Is there such thing as affordable skiing?

[Anonymous]

NP here. I’m sitting in my hotel room at the bottom of Alta, UT right now and the answer no. My husband and I have skied together since the beginning of our relationship and we now have a munchkin that is similarly addicted. It is expensive but we love to do it together as a family. Our son has been on skis since he was 2.5. He is a really good skier and can do double black runs out here. In addition to 2 trips out west each year, we ski most weekends at Timberline. We probably get in about 30 days per year.

There are ways to save money but it is a very expensive hobby.

[Anonymous]

We ski in Vermont. We ski local Smugglers notch ski resort for a few reasons. It is absolutely not crowded, mostly locals ski there. It had three mountains for all abilities. It is cheap ( buy notch card at 100-150 for season and ski for $30/day), i.e. once week of skiing comes to $500 for the cards for 4 people and $120/day, around $1200 for week for lift tickets. Reliable snow, especially deep in the season. A few local affordable vrbos under $2k per week within 5 miles from resort ( ours that we have been renting for 5 straight years, 4 bedrooms 3 baths, under $2k, very clean, cozy, fireplace). So a week of skiing comes to under $4k if you drive there , have your own equipment and cook at least breakfast at your VRBO. This is pretty decent east coast skiing with good snow base, many powder days and great variety of terrain. This resort does not offer heated gandolas or many restaurants, but for affordable skiing with good quality dependable snow we found it best on the East Coast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I’m sitting in my hotel room at the bottom of Alta, UT right now and the answer no. My husband and I have skied together since the beginning of our relationship and we now have a munchkin that is similarly addicted. It is expensive but we love to do it together as a family. Our son has been on skis since he was 2.5. He is a really good skier and can do double black runs out here. In addition to 2 trips out west each year, we ski most weekends at Timberline. We probably get in about 30 days per year.

There are ways to save money but it is a very expensive hobby.

We ski at Alta/snowbird several times a year but spend most of our days at pcmr/dv because we are local. And right now we are in Niseko. The answer is yes, you can ski affordably, but going to Alta and niseko are not how you do it, unless you are local. We know many families that ski affordably at their local resorts, and when they travel, they go to places like a basin, mt rose, brian head, mt Sandia, Bridger bowl etc. PP’s description of smuggler’s notch sounds great. Buying used skis and boots at swaps or secondhand is great. I only buy used skis and boots. I have nearly new sheevas and black ops and the most comfortable boots that someone else broke in for me.

The other way to do it, is to leverage friends and family who can help defray ski costs. We host a few families a year in pc - they save the cost of lodging, we let them use our car and parking pass, and we use our buddy/ friends and family benefits from our epic and ikon passes to save on lift passes.

[Anonymous]

Nothing is affordable in bidens economy

[Anonymous]

The only way skiing is affordable is if you live near a ski hill, are willing to have used gear and don’t care where you ski. My season pass is $699 when bought at its cheapest price in the spring. Kids 12 and under get a free season pass. For me, it means 4 of us ski for $699 this year. My spouse doesn’t partake.

The pass provides all access at my local place as well as several partner resorts in Utah and Colorado and limited days for the adults (like 2-4) at a few other resorts. None of them are places you’d “fly out west” to ski, but it’s still skiing.

Since we only ski recreationally, we buy used gear and hand it down kid it kid. This year, we bought the oldest very lightly used skis and boots off a family friend for $250 and used poles for $30. The skis/boots were about $100 more than we’ve previously paid, but could end up being longer term skis for the middle child. No one needed any gear other than one ski jacket that was purchased for $50. At the beginning of the season, I sold out grown skis and gear for $150.

We’re at about $1050 for the season. We’ve skied some locally and twice at a partner resort. We stayed with family there. Unfortunately, there has been little snow and the local conditions are not good so I may not use my pass enough to make it worth it. This is the last year all my kids qualify for the free pass, so the pass cost will increase next year.

If we lived elsewhere, we wouldn’t ski due to the cost, but here we can make it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We ski in Vermont. We ski local Smugglers notch ski resort for a few reasons. It is absolutely not crowded, mostly locals ski there. It had three mountains for all abilities. It is cheap ( buy notch card at 100-150 for season and ski for $30/day), i.e. once week of skiing comes to $500 for the cards for 4 people and $120/day, around $1200 for week for lift tickets. Reliable snow, especially deep in the season. A few local affordable vrbos under $2k per week within 5 miles from resort ( ours that we have been renting for 5 straight years, 4 bedrooms 3 baths, under $2k, very clean, cozy, fireplace). So a week of skiing comes to under $4k if you drive there , have your own equipment and cook at least breakfast at your VRBO. This is pretty decent east coast skiing with good snow base, many powder days and great variety of terrain. This resort does not offer heated gandolas or many restaurants, but for affordable skiing with good quality dependable snow we found it best on the East Coast.

Did you just call $4k affordable?!

[Anonymous]

You can rent equipment locally for the season and do day trips to somewhere like Liberty. It's not the ski lodge experience, but it's skiing