The Christmas/New Year Holiday, MLK Weekend, and Presidents’ Week are tough times to try to save money on your skiing and riding. If you have a season pass somewhere, your problem is solved, but finding great deals for one or two days is tough.
Here are two ways to save during vacation weeks (and all season long!)
Ticket Packs
Many areas sell blocks of three, six, or more anytime tickets. Yes you pay more up front than you would for one day, but the tickets are good for a whole season, they are often transferable, and buying in blocks offers significant savings.
They seem particularly popular in New Hampshire and here are some examples:
Gunstock in Gilford, N.H. is a good example: with their 6-packs you get 6 tickets for the price of 5 and their Baker’s Dozens get 13 tickets for less than the price of 10! These are anytime, fully transferable tickets. An adult 6-pack is $340, Baker’s Dozen is $675
Cannon Mountain in Franconia, N.H.has the 10 any-day, adult, transferable tickets good all season for $569, which saves over $100 off the regular window price of $67/day.
Crotched Mountain in Bennington, N.H. offers a 10 pack of tickets for $449. They are transferable and valid all season long.
Mount Sunapee in Newbury, N.H. has 6 – Packs which can be pre-purchased for the price of 5. Only two tickets can be used per day Dec. 25 through March 6. All six can be used in one day before or after those dates
Pats Peak in Henniker, N.H. has PIC-A-PAC anytime transferable Tickets, a 6 Pac ($336) saves $42, a 12 Pac ($672) saves $120, and an 18 Pac ($1,008) saves $216.
Waterville Valley in Waterville Valley, N.H. sells 5 Packs of any-day, non-transferable tickets which $10 a day off the regular ticket price.
Whaleback Mountain in Enfield, N.H. has a 4 pack ($120) for the price of 3, saving $40. (Yes, Whaleback’s weekend/Holiday all day lift tickets are $40 . . . )
There are more deals like this in other states, but you get the idea. If you want to ski several days or with several people over the holiday, this might be your best way to save.
Loyalty Cards:
At this time of year, if you don’t ski enough to justify a season pass but still want to save money, your best deal at many areas is a skier loyalty card. You buy a card up front (some come with a lift ticket) and it gets you a significant discount every time you ski. Some include discounts on lodging, meals, and resort services. Usually they pay for themselves in two or three visits. After that, it’s all savings all the time. Last week we looked at multi-mountain cards. Here are some examples of savings at individual resorts:
Ski Sundown in Canton Center, Connecticut has an $89 Savings Card that gets discounts up to 50% on lift tickets.
Jiminy Peak in Hancock, Mass has a $45 Value Card that saves you $15 off every ticket and 7th visit free.
At Gunstock in Gilford, N.H. the Take 50 card ($130) cuts the price of a weekend/holiday adult lift ticket to $34.
Hunter Mountain in Hunter, New York offers the $45 Big Lift Cards which saves 25% on Weekend & Holiday Tickets, 50% on Mid-week Tickets and four free Sunday lift tickets!
Bromley Mountain in Peru, Vermont has the $69 Sun Mountain Card which gets a free lift ticket and $10 off every lift ticket for the season.
Jay Peak in Jay, Vermont has the $99 581 card (named for their average annual snowfall in inches) which gets one free lift ticket and $50 adult tickets for the rest of the season
Killington in Killington, Vermont has the $79 Express card which saves 25-50% on tickets all season.
Mount Snow in Dover, Vermont has the $79 Fan Fare Card that gets 50% off midweek tickets, 10% off weekend/holidays.
Smugglers Notch in Jeffersonville, Vermont has the $89 Bash Badge which gets $25 lift ticket or $15 afternoon tickets all season.
The $79 Stowe Points Card at Stowe Mountain Resort in Stowe, Vermont earns points for each dollar spent at the resort, redeemable for lift tickets.
Stratton Mountain Resort, in Stratton, Vermont offers the $79 X2 direct-to lifts card that pays for itself with the first use, gets $30 off weekday tickets, $20 off Weekend tickets and $10 off holiday tickets.