This story by Aaron Calvin was first published by the Stowe Reporter on Oct. 5.
The walk-up lift ticket price at Stowe Mountain Resort this winter during peak periods will be $219, making it among the most expensive in New England.
But Vail Resorts, the corporate owner of Stowe Mountain Resort, doesn’t want you to lay down a couple Benjamins for a day of skiing. A single-day Epic pass, which is non-refundable but allows access to any Vail resort across the country with no fixed date of use, is currently listed at $93.
Fellow Vail-owned Vermont resorts Okemo and Mount Snow peak walk-up lift tickets are set at $189 and $169, respectively. Peak walk-up lift ticket prices for Sugarbush Resort and Killington Resort are also listed at $189.
With only a nominal amount of planning — even paying over the phone on the Green Mountain Transit bus while riding up Mountain Road instead of at the ticket window — a skier can easily avoid paying this amount.
A Stowe Mountain employee who wasn’t authorized to speak on the matter said it’s like paying full price for an airline ticket at the airport, rather than thinking ahead.
“Some people will walk into the building at the beginning of the season while we’re still selling Epic products, and I’m like, ‘No, don’t come over to the ticket window. Get on your phone right now. Let me help you.’ So, you know, you can lead them to water,” the employee said.
Vail Resorts spokesperson Courtney DiFiore said that some customers prefer the flexibility of a refundable ticket but encourages the purchase of the Epic pass. Even a 7-day Epic pass will allow someone to ski and ride at Stowe for the potential value of $81 per day.
Of course, Vail would really prefer customers purchase seasonal Epic passes, which currently retail between $579 and $949 until prices go up on Oct. 11. This is currently the same price as the Epic pass went for last year but a marked rise from the $819 during the 2021-2022 ski season, according to New England Ski History.
Season passes for skiers and riders at Stowe fell precipitously after Vail purchased the resort from American International Group, the longtime owner of the resort. Passes for the 2016-2017 season were over $2,300 but since Vail’s takeover have only exceeded $1,000 once during the pandemic-addled 2020-2021 season.
“We incentivize a pass product purchase because of the stability passes have created for an industry that used to be ruled by weather,” DiFiore said. “Pass holders get a great deal if they commit ahead of the season, and we get revenue locked in before the season starts, which gives us the confidence we need to continuously invest back into our resorts.”
While it may seem like only a real Jerry — ski bum slang for beginners — would buy a walk-up lift ticket, Vail discontinues the sale of Epic pass products in December, leaving months in the ski season where an unprepared skier, a beginner, a forgetful member of a bachelor party ski trip or just someone interested in seeing what skiing is all about may be stuck with the walk-up ticket price.
While Stowe walk-up lift tickets might seem expensive for the Northeast, they’re dwarfed by the price of Vail’s western holdings. Peak walk-up lift tickets at Vail Ski Resort and Beaver Creek Resort in Colorado, Park City Mountain Resort in Utah, and Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada, are all listed at $299.
Stuart Winchester, author of the ski industry newsletter Storm Skiing Journal, recently called on Vail Resorts to fix its dis-incentivization campaign when it comes to walk-up lift tickets.
“Not because charging $299 for a lift ticket is immoral or evil or ruining skiing — it has never been more affordable to be a frequent skier — but because it’s short-sighted and ridiculous,” Winchester wrote in a September newsletter. “No one would drink wine if the cheapest bottle was $300, and no one is going to try skiing if they can’t figure out a way to get on the bump for less than a week’s pay.”
For those looking for more accessible but older lifts, the walk-up lift price at Stowe Mountain’s sister resort, Smugglers’ Notch, is still $95 with season passes for most adults set at $649, with prices rising after Halloween.
“In our ads, we’re always bragging about being the most affordable, so if you’re going to brag about it, you better do it,” Bill Stritzler, owner and general manager of Smugglers’ Notch Resort, said.
The question of pricing, walk-up lift tickets and seasonal passes did prompt him to opine on the role of walk-up lift tickets and the ski industry at large.
“The strategy there, of course, has nothing to do with the walk-up, they’re trying to sell season passes, so they say, ‘What the hell, you guys will buy our season pass. The whole Vail pricing around the country is all related to the Epic. It’s interesting. You wonder, as an industry, are we pricing ourselves out of the game itself?”
