I had to read the sentence over a few times to make sure I understood what a recent Summit Daly News article reported: single-day lift tickets now cost more than $300 at some resorts? It’s true — but only at two likely suspects: Vail and Beaver Creek (both peaking at $329 per day during the holidays). Happy holidays! For only $1,316 per day, a family of four can take some laps in Blue Sky Basin or Birds of Prey, assuming there’s enough snow. This also assumes that everyone has their own equipment ($40-$60 per person otherwise) and eats/drinks absolutely nothing while at either mountain. It also assumes you have a free place to stay and no car or other travel expenses.

Of course, not everyone who has a lift ticket over the holidays is purchasing a same-day, walk-up pass. According to Vail Resorts, about 75% of its guests are there with some form of its annual Epic Pass. Roughly 25% of the approximate 19,900 (maximum) visitors paying full retail is still a lot of revenue for Vail. I can only hope that the skier satisfaction survey treats the Vail employees kindly for doing their best to alleviate what were (and are) expensive, crowded slopes.

So, forget Vail and consider our four primary resorts, as they will no doubt be much cheaper. Not really. Our family of four, assuming the same unrealistic assumptions as with Vail and Beaver Creek, would cost anywhere from $756 (Arapaho Basin) to $1,196 (Breckenridge). Instead, how about postponing the trip for a few weeks to get out of the holiday pricing madness (a pricing model that is modeled on the airline industry in that, according to a Vail spokesperson, “planning ahead” will save money)? As an aside, I would not readily compare any industry to the travel industry, unless we are discussing law firms or insurance companies. Nevertheless, skiing at Vail on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, would have cost a mere $249 per person (or $4 less than a grand for our hopefully cash-rich bank account family). Breckenridge is $225, Keystone and Copper are $179, and the Basin can be done for less than $100 (the $392 family cost is just a few bucks more than a single day at Vail for one person on New Year’s Day). And yes, the costs may be lower if the children are young enough to qualify for discounts.

Skiing has always been an expensive sport, but it didn’t always seem this expensive relative to the cost of everything else. It’s easy for someone like me to justify the cost of an Epic Local Pass ($731) and/or an Ikon Base Pass ($819), as I will, hopefully, bring the cost down to well under $100 per day (with $50 being the goal). And while both passes discount rates for teens and younger children, the cost can still be a multi-thousand investment for the family in a cold-weather activity.

At some point the resorts are going to price themselves out of the market. And once people stop coming, it will be hard to get them to come back. Why purchase downhill ski equipment if we cannot afford to ski at one of the resorts (and we are not equipped to backcountry ski)? While many sports/activities require an upfront initial cost for the equipment, clothing and other necessities, there does not exist a huge financial roadblock once the expenses are incurred. Think mountain biking, hiking, rock/ice climbing, hunting, running, cross-country skiing, fishing, team sports and too many more to list. Even golf can be affordable if you are willing to tee off later in the afternoon.

Perhaps the effect has already begun with respect to the Vail Resort passes in that the company sold 2% fewer passes this year as compared to last year. That would seem like bad news, but it wasn’t. Revenues from the passes were up 4%, due of course to the fact that Vail raised prices on all passes offered for sale this ski season. I would expect Vail (and Ikon) to raise prices by another 5-8% for the 2025-26 ski season and to do so every year in the immediate future. If inflation heats up again (and it will), the price increases will be more drastic. They will lose a few more customers every year, including those who may have been customers for many decades.

From my greedy perspective, I may be inclined to think that less passes sold will mean less people on the slopes. If I can afford to buy the passes, I will be fine. But that’s not what will happen and that’s not how I think. The ever-increasing price increases will keep out much of the middle class and those who work hard to support their families. In their place will be those who can afford to be there. And in a world ever divided by the gap between those who have and those who have not, the ski industry is well on its way to becoming another victim. I might suggest it is already there.

Scott M. Estill’s column “Challenges, Choices, Changes” publishes biweekly on Thursdays in the Summit Daily News. Estill is an attorney, author, and public speaker who lives in Dillon when not traveling or attending to legal matters in Denver. Contact him at scott@scottestill.com.