Peak Lift Ticket Prices to Hit $299 at Some U.S. Ski Areas This Winter

Day lift tickets at U.S. ski areas will reach these peak rates this season:

1. $299: Park City, UT, Vail, Beaver Creek, CO
2. $289: Deer Valley, UT
3. $279: Palisades Tahoe, CA, Steamboat, Breckenridge, CO
4. $269: Northstar, CA, Keystone, CO
5. $259: Heavenly, Mammoth Mountain, CA, Copper Mountain, CO
6. $255: Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, WY
7. $249: Big Sky Resort, MT
8. $244: Snowmass, Aspen, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk, CO
9. $229: Powder Mountain, UT
10. $225: Mt. Bachelor, OR, Telluride, CO
11. $220: Winter Park, CO
12. $219: Stowe Mountain Resort, VT

*Prices shared by The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast Twitter*

• Related: Winter on its Way: From Montana to Utah, Western Ski Areas Receive First Significant Snowfall of Season

What is happening to day ticket prices at American ski areas? Only three years ago, we were sharing news of resorts breaking through the $200 mark which seemed absurd; now that appears to be the norm.

Of all places, Arizona Snowbowl charged $300 for a lift ticket last season during its peak pricing. Are resorts on this list now following a similar suit? The price of skiing in the U.S. has been steadily increasing over recent years—but where does it end? Three Vail-owned resorts (Park City, Vail, and Beaver Creek) will sell lift tickets at a peak price of $299 this season. Last season Vail Mountain and Beaver Creek in Colorado peaked their day lift ticket prices at $239. This season that number is a whopping 25% higher.

In Breckenridge, a peak lift ticket will cost you $279 this year, an increase of over 30% from last season. In California, a peak lift ticket will cost you $279 at Palisades Tahoe and $259 at Heavenly.  Meanwhile, Stowe in Vermont has become the first East Coast ski area to charge over $200 for a lift ticket, with peak rates at $219 this season.

However, not every resort is about the big money. Many ski areas are still selling day lift tickets for well under $100, with one Colorado ski area striving to serve the public by offering a day ticket for only $9 this season during its peak lowest lift ticket prices this season. So there’s still hope.

• Related: Purgatory Resort, CO, Decreases Lowest Lift Ticket Price From $23 to $9 This Season

When thinking about Vail Resorts, could it be that the company is raising the price of its peak lift ticket prices to such an extreme degree in order to incentivize Epic Day Pass sales? Some ski industry insiders think so, arguing that by increasing the daily lift ticket prices, Vail can push customers away from day tickets and toward its arguably better-valued Epic Passes.

Skiing isn’t an inexpensive sport, but it is something we all love to do—most of the readers on this website aren’t the kind of people who walk up and blindly pay the window price when they want to go skiing. But some people do exactly that, and many of these people do so because they just don’t know any better. They can be people who don’t ski a lot and have never had anyone tell them about the value of buying an Epic or Ikon Pass, or about how much money they could spend by purchasing day tickets months in advance. Maybe they are from big cities in areas where there is no skiing; maybe it’s their first time ever seeing snow; or maybe they were invited to a bachelor party or on-snow family reunion where skiing is just a fun activity that they will ‘try’ while they’re there. So, somebody has to warn these people before they get there and find out they might have to pay nearly $300 for a day of skiing and riding depending on where and when they go. We hope that this list helps people plan their ski trips accordingly this year, allowing them to save some cash. Skiing isn’t getting any cheaper, after all.