Poll Results: Seniors Are Serious Skiers
Our first major poll reveals a compelling factoid about our readers.
Last spring, we did our first Subscriber Survey to learn, among other things, just who our readers were. We learned that you guys like discounts first and foremost. We also learned you that 55 percent of our respondents skied more than 30 days a year! Now that is impressive considering that the average number of skier days for all demographics was 7.6 in 2013-14, according to Snowsports Industries America.
That our readers are passionate about skiing continues to be validated by a new sliver of data. SeniorsSkiing.com’s first major poll revealed that in late August and early September, 66.3 percent of respondents had ALREADY bought their season passes and another 6.3% were about to. Clearly, you were taking advantage of early-bird discounts. And you definitely planned to ski at a favorite ski area. A lot. Here are the results.
New Senior Deal Site For Tahoe Area
Up Pops A New Senior Ski Site Out West. Well Done!
We are pleased to see that Michael Warner started a website for senior deals in the Tahoe area. We like to think seniorsskiing.com stimulated his venture to some degree. We now have an ally in trying to promote the needs and interests of senior snow enthusiasts by targeting a specific geographic area.
Michael Warner has launched a new ski deal site for seniors focusing on the Tahoe area.
Credit: Tahoe Senior Ski Deal
Tahoe Senior Ski Deals keeps tabs on lift pricing rates at 16 resorts throughout the Tahoe Donner region. As we have learned in SeniorsSkiing.com’s Annual Ski Area Surveys, the best deals are always at the smaller areas like Boreal Mountain ($54, 65-69; $29, 70+) and Homewood ($47, 65-69; $20, 70+) for just two examples. We were glad to see Tahoe Donner, a SeniorsSkiing.com Senior-Friendly Award Winner, on the list of deals ($22, 60-69, free, 70+). In fact, Tahoe Senior Ski Deals calls Tahoe Donner the “Best Senior Prices”.
Tahoe Senior Ski Deals focuses on 16 resorts ringing the big lake.
Credit: Google Maps
The site also advises that seniors buy online at least three days before coming to the mountain. There are always better deals online. The site also lists ski clubs and, notably, a link to SeniorsSkiing.com. Thanks, Michael.
It shows that seniors can ski and enjoy the outdoors without having a hedge-fund account. If you know of other sites that report ski or cross-country ski deals, clothing or gear discounts, please let us know.
Stocking Stuffer: Hassle Reduction By Shipping Gear
Don’t Schlep, Ship.
My pal Jerry took his wife and two college-age girls on a ski trip from Boston to Vail a few winters ago. The trip involved a stopover in Chicago which, when his plane from Boston landed, was being covered in a blinding snowstorm. His connecting flight was cancelled. So, Jerry and family had to schlep all their luggage—roll-aways, back packs, boot bags and skis—to an airport hotel in the snow, in a taxi, get up well before dawn, reverse his tracks and check-in with his entourage and their baggage, waiting on snaking baggage check lines. Not pleasant and a constant reminder of one of the flaws of traveling-whilst-a-skier—hassling your kit.
Enter Ship Skis, a service that picks up your gear, sends it to your destination hotel, and when you’re done with your ski vacation, sends the stuff back home again. We met the guys at the BEWI Boston Ski and Snowboard Show this fall.
You’re going to have to pay for checked bags anyway, so it makes sense to ship your gear.
Credit: SeniorsSkiing
It’s all done online. You schedule a shipment to your destination, select insurance options (you get $500 base coverage with different add-ons), print out a shipping label, pack your stuff and wait for the pickup or head to a UPS or FedEx drop-off point. You can track where your shipment is, but you’re probably on the plane by then. Ship Skis claims your equipment will arrive before you do. Pretty simple process.
Pricing varies depending on where you are going, how much you send, and how urgent your shipment is. We priced a hypothetical trip from Boston to Vail, using Jerry’s family as an example. The price ranged from $69 per ski bag to $139. (You might be able to put two pairs in one bag.) That’s one way. When you add boots, the price bumped up varied from $128.99 to $288.99 per ski bag (which might contain two pairs) and boots, again one way. You get the lower price by sending a week or so before you expect to arrive and vice versa coming home. For the Jerry example, shipping a week ahead of time and getting equipment returned from vacation a week after you arrive home would be about $300-$500 for round trip boots and skis for four people, assuming you stuff two pair of skis into one bag. You have to decide if that’s worth it. To Jerry it very well might have been.
By the way, airlines will charge you anywhere from $25 to $200 per checked ski bag and/or boots each way, depending on how many bags you check. So, when you think about it, if you’re going on a ski vacation somewhere by plane, Ship Skis might make sense.
We are discussing a potential discounted rate for readers of SeniorsSkiing.com with the powers that be at Ship Skis. Stay tuned for an update.
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