Is skiing expensive for the average American?

23 comments

1. Yes, skiing is an expensive sport

2. Oaf, I know I’m sure not in the skiing tax bracket

3. Yes. Even if you live close to a ski area, the equipment is expensive plus there’s paying for lift tickets and access to the slopes.

4. Its an expensive sport.

   To get started with a decent set of skis, winter wear, and protective equipment would set you back $2000 pretty easily. You could spend a lot more for nice stuff. That doesn’t include a lift ticket which is over $100 per day at the larger resorts.

5. Yes. Even living within driving distance of 10 minutes to 5 hours driving of a resort doesn’t matter.. a season pass is $400-800 or more, a day ticket can range from $90-250 at major resorts with the most terrain. Season passes have blackout dates too where certain holiday weekends aren’t even open to pass holders of different levels or just in general and that if you want to ride those weekends you’re paying top dollar day lift pass prices. Add in the fact ski towns are expensive to stay in and almost always require a personal vehicle or a car rental to access.. shit is pricy.

6. Yes definitely

7. Yes and it’s only becoming more unaffordable

8. Well, as broke-ass college students we managed to go twice a season or so, exploiting the deals they offer on weekdays and during the less-desirable parts of the season.

   So, it’s affordable for most people to experience it as a leisure activity, if they don’t insist on the best. But if it’s your principal hobby and you’re serious about it, yeah most people probably can’t afford it unless they have some kind of special deal.

   However, in some parts of the country *cross-country* skiing is available at certain state parks. And it isn’t hard to get second-hand skis. I used to know some people of modest means who did a good bit of cross-country skiing.

9. Depends. I ski and have my own equipment, my husband snowboards, god bless him, and owns his own, we get yearly passes that are about 3 lift tickets so if you use it 4 times or more it’s worth it. We work outdoors in the mountains so we don’t have to buy extra clothing, and we haven’t bought new equipment in idk how long (also if you live in the mountains check out pawn shops and you can buy your own)

   So it’s about a 500 bucks a year for both of us. So it isn’t cheap, but it’s not insane.

   If you have to travel on top of all that it would get expensive quick.

10. It’s definately a middle class and above activity, unless you only do it as a rare thing and live near a ski area.

11. Yea

12. Yes

13. Snowboarding is cheaper but still not cheap, so yes, it is an expensive sport.

14. Yes

15. Yes. I’d say skiing is an expensive sport everywhere, not just here. It’s not just the equipment, but also the pass or lift tickets as well. I grew up in a pretty well off family and my dad has been a skier his whole life and passed it on to me, but I often have to remember that my favorite sport is a luxury that many people don’t have.

16. Just going yo Snowshoe with friends for a long weekend in college set me back more than $1k…and Snowshoe is the most mid of mid-tier, even for the east coast. Also, that was 20 years ago.

17. I grew up skiing when it was affordable in the 70s and 80s and don’t do it anymore because it is crazy expensive

18. Generally yeah. The equipment should ideally last you years so that’s probably not the worst part. If it’s one of your main hobbies, you’d want to go many times per season, which is going to be ~$80 and up per day or a season ticket of $500-$1000 or so depending on the mountain. So if you have your equipment already and already live next to the mountain, it’s not horribly expensive year to year. But as a one-off, especially if you don’t have equipment or live nearby, renting will cost you *a lot* and traveling/lodging will cost *a lot*, on top of the lift ticket. So if that’s your situation, it could be upper hundreds per day, which is a lot of money for most people.

19. Alpine skiing definitely is. Nordic is much more affordable, especially where I live.

20. It’s holidays, yes rates go up, $221 a day.

21. Once you have your own equipment, it’s not horrible if you ski enough to make a season ticket worth it.

    If you ski 20 times on a 500 season pass, that’s 25 a day. There’s many activities that will run more than that daily.

    However, ski resort accommodations generally seem overpriced for the area. You pay for the privilege of walking out to lifts from your condo or hotel.

    So a ski vacation staying on the slopes is quite pricey. But if you ski a lot and live close enough to the mountain to make day trips, it’s more affordable.

22. I think it’s pretty inaccessible for most people, unless they live really close to the resorts. My friends and I got into it recently as adults, since our families couldn’t afford it growing up. We’re aiming to ski three weekends this year, and it really adds up between buying quality snow gear (we live in a fairly mild temperature area and never need it in daily life), snowboard/ski equipment, lessons, season passes/lift tickets (~$200 for a single ticket at most of the resorts nearby), lodging, meals, and other random things. I think we’ll be spending at least $3k each for this season alone. We’re at least in driving distance to Tahoe, but lots of other Americans also have to fly to the resorts and rent cars.

23. Not really. You can get used skis/boots/poles for very cheap at garage sales or from friends/family that don’t ski anymore. Lift ticket to the local mountain by me is $40 for the day. Food and drinks are really cheap too.