By Jim Stanford on July 16, 2009
The biggest vertical drop — and season pass price — of any resort in America.
You knew someone was going to have to pay for that snowball, didn’t you?
Replacing the window wasn’t cheap, but it’s small change compared to the tab for the $31 million Jackson Hole Aerial Tram. Season pass holders are being asked to ante up.
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has raised the price of its full-season pass by $50 to $1,675 for 2009-10. A Weekend Warrior pass rises $40 to $740. Ten-day passes cost $25 more this year — $415 when purchased during the early-morning sale on Aug. 1. (Only 500 passes will be sold at this price, available on a first-come basis; the rest will be $530.) Click here for a full list.
These prices are for passes purchased by Aug. 31. After that, a full-season pass costs $1,970 and a Weekend Warrior $870. The price of lift tickets has not yet been posted.
Given the size of the investment in the new tram, last winter’s disasters and some of the moronic acts of destruction committed at the end of the season, the resort probably could have turned around and fired a hard-packed iceball in the faces of pass holders, but it didn’t.
Then again, how much longer can people afford to pay $1,700 for lift-served skiing? Isn’t that a bubble price?
One has to wonder whether Jackson Hole has built the Yankee Stadium of ski lifts. Won’t be easy to fill the “Legends Suites” at Teton Village this winter.
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Posted under Economy, Ski Resorts, Sports
Any idea why your blog postings show up with nothing but spam in Google Reader?
Not getting my money. I’ll stick with the bargains at the King and Targhee. I can take the whole family on a week long cruise during the long Winter for less than ONE pass. Just nuts !!
@ KB: try hitting the refresh button on your browser. if that doesn’t work, come to the source, man! click on the title.
@ Greg: I know this won’t dissuade you, but in fairness to the resort, they are offering a pretty good deal for kids: 14 and under receive a free pass of whatever you buy. so buy one weekend warrior, and your kid skis free with you.
spam is a headache.
Maybe I’m missing something but I think $1,700 for an unlimited season pass is reasonable. I don’t think many people that whine about the pass price appreciate the costs involved here.
People tend to moan more about the cost of things they really want and enjoy vs. necessities. For example, Microsoft nets about 25% on software that is just copied over and over and performs, well, not very well in many cases. I doubt people are going to just stop buying computers b/c they think MS makes too much money.
JHMR, on the other hand, has massive capital expenditures, liability issues, nature/weather issues, airline subsidies, environmental issues, and on and on and on. Does anyone think that JHMR is netting 25%? If you think so, I have some lakefront property for you in Arizona.
Jim,
Be sure to save this story as a template for next year. It will save you time when prices go up yet again.
On a side note, I think it would be cool if START bus had a ski jitney on Teton Pass. Imagine if your START bus pass got you a ride up Teton Pass any day of the week from 6 am to 6 p.m? Then I might care more about the blue box than the red box.
Breckenridge, Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Heavenly, Arapahoe Basin, unlimited, unrestricted $599
Snow King (not yet released) but prob $120 or so
Grand Targhee $775 (regular season price)
JHMR $1900 plus ????
Sorry. I do not find this a “good deal.” My wife suggested tonight that those who can afford the pass appreciate the increases and maybe would even like it to double. Makes the mountain more for the elite. Keeps out the riff-raff, or anyone on a budget for that matter. There is no question that the mountain certainly considers itself the finest resort in the world, when you base things on their lift prices. Maybe some of you agree. Maybe it is even true. However, what is also true is that fact that this city helps subsidize the numerous flights in and out of our national park airport and the benefits go directly to the mountain resort. One would think the mountain could do more to take care of those of us helping bring in the dough. They disgust me. On this we shall agree to disagree. $1900 plus is only a good deal if you can afford to be unemployed and ski or board every day of the season. But I guess that would put you in a different class than those of us “constantly whining” about the price.
And Jim,
I do concede that the ‘buy one get one kid’ deal is reasonable. However, my little one is not quite old enough to play. Maybe I’ll see this value once she is a year or so older. I agree it would defer the cost significantly.
What happened to the loyality pricing for returning pass holders??? I thought the mountain was on to something with that concept as it seemed a great way to give a little back to those who are willing to pony up year after year
The problem with the ‘loyalty’ pass was that it only labled those who buy full passes as loyal. 20, 10day and weekend warriors, by absence of label and big jacks in rate, could only be interpreted as unloyal. That was stupid. This year’s price increase seems a little more in-line across the board, though still rediculous. Alpine needs to build a world-class resort so competition can set in and bring sanity to JHMR pricing.
Alta / Snowbird full season pass 1,400.
Greg,
Have a blast spending 4 hours driving up I-70 to Breck, Vail, Beavercreek, etc. It’s called competition, 12 resorts in a 100 mile radius tends to lower the prices, you remember econ 101. Same for PC and Big and Little Cottonwood, same for Tahoe. And, the “mountain” does not run the airline subsidy program, they are a member. If your employer takes part in the subsidy program, you as an employee get up to 20% off preseason prices, depending on how much your employer ponies up.
Telluride preseason – $1,200 or $1,800 after October 30th. Sound familiar, isolated town, tough to get to, no other nearby resorts. And can’t remember them hoisting up a $30M tram last year.
I will pay because its the best but its to bad there is not a Resident or Wyoming resident discount pass of some kind. Even if it is on the day pass or 6 day pass of some kind. My family has turn to SLC and Colorado for there skiing a little bit further but much cheaper.
Interesting that Sun Valley LOWERED their price for 2009-10.
$1499 (early purchase price)
includes the following:
2009 Summer Pass & 2009/10 Winter Pass
6 Days of skiing at Snowbasin, UT
10% off
Pete Lane’s Demos & Tuning
Sun Valley Village Dining
Sun Valley Retail Shops
Sun Valley Heli-Ski Base Day Rate
Add Sun Valley Nordic Pass for only $100 or Sun
Valley / BCRD Adult Nordic Combined Pass for $264
Greg, you work for the resort, or just enjoy tossing their salad pro bono?
You bring up Telluride, yet conveniently forget to mention that if you get together with 3 friends, you pay $200 less for your pass. $998. And instead of end of August you have until the end of October. Seems like a gesture aimed at giving year round locals a good deal and fostering some good will.
Here, JHMR’s alienation of locals continues. Why not make the ten day discount pass available to all locals (pay stub, license, whatever – easy to document) instead of the limited number they make available for one day.
As the economy shrinks, they have some locals actively sharing their distaste for JHMR with friends, relatives, strangers at the bar. Awesome PR!
Greg, you’re right – “isolated town, tough to get to, no other nearby resorts”. Obama might be able to turn things around, but it’s more likely that people continue to tighten their belts, ski a little less, travel closer to home, leaving resorts like JHMR to rely more and more on folks that live closer. What’s funny, or tragic depending on your view, is that when the bookings spiral down and the resort eventually tries to reach out to locals for that extra support, there will be more than a few who just laugh at them.
oops, meant to direct that last comment at Jeff, not Greg.
Skiing Sun Valley is boring after two days. And I’m an advanced beginner.
I’m an advanced beginner at tossing salad.