 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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mountainaddict, Buy your pass through a UK tour operator if you can, it's a lot cheaper.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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mountainaddict, look at www.ski-i.com - I just tried for 6 days in Winter Park in February. Came out at £37 per day. Fair enough.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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mountainaddict, and Vail is coming in at £44 - quite a decent saving.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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If Cairngorm is worth £31 a day then Kicking Horse @ £54 is very good value for money.
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I always think cairngorm is expensive for what it is...
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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freeheelskier, the piste map doesn't tell me a lot but I'm guessing that
a) the lifts are better
b) there is a higher likelihood of good conditions across the season
and
c) it is a lot more difficult for me to get to Are.
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Montegenevre is only €22 a day for the main mountain there doesn't include Milky way but I would say that is a pretty good price. I went to Tahoe with Virgin a coupe of years back and the weekly tahoe price through them was about £200 compared to approx $450 in resort.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Its the weak pound for the canadain resorts
Three years ago you got 2.35 to a pound, now its around 1.5
If you book accomdation through the resorts you can usually get discounted tickets
Panorama has some excellent condo/lift deals at teh mo. Pay for 4 nights get 7
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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scotia, There is I think Brittish travelgroups to Åre, and I dont know about Cairngorm but I think the lifts are very good in Åre, and the climat is better for skiing in Åre, there is more stable winter all the season, from Nov/Dec to 1 of May , the vertical drop is 890m, the numbers of lifts are 47, 114 slopes, 7 black, 40 red, 42 blue, 11 green, longest slopes is 6,5km, total lenght of slopes is 101km, and there is alot of offpiste to,, and the nightlife is the best in northern europe,,
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gryphea, I think that was four years ago, and it has steadily been dropping since then. What ever the reason though, unfortunately Canada has become too expensive for many from this side of the pond. Shame though !
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/exchform.html
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You know it makes sense.
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| freeheelskier wrote: |
| ... and the nightlife is the best in northern europe,, |
which is just as well because it's kinda dark up there, never really seems to get above being dusky.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Bode Swiller, dec january is dark, but the days is going to be longer and longer,,
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Poster: A snowHead
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Bode Swiller, In Åre, 1th april, in highseason, when there still is alot of snow, the sun is coming up 6.00am, and get down 7.33pm, is that dark 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Squaw Valley - season pass if you bought early enough £230 (excludes peak Saturdays and holidays)
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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The lift pass prices are major consideration as if the air fare. The lift pass prices seem to be geared towards one or two day trips. You have to do a bit of work to get a discount pass. T.O. & accomodation owners sometimes have acces to get you a discount pass. There are heavily discounted passes for Banff at the moment from T.O.'s. My mate got the Senior Season Pass for Winter Park/Copper for £160. Its worth the journey for a better chance of powder.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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The golden rule of North American skiing is that you should never pay the turn-up-and go price for ski passes. Your best options are:
- book through a UK tour operator before you go. Note that you don't have to buy anything else from the tour operator. Operators offering this service include Ski Independence and American Ski Classics. I've used both and they're excellent
- buy a package that includes accommodation and lift passes. These are most widely available through the official resort accommodation office but some local hotels might offer their own packages
- take advantage of special deals that are sometimes promoted on the resort's web site (eg pay for 6 days, get 2 free)
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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does the weak £ argument really stack up? the £ is pretty weak vs the Euro too and Euro prices are much cheaper still
i sort of take the point that you can only ride one lift at a time so it isn't quite right just to say that you get better value from a 3V lift pass versus a Whistler pass because you get access to more lifts. however, when you pay CAD90 for a Whistler ticket (that's the price at 7-11 in Squamish - the walk-up price is about CAD100) and then spend 20mins queuing for almost every lift as i did on 27 Dec, you can't help but feel you aren't getting great value
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Jonny Jones, Even using Ski Independence and American Ski Classics you may have to book other things with them - ie flights/ accommodation, depending where you want to go.
I'm using American Classics for the Salt Lake Superpass, with no tie ins, but to go somewhere else( Banff for eg. ) you do need to book acommodation.
Agreed they are good though and great prices.
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With US lift pass prices no one pays the list price because there are so many deals.
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I was skiing at killingon 2 years ago and the liftpass on Friday/Saturday/Sunday was $70+ a day, what a rip off.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Quote: |
The golden rule of North American skiing is that you should never pay the turn-up-and go price for ski passes
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If Fernie does advance discounts, we couldn't find them last Feb...... 
Anyway, regardless of economics, weak pound etc, the point I was making was that, with Mrs MA & me, there will come a point where we refuse to pay Nth American prices. I assume it's the same for everyone - as in who would pay $200 a day  ? - which seems to be where it's heading.
I only threw in Cairngorm on the OP for mischief purposes - though, ironically, we had 2 fantastic powder days there last winter, plus one earlier this season - but spent a week at Park City/Canyons/Deer Valley/Alta/Snowbird 2 seasons ago with not a cloud in the sky and not one single powder turn to report  (I know, I know....you pay your money and take your chance  )
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mountainaddict, RCR resorts have always been difficult places to get pass deals.
And I had 80 inches of powder in 6 days in Alta last April... 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| mountainaddict wrote: |
At current exchange rates (Jan 2011) we're talking:
- Fernie £51 a day (and - disgracefully IMO - no reductions for multiple days)...
...Just wondering at what price will fellow  draw the line? |
I'm fortunate to have a friend who lives in Fernie (in the winter) and when we visited him last winter, the lift price was the only sore point of the trip. It was a bit painful paying £50 a day (no point in buying a multiday pass, in case you couln't ski one day for whatever reason), which was a shame as we had a good trip all in all (went a couple weeks after the winter olympics, and we all remember the conditions they had!). I just couldn't see why it was so expensive, it's hardly a large lift system, and the lifts weren't exactly state of the art, with human ticket checkers as opposed to the wireless systems were used to in the Alps - I imagine the cost is for the avi control, but is that so different to other resorts???
It's certainly something we'll consider carefully before going back.
One thing to say though, is that is was certainly much less busy than most European resorts, even on the odd day when we had a bit of fresh snow (an 'almost powder' day)... We were still getting fresh tracks, inbounds, at 3 in the afternoon. Don't know if the lack of people is a cause or effect of the lift prices...
I wonder if there's a bit of 'local hill for local people' attitude going on - ie using tourists to fund the skiing for locals by charging them more? Not saying that's a bad thing, as the local community is obviously important, but it does make us lot think twice...
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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The pound is not strong against the Canadian $, and Calgary is not a poor city.
The French love to put lots of really fast lifts in - and what you get is over-crowded pistes.
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After doing the resorts in Colorado and Vermont in the last 12 months I can confirm the North American ski pass is not a bit steep. It is very steep! When I skied Whistler I had to get it through a local resident to get a bit of discount off it.
When I skied Killington, Stowe, Smuggler Notch and Sugarbush in January this year every resort was charging the full ski pass for offering only about 60% of the piste/lifts on the piste map. The remaining 40% was either due to lack of snow and lack of effort to prepare them.
Three weeks after the Vermont trip I am now France after skiing Stubai, Solden and Obergurgl in Austria. The ski passes are excellent value for money. The snow was top notch and 99% of the piste/lifts were open.
As a DIY skier I found accommodation, food and ski pass in the American resorts are all more expensive than the European. The ski pass cost is almost doubled. If this is not bad enough there are always a limited number of lifts in the American resorts. They do develop a way of arranging 3 to 5 queues for one chairlify and employ full time staff to control the flow of the queues. You will have to count yourself lucky if there is a footrest on the chairlift though. If the American do heated seats and bubble to shield to cold and wind in the chairlifts I haven't found them in Colorado and Vermont.
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You know it makes sense.
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I guess it depends on the resort and the availability of special offers. Last year in Jackson, I paid £704 for 10 day passes for a family of five (kids aged 11-14 so no toddler freebies). That was £14.08 per person per day, and my very spacious accommodation cost me an additional £27 per person per night.
Something of a bargain by any standard, I believe. But I couldn't repeat the deal this year so I went elsewhere.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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You really have to buy packages. RCR offer 20% discount if you book through them (and this discount is available for LL through them too)
Panorama have quoted me $1100 for a family of four (inc 2 adults) in a 1 bed condo for spring break, for five nights including 5 days lift pass for the adults ( a pay for 3 get 5 deal, they alos offer a pay 4 get 7). That deal is not a western canada resident deal. You have to work around the sites yourself and find the deals.
For locals there are alsorts of deals, discount cards and costco also do tickets to a few resorts. We paid $50 per day per adult for Whitefish direct to lift tickets from costco, they do LL for same price and KH for $80 for 2 days etc.
We have to go to Castle mountain in feb and are slightly shocked that we will have to pay full price!
Don't think as hum3 says that they are using the tourists to fund the locals as the locals provide a lot of bread and butter. But the tourists do pay for meals on hill (locals bring their own and expect to have access to microwave, cutlery and hot water as well as seating) and provide good mid-week trade. I did recently however point out to my friend who works at Travel alberta that the tourists are nearly the only ones paying full price and therefore they shouldn't have their buses messed around with!
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Poster: A snowHead
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| hum3 wrote: |
I just couldn't see why it was so expensive, it's hardly a large lift system, and the lifts weren't exactly state of the art, with human ticket checkers as opposed to the wireless systems were used to in the Alps - I imagine the cost is for the avi control, but is that so different to other resorts???
It's certainly something we'll consider carefully before going back.
One thing to say though, is that is was certainly much less busy than most European resorts, even on the odd day when we had a bit of fresh snow (an 'almost powder' day)... We were still getting fresh tracks, inbounds, at 3 in the afternoon. Don't know if the lack of people is a cause or effect of the lift prices...
I wonder if there's a bit of 'local hill for local people' attitude going on - ie using tourists to fund the skiing for locals by charging them more? Not saying that's a bad thing, as the local community is obviously important, but it does make us lot think twice... |
I would imagine that's very much a significant reason. North America in general have less population density and I got the impression skiing is less popular in the general population. So that leads to substantially fewer skier visit per day per mountain. Great for the enjoyment of the skiers but not so much for the operating cost per skier.
The more proper question would be, if you were to ski off-piste, is it more expensive to pay the higher lift pass price to ski inbound off piste in N. America? Or is it cheaper to pay for the guide service in the Alps? Because when I look at the "steep'ish off-piste bash", that's the calculation that I'll be using. (I'm based in New York. So the cost of flight to the Alps and to the Rockies are similar)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| saikee wrote: |
After doing the resorts in Colorado and Vermont in the last 12 months I can confirm the North American ski pass is not a bit steep. It is very steep! When I skied Whistler I had to get it through a local resident to get a bit of discount off it.
When I skied Killington, Stowe, Smuggler Notch and Sugarbush in January this year every resort was charging the full ski pass for offering only about 60% of the piste/lifts on the piste map. The remaining 40% was either due to lack of snow and lack of effort to prepare them.
Three weeks after the Vermont trip I am now France after skiing Stubai, Solden and Obergurgl in Austria. The ski passes are excellent value for money. The snow was top notch and 99% of the piste/lifts were open. |
Sorry to be on your case again!  But you didn't ask for advice here, or you wouldn't have to work so hard and pay so much!!!
First of all, January is historically the worst snow record in the northeast. (though this year is an exception to that rule). You really picked the worst time, apart from Christmas/NY week to sample the region.
Second, there're well-known discount for that time of year for the above reason. Last week, I skied in 4 different resorts in Vermont, at the cost of $19-29 a day! All I had to do was go online and purchase the ticket through liftopia.com. If you don't know about that, you've been living up a tree! (that is, if there's any tree in Europe ) Things in America works sometimes works differently, if you want to do as you have in Europe, then don't complain about it not working as (you) expected.
| Quote: |
| You will have to count yourself lucky if there is a footrest on the chairlift though. If the American do heated seats and bubble to shield to cold and wind in the chairlifts I haven't found them in Colorado and Vermont. |
Again, if you had bothered to ask, I could have told you Stratton has.
There maybe others. But NA skiers don't particularly like bubbles and heated seats. Bubbles can't operate in the high wind as non-covered chairs. Because of the frequent snow, a heated seat would become a wet seat when empty.
As to footrest? I personally hate it with a passion. I'm glad they're a (relative) rarity in my neck of woods.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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When we went to Colorado we booked lift passes through www.themountainsusa.com and got passes for 2 weeks cheaper than we could have got in any of the big French resorts (we stayed in Breckenridge & got passes that covered us for several resorts including Vail). We got our savings by booking in advance under the offers for international travellers. Apparently you have to book in advance to get these offers. These much cheaper prices were not available on any of the resorts official webpages that I could find. We booked through themountainsusa.com, they sent us a voucher to print out by email which we took to one of the ski pass sales points when we arrived & they simply swapped it for our passes. I've only used that website once but when we did we found them really useful and they were happy to provide all sorts of other information in answer to emailed questions e.g. about hire cars. We would have saved even more money if we'd realised sooner than about 10 days into the holiday that the lift passes also entitled us to discounts in some of the mountain restaurants!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| abc wrote: |
There maybe others. But NA skiers don't particularly like bubbles and heated seats. Bubbles can't operate in the high wind as non-covered chairs. Because of the frequent snow, a heated seat would become a wet seat when empty.
As to footrest? I personally hate it with a passion. I'm glad they're a (relative) rarity in my neck of woods. |
Deer Valley? - though I suspect there may conflict with the lift pass price issues!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| abc wrote: |
| Bubbles can't operate in the high wind as non-covered chairs. |
Well you need to come and sample some of the European gondolas that run on two wires and can handle pretty-much anything. But anyway, if it's too windy for a normal "bubble" on one wire then life on the chairlift (especially in some of the temps you get in the NE) will be pretty unpleasant. US is generally way colder than Europe yet it's mostly uncovered chairs all the way. If anywhere should be running gondolas a la Courchevel, it's the US and Canada but they don't... guess that's what you get when accountants and ambulance-chasing lawyers run ski resorts.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Agree chairs are cheaper and not as comfortable as bubbles. Still, when the wind is high, the ultimate uplift of choice is a drag lift!!! And the same certain snowhead who complain about the lack of bubble in NA is also totally against drag lifts! One can't win, can one?
On the other hand, most NA resorts really aren't catering to internatioal visitors. Or at least the ones in the northeast aren't. For us locals, one has the choice of NOT skiinng when it's down right miserable! (though I must report I skied at 15 degree day last weekend, a temperature I normally don't ski in. But I've got a new jacket this year, and it seems to made such low temperature feel perfectly balmy!  )
Of the few resorts I visited in the Alps, yes, there're bubbles or gondolas but it's just one of say, out of 8 or 10 open chairs! So what's one to do when it's too cold and too windy? Just yo-yoing up and down the same slope served by the bubble??? Is it really that much better than say, pay the extra to get nice warm gear to handle all the open chair?
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abc, +15 F is only -9 C. Not exactly arctic and I'd happily ride chairs in that. When I once went to Stowe it was more like - 15 F which is - 26 C and that was seriously unpleasant because it was also very windy (did you mean -15?). It would have been a more bearable day if at least the upward journey was inside a bubble. But basically, froze on the way up and then some more on the way down.
I don't know which European resort you visited but most big lifts serve many many routes down - really no need to get bored. Exposed chairlifts most often have pull down covers on them.
By the way, I'm perfectly happy on any drag lift. Brought up on them.
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Bode Swiller, yep, +15F. You're right, it's not exactly artic. But I don't usually ski downhill (therefore riding chairs) at that temperature. I spend half of my snow days on xc skis. I reserve the colder days for x-c skiing since it's too hot to ski at any +15 temperature or above.
I've only been to 3 Valley in France, Jungfrau and St Moritz in Switzerland (and St. Anton in Austria years ago). There maybe multiple piste down from one lift, but a lift basically serve one part of the mountain. Without riding on the non-covered chairs, one misses the half of the resort! I've been lucky with temperature on all my trips. So the existance of covered lifts had largely escaped my notice (except when it's unpleasently HOT in spring time ).
Also, on all my trips to the Alps, I've not encounter much high wind days. So I can't say if the bubbles will operate at the kind of wind we see here a lot. 30-35mph (or even higher in gust) wind is relatively frequent here. At which point all the covered lifts will cease to operate. Not that I want to be on a chair at that wind, mind you (can feel pretty scary), but others seem willing to brave it.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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there is a lot of sweeping generalisation going on here in relation to the thousands of resorts with various lift configurations and access to the mountains 
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A day pass enabling the holder to ski all 12 resorts in Dolomites costs 46 Euro this season.
Don't suppose a skier can exhaust the 1200km piste possibility in a day but there is the Sella Ronda loop of 40km fully linked by lifts in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions.
In Europe one can get heated seats even inside gondolas! Was in Stubai Glacier Austria last week. The base station temperature was -13 degree C. When I lept into one of the chairlift to the glacier top I thought we could do with a bubble and sure it was there. People can have their opinion on buibble but it is an optional extra on the chairlift which one can opt out. Foot rest is helpful if you are getting old!
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FAQ
A bit pricey but worth it considering all that you get for it. It still works out cheaper than skiing in a fridge 
