How many days a season would you ski if you didn't have a season pass?

[SBrown]

I may have missed it, but are we back to pre-dirt-cheap-season-pass window prices? Because that makes a huge difference.

 

[Jilly]

What changes when you don't have a pass is how long you ski on any particular day. Folks are more willing to ski longer in mediocre conditions when they've paid walk up ticket window price for that day. Folks are more likely to ski 4 or 5 runs then decide not to put the boots back on after taking a break if they have a pass and ski many days and it's all already paid for season long..

Yup....been there, done that!! 3 runs makes a day on Slopesquad right??

 

[raytseng]

I may have missed it, but are we back to pre-dirt-cheap-season-pass window prices? Because that makes a huge difference.

Agreed, the what-if is hard to know what the true window price should be.

I suppose the question posed a different way is do you feel you spend too much or too little on your season pass. Do you think your pass is too cheap or too expensive for what you got out of it. Or a correlaory of did you, or will you pay extra for extra days (either for restricted days, or days at other resorts) despite having a pass.

 

[crgildart]

Yup....been there, done that!! 3 runs makes a day on Slopesquad right??

Ya, and I can't say that I remember many bell to bell ski days, 9am-10pm ski days when I had a pass, paid or employee. Some days I did start early, take a few hours off, then come back and night ski.. but the vast majority of my FULL bell to bell ski days happen when I pay full price for a ticket at the window..

 

[Pequenita]

More selective, more backcountry, and more schmoozing with people who can get me passes.

 

[New2]

Last season with no season pass and a 10-day at Mt. Hood Meadows, I explored around some... used those 10 days plus 5 days other spots, combination of discounts/freebies/window rates. Some findings...

• 2/3 of my skiing was in April and May. Spring passes are so much less expensive, seems like a good bet.
• I had fun at Meadows, but didn't love it--not worth a season pass price.
• The road to Timberline required chains for a huge chunk of the winter season--not worth a season pass price.
• Skibowl was awesome, and if I could count on a winter like last I'd definitely shell out for a Skibowl pass. But the historical record shows too much rain to feel confident in another snowy winter at that elevation.
• Cooper Spur's fun, but it has the same elevation problems as Skibowl and is too expensive to justify a season pass.
• Bachelor and White Pass are both lots of fun, but too far to drive on a regular basis. I bet Crystal's in the same category.

So I'll skip a pass for now. And re-evaluate once spring passes go on sale.

To answer the original question, if conditions at Skibowl are awesome this year, I'll probably ski there a few days less than I would've with a pass; if conditions at Skibowl are rotten this year, I'll probably ski a similar amount not having a pass as I would've with a pass.

 

[slowrider]

Work the race crew weekends and ski mid week gratis.

 

[crgildart]

Work the race crew weekends and ski mid week gratis.

1st two years skiing freestyle we had meets at other resorts most weekends so I also had the mid week pass back then. Wasn't free but about half the price of the full week pass.

 

[Fuller]

I have 46 days built in to the schedule this winter which will cost me about $18.31 per day if I ski all of them. That would be reduced by at least 50% if I was paying by the day, even with the typical discounts available.

 

[crgildart]

I have 46 days built in to the schedule this winter which will cost me about $18.31 per day if I ski all of them. That would be reduced by at least 50% if I was paying by the day, even with the typical discounts available.

If you skied bell to bell on paid discount tickets, but only 4-5 hours per day on your season pass how would the cost per hour skied work out??

 

[KingGrump]

I started skiing in '78. Bought my first season pass in '80. Had at least one season pass every year since. Some years I had multiple season passes. It all depends where we decided to go that particular season. The total dollar amount for the passes usually run between $1K and $2K. The standard guide line is we try to amortize the cost of the passes to somewhere between $10 to $20 per ski day. We have had seasons where it drops below $10/day. For us season passes is definitely the way to go.

If we wake up one day and we end up in a parallel universe. A universe where the idea of season hasn't been conceptualized yet and we have to pay walk up rate every day we ski. We'll probably cherry pick the days we would ski. Will still be a whole bunch of days. Probably end up about 20% less than what we do now. Mostly due to the cherry picking. Budget wise we'll most likely move some fund from the lodging line item to the lift ticket line. We'll do more days around SVT than now. Since we have paid for lodging near by.

 

[Monique]

If I had to pay ticket window prices, I'm sure I wouldn't ski as many days. And it would be harder to justify having a condo in the winter. And if I didn't have the condo, I'd be even less likely to ski. Vicious cycle.

At Epic resort prices, my pass is currently, what, $500 or 600? - something like that. So amortized out, between $10-$20 a day like @KingGrump . Whereas if I had a typical season, I would be paying, what, $3500 dollars even if tickets were only $100/day - which they're not. That's several months of rent/mortgage.

I love my season pass because it means I don't have any financial excuses. If I'm even moderately interested, I can go. And if I buy a 4 pack or similar, I tend to "save" the days and often don't even end up using them. My season pass would be sweet at twice the price.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

i am the opposite no season pass to having one
I don't think my days skiing will ever change much. i had always taken advantage of various multiple day passes and I have other freebies in this region so have never been really tied to one hill, Found the cost used to work out about the same and i like variety.
This year the Whistler season pass was too good to pass on , will still do KH and get a Louise card (Silver Star Revy Lake Louise Castle Red)
but i suspect less days on other hills.

 

[luliski]

I'd have to find cheaper places to ski. In 2014/15, I had a Squaw/Alpine pass, but I think I only skied 4 days. I probably broke even that year.

 

[John O]

I love my season pass because it means I don't have any financial excuses. If I'm even moderately interested, I can go.

This is my favorite reason to have a pass. No need to worry about whether it's "worth going", just go. If it's terrible, I can always bail and go home. Honestly, that's never ended up happening.

 

[Sibhusky]

Since my pass this year amortized over the likely days equals $8-9 a day, the idea of, best case, paying $46-47 a day is horrifying. And guaranteed, I'd be a lot fussier about what days I would ski, because every day would be a decision.

 

[at_nyc]

Probably 25%.

I only started having season pass 4-5 years back. And ONLY because RSMP allows online purchase of season pass (I bought it the 1st year it was available!).

So, as a result of having a season pass, I ski more. But not a whole lot more though. My ski days are usually constrained by time not by money. But once I paid for the pass, there's a bit of pressure to "make it pay for itself". So first/last day of a trip, I would ski half a day when in the past I wouldn't bother paying to ski just a few hours.

The more significant increase comes from "let's see if I could squeeze out another short trip". Tahoe for a long weekend would never have happened had I have to pay for lift ticket on top of hotel/car/flight.

On the other hand, the "extra trip" out west typically comes at the expense of local skiing. Though usually I do come out ahead (in terms of days) when taking a fly away trip.

So those partial days plus the extra trip, do add up to perhaps 20-25% more "days", if not exactly 20-25% actual time on snow.

 

[Fuller]

If you skied bell to bell on paid discount tickets, but only 4-5 hours per day on your season pass how would the cost per hour skied work out??

I wouldn't know - I ski bell to bell every day!

 

[at_nyc]

I never care for that ski "day" concept.

The biggest difference between having a pass vs not, is I now ski less than a full day, which I never did when I'm paying by the "day".

Call it "day padding"?

 

[nay]

I wouldn't be skiing, period. If you are learning as an adult, frequency and repetition are everything, and most of us can't do that at window prices, much less with a family.