Where are the deals?

Yeah. That’s why you’re here, right?

Welp. I have some bad news. Over the past decades, resorts have made the strategic decision to heavily promote discounted season passes, providing a guaranteed revenue stream as early as Spring (when they start offering those “ski/ride the rest of the season for ‘free'” deals).

But that wasn’t enough. Because to “encourage” people to buy these season passes, and to keep the daily revenue high, they’ve raised the ticket window prices to exorbitant levels.

To be sure, it sounds great to buy a pass for $600 because it’s “paid for in less than 6 visits.”

But consider that Northstar’s ticket window prices in the 1999-2000 season were $49. Adjusted for inflation, tickets should be $74.66 (so a 50% increase). But instead, Northstar charges $169. That’s… a 238% increase. What do we get for that?

A fancy village with an ice skating rink. A fancy hotel. A few more lifts and a few more runs off of Lookout.

So, getting back to those pass deals. Thanks to consolidation, at least your pass is good at more than just one resort. An Epic Tahoe Pass ($609 in Oct 2019) is good at Northstar, Kirkwood, and Heavenly. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and you certainly won’t get bored. And of course, if you paid earlier, you saved even more.

And because of the Squaw/Alpine merger a few years back, the IKON pass lets you ski at those two resorts (non-holiday, of course) for $749.

SO AGAIN, where are the deals, you ask? Say you don’t go more than 3-4 days a year. Or you want to take advantage of the wide variety of Tahoe resorts.

Here’s the trick: Go LOCAL. More on that in my next post.