Mark Fusco used to buy season passes to Vail Resorts and Winter Park Resort, but for this winter he declined to ante up for either. Instead, he plans to spend his money on “four-packs,” four day ski passes that cost roughly $25 per day.
For about the price of one season pass, he can buy four of the packs and ski 16 times at any of nine areas.
“This gives me a lot more variety,” he said.
Skiers and snowboarders like Fusco are the driving force behind discounts that have become a staple among Colorado’s ski resorts.
Winter Park started the “pass war” in 1998 by dropping its season-pass price to the equivalent of $200 a skier. That forced Vail Resorts and others to follow suit or risk losing market share.
Eight seasons later, discounted tickets have become the norm. Last year, Colorado’s 25 ski resorts sold more than 250,000 season passes.
Giants such as Vail Resorts Inc. and Intrawest Corp. use them as loss leaders that keep their hotels, restaurants and shops filled. Small independent ski areas are forced to slash their prices, too, rather than risk losing their crowds.
Front Range consumers are the clear winners. Now savvy shoppers, they have grown to expect bargain-basement prices and the freedom to sample a variety of terrain options.
And they’re a powerful market.
In-state skiers accounted for roughly 40 percent of the 11.8 million total skier visits in Colorado last season, up 3.6 percent over the previous winter, according to Colorado Ski Country USA.
Vail Resorts and Intrawest Corp. have become addicted to the cheap passes as a way to bolster their on-mountain crowds and to provide an influx of cash during offseason times when resort revenue is typically low.
“We had no idea what we were getting into at the time,” said Vail Resorts vice president of marketing Chris Jarnot. “But basically, we got more commitment from the skier, in terms of money all at once.
“(Passes) act as insurance, to a certain degree.”
They also drag down prices. Last year, Vail Resorts realized an average lift ticket price of just $39.30, half the $77 it charged for a full-price daily lift ticket.
“Between multiday discounts and all of the programs we offer in the Front Range, a relatively small number of people actually buy a one-day ticket for as much as you can pay,” Jarnot admitted.
The corporate giant can absorb the low prices because 71 percent of its $810 million net revenue last year came from food, lodging, equipment rentals, ski lessons and real-estate sales – not lift-ticket sales.
Smaller ski areas that depend on ticket sales for most of their revenue may find it hard to compete.
“Vail Resorts and Intrawest are the market leaders, so the smaller resorts are forced to set our prices after taking their pricing into consideration,” said John Sellers, marketing director at Loveland Ski Area. “The diminished revenue on the pass sales has been tough.”
Eighty percent of Monarch Mountain’s revenue comes from lift-ticket and season-pass sales.
“We are strictly a ski area,” said Greg Ralph, director of marketing of the area west of Salida. “It’s important for us to maintain some price integrity on our product.”
Even so, Monarch unveiled a $39 two-day pass to Denver consumers at last week’s Colorado SnowSports Expo and sold 300 in three days.
“We don’t do a lot of business out of Denver, so we look at it as a way to break into a new market,” said Ralph. “You almost have to give it away that first time to get them hooked. Hopefully, they’ll become repeat customers.”
While ski resorts once thought season passes would help them earn customer loyalty, skiers and snowboarders now have other ideas. This year they are flocking toward four- packs as a way to custom-design their ski seasons.
“We’re seeing a real shift to four-packs as the ‘product du jour,’ ” said Rob Linde, director of marketing at Eldora Mountain Resort. “They don’t lock people in. They allow them to sample other places.”
Aspen Skiing Co. has seen a 15 percent increase over last fall in sales of its four-day Classic Pass, which sells for $139. Sales of $125 five-packs at Glenwood Springs’ Sunlight Mountain Resort are up 93 percent over last year.
Some industry experts say the steep discounts could erode the quality of a Colorado ski experience. Vacationers and merchants in exclusive resorts such as Vail have complained that pass holders crowd the slopes and spend less money than destination visitors.
Complaints aside, bargain skiers and ‘boarders appear to be firmly planted on the slopes.
“The perceived value of what a day of skiing or riding is worth in the Front Range consumer’s mind has forever changed,” acknowledged David Perry, senior vice president at Aspen Skiing Co. and former head of Colorado Ski Country.
Fusco, a horticulturist at the Denver Botanic Gardens, agrees. Even if he uses only 12 of 16 ski days he purchased, he said, “It’s still a really good deal.”
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
