Ski-related Rants
Ok, so I don’t feel like I ever really use this blog to hop on my soap box and bitch about stuff….well, maybe sometimes, but I was looking through some ski area websites tonight and I started to get a little annoyed. When did ski season become solely about the cash? I know it has never been a cheap sport to afford, and I clearly remember my parents shelling out a lot of money when I was little just so my sister and I could learn to ski (like all good Colorado natives do!) But jeez, isn’t it getting a little ridiculous?? Sure, there has been some improvements along the way–lord knows, there was no one more psyched than me when the mountains got together and came up with the multi-mountain season passes–but honestly. I was up at Winter Park last week and saw a girl skiing with a “discounted” lift ticket for $75. Discounted? I almost hit a tree when I saw that the regular priced tickets were like $92!!! For one day of skiing?! Thank god I have a season pass–I would never be able to afford my 30-50 days-per-year habit!
And then I started thinking about it a little bit more. And it got worse and worse. During my second year in Steamboat, I didn’t go back to instruct on the mountain. Instead, I chose a “responsible” job as a teacher and para at the middle school. Of course, this wise decision meant that I didn’t get the free season pass that all mountain employees receive and had to purchase a season pass–after all, who lives in a ski town and doesn’t ski? (Surprisingly, quite a few people but thats a story for another time!) The cost of this coveted season pass that allowed me to enjoy all the champagne powder I could handle? $1000. I swear. That damn season pass cost a thousand dollars. Some people buy their kids cars for that price!! The middle school was taking payments out of my monthly checks long into the New Year. All so I could ski. And enjoy the mountains and the snow and the great outdoors. And do what Coloradoans have done for years….albeit at a much higher price.
Even better. As most people know, Intrawest bought Steamboat Mountain so there have been a lot of policy changes and overall chaos in what was formerly a sleepy cowboy town. It used to be that ski instructors got a certain number of comp passes for every year they worked at the mountain. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but I know once you were on your second or third season, you had at least four or five passes to share with family and friends who wanted to visit but couldn’t afford the $100 lift tickets. After all, it was the least they could do when the starting pay for instructors is $9/hour to essentially babysit a group of kids on the side of the mountain, feed them lunch, calm the tears, find lost mittens, deal with all types of bells and whistles and snaps on the latest versions of snowpants, warm up little fingers, keep them safe on the chairlifts, carry the occasional child down between your legs, and oh yeah–teach them how to ski. Alas, no more. I talked to Meg awhile back, and she told me that the quantity changed this year too. Again, I don’t remember the specifics, but I know the number of free passes was slashed enormously and replaced with half price tickets. Better than nothing, of course. But still. Do you really need to make your employees pay more as well? Does it always have to be about the dollar?
What are the ski resorts doing with all this money? Again, I thought of Steamboat just because it is the mountain that I know best. I remember camping there when I was a kid and it truly was a small town, tucked away in the Yampa Valley. Real cowboys strolled down the main street in town and sprawling ranches dotted the surrounding countryside. Now that Intrawest has bought the mountain, I think the quiet ski town days are over only to be replaced with glitzy and glamorous resorts like Aspen and Vail. Ski Times Square–an area of bars, restaurants and shops–used to be located at the base of the Steamboat mountain, but that got completely demolished last year to make way for stacks and stacks of condos. Old restaurants like Dos Amigos, bars like Mother’s, and buildings like the Mountain Theater were all destroyed to make way for progress—-if it can be referred to as such. Maybe I am old fashioned, and we all know that I am a small-town girl. But when is enough going to be enough? At the very least, I guess I know where the money from my $1000 season pass went.
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