Industry News
Steamboat Ski Resort, Colorado, a member of the Ikon Pass and a top-notch resort located in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, has just announced an increase in single-day lift tickets for the second year in a row, this time surpassing the $200 mark. During holiday weekends, you can now expect to be paying $225 when showing up to the ticket booth the same day you intend to ski.
- Related: Dissecting the $200+ Lift Ticket
When Loryn Duke, Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. spokesperson, spoke with the Steamboat Pilot & Today, she explained that;
“Having that ticket price a little high over holidays, which are the periods we know are more popular, helps us reach our capacity limitation measure… Pricing according to capacity expectations is a part of that whole plan to allow pass holders and package holders to ski and ride without reservation.”
Will you usually pay $225 to ski? No, not usually. It is important to note that although that price figure seems daunting, there are many easy ways to save money by either booking in advance, online, in a package deal, multiple-day ticket, not during a holiday, or any combination of those five.
The main reason for the increase in lift ticket prices may be Covid-related but not primarily for skiers’ safety. Ski Corp, the owner of Steamboat, reported that Steamboat’s revenue is down 30% this year.
In addition to a considerable cut in revenue, Duke also said to the Steamboat Pilot & Today that,
“Steamboat takes market share of what other resorts are at and how we fall into the pricing of everything… There’s always a fluctuation in different prices.”
Duke went on to give the analogy of airplane tickets when saying,
“Even in a non-Covid year, walk-up lift tickets are always infinitely less than packages, pre-purchases, or passes… For years, it’s been the same example of no one really walks up to the airport counter and buys a ticket that day.”
Duke may be right about airplane tickets but what it comes down to is if skiers and riders want to see the industry shift towards that modeling of ticket purchasing. To get the best price, airplane tickets are bought weeks if not months in advance. Do we really want to start doing that with our ski passes?
Is there a suggestion here that you save a lot of money by buying tickets a head of time? Um no. Just no. I just looked for lift tickets to Vail, in mid-March, mid-week, off-peak: $199 per day. That’s two months from now. What discount do I get for buying tickets in advance?
If you buy an airline ticket in advanced, you will save dramatically. There seems to be almost no savings at all for buying lift tickets in advanced. MABYE 10% at best.
The issue is not peak day pricing as much as just walk-up ticket pricing in general. $199 is still probably twice what a casual skier would ever pay. So the industry has decided that you either suck it up and buy a pass, or you are out. Casual and < 5 years of experience skiers will be very unlikely to buy a pass, so the industry is putting up big barriers to entry that will hurt national skier days for decades. Thank Vail for this model.
I miss the old days of not buying a pass and just going to the places I want to ski, whenever I want. Used to be you could walk up to the window and pay a reasonable price that was similar to what pass holders were paying annualized. For example, in 1979 an Aspen Mountain lift pass cost $16. That's $57 in today's dollars with inflation. Who wouldn't pay $57 to ski at Aspen for a couple of days? Who will pay $200+?
Thank you for knowing how inflation works!!!
Agreed, the ski industry is effectively destroying its long-term future for short-term gain. Kinda heart breaking actually because I live this sport. I live it so much I now hike up the mountain and skip the ticket window.
I have been a pass holder for 30 years at a few different Tahoe resorts. But when I do travel out of the state to ski, I do so based on snow/storms, not ticket costs.