# East Coast season passes WTF!



## tekniq33 (Mar 18, 2009)

Why the hell are season passes on the east coast so friggin expensive!?! How can it be that the "Epic Pass" in Colorado (Unlimited access to Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly (Lake Tahoe) and Arapahoe Basin. No blackout dates.) cost $599 but a pass to Killington is $1,000 and even a pass to Windham is $989. Mount Snow passes go over $1,000 during the season. Sure places like Squaw and Snowbird do have pass options that get up above $1,000 but at least the product is worth that money.

As someone who lives in NYC and goes riding 15-20 days a year I would definitely consider a pass to Windham or even Mount Snow, but to know I had to spend almost all my days at that one spot to make it worthwhile is ridiculous. It seems like all the CO, CA, UT, etc resorts charge much less for a far superior product. I think it is even crazy that they can charge similar daily prices but to justify season pass prices that are that much higher is just ridiculous. 

Anyone else agree?


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## NYCboarder (Jan 26, 2008)

i concur... mountain creek (which is a hill) is 300 a year.. i get that as my everyday place then take trips to other mtns


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## tekniq33 (Mar 18, 2009)

yeah MC is the only place that prices appropriately. I just cannot stand going there, it is way to crowded and I end up barely enjoying myself. I think some place like Windham should be $499 or so. At least you can do things like the triple play cards and buy discounted tickets early season. 

otherwise I just go through liftopia to save some money.


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## Hoons (Dec 21, 2009)

yea it really sucks... I think it's because the east coast resorts have to make a lot of their own snow which drives up the cost. I need to move out west


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## baldylox (Dec 27, 2007)

Supply and demand. In this case the supply is small (limited acreage, vertical, etc). Demand is high....your located dead center of the highest concentration of people in the country. East coast resorts have distance from civilization factored into the cost. A season pass at Jay Peak is not so expensive, despite being the best mountain for 2 thousand miles.


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## Adrii (Mar 29, 2010)

too bad i only have the poconos near me, and bears creek which is only about an hour tops...but i'd much rather be able to go to diff mtns all the time!


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## tekniq33 (Mar 18, 2009)

cifex said:


> Supply and demand. In this case the supply is small (limited acreage, vertical, etc). Demand is high....your located dead center of the highest concentration of people in the country. East coast resorts have distance from civilization factored into the cost. A season pass at Jay Peak is not so expensive, despite being the best mountain for 2 thousand miles.


I agree demand is high, but supply is quite high as well. Windham, Hunter, Belleayre, Mountain Creek, the Poconos resorts, the Berkshires, and Southern VT all add up to about 15+ resorts within 3 hours of NYC. I guess to your point though you then start bringing in Boston, Philly, etc. 

I am more speaking of the local places. Why would I spend $1k on a Windham pass when I can drive an extra 1-1.5hrs and be at mount snow for the same price? To me there is a clear difference in the product (terrain, size, snow, amenities, etc) that far outweighs the extra time in the car. 

I guess I really wish I was just out of this area. Next year will probably be like this year. 18 days on snow at 9 different mountains (Hunter, Windham, Mountain Creek, Belleayre, Mt. Snow, Killington, Breckenridge, Blue Mountain, and Wildcat.)


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

you should move to colorado then


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## baldylox (Dec 27, 2007)

tekniq33 said:


> I agree demand is high, but supply is quite high as well. Windham, Hunter, Belleayre, Mountain Creek, the Poconos resorts, the Berkshires, and Southern VT all add up to about 15+ resorts within 3 hours of NYC. I guess to your point though you then start bringing in Boston, Philly, etc.
> 
> I am more speaking of the local places. Why would I spend $1k on a Windham pass when I can drive an extra 1-1.5hrs and be at mount snow for the same price? To me there is a clear difference in the product (terrain, size, snow, amenities, etc) that far outweighs the extra time in the car.
> 
> I guess I really wish I was just out of this area. Next year will probably be like this year. 18 days on snow at 9 different mountains (Hunter, Windham, Mountain Creek, Belleayre, Mt. Snow, Killington, Breckenridge, Blue Mountain, and Wildcat.)


We have a lot of tiny mountains by West Coast standards. Denver has about 15 mountains within 2 hours that are all about 10 times the acreage of your average EC mountain. Also, you said you'd drive 1.5 hours further. Would you do it every weekend? Enough to make the pass worth it? What about 1 hour further than that? Would you give up riding at different mountains? What if your friends don't? All factored into the cost.


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## Adrii (Mar 29, 2010)

cifex said:


> We have a lot of tiny mountains by West Coast standards. Also, you said you'd drive 1.5 hours further. Would you do it every weekend? Enough to make the pass worth it? What about 1 hour further than that? All factored into the cost.


living in NJ sucks! i want to move where i can snowboard everyday! where do guys snowboard up in NY?


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## B.Gilly (Jul 23, 2008)

Guess I am lucky my season pass is just over $300.00 which gets me discounts at certain Vermont ski resorts. That and location to hills are good. 5 minutes from one(not worth getting a season pass -750 vert and Thursday nights only cost $10 from 3pm-10pm) 15-20 minutes from 2 others(both over 1000 vert). Of course these mountains are not the highest but would say about 50 percent of the people on these hills are from Conn and NY.


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## tekniq33 (Mar 18, 2009)

mpdsnowman said:


> Out west relies on one thing..Tourism dollars! and because there are so many resorts (designed for tourism) it gets competitive. Now lets add a bad economy and that doesnt help.
> 
> With that They have to have a deal not only for locals who live out west...and by locals i mean people living in states they might not necessarily snowboard in but are close enough to drive but also people who might go out west a few times a year and want to ride various resorts..
> 
> ...


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## Technine Icon (Jan 15, 2009)

I bought a college season pass to Okemo for $300. It also worked at Stratton and Sunapee, and got me half off of tickets at a long list of mountains on the East Coast. I thought it was a great deal.


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## tooscoops (Aug 17, 2007)

usually there are some good deals... all depends on timing and all that... up here in ontario, i buy a 5x7 pass to a decent place... if i get it before october or something like that, its about 175 bucks! then i would usually go for a spring riding trip to whistler... buy the next years edge card (a few hundred bucks) and add unlimited spring riding that year... so for the 3-400 bucks there, i'd get another 10 days or so that year, plus, i'll have 5 days of riding for the next year.

if you have to just pay 50 bucks a trip for where you are going.. thats not that bad. thats usually a deal right there.

its an expensive hobby for sure... if its too expensive, i guess you'll have to start riding urban!


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Western ski areas do not rely on out of state tourism. Well not all of them anyway. PDX/PNW certainly do not rely on out state business to operate. Many areas exist in Montana, Idaho, even Colorado that do not rely on that sort of business. The heavies sure do of course.

Also, it was not that long ago that a season pass to Keystone (only) was $800. Vail was over $1k. The pass wars thingy is relatively new. Aspen still charges over a grand for a season pass to their areas. I think Snowbird is still up there too. So you can't get inexpensive passes at all Western resorts, but a lot of the major areas do offer some great deals in their region.


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## Deviant (Dec 22, 2009)

While I'll admit, the hills here aren't the greatest, we mostly ride park stuff, but our resort has one hell of a deal.

Starting January 17th, you can buy a pass good for the rest of this season and all of next season. 259 bucks. Considering an all day ticket here is 40 (for 2 resorts) 259 for a season and a half is heaven.


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## mrpez (Jan 29, 2010)

West coast > East coast, at everything good


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## baldylox (Dec 27, 2007)

Adrii said:


> living in NJ sucks! i want to move where i can snowboard everyday! where do guys snowboard up in NY?


I've gotten more and more picky every year. I won't even both with the closer mountains much anymore. Northern VT, NH, Maine is where its at.


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## CoopersTroopers (Feb 24, 2010)

mpdsnowman said:


> But I always go back to basics. A mountain doesnt have to be 3K-4K verticle in order to produce great snowboarding. Anyone who has been to my little local hill knows what I am talking about..
> 
> $275.00 gets you this.....all season long...


What local hill is that? Seems like an easy and awesome place to day trip to from Ontario...


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

killclimbz said:


> Western ski areas do not rely on out of state tourism. Well not all of them anyway. PDX/PNW certainly do not rely on out state business to operate. Many areas exist in Montana, Idaho, even Colorado that do not rely on that sort of business. The heavies sure do of course.... So you can't get inexpensive passes at all Western resorts, but a lot of the major areas do offer some great deals in their region.


Move....its not the price of the pass, its the time, expense and hassle to get to frequently meh days....certianly have more meh days than not, but its not a hassle to get there and for the epic days ya gotta be a local. Btw, PNW resorts really don't offer deals, I'd imagine they try to make it to the "break even point" with pass holders and profit comes from daily tickets.


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## rgrwilco (Oct 15, 2007)

season pass to bear creek with a PASR group discount (you just need to log in to purchase)-379. only 479 without.

my pass to blue mountain for next season-379

pass to JFBB last year-350 (they were open early november-first weekend in may)

camelback is around 5ish

shawnee is like 299 for students

sno mountain is around 5.

edit: the reason places up north are more expensive is because they have alot of terrain that needs to be covered by snowmaking. snowmaking is not cheap, a small resort like bear creek pays 10,000 dollars an hour to make snow.


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## Adrii (Mar 29, 2010)

rgrwilco said:


> season pass to bear creek with a PASR group discount (you just need to log in to purchase)-379. only 479 without.
> 
> my pass to blue mountain for next season-379
> 
> ...



i spoke with a guy at blue and he said they spent 10,000,000 on snow making a year!!! my jaw dropped!!!


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## tekniq33 (Mar 18, 2009)

That had to mostly be on very long term upgrades that have a pretty long useful life. The payback on that would be around 175,000.


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## rgrwilco (Oct 15, 2007)

That's why they are getting a wind turbine. Cut costs by alot and save the earth. Win win!


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## Guest (Apr 6, 2010)

I heard that if you buy a season pass somewhere else and you want to ride Camelback you can for discounted price or free. Can't remember, I'd check it out.

I agree on the whole spending whole/most of your season in that one place. If anything though, from the resorts I've been to so far I'd probably end up buying my season pass at Mount Snow. There's shit loads to do, good park, good runs.., Waffle Cabin.. mmm. 
One downside to Mount Snow would have to be the crowd...? 

I recommend getting a season pass anyway, get it somewhere you like and then when you get tired of it head to a different resort every now and then. You'd still end up saving money, if you actually used your season pass a good amount of times, plus you got some riding out of it. 

I think a transferrable season pass is good idea or a season pass that lets you use the pass a few times for free or get discount rates for lift tickets at other resorts.

I think Telluride and Hunter do this (Again, I'm not so sure)


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