Good discussion today on slopefillers.com about why people don't ski.  Contributers included founder of Liftopia:

http://www.slopefillers.com/why-people-dont-ski/

JimK wrote:

Good discussion today on slopefillers.com about why people don't ski.  Contributers included founder of Liftopia:

http://www.slopefillers.com/why-people-dont-ski/

very interesting, but I think cost would be higher if the survey were limited to families with children!

Good point Colonel, but it applies as well to any other kind of family vacation, beginning with plane tickets.

Skiing is fun. Going skiing can be a BIG pain in the ass, the pain level being directly proportional to the # of people in your entourage. Think about a day trip, in my case probably 7 Springs. The 7 is a big day trip destination near Pittsburgh and they are geared up to handle a big crowd of people who are not staying on the resort. So here we are two hours away, taking wife, two kids and two kids friends, meeting another family for the trip at 7:00am. Car packed full of duffel bags, skis boots etc. Should we rent gear for our guests before we get to the hill? Yes that might be faster. Get to the hill, wait in the drive up line to buy lift tickets, park in the muddy/icey/snowcovered parking lot, schlepp the skis, boots, duffels, picinic basket and what not to wait for the shuttle to the lodge. The shuttle comes but it is SRO and the driver says it's OK the next shuttle is "right behind" me. So here we stand in the freezing wind/rain/blowing snow waiting for the bus for what seems like 30 minutes. Are we having fun yet?

Anyways we finally make it to the drop off and go into the lodge, look for a place to boot up and stow our stuff. One of the kids can't find goggles and gloves, another lost his lift ticket and we lost the other couple we were travelling with, I swear they were right with us when we got off the shuttle? So now it is 9:15 the lifts are spinning and we need a potty break and then out on the snow, where one of the kids friends cannot seem to get his boot to click into the binding.....................................

Jimmy, that would be funny if not so true too frequently!

Jimmy if the friends ditched you after the shuttle I suspect it was a powder day..  As for the rest of the story, it all depends on the experience level of the others in the posse.  If I'm taking just my son we're there and ready quickly.  When the little sis comes the drama and complications multipy exponentially, but again with experience she is getting better.  It's worth it to be patient and heolp them get to the next level so they're waiting on someone else instead hahahaha..

Interesting study. Skiers are always talking about how expensive skiing/lessons/cafeteria food is and that is why more people don't ski. The survey shows that a general lack of interest and the perception of danger are what is really holding new customers back? Those two objections should be easier to counter than the cost. I live 1:45 from a "major" mid Atlantic ski resort and I'll betcha there is 60% who have never thought about trying skiing or don't know they could do that almost as easily as going to the outlet mall for the day. 

The perception of risk, well an instructor's mission is to provide a safe environment to have fun and teach the customer enough to be safe and independent on appropriate terrain. How many friends have told you that they would never ski because it would hurt their knees, their cousin fell off a cliff or they are afraid of the pain and suffering caused by psorisis?

I may be ignorant to this, but do "local" resorts do anything with the surrounding schools to promote a day trip to go skiing one evening / day?  Maybe they do but I'm not aware of it.  My wife teaches HS and they have a ski club and their last trip to 7S was 3 years ago.  My son was in a ski club in high school and they never did a trip.  

I view it like pee wee football, t ball and youth hoops.  Get them interested at an early age.  But someone has to organize this. Hell, how many middle schools and high schools are there within a 2 hr drive of 7S and HV?

I would think the resorts are the ones who would benefit long term by organizing / susidizing such trips.  

jimmy wrote:

I live 1:45 from a "major" mid Atlantic ski resort and I'll betcha there is 60% who have never thought about trying skiing or don't know they could do that almost as easily as going to the outlet mall for the day. 

 

 

I grew up skiing all my life and love it more than any other outdoor activity.  Yet, I lived here in central NC for over five years before I realized there were decent ski areas almost as close to me as the beach, about 3 hours give or take.  I did recall seeing a ski area sign at the NC TN border but had no idea that we had better stuff closer to my houe than that.  I  believe the gear compelity may be something that keeps noobs from venturing out to try skiing as well as the hassle of getting there.  Renting takes a long time to get from the lot to the lift and the performance of the gear you get is usually .. painful hahaha.

So there are advantages to being childless. My scenerio:

Get up at 7:00 AM with a slight hangover after drinking too much cab for dinner. Eat a bowl of oatmeal.  I had the car packed with my skis and poles the night before. Take the boots and bag to the car, load up a good CD for the ride. Get to 7S entry gate one car in line and buy a lift ticket or use my free day from my Hidden Valley pass. Drive to the North Slope parking lot, park one space away from the slopes. Put boots on and start skiing. 4:30 PM go the bar and get a few microbrews. We having fun yet?

Of course I will have no one to wipe off the drool when I am too old.

I always wondered how families could afford all of the equipment, lift tickets, ski clothing, etc. It is not a cheap sport.

snowsmith wrote:

So there are advantages to being childless. My scenerio:

4:30 PM go the bar and get a few microbrews. We having fun yet?

Of course I will have no one to wipe off the drool when I am too old.

I always wondered how families could afford all of the equipment, lift tickets, ski clothing, etc. It is not a cheap sport.

Well with the spouse or when kid gets mid teens you'd have a designated driver to get home safely and legally.

"don’t know they could do that almost as easily as going to the outlet mall for the day."

There's a lot of it, here in DMV.  Even with Lib/WT/RT constantly on the radio.  Marketing more (slick TV spots) can help? 

Although my suspicion is that most of the active lifestyle-oriented folks who want to deal with chill at all, are already skiers in some capacity.  Look on your local multi-use trail on a nice January day, and you can count the cyclists/runners/skaters on one hand.  Now repeat in June, and you can't easily count that high.  And those activities are far easier to do on an impulse- no 2H drive requried.  If they aren't going to do something right outside their door, why would they be interested in driving 2H or more?

All else equal, many folks simply do not want to be outside in the cold, period?  

Blue Don 1982 wrote:

I may be ignorant to this, but do "local" resorts do anything with the surrounding schools to promote a day trip to go skiing one evening / day?  Maybe they do but I'm not aware of it.  My wife teaches HS and they have a ski club and their last trip to 7S was 3 years ago.  My son was in a ski club in high school and they never did a trip.  

I view it like pee wee football, t ball and youth hoops.  Get them interested at an early age.  But someone has to organize this. Hell, how many middle schools and high schools are there within a 2 hr drive of 7S and HV?

I would think the resorts are the ones who would benefit long term by organizing / susidizing such trips.  

Yes there is a thing that schools (rather he state dose)  the pa ski area association has a program where 4/5 graders can ski for free  3 times at each resort in the state. However many kids and parents still do not know about it.

snowsmith wrote:

I always wondered how families could afford all of the equipment, lift tickets, ski clothing, etc. It is not a cheap sport.

I tend to believe cost is more of a factor than that survey details.  I think this would be a typical budget for a "new to skiing" family of 4 to vist 7S for a day on a weekend.

Lift Tix 4 * 70 = 280

Rentals 4 * 40 = 160 

Lunch 4 * 15 = 60

Hell, that's 500 bucks to take your fam skiing for one day.  Not including gas, tolls, misc crap.  

Where could you skimp?  Bag a lunch?  Don't rent a helmet / googles?  Go to a less expensive ski resort?

Junior high ski club was the bomb when I was a teen.  It was a 6 or 8 week program after schools on Thursdays at the local ski hill, but most kids skipped the lessons and just went skiing. Think rentals were free too for those that needed them.  Pretty sure the cost was less than a night ticket and the bus took the kids directly from school to the ski hill, parents picked us up from there. There was a logistical matter of dropping off the gear in the morning before school but it worked pretty well.  Then, in high school I was teaching those ski club lessons.  WIN WIN!

I think there are places that are attempting to help out with both the cost and risk factor by providing programs with lessons, below are 2 PA programs that are pretty good. The liberty/whitetail/roundtop program has no age restrcitions from what I can tell.

The first applies to 4th and 5th graders in PA, where these students pretty much get a learn to ski/board pass and 3 lift tickets to 19 resorts for $30. Great way to get kids (and paying parents) hooked on the sport.

http://www.skipa.com/deals/4th5th-grade-program/faq

Liberty/Whitetail/Roundtop also have a mountain passport... which if you go early season is a really great deal. If you purchase a Learn to Ski/Board package and complete the lesson you can purchase a card that is simular to an advantage card, and your next trip is free. Last year I think the card gave 40% off lift and rental all season and 1 free lesson per day. (It looks like they have already announced that open - Dec 23 will be $49 for the learn to ski/board package. so $100 for 2 trips with rentals/lessons + 40% for the rest of the year and free lessons.

http://www.libertymountainresort.com/mountain/tickets-passes-equipment/mountain-passport-card.aspx

rbrtlav wrote:

I think there are places that are attempting to help out with both the cost and risk factor by providing programs with lessons, below are 2 PA programs that are pretty good. The liberty/whitetail/roundtop program has no age restrcitions from what I can tell.

The first applies to 4th and 5th graders in PA, where these students pretty much get a learn to ski/board pass and 3 lift tickets to 19 resorts for $30. Great way to get kids (and paying parents) hooked on the sport.

http://www.skipa.com/deals/4th5th-grade-program/faq

Liberty/Whitetail/Roundtop also have a mountain passport... which if you go early season is a really great deal. If you purchase a Learn to Ski/Board package and complete the lesson you can purchase a card that is simular to an advantage card, and your next trip is free. Last year I think the card gave 40% off lift and rental all season and 1 free lesson per day. (It looks like they have already announced that open - Dec 23 will be $49 for the learn to ski/board package. so $100 for 2 trips with rentals/lessons + 40% for the rest of the year and free lessons.

http://www.libertymountainresort.com/mountain/tickets-passes-equipment/mountain-passport-card.aspx

One nice thing about the 4th/5th grade program - the kid doesn't have to go to school in PA, we live in VA and we had that pass for my daughter. It's a great deal.