Economic Reminder

Marc_C

Active member
In ski discussion forums like here and elsewhere, the issue of the cost of skiing often gets the chew-toy treatment. Invariably someone will bring up how cheap it used to be and how you could get a lift ticket at Big-Little Mountain for a mere $20 or whatever.

Remember that 50 cents in 1971 is ~$5.00 today.
 
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
50 cents in 1971 is ~$2.90 today.

As we know some things inflate more than average inflation, some much less.

With skiing, in the clearly more category since 1971:
Day lift tickets
Lessons
Gas for car trips
Maybe lodging and restaurants?

With skiing, in the clearly less category since 1971:
Season passes
Clothing, ski accessories
Airfares

Major equipment like boots and skis have probably risen about with inflation in terms of ski shop list pricing. But we all know gear sluts who are constantly searching online and scoring great deals. The facility to do this sort of thing was much more limited 40 years ago.
 
jamesdeluxe":1ujdn91h said:
Admin":1ujdn91h said:
I saw all the David Lee Roth-era VH in your collection, so don't act superior -- especially after inflating your powder stats today.

Damn, how many times in one topic can I use the :rotfl: emoji?
 
i know this is an economic thread , however, i thought it was pretty entertaining when i talked to this "relatively" old dude (about 55 years old I"m guessing) on gadzoom today who talked about the "old days at snowbird".........when gadzoom lift ended apparently where the midgad lodge is now....and the other lifts there were not the crankin high speed quads that exist now... he noted that "skiing back then at snowbird was like heli-skiing".......it just didnt get annihilated like it does now! pretty simple...slower chairs...less people......................
 
jojo_obrien":1yz4d5n3 said:
pretty simple...slower chairs...less people......................

Weren't you the guy who just today trumpeted Snowbird's new high-speed Gad 2? :-k

In [url=http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11425#p71786 said:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11425#p71786[/url] jojo_obrien":1yz4d5n3]I do love me some Ballroom and Backside at Alta, but I'm finding myself ever more enamored with the quantity of vertical I get at Snowbird riding high speed quads consistently all day long (now that LC and Gad 2 are now HS Quads). I really feel like I get a TON of skiing in..........
 
Admin":2q62gn2f said:
jojo_obrien":2q62gn2f said:
pretty simple...slower chairs...less people......................

Weren't you the guy who just today trumpeted Snowbird's new high-speed Gad 2? :-k

In [url=http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11425#p71786 said:
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... 425#p71786[/url] jojo_obrien":2q62gn2f]I do love me some Ballroom and Backside at Alta, but I'm finding myself ever more enamored with the quantity of vertical I get at Snowbird riding high speed quads consistently all day long (now that LC and Gad 2 are now HS Quads). I really feel like I get a TON of skiing in..........
That is unless you get stuck on that new Gad 2 lift for 30 minutes - 3 chairs from the top lift station, while watching the lift attendant carry wrenches up and down the ladder leading to housing. :-s

On a side note this thread should be retitled: "White people problems."

Lift access skiing is expensive, always was, always will be. Gravity has that effect on dollars.
 
admin":3c8b1bth said:
Weren't you the guy who just today trumpeted Snowbird's new high-speed Gad 2? :-k
With significant new snow, jojo-obrien and skiace have demonstrated what one can do on a powder day with those lifts.

The greater powder day competition today vs. the era of jojo's "relatively old dude" is due mainly to equipment improvements. Given the choice between pre-high-speed-Collins lift lines and quickly tracked out powder, most of us will take our chances with the powder competition. At a mountain you know well, you can succeed in that competition, as numerous posts on these boards at both Alta and Snowbird demonstrate. And for occasional visitors to Utah, there's often Powder Mt., Snowbasin or Solitude if you don't want the competition.

rfarren":3c8b1bth said:
On a side note this thread should be retitled: "White people problems."
I believe the PC term is "First World Problems." :lol:
 
Tony Crocker":326xtv5s said:
admin":326xtv5s said:
Weren't you the guy who just today trumpeted Snowbird's new high-speed Gad 2? :-k
With significant new snow, jojo-obrien and skiace have demonstrated what one can do on a powder day with those lifts.

The greater powder day competition today vs. the era of jojo's "relatively old dude" is due mainly to equipment improvements. Given the choice between pre-high-speed-Collins lift lines and quickly tracked out powder, most of us will take our chances with the powder competition. At a mountain you know well, you can succeed in that competition, as numerous posts on these boards at both Alta and Snowbird demonstrate. And for occasional visitors to Utah, there's often Powder Mt., Snowbasin or Solitude if you don't want the competition.

In my experience skiing PM, Snowbasin, and Solitude........the vote absolutely goes to PowMow......I think the $450 season passes to Snowbasin , the accessibility of Snowbasin, the great terrain, the high end lodges makes it just about as busy as Snowbird IMO. I don't know what Snowbasin was like 10 years ago, however......low prices = more traffic, less untracked. Just look at what Mt Baldy did over the last 10 years......with the birth of the internet and $100 season passes, the place became a zoo...........
 
Tony Crocker":29ysoerr said:
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
50 cents in 1971 is ~$2.90 today.
Yeah, the $5 equivalence came from a ski article I was reading and I didn't bother to check government or financial sources.

So revising: a $15 lift ticket in 1971 would cost a few cents shy of $87 today.
 
A Mammoth day ticket in 1978 was $12. The CPI calculator says that's $43.21 in today's $. A regular season window ticket at Mammoth is $99 in 2014.

On Mammoth Forum someone quoted a 1992 season pass at $750. The CPI calculator says that's $1255.07 in today's $. The Basic MVP was $659 for this season, and $100 more if you wanted the half price tickets at the other Mountain Collective areas.

jojo_obrien":8yxq52ts said:
Just look at what Mt Baldy did over the last 10 years......with the birth of the internet and $100 season passes, the place became a zoo...........
No more of a zoo than on big snow year weekends in 1979 and 1983 IMHO.
 
Tony Crocker":3cn5dzno said:
A Mammoth day ticket in 1978 was $12. The CPI calculator says that's $43.21 in today's $. A regular season window ticket at Mammoth is $99 in 2014.

On Mammoth Forum someone quoted a 1992 season pass at $750. The CPI calculator says that's $1255.07 in today's $. The Basic MVP was $659 for this season, and $100 more if you wanted the half price tickets at the other Mountain Collective areas.

jojo_obrien":3cn5dzno said:
Just look at what Mt Baldy did over the last 10 years......with the birth of the internet and $100 season passes, the place became a zoo...........
No more of a zoo than on big snow year weekends in 1979 and 1983 IMHO.


seriously? have you seen baldy on a powder day in the last 3 years....chair #1 snaked down past the ticket booth almost going down to the parking lot.......come to think of it...the design of the old main chairlift at goldmine was reminiscent of the #1 chair lift at baldy....................

side note:
i skied a LOT of night skiing at snow valley in the 80's.........we would have fun watching the seemingly never ending red snake on the highway and enjoying the NOx enhanced sunsets over mt san antonio......
 
jojo_obrien":nhebnwyf said:
have you seen baldy on a powder day in the last 3 years
There hasn't BEEN a Baldy powder day in the last 3 years. :evil:

But yes, taking an hour or more to get through the ticket and chair 1 lines, that's nothing new on a big day. One area that has actually improved at Baldy is snow clearance of the road. Baldy village is in L.A. County and the ski area is in San Bernardino County. There used to be delays in road opening after storms like Waterman. By the early 1990's this problem was fairly well fixed.

What's worse now is the number of snowplayers on the access road and the potential for an accident to delay a couple of hours getting out of Baldy at the end of the day.

jojo_obrien":nhebnwyf said:
i skied a LOT of night skiing at snow valley in the 80's
Snow Valley was a big player when I started skiing in the late 1970's but is a bit player now. Same issue as Mt. High, not enough water for snowmaking, but it seems to have hurt them more.
 
For low ticket prices and zero competition for freshies, may I recommend West-Central Montana? Over 3.5 out of 4 no-competition powder days at Lost Trail Powder Mountain, Discovery and Lookout Pass (2/27 - 3/2/14), we never spent more than $39 for a ticket.

When we purchased our lift tickets for Discovery at our hotel in Philipsburg on the morning of Friday 2/28, the owner apologized that she would have to charge us weekend rates because Discovery defines Friday as a "weekend" day. She then proceeded to charge us $30 a ticket. My mind was so blown I forgot to ask what "weekday" tickets might have set us back.
 
Back
Top