Best Deals For Seniors at 124 North American Ski Areas (2026)

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SeniorsSkiing.com wholeheartedly agrees with 106 year old ski industry legend Klaus Obermeyer when he says “The longer you ski, the longer you live.”  With that philosophy in mind we are pleased to provide subscribers with our annual listing of North American ski areas who let older skiers continue their passion without breaking the bank.

Our general criteria for “deeply discounted” were passes available for under $50.  

While not intentional, this list may contain incorrect or out of date information.  As ski season gets into full swing, some of these passes may no longer be available at super low prices or not available to purchase again until the spring.

State/Province Area Age to Qualify
Alaska Eaglecrest 75
Alaska Moose Mountain 80
Arizona Arizona Snowbowl 75
Arizona Ski Valley 70
Arizona Sunrise Park 75
California Palisades Tahoe 80
California Dodge Ridge 75
California Mammoth Mt 80
California June 80
California Big Bear 80
California Snow Summit 80
California Mt High 75
California China Peak 75
California Snow Valley 80
Colorado Hesperus 75
Colorado Granby Ranch 76
Colorado Monarch Mountain 69
Colorado Powderhorn 75
Colorado Purgatory 75
Colorado Ski Cooper 75
Colorado Sunlight Mtn Resort 80
Colorado Wolf Creek 80
Idaho Lookout Pass 80
Idaho Schweitzer Mt Rst 80
Maine Big Rock 75
Maine Black Mt of Maine 75
Maine Hermon Mountain 70
Maine Mt Abram 80
Maine Saddleback Mt 80
Maine Pleasant Mtn 80
Maine Sugarloaf 80
Maine Sunday River 80
Maryland Wisp 75
Massachusetts Bousquet 80
Massachusetts Berkshire East 80
Massachusetts Otis Ridge 70
Michigan Big Powderhorn 75
Michigan Boyne Mt, 80
Michigan The Highlands 80
Michigan Crystal Mt 80
Michigan Mt Holiday 70
Michigan Nubs Nob 70
Michigan Shanty Creek 70
Michigan Snowriver Mtn 80
Michigan Snow Snake 70
Michigan Treetops Resorts 70
Montana Bridger Bowl 80
Nevada Diamond Peak 80
New Hampshire Crotched Mt 80
New Hampshire Attitash 80
New Hampshire Wildcat 80
New Hampshire Bretton Woods Ski 80
New Hampshire Cannon Mountain 65 *
New Hampshire Cranmore 80
New Hampshire Dartmouth Skiway 80
New Hampshire Gunstock 70
New Hampshire King Pine Ski Area 80
New Hampshire Loon Mt 80
New Hampshire Mt Sunapee 80
New Hampshire McIntyre Ski Area 65
New Hampshire Ragged Mountain 80
New Hampshire Waterville Valley 80
New Jersey Mountain Creek 80
New Mexico Angel Fire 75
New Mexico Parajito Mtn 75
New Mexico Red River Area 70
New Mexico Sandia Peak 75
New Mexico Sipapu 75
New Mexico Taos 80
New York Catamount 80
New York Hunter Mt 80
New York Maple Ski Ridge 70
New York McCauley Mt. 70
New York Mt. Peter Ski Area 70
New York Swain Resort 75
North Carolina Catalooche 70
North Carolina Sugar Mtn Resort 75
North Carolina Hatley Point 70
Oregon Hoodoo Ski Bowl 75
Oregon Mt Ashland 70
Oregon Mt Hood Meadows 75
Oregon Ski Anthony Lakes 70
Oregon Willamette Pass 75
Pennsylvania Big Boulder 80
Pennsylvania Jack Frost 80
Pennsylvania Liberty Mtn 80
Pennsylvania Ski Roundtop 80
Pennsylvania Whitetail 80
Pennsylvania Hidden Valley 80
Pennsylvania Seven Springs 80
Pennsylvania Laurel Mtn 80
Pennsylvania Shawnee 70
Pennsylvania Ski Sawmill 70
Pennsylvania Spring Mountain 70
Pennsylvania Bear Creek 70
South Dakota Terry Peak Ski 80
Tennesse Ober Mountain 70
Utah Alta 80
Utah Brian Head Resort 75
Utah Nordic Valley 75
Vermont Okemo 80
Vermont Stowe 80
Vermont Mount Snow 80
Vermont Burke Mt 80
Vermont Killington / Pico 80
Vermont Smugglers Notch 80
Virginia Wintergreen Rsrt 75
Washington 49o North 80
Washington Crystal Mountain 80
Washington Mt Spokane 80
Washington Bluewood 70
Washington Summit at Snoqualmie 80
Washington White Pass 73
West Virginia Canaan Valley 70
Wyoming Snowy Range 70
Alberta Castle Mtn 75
Alberta Lake Louise 80
Alberta Marmot Basin 80
Alberta Mt. Norquay 80
British Columbia Mt Washington 75
British Columbia Red Mt Resort 75
British Columbia Panorama 80
Ontario Mt Pakenham 70
Ontario Ski Chicopee 80

*NH residents

We encourage readers to email corrections subscriptions@seniorsskiingmedia.com.

Ski Trip Planning – It’s That Time of the Year

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Photo by Lala Azizli on Unsplash

Thanksgiving 2025 is in the rearview mirror. For many of us who don’t live in a ski town or close to one, it is time to start serious planning for this season’s skiing. If you’re like me, ski trips start with either a really long, as in 11 – 12-hour drive, or a flight. What follows are the six questions I ask.

Question #1 – where do we want to ski this season? Every year, I try to ski somewhere new. Two years ago, it was Santa Fe Ski Basin. Last year it was supposed to be Sipapu in New Mexico, but lack of snow ended that trip. Entering into our decision is resort an Epic or IKON area, or as someone who is 80+, can I ski for free?

Question #2 – Next is the fun part of guessing whether the area will have snow. FYI, there are 13 different weather forecasting models, and you can drive yourself crazy studying them. Remember, Mother Nature gets the majority vote, and she can be fickle.

I’ve found that one of the better predictors is the answer to the question, Will it be La Nina or El Niño year? Describing how water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean affect our weather is well beyond the scope of this post. However, weather history tells us that in an El Niño year, the ski areas in the Southern Rockies and New England will usually get more precipitation because the jet stream whistles across Southern and Central California and the Southwest before zipping up the Appalachians into New England.

When winter weather is driven by La Nina, there will be more snow in the Northern Rockies, colder in New England, and warmer in the Southern Rockies, where it will also be drier. 

Clouding the picture is that there are some smaller climatological zones where this doesn’t apply directly, i.e., Whistler and to some degree, Mammoth, around Lake Tahoe, or the areas south of Lake Ontario. Also, drier doesn’t mean no snow; it implies that the snowfall will be average or less than average. Note, this year La Nina is in charge and take it for what it is worth.

Question #3 – when? Holiday weeks and weekends – Christmas/New Year, MLK, and Presidents Day – are out. That drives dates.

From dates, question #4 is who is going? That impacts dates but also housing, i.e. condo, house or hotel room. 

Question #5 – is the how do we get there? If we are flying, we want to make sure the flights coincide with check-in and check-out times/dates. 

Question #6 – do we need a rental vehicle? If we do, it means reserving a spot at an offsite airport parking facility that takes us to and from the airport so we don’t have to remember where I parked the car!

So that’s the process. Six questions to answer, and happy skiing.

Boot Sliders: A Shoehorn for Ski Boots

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Do you have difficulty getting into your ski boots? Not anymore! Seniorsskiing.com wants to introduce you to Boot Sliders. After much research and product development this ski boot shoehorn delivers on its claim to make getting into your boots easy. Here’s their story as told by the owner, David Sears.

I started thinking about this in early 2021 at Okemo Mountain on my first ski outing since COVID.  I have high arches and boots have always been a bit of an effort to get into. With COVID restrictions I had to put on my boots leaning on a car in a rainy and icy parking lot – it was a real struggle and I honestly wasn’t sure I’d be able to get them on.  I did get them on and the day turned out to be quite nice and a welcome break from COVID, but I started thinking seriously about shoehorns for ski boots since I didn’t want to go through that experience again.

I was working full-time as a lab administrator at MIT but started researching what was available already. What I found was OK but seemed to ignore the source of my difficulty: the friction along to bottom of the boot where the ball of my foot pressed against the insole.  It seemed to me that as I was trying to get my heel to move down into the boot, I was just putting more pressure on the ball of my foot, increasing the friction and resistance there.

I started experimenting with different materials with the goal of finding something flexible and slippery that could go under the foot to test my hypothesis that relieving that sticking point would help me to get into my ski boots.  I settled pretty quickly on PTFE, a really slippery plastic, and created prototypes of varying thickness, shape, and length.

Easing my way into semi-retirement in 2024 gave me more time to devote to this, and I worked with various vendors and partners on design, materials, and more testing to come up with final specs and design to move forward with production for the 2024-2025 season. 

While this didn’t allow time for marketing, we did get set up for sales with Amazon and on our own site and put a couple of videos up on YouTube.  Somehow people started finding us, and then there was a good bit of word of mouth and we had a good year. 

Our first bit of customer feedback made me feel our testing had paid off: “Just tried you boot slider. Amazing. I’ve been skiing for 55 years. Where have these been? Great idea and product.”  (All of this was in the subject of the email. My adult children tell me this is typical of both me and my target market’s age group.)

Our goal has been to develop a product to make getting into ski boots a bit easier so people can start their ski days raring to go instead of needing a break and judging by reviews and messages we’ve received from users; we’re meeting that goal. Check out our website – Click Here

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