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Urge to ski? Brace yourself

More resorts charge Vail-level rates for full-price ticket

Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 11, 2007 at midnight

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A spontaneous day on the slopes means plunking down more than $80 for a lift ticket at a growing number of Colorado's winter playgrounds.

While Vail and Aspen have long been known as the priciest places to ski on a moment's notice, more and more resorts have narrowed the gap. Even less glitzy spots such as Winter Park charge only a few bucks less for those who just want to buy a single-day pass.

"The trend has become fairly consistent among the large destination resorts," said Nolan Rosall, president of RRC Associates, a Boulder-based research firm. "Even the smaller ski areas are inflating their prices because the bigger ones are pushing $80 a day."

Ski industry officials estimate that only about 10 percent of skiers pay full price because the rest take advantage of discounts, package deals and cheaper passes offered early in the season.

But Rosall expressed concern that the practice of charging so much more for a daily pass can inhibit newcomers from trying the sport. It also discourages skiers from bouncing around to different areas depending on the weather, traffic and snow conditions.

Getting a break on the price of riding the chairlifts means planning early and signing up for at least several days of skiing.

"The bottom line is that the person who walks up to the window is paying retail for the luxury of doing it at the last minute," said Ford Frick, managing director of Denver-based BBC Consulting.

Vail and Beaver Creek charge the most for that luxury - $85 a day this year, up from $81 last season. Aspen comes next at $82. But Copper Mountain and the rest of Vail's Colorado resorts have also upped the price of admission this year - to $81 a day.

Winter Park charged $81 a day at the window up until last weekend. Its rates dipped a bit after the holidays - to $79 a day.

Vail Mountain's Bill Jenson justifies it this way: "The sophistication of what we offer as an experience has grown dramatically. It's not just a ride up a chairlift."

Besides, the perfect ski day "happens just once or twice a year," said Jenson, the head of Vail's flagship resort and co-president of Vail Resorts Inc.'s mountain division. "People who make a spontaneous decision based on weather and the availability of their time are very willing to pay the price."

Those who plan ahead - snagging passes offered as early as summer - can ski for far less per day. And that's where Colorado's resorts compete the most for business.

"The Front Range customers have sort of forced them to give these enormous discounts for season passes and multiday passes," Frick said.

But the upper-echelon ski areas also have provided an opportunity for the slew of smaller venues scattered through the state.

Many of them charge half of what the big-league resorts do. And some of them are close to metro areas, making it cheaper to try skiing once or to make an impromptu decision to head to the high country.

Monarch Mountain, for instance, charges $49 to those who show up and buy a daily ticket. It has kept those prices steady for the past three seasons, figuring it is building up a base of skiers who spend freely when they arrive.

The area generates an average of about $40 a day per skier, even for those who buy package deals or ski heavily on a season pass. That's because they're spending money on food, rentals and other merchandise while they're there.

"It's almost a loss leader," Bob Nicolls, Monarch's owner, said of the ticket price.

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