For skiers with Aspen aspirations but a Death Valley income, it’s infernally frustrating that skidding down snow on sticks has become so expensive.
It doesn’t help that most money-saving options are dangerous, dicey or degrading. If you hike up and ski down the nearest hill or mountain, you risk burial by avalanche. If you move to a ski town, sign on as a lift-operator and make habitual use of your employee season pass, you risk burial by abject poverty. And joining an excursion arranged by a ski club or travel agency could mean you’ll be herded through your vacation like a head of Gore-Tex-swaddled livestock.
To retain your sanity, autonomy and sense of adventure while skiing– without paying through your frost-nipped nose–your best option is to take a step back in time.
Scattered among the pricey, glamorous resorts of the Northeast, the Rockies and Canada are a number of quirky, old-fashioned ski areas. However unpretentious these small-scale operations are, they still feature sufficient snow, significant vertical drops and challenging terrain. Best of all, they spare your wallet a severe wallop.
Says Dave Leonardi, publisher of Skier News–a newspaper distributed free at 1,800 ski shops around the country–two of the most worthwhile ski destinations in the Northeast are in the Adirondacks of New York: Whiteface Mountain (518-946-2223) and Gore Mountain (518-251-2411).
“When people talk about skiing at Lake Placid,” Leonardi explains, “they’re actually talking about skiing at Whiteface. It has the biggest vertical drop in the East: 3,216 feet. And because Whiteface is owned by the state of New York, lift tickets are reasonably priced: $39 per day, weekdays, weekends and holidays.”
Visitors to Whiteface and Lake Placid enjoy a wealth of recreational options (bobsled rides, ice skating, cross-country skiing and spectating at the Olympic ski jumping complex), but the skiing lacks Olympian pretensions; Whiteface installed its first high-speed quad only this year.
Also owned by New York State, Gore Mountain in North Creek, N.Y., offers a $39 lift ticket on weekends and holidays and a $29 ticket on weekdays.
“Gore is not as big as Whiteface, but it’s still a very good intermediate mountain,” Leonardi says. “For its caliber of skiing, it’s one of the least expensive mountains in the eastern United States.”
In the West, the deals get even better. For $28, weekends as well as weekdays, skiers (though not snowboarders) can plunge into the famed powder of Alta Ski Resort (801-742-3333) in Alta, Utah. Alta is just as famous for its 450 inches of annual snowfall and bargain-basement price as it is for its dearth of high-speed quads and night life. Few skiers, however, complain about the lack of chairlift velocity or base lodge frivolity. Confronted by Alta’s bottomless snow and challenging terrain, they appreciate any rest they can get.
Skiers who would rather save on lift tickets than be catapulted skyward by high-speed quads have several other inexpensive options in the Rockies. At Monarch Ski and Snowboard Area (888-996-SNOW), near Salida, Colo., skiers pay only $69 on weekends for lift tickets and accommodations if they make reservations well in advance. At Sunlight Mountain Resort (970-945-7491), near Glenwood Springs, Colo., the $59 “ski-and-stay” deal also includes a dip in the largest hot springs pool in the country.
Old, slow chairlifts, however, can do more than simply save you money, says Skat Petersen, one of the owners of Red Mountain in Rossland, British Columbia (250-362-7384).
“The slow ride up the hill may allow you to make a date for that evening,” jokes Petersen, whose resort is rapidly gaining renown for its steep, vast terrain and anachronistic charm.
“Skiing at Red Mountain is what skiing must have been like in the early ’60s,” says Gavin Ehringer, snowboard columnist for the Rocky Mountain News.
Prices hark back to yesteryear as well, thanks to the U.S.-Canadian exchange rate, which transforms the $39 lift ticket into a more heartening $29 U.S., weekdays, weekends and holidays.
Perhaps you couldn’t care less about the rest and romance afforded by old-fashioned chairlifts. Amazingly, there is one deal that should appeal to the most impatient of powder-hounds.
For several weeks each spring and fall, Colorado’s Crested Butte Mountain Resort (970-349-2333), which bristles with high-speed quads, reduces its lift ticket price to zero. A seven-year tradition at Crested Butte, free skiing is a godsend to the local economy, which otherwise would languish during early and late winter months.
Don’t let the calendar fool you. Temperatures during this spring’s free skiing (April 6-19) could soar into the 40s or 50s, but there will still be plenty of skiable snow.
And if you are an unrepentant fan of “the flying couch,” rejoice: Crested Butte’s high-speed quads are among the fastest in North America.
