Lift Ticket Tipping Point?

I am old (young?) enough to recall $40 lift tickets. Lift ticket prices are climbing annually according to the formula of X+5+Y=current lift ticket price; where X=last year's price and Y=please add an additional 7 dollars if the mountain is a Vermont mountain geared towards yuppies and metro-area folk (no offense, but you've got more money than the rest of us, and certain mountains take advantage of this). So that leaves us at about a $76 average for an adult weekend pass to a large New England resort (with a loose definition of "large" and averaging only 8 resorts off the top of my head...hey, its a blog -not a research paper). According to this formula, that accounts for a nearly 88% increase in just 7 years. Wow.

Maybe I'm whining, but whatever it is I'm doing, I am surely not the only one doing it. I can't imagine what it costs a family of four to take a mini-vacation to a New England ski resort. Not to mention having to pony up for new ski gear every time the kids have a growth spurt. No wonder my family wasn't a ski family. Early on, my parents must have decided that it was either college or skiing for little Captain Avalanche. And while I'm glad they chose college, I wish I got to say I took advantage of the "children 5 and under ski free!*"; where the asterisk="must show birth certificate, at least one parent must pass a paternity/maternity test, child must get too cold to ski after lunch, and valid only on non-holiday Tuesdays during parents' busiest work week of season."

So is there any relief in sight? Will the law of supply and demand ever dictate a maximum price that the market is willing to pay? I am afraid this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. With the economy in the can, more folks are scrapping the week at Sugarloaf Key for a trip to Sugarloaf Mountain. The Bahamas and Disney are on hold for now, and filling in are Killington and Sunday River, Stratton and Okemo, Loon and Mt. Snow. Ski mountains are reporting a surge in demand for season passes this season and low gas prices are helping to get more people to the mountains. As a result of the strong demand, prices are high and crowds are worse, ensuring even less value for the mugging at the ticket counter. It appears, at least for now, that Adam Smith's Invisible Hand does not wear a ski glove.

And don't even get me started on the "discounted" half-day rates. One Vermont mountain recently charged me the whopping 13 dollar difference between their full-day and half-day rate to slap me in the face for showing up late. And the only reason I was late was because the mountain had failed to plow their access road in time for the hoard of arriving yuppies and metro-area folk (who are notoriously...um...careless drivers-again, no offense) and a pile-up had ensued. At least there was powder.

So lift tickets prices will continue to climb and ski mountains will try and add all sorts of mostly-unflattering deals, rather than just lowering prices, becoming more efficient, etc. And for the days those of us without season passes can't find deals, EBay will have an up-tick in discounted merchandise. But at least that means less stuff to move when the landlord evicts us because we can't pay the rent.

-Captain Avalanche, New England

(image: Traffic waits for car pileup on access road to be cleared. Mountain grins knowing half-day tickets aren't much cheaper than full-day hosing.)