Is Skiing Becoming an Elitist Sport?

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I'm sure most everyone has gone skiing or seen snow at least once in their lives. Lift tickets these days however seem to be getting out of control. A one day lift pass is around $150 in California. This means that if a family of four decides they want to take a family vacation to Tahoe, they have to pay around $600 for one day. That is excluding all the gear and other skiing paraphernalia required to shred down the mountain. Which brings me to the next point: lift prices not only affect the amount of people that can come to the mountain but also the smaller businesses around skiing. 

 To be able to ski, you need the proper clothes, skis, poles, boots, ect. All of this must be supplied by retailers and other businesses. Most of these businesses in recent time have disappeared because of the lack of demand. Less and less people are skiing as prices rise. Now, these businesses may be shutting down similarly to Sports Authority, due to the popularity in online shopping. However most of the equipment used to ski arguably needs to be bought in person due to the fact that you can't see if they fit you online. For example ski boots must be tried on in person because it is really hard to get a good fit. Since less people are skiing, less people are going to stores to buy ski equipment which in turn negatively affects the market around skiing. 


https://www.greeleytribune.com/news/local/is-skiing-for-the-rich-and-white/ 
https://www.skiheavenly.com/plan-your-trip/lift-access/tickets.aspx

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 2, 2019 at 3:03 PM

    Interesting post, Hunter! I wasn't aware of the "smaller businesses" surrounding skiing and how each of them have contributed to the rising price of the sport, as an increase in the price of any piece of gear (skis, poles, boots, clothes) will increase the total cost of skiing. Regarding the price hikes on ski lift tickets, I think it's because the demand for lift tickets are inelastic. Regardless of the price, if a family wants to ski at a specific resort, they must buy a lift ticket to do so. Thus, for those who prefer certain slopes over others, they will buy a ticket no matter how expensive it is. And with declining numbers of people hitting the slopes each year, ski resorts have no choice but to keep prices high in order to earn a profit.

    Source: https://snowboarding.transworld.net/photos/when-did-ski-resort-lift-tickets-become-so-expensive/

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 26, 2019 at 11:00 AM

    Personally, as someone that doesn't ski very often, I find the whole process of skiing, extremely tiresome. The whole going to the rental place, buying tickets, driving to tahoe, going up and down the slopes. Its more a chore than for fun. It seems like in order for skiing to be valuable you have to be the type of person who hits the slope every week. I agree, with teh rising costs of skiis, I could easily see the sport becoming very elitist.

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