# Trying to plan a trip - who has cheapest lift tickets?



## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

The problem with trying to save money and go to larger resorts is that it just doesn't happen. The larger and more well-known the resort, the more expensive it's going to be from lift tickets to lodging and food.

Your probably looking at the Colorado/Tahoe brandname mountains, but I'll throw this one out to take a look at. Schweitzer is pretty far under the radar, which makes it some of the best most uncrowded terrain around. With 2900 Acres, 92 trails, 50% advanced and expert terrain, the best terrain parks in the INW, some of the best tree skiing in North America, and the fact that it's NEVER crowded makes it pretty badass. I've been to Kirkwood, Mammoth, Heavenly, Alpine Meadows, and this is by far my favorite mountain.

I noticed they upped their prices this season, but it would still probably be much cheaper then the Colorado scene. The one thing we don't have however is the giant party nightlife scene if that's what your looking for. Sandpoint, (which is right below the mountain) has fun things to do and is essentially a tourist town, but more then anything it's a small artsy outdoorsy town. Closest airport is in Spokane, Washington (80 Miles)

Book Your Family Ski Resort Vacation to Schweitzer Mountain - Idaho - Right now they are having a deal where you buy 3 adult unrestricted day passes for 20% off.


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## NWBoarder (Jan 10, 2010)

You may want to look into Mt. Baker as well. Bellingham is a college town so the night life there is legit. The lift tickets are the cheapest you will find in Western Washington. The riding is off the hook. Also, your lodging cost should be pretty reasonable, again due to the fact that it is a college town.


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## JeffreyCH (Nov 21, 2009)

Depends on how long you are staying, and how many days of riding. If you get season passes now you'll save a ton, bonus pass to A-basin is 359 and includes 5 days at Key or Breck. Plus with the free bus system in Summit you don't have to drive, and everyone can go explore on thier own with out having to rent a shit load of cars.


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## daysailer1 (Nov 9, 2007)

You can buy a Loveland Season Pass online right now. They're pretty cheap too. You'd need car a though.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

For Colorado, if you want to save some money here are some options. 

Go to Loveland instead of the big boys. Plentiful snow, mom and pop operation, great terrain. The hike to stuff off of chair 9 is on the continental divide. Lift tickets are generally around $60 a day high season. Stay in Idaho Springs and have a 10-20 minute drive to the ski area. You can also hit Winterpark and Summit county from there.

Another option is Crested Butte. Give Almont Resort a call and see if they are having the ski and stay deal. Used to be $60 a day for lodging and lift ticket. Almont is about 15 minutes from Crested Butte. Crested Butte is a mountain that can hold it's own with all the big boys in bad ass terrain. You can go as big as you can handle there. Seth Morrison made his name getting gnarly there. Almont has their own bar and restaurant. You can get fed and ripped and walk across the lot to your cabin. Bonus for being able to charge it to the room and pay it all at the end of your trip. Of course if the $60 deal isn't offered any more than move along.

Those are your cheap options. If you don't buy a season pass to multiple resorts for the big boys, then you are going to pay a premium. If you are really stuck on Colorado, I can give you more details on budget options, but there are not a lot these days since the advent of the cheap multi resort passes. 

The Schweitzer thing sounds like a good deal and the mountain looks for real. Off the radar for sure. Flights may be a bit more to get there.

In reality and I hate to say it, but Utah is still your best traveling bang for your buck. You can find cheap places to stay in Salt Lake (I believe Sandy is better for SLC) or Ogden and have less than a 30 minute drive to major spots. That is nothing for great access. Lift tickets are cheap and most local shops have discounted passes they sell. Pretty easy to get tix between $40-$60 a day around there. Alcohol laws are weak and so is the beer, but now that they got rid of the social clubs the gap is pretty narrow. I've never had a bad time there. Snow if plentiful and fresh snow hangs around in stashes a good length of time. 

You might check out Montana too. Bridger for less expensive tickets, Big Sky for the full on resort experience. Of course flights there are probably some of the more costly. 


Also if you are not flying Southwest make sure you are getting a good deal. Their policy of allowing your board bag to count as one of two free checked bags is huge.


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## Tarzanman (Dec 20, 2008)

I am not stuck on Colorado... what I am mostly stuck on is making sure there is good snow and terrain for the folks on the trip who haven't ever been out west. 

Point taken about the difficulty of trying to save a few $$ at a big resort... I'd appreciate any information you guys can give me on hidden gems that I might not be aware of.

For me, going to Denver with a group requires a car rental, otherwise I end up dropping $180 extra on CME transportation to and from Summitt County.

I am probably barking up the wrong tree. $~60/day is a better deal than ~$75 for a lift ticket... but you'll only see real savings if you ride for a week, IMO (otherwise, just pay the extra $30-$45) for the better mountain. None of these riders are hardcore, so it will probably be a 3-4 day trip for them (i might stay a whole week)

Also, southwest doesn't fly out of Atlanta, but they fly out of the other cities some folks would be coming from.

Which hills in Utah have $40-$60/day lift passes?


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## snowvols (Apr 16, 2008)

You can get discount lift tickets to most resorts in Utah at local ski shops. Southwest flys out of Nashville. I was looking at flights to get back home for Christmas and I think it is like 300 bucks roundtrip on southwest to fly from SLC. Brighton and Solitude are smaller none "resort" places that are easy to get to you. You can get to any of the Big Cottonwood Canyon (Brighton and Solitude) places and Little Cottonwood Canyon (Snowbird) off of the public bus transportation for a small fee.


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## Argo (Feb 25, 2010)

Look up powder mountain in Utah. Very large resort. Pretty inexpensive. I have not been there nut was going to go there this winter instead of Colorado but ended up booking in Colorado again. I just love wolf creek/pagosa springs too much. 

If and when I head up to Utah I will go to powder mountain.


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## chupacabraman (Jul 30, 2009)

I don't see how lift ticket cost really matters here if you're only going for a 3-4 day trip.
The ticket cost difference between hills will be an insignificant amount of the trip's total cost.

For example... if you save $20 at a cheaper hill, then you only save $60-$80 total.
Not much when you're paying all the other trip expenses (transportation, accomodation, gear, food, snacks, alcohol, unforeseen expenditures... $1000)


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## Tarzanman (Dec 20, 2008)

I agree with you... but the gals I am thinking about bringing out west are pretty hung up on keeping costs low.

There is a good chance (I'd say about 70%) that they'll flake out and go elsewhere. One of the girls is my cousin and she's already talking about going to and island instead.

We'll see what happens. Dealing with flakes takes some of the fun out of it.


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## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

Beware taking chicks who lack a passion for skiing/snowboarding on ski trips. It will end up ruining your fun because the trip will be about everything BUT snowboarding.

In general, it blows my mind when people go on vacation to a resort and spend all this money on tickets and crap, and then they take 2 runs and spend the rest of the day in the bar. What's the point? :dunno:


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## BarrettDSP (May 10, 2009)

Tarzanman said:


> I am not stuck on Colorado... what I am mostly stuck on is making sure there is good snow and terrain for the folks on the trip who haven't ever been out west.
> 
> Point taken about the difficulty of trying to save a few $$ at a big resort... I'd appreciate any information you guys can give me on hidden gems that I might not be aware of.
> 
> ...


Southwest is in the process of acquiring AirTran which would put them in the Atlanta airport so this may be an option for you in the future.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

HoboMaster said:


> In general, it blows my mind when people go on vacation to a resort and spend all this money on tickets and crap, and then they take 2 runs and spend the rest of the day in the bar. What's the point? :dunno:


Keeping your resort in business. 

Most people treat it like golf. I think that is why half of the local shops around here sell golf supplies in the summer. The other half sell patio furniture. Neither of which I consider nearly as active as snowboarding...


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## daysailer1 (Nov 9, 2007)

Tarzanman said:


> I agree with you... but the gals I am thinking about bringing out west are pretty hung up on keeping costs low.


Uhhh, that's all women. The XX chromosome factor kicks in - we're always looking bargains. It doesn't diminish with age either. Women in their twenties can be flakey though. Me - I'd like to camp on Thompson Pass for a week someday and just ride. I ♥♥♥ snowboarding.


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## thugit (Sep 29, 2009)

snow valley


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## daysailer1 (Nov 9, 2007)

Snowolf said:


> Its easier than you might think. I was going to go this year, but work got in the way and I did not have the vacation time. This year, I am planning on it...:thumbsup:
> 
> TAILGATE ALASKA |


Good for you!!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Me- there's this thing called money standing in my way. No one seems to need experienced molecular biologists in Colorado. They ain't paying any relo either - not that I care to move.

I did see "Deeper" last Thursday. Lots of sick riding. I talked with Jeremy Jones a little bit. For a big mountain rider, he's really shy. I asked him if he ever got himself into situations and had "Oh, f**K" moments. He gave a knowing look and said "watch the movie". Yeah, he had a pretty bad 'oh, f**k' moment. While that happened in Chamonix, he got all starry-eyed when talking about Thompson Pass.


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## Tarzanman (Dec 20, 2008)

HoboMaster said:


> Beware taking chicks who lack a passion for skiing/snowboarding on ski trips. It will end up ruining your fun because the trip will be about everything BUT snowboarding.
> 
> In general, it blows my mind when people go on vacation to a resort and spend all this money on tickets and crap, and then they take 2 runs and spend the rest of the day in the bar. What's the point? :dunno:


Luckily (or un-luckily, depending on how you look at it), I am not beholden to any of the girls on the trip..... nor is there any chance of hooking up, so leaving them to do my own thing on the mountain is totally on the table as an option.

They are flakes, though. This much is true.


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## Triple8Sol (Nov 24, 2008)

If you're already taking the time/expense of flying somewhere and lodging, lift ticket prices shouldn't be a factor. That's what I told myself when I went to CO last year and found out lift tix there are nearly $100/day.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Tarzanman said:


> Luckily (or un-luckily, depending on how you look at it), I am not beholden to any of the girls on the trip..... nor is there any chance of hooking up, so leaving them to do my own thing on the mountain is totally on the table as an option.
> 
> They are flakes, though. This much is true.


If this is true, why bother. Go where you want, get a cheap motel, rent a car (if needed) and tell then get in the car now or see ya later. If they want to do something else they can rent a car and go to the mall. Plan 2: Go where you want, rent a suv (skip the cheap motel, buy a bag of groceries and sleep in the suv)...hit several places. It would be doable in pnw...hood, crystal, apental, stevens, baker, whisler; fly in/out of portland...wrecked but 7 days done.


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## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

wrathfuldeity said:


> If this is true, why bother. Go where you want, get a cheap motel, rent a car (if needed) and tell then get in the car now or see ya later. If they want to do something else they can rent a car and go to the mall. Plan 2: Go where you want, rent a suv (skip the cheap motel, buy a bag of groceries and sleep in the suv)...hit several places. It would be doable in pnw...hood, crystal, apental, stevens, baker, whisler; fly in/out of portland...wrecked but 7 days done.


That sounds like the trip that should be happening! Sounds like it would be pretty hardcore, but you could always stay at a couple cheap motel 6's along the way from A to B. Ditch the Chicks yo:thumbsup:


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## daysailer1 (Nov 9, 2007)

Triple8Sol said:


> If you're already taking the time/expense of flying somewhere and lodging, lift ticket prices shouldn't be a factor. That's what I told myself when I went to CO last year and found out lift tix there are nearly $100/day.


It's very easy to get around the ticket window rates.

Fresh off the press - How to get discount ski lift tickets to Copper Mountain Resort - by G. Kunkel


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

For a short cheap tour of the pnw...this would be the schedule. The trip would be easier with somebody else to help with driving and you could still share sleeping in the suv. BTW screw the night life; you will likely be too tired and want to save your shizz for the hill. The heavier pnw stuff can toast your legs pretty fast and if your are lucky and get the deep light stuff, you'll be too tired from swimming. 

Sleep on red eye to Portland…arrive early am, have the rental waiting, drive directly to hood, less than 1 hour from pdx. 

Ride your ass off and close down da hood. Get a nice dinner, miss eve traffic.

Then drive to Crystal…3 hours?...crash in the lot or nearby, get up early grab breakfast/coffee…ride your ass off at Crystal...might have night riding. Get a nice dinner, miss eve traffic.

Then drive to Apental…2-3 hours?...crash in the lot or nearby, get up early grab breakfast/coffee…ride your ass off at Apental...has night riding...opps snowcrummy has the night riding. Get a nice dinner, miss eve traffic.

Then drive to Stevens…2-3 hours?...crash in the lot or nearby, get up early grab breakfast/coffee…ride your ass off at Stevens...they have night riding til 10pm. Get a nice dinner, miss eve traffic.

Then drive to Baker…2-3 hours?...crash in the lot or nearby, get up early grab breakfast/coffee…ride your ass off at Baker...sorry no night riding. Get a nice dinner, miss eve traffic.

Then drive to Whistler…4-5 hours?...crash in the lot or nearby, get up early grab breakfast/coffee…ride your ass off at Whistler. Screw dinner, drink lots of coffee. 

Haul ass back to Portland 8-9 hours?...or fly out of Bellingham 3-4 hours…missing all the traffic at night. Check the rental and hop a noonish flight…sleep on the plane. Land, sleep a couple more hours at home, shower shave and back at work school...7 days


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## daysailer1 (Nov 9, 2007)

I just finished this one for Steamboat Ski Resort - How to get discount ski lift tickets to Steamboat Ski Resort - by G. Kunkel


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