is 99.
Plenty of $9 on weekdays over the next several months at Willamette Pass!!!
Those prices sounds far more acceptable!
as a SLC local, if I don't get a season pass somewhere, I don't go all season... $600 for a full season doesn't seem so bad compared to the 200+ per day at Park City
A couple of commenters have mentioned how cheap lift tickets in the Alps are compared to North America (the western half). It’s true that the Alps are a bargain and the ski experience over there is terrific except for one major drawback, snow quality. Colorado, BC, California, Montana etc all have much better snow conditions on average. No language barrier either.
Are you joking right ?
@Tyrone Shoelaces Switzerland sounds nice. But you should really come to the US sometime and sample the great skiing we have out west. Americans are welcoming people and you’ll have a great time (once you cough up the cash)
I’ve been visiting Snowmass ( my personal favourite) and other Colorado resorts for about 30 years (from Australia). Absolutely love the snow quality, variety of long runs and friendliness of American people. In January we’re off to ski Austria (Zurs) and Italy ( Dolomites) to get a very different cultural and skiing experience. The accommodation and lift tickets are way cheaper than the US so if the skiing is good there’s plenty of places to ski there in the future. I’ll let you know my thoughts in February. PS any tips on Zurs or Campitello gratefully accepted.
@@rexgoulevitch I haven’t skied Zurs (planning to in 2025) but I have skied the Sella Ronda which is just north of Campitello. The Sella Ronda is spectacular and unforgettable. Try it clockwise, that’s supposedly the better direction. The Marmolada is supposedly a great run as well but I didn’t get a chance to ski it. If you ever get the opportunity, try Chamonix and the Vallee Blanche. Mind blowing.
@@dhowe5180 thanks for the tips. So many resorts to choose from in Europe. I’ve heard Marmolada is best skied in the morning so may not be able to get there in time from Campitello.
After graduating HS in '75 I went West to Winter Park
to fulfill a dream of being a Ski Bum.
No work, just skiing.
First season for the Mary Jane.
Awesome part of my life.
My season lift ticket:
I say my SEASON ticket:
$230 !!!
Man, Vail REALLY wants people to buy Epic season and day passes.
Everywhere else also
I wish they would offer better rates for traveling families etc… it’s ridiculous, hey that new pair Stockli’s doesn’t seem to expensive now😢
Edge cards. That is their priority.
yes they openly admit that, nothing secret about it. No business wants to tie its fortune to weather and other variables out of its control.
Vail is not in the business of making bets about variables of ski season. Its a business not blackjack table.
Makes total sense to me why that be more palatable to shareholders than a gambling business
Vail absolutely doesn’t want people to ski, ruining not only ski resorts, but local businesses, ski industry, property value and many other things connected to skiing.
Whistler in Canada costs 120 bucks a day.. and i thought that was expensive lol
I am glad I ski in the Alps although it looks like you get awesome snow and terrain
Yeah, I might just save up and head to Europe, it might be cheaper in the long run. I’m from the Midwest where we only have hills, they’re fun but small and lift tickets are around $25 a day.
I used to live in Innsbruck and would get the Tirol ticket… under $500 for the whole year (summer glaciers included), and the whole Tirol region to ski 90+ resorts, including Kitzbuhl, Kaunertal, and the Arlberg region (St Anton), along with many transfer busses and trains. By far the best ski value on the planet!!! Miss those days…
This is why ski mountaineering is a growing sport. Great video.
These places seems nice, but I love my local ski lift, its almost empty on weekdays, one hour away, and i got 5 year season pass for $850. They say Norway is expensive, but seeing these prices i dont know ...
An Epic local pass was on sale for $625 in March of this year. You just need to plan early.
I did that for a 10 day trip to the States, but when I realised how out of date the resorts and lift systems were I still felt ripped off.
Homewood is headed towards being a private country club-esque ski hill. It will only be available to people who live in the vicinity. I believe more on mountain condos are coming as well. This will be, basically, Yellowstone Club West.
When I was young I was freaking out trying to come up with $14 for Homewood.
@@armadilllo when I was young I could ski at Squaw/Palisades for $30!
@@RocksOff72 insane and I still refuse to call it Palisades
@@armadilllo Palisades is a pretty stupid name. I understand the need to move away from a pejorative like "Squaw" but why not call it Olympic Valley? Play up your Olympic heritage a little! Instead they named the place after a small rock outcropping. Solid work.
@@RocksOff72 No, it’s a real stupid name. Squaw is not derogatory. Brave and Squaw. Just names. I’m done with Tahoe and Reno. It’s a zoo now.
The big resort prices are steep, but you're at least getting a big mountain experience with actual snow. It's worse imo at those tiny resorts in the east coast that's always overcrowded, charges $100/day for like 3 trails that are like half a mile of straight up ice crust and like music festival pricing on food & drinks.
And to think I complained about paying $35.00 a day at Vail.
Well I guess that was a few years ago.
Homewood is raising rates because it WANTS to go private, but it can't because it's not private land (national forest I think). As a result, they decided that the best way to get a similar result was to make it obscenely expensive to come there.
yeah, Homewood used to be the cheap place because it was small and boring. Now it's $159 and they charge to park?
Homewood actually isn't on NFS land. Homewood, like much of the land on the immediate shore of Lake Tahoe is private land. That said, the TRPA regulates how individuals develop their property within a fragile environment, they allow 1% of a property in a fragile area to be covered by buildings, up to 30% in less fragile areas. I don't know how Homewood is designated but my guess is it's in a not so fragile area. The owners of Homewood have hired the same land development company that designed the Yellowstone Club, so, the writing is on the wall.
@@RocksOff72 Only the bottom portion of the mountain is private, most of the upper mountain is on a USFS lease
In 1990 the walk up ticket price at Alta in Utah was $19.00 for a full day. The seasons pass holders paid much less.
Alta always prided itself in having the cheapest tickets USA … deepest powder … it’s moto “Alta is for Skiiers” is really true
@@wasabiginger6993 I remember that moto and I think it also had better advanced runs than the other ski areas with less crowds. I used to ride my mountain bike up to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon and once at the top of the road, I would continue on the ski areas service roads to the top of the mountain. I did it without stooping for a rest the entire way up.
Wow - the Homewood price-jackup is mind-boggling! I remember skiing there for $25 a day not too many years ago. I've always hated Squaw, but loved Alpine. Was sad when Squaw (now Palisades) bought them out. I used to ski Alpine on a weekday for less than $40. Northstar and Sierra-at-Tahoe had great discount tickets if you knew where to look at certain businesses in town at Lake Tahoe. I never skied weekends, as crowded lodges and 2-hour lift lines aren't my cup of tea. Instead, I just called in sick at work and skied weekdays. Mt. Rose used to have a ladies' day during the week with cheap tickets, and other resorts offered special 2-for-1 weekdays. And Donner Ski Ranch (across the street from Sugar Bowl) may have had super-slow lifts and a tiny lodge, but their backside terrain was a blast. Back in the day you could ski there on most weekdays for just $10. I always skied on a shoestring, and back then it was easily doable. I'm glad I got to ski back in the good old days, because now, between lift tickets and gas prices, a 1-day trip up to Tahoe would cost somewhere between $500-600! So sad. I think some of those places (especially Homewood) are going to price themselves right out of business someday.
Good video.
As mentioned by someone else, how about a similar one for "best bang for the buck"?
Since I don't live anywhere near a ski resort (Not much snow skiing in Florida), I have to fly to most places, which means more than a short trip, so that's why I like the bigger places (ie Keystone, Killington) otherwise I'd get bored after the 3rd day or so hitting the same runs over and over. Thoughts on that one?
There’s a place in Michigan called my bohemiah. This year it requires that you buy a season pass for $273 if you want to ski on Saturday.
I remember in the mid-70's, Heavenly Valley was the first area in California to go to $10 for a lift ticket. I thought, "No way am I going there. I'll ski Kirkwood for $8. The bummer back then though was we had to ski a lot more powder because there weren't enough people to ski it out.
I've just spent 4 days of skiing in Hintertux/Zilletal in Austria. Ticket price 235 Euros for the whole trip. Overall costs including meals, car rental in Innsbruck and accomodation were around 1000 Euros. Only excluded costs are travel, you need to figure that out yourself depending on your location.
Bear MTN in California was charging $135 for man made snow mid week last season.
I grew up night skiing Snow Summit. Season pass was $280. I could also ski 3 days for PE class free. 😏
I’ll never complain about our local hills again. 2500’ verticals and $20-60/day.
I think any price above $100 a day is a rip off. Go to Europe! I am surprised to not find Aspen/Sknowmass on the list.
Downhill Slide. A great book about the industry. It’s become a haven for real estate developers. The lift tickets are priced high to pull in those that can afford a ski shanty in aspen.
I remember in 1977, when I was in high school, a walk up ticket at Steamboat was $12. We thought that was ridiculous. Loveland and A basin was $6!!!
Pretty much quit skiing because of the price and crowds. It’s so gross now. Being a ski bum 20 years ago was amazing. But it’s unaffordable now.
A very important video! Please consider finishing the rest of the $200+ club in another video, and do a "Best bang for the buck resorts under $100" and a "Best bang for the buck resorts under $50" video next. Don't forget about including Canada in the lists, if these videos are about North America. Many ski industry business leaders like to virtue signal about "inclusivity" while charging ridiculous ticket prices. They deserve the scrutiny.
Ski Banff sunshine village and lake Louise skiers best kept secret!!!!!
Last season Arizona Snowbowl was charging 300+ on multiple different powder days
Believe it or not, I know a decently sized place in the U.S. that charges 19$ for weekends and holidays
I have lived 9 years in USA. 7 years in Bay Area and 2 years in Utah. I like skiing here. However, it only makes sense if you ski a lot and buy a season pass (EPIC or IKON). And you only do daily trips. Then you can get your daily skiing around $25-50 that is reasonable. This is going to be my last season here and soon I will return to Europe where skiing is so much affordable. Everything in the USA skiing is insane expensive: tickets, accommodation, meals, etc. I will never ski here again after this season. Even skiing is great here is it not any better than in Europe where I can take my whole family for five for a week ski trip to the Alps at $5000 including flights, accommodation at ski in ski out place, tickets and meals.
I have just one question. The GDP per capita in the USA is about the same as in EU. How do you justify daily ticket to be three times more expensive in the USA? It does not make any sense!
Almost no one pays the daily rates shown in this video. That partly explains how they justify the rate. But skiing in the US is always going to be more expensive than in the EU. One reason for that is that ski areas in the Alps are run almost like non-profits. They’re owned by the local business people who make their money from the hotels, shops and restaurants.
just came home from Oregon. Willamette pass ski resort... ticket prices as low as $12 a day. 1500 foot vertical mostly intermediate terrain.
That's kinda funny-my home Mountain is Copper, 2nd is WinterPark, 3rd is Alpine(Palisade) and 4th is Homewood. I do think, that raising the prices should reduce some of the crowds, but so far, that experiment is not quite working at Copper.
Amazing videos!! Genuinely. Keep it up!
Don't forget Yellowstone Club... arguably the most expensive "ticket" you could buy since you're forced to buy a season pass if you want to ski even one day. And the season pass is to put it mildly... hefty ;)
Yup, definetly never going skiing in the US.
Here in Europe (Switzerland to be more specific) even the most expensive resorts barely cost more than 100$ with most of them being much lower and big discounts for youth people and children. Some resorts even offer free passes to children and sometimes even youth people on saturdays. And then sometimes you can also get discounts if you travel there by train or some banks also offer discounts.
For example a daypass in the Jungfrau Skiregion (a resort on the more expensive side) as a person under 20 in pre-season (on 12th December) with railway discount cost me 36 CHF so about 40 USD but to be fair big parts of the resort weren't open yet.
Ticket prices are way out of control. Top that off skiers are getting charged for parking now.
I grew up skiing Tahoe and Homewood was my first hill and there is no way they can justify $279. This is why I go the season pass route.
The resorts quality is far away from what you can get in Europe and Europe is waaay cheaper. The prices for lift tickets there are between 30$ - 85$. I don't think there is any resort that goes higher than 100$ .
Homewood? I remember going there 40 years ago. It was terrible.
Insane prices, Mt Bohemia in Michigan has great tree skiing and a season pass is only $100 and several sister resorts out west to ski free.
But you’re skiing In Michigan
I switched from Alpine skiing and snowboarding to surfing, scuba, and snorkeling, which are much less expensive.
What's wild is you can go to Zermatt Switzerland and ski a HUGE resort with RIDICULOUS lifts for less the half the price of these listed here. For me being in the Houston area, it's probably cheaper me for to ski in France, Italy, Switzerland, or Austria than it is to go to Colorado. It's getting truly ridiculous.
I am going to France for skiing again this season. We are a group of 8 and will spend approximately ~500$ on Lift pass and accomodation per person for one week. Last year it was 450 for one week. WTF USA.
Prices to ski out west are the single reason I refuse to go there any more. I can ski 5 days at Sugarloaf in Maine ( weekdays) for $179, for a mountain that will challenge anyone, and no lift lines.
If I recall Homewood doesn't get as much natural snow than the other Tahoe resorts and also has limited snowmaking... that one day lift ticket sounds like a business killer on a low snow year
and is super slow because there isnt any steep terrain.
I was surprised Teton village in Jackson hole wasnt on this. I paid 270 walk up price in 2021 on a weekday there in March
$199 season pass at Bogus Basin for 10 years. Not even a day at most mountains today
One trick, buy ski lessons and many of the resorts offer deep discounts of lift tickets with lessons. Lesson + lift tickets bundle price is even cheaper than the lift ticket alone on the same day.
One reason I feel blessed to ski the east, yes the mountains arents as big but atleast I can have a ski weekend with being a millionaire. Cant beat the North East Ikon pass $557 for access to Okema, Snow Mountain, and Stowe and a bunch of NH locations
WOW. Back in 2000 or so you could buy a SEASON PASS at Sierra-At-Tahoe for about $249....
We got lucky at Winter Park last spring break because my family has Ikon, and the lines were super short (6-7 mins max)
Wow! In the 70’s in my 20’s I rarely paid for skiing because I worked on the mountain getting free room & board too … mostly at Alta Utah where my last job in 1978 offered me free skiing at Snowbird too. How fortunate was I?! I guess lots of resorts have found they can charge these insane rates … as long as enough folks can afford to pay them. Gone are the days I knew where lift tickets were resonable for families and young adults like I was could ski their legs out for free … best powder on the continent!
it's the same now for people working the mountains. Most resorts will give you a season pass if you agree to work as a lift operator or cafeteria server for 15 shifts that season, and they're paying ~$20/hr for lift operators and will give you a set of skiing outerlayers(resort branded). Also virtually all non-vail resorts will let employees of other non-vail resorts ski there for free, so 15 shifts is free lift tickets and a set of basic gear. Room and board is a different story though, need to sign a fulltime contract for the entire season to get a bed in the employee dorms.
Someone who works at Loveland Basin or any of the other non-affiliated or Alterra resorts in Colorado for 15 days can ski for free at Alta and Snowbird all season if they make the treck out that way.
First off I do want to say that this was a great video and that i appreciate you taking the time to make it. Though I do have one criticism of it, which is the fact that this all kind of comes off as a promotion for people to buy the icon and epic pass. This to me is an issue because these passes are responsible for the high ticket prices aforementioned in this video. Just something to keep in mind. Otherwise, great video!
Well said. Promoting IKON/EPIC and they are a large reason why day passes are so expensive.
I thought Whistler Blackcomb is expensive already....now I am feeling blessed.
Wow, guess I shouldn't have complained so much about a $115 Mt Rose weekend ticket WITH a buddy discount. I live in Tahoe and have a pass so I had no idea that some of these ticket prices were so insane. Palisades is really good though.
As a European, I was already upset about paying around 53 euros instead of 45 in my home ski area in the near future, but over 200 euros per day is hard to imagine.
Yeah…. Homewood really became who they hate the most. Absolutely ridiculous price hike for nothing in return. Still the BEST view tho.
St. Moritz and Zermatt in Switzerland are literally cheaper. that's amazing
Im glad I use to ski on Argentina where the day pass is around $40
You need to add Crystal Mountain. They are sooo expensive now. But great resort still
I bought my Senior 70+ season pass with no blackout days at Sierra at Tahoe for $200! Not many years left in these legs. So glad I skied long ago. I believe my day pass in 1966 at Holiday Hill in Socal was $3.95! That would be $34.63 in today dollars.
I’ve skied most of these mountains, thank God for the military discount. Still you have to pay for food and transportation