Tag Archive for: senior discounts

Tamsin Venn

SeniorsSkiing Guide: Sunapee Goes Epic

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Seniors Can Still Get A Mid-Week Pass At A Big Discount Before April 14.

Skier falling into slush cup

It’s that time of the year. Sunapee celebrates spring with a splash. Credit: Sunapee

Sunapee in New Hampshire went Epic this past winter, joining Stowe and Okemo, Vt., as Vail Resort’s three footholds in the East.

Sunapee draws many locals from neighboring towns plus a hefty day crowd from the Boston area. Parking lots fill up early on weekends. Midweek warriors descend on discounted Wicked Wednesdays. Many get there early, lap the Sunapee Express Quad, and leave by lunch.

Skiers disperse to two base lodges—the older, funkier Spruce Lodge (no stairs to reach it) with wood cubbies stuffed with lunch coolers, and the roomier Sunapee Lodge at the Sunapee Express Quad. A shuttle truck precludes schlepping from one to the other, connected by The Beach—a popular spring picnic spot.

Sunapee got jolted out of state-strapped limbo when the Mueller family took over operations in 1998 and worked the same wonders here as they had at nearby Okemo. Robust snowmaking (97 percent) and grooming make Sunapee a reliable area even when snow in the woods is sparse.

Off the South Peak learning area is where the Muellers secured rights to build the West Bowl Expansion, and Vail may or may not follow through. Locals are happy about more trails but skeptical of condos and some dead set against disturbing the old growth forest here.

As a mid-sized area, Sunapee has 66 trails that are varied and full of character. For scenery, ski down the Skyway overlooking a snow-covered Lake Sunapee for one of the best views in New England. Follow the woods down the ungroomed Williamson Trail, or skip through the trees in Sunrise Glades. Get an adrenaline kick down Blast Off and bounce off the moguls on Upper Flying Goose. The terrain park attracts a group of kids who grew up there together. Epic or not, Sunapee will always be Sunapee.

The Muellers’ parting gift to skiers was a high-speed quad commandeered from Okemo in the Sun Bowl. Previously one had to think twice before shooting down here knowing one was facing a slow ride back up, especially in a blizzard.

Although many people ski here for the convenience, less than two hours from Boston, the area truly is a place to stay awhile. Long a summer haven with its many lakes, the Sunapee area has a happy sense of continuity. Skiing segues into swimming and sailing. The ski area has zip lining, mountain biking, adventure course, and summer camps. The satellites tend to stick around—Bob Skinner’s ski shop at the Rotary, Bubba’s Bar & Grille in Newbury, Peter Christian’s Tavern, New London Inn, Dexter’s Inn, Colby-Sawyer College, familiar spots all.

Ticket buyers this year buy an EpicDay pass, a direct-to-lift card that they can reload on line. Until mid-April closing, a day ticket cost counts in the purchase of next year’s Epic Pass.

Epic Local Pass for $699 (19 plus) accesses 30 resorts and is unrestricted at Mt. Sunapee and Okemo. Epic Pass for $939 (ages 13 up) has access to 65 resorts including Europe and Japan. Buy at the Epic Pass site.

For its loyal seniors, Sunapee still offers a midweek pass. Seniors (65-69) is $429 and Super Senior (70 plus) is $279, if bought before April 14. Those prices increased slightly but now include ten discount buddy and six ski-with-a-friend passes. Call or stop at Guest Services (603) 763-3576.

Click here for Sunapee Webcams

Click here for Sunapee Trail Map

 

A less-than two-hour drive from Metro Boston, Sunapee has beautiful blues, views, and lots to choose. Credit: Sunapee

seniorsskiing

Best Time to Buy Senior Ski Passes is Now

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The Deals Are Out There.  Time To Act.

Mike “Bear Trap” Warner is a former ski instructor committed to finding discounts for seniors.

[Editor Note: Mike “Bear Foot” Warner produces SeniorsSkiDeals.com which publishes the prices of top ski resorts and offers advice on where to find the best discounts and when to buy.] 

If you are a senior skier and are planning to ski over a week this winter, you might want to consider buying a season pass. The ski resorts’ season passes  listed here are worth buying if you plan on skiing four or five days at one area. Telluride 70+ Season Pass is $900 while Aspen is $499. With daily lift tickets at $114 on a week’s ski trip you would buy the pass in Aspen but not at Telluride. There is also insurance available for your pass if you need to cancel your trip.

When Alex Cushing owned Squaw Valley, kids up to 12 and seniors 65 and over skied for free. His thinking was the kids would love the sport and come back for 60 years, and the seniors were being rewarded for a lifetime of lift tickets. Now seniors are a profit center for most resorts. An article appeared in Huffington Post in 2015 of 108 ski area’s with free lift tickets for seniors. This year of the 100 top rated ski resorts from ZRankings.com only four offer free skiing for 70+ skiers.

There are a number of ski areas that still offer very good senior season pass rates. Below is a list of the resorts that still offer real deals to 65+ or 70+ senior skiers. These resorts make it worthwhile to buy their pass if you plan to ski there five days or more.

Eastern skiers will be surprised, or already know, that there is only one good deal offered out of the top ranked 17 ski resorts. Out of the top 11 Canadian ski resorts, again only one deal is posted. An example is Killington’s senior pass 65-79 costs $659. The online daily lift ticket is $70. So you’re better off buying lift tickets if you ski nine days or less there.

California:

Heavenly Valley 65+ Epic Value Pass $389

Also good discounts with restrictions at Northstar and Kirkwood.

Homewood 62-69 $349

Diamond Peak 65-69 $169

Mammouth: 65-79 $499

Also good discounts at June, Bear Valley, Snow Summit

Utah

Sundance 65+ $150

Beaver Mountain 70+ $100

Eagle Point 62-69 $ 239  70+ $199

Idaho

Bogus Basin 70+ $229

Tamarack 70+ $199

Colorado

Aspen 70+ $499

Winter Park 60-69 $ 429 70+ $339

Loveland 60-69 $ 399 70+ $99

Copper Mountain 65+ $319

Wolf Creek 65+ $323

Also good discounts at Snowmass, Buttermilk, and Highlands

Montana

Whitefish Mountain 70+ Free

Oregon

Timberline 65-70 $ 169 71+ Free

Mt. Hood Ski Bowl 65-70 $ 149  71+ Free

Washington

Mt. Baker 70+ $ 125

Stevens Pass 70+ $ 99

White Pass 73+ $ 20

Vermont

Smugglers Notch Resort 70+ $29

British Columbia

White Water 70+ Free

seniorsskiing

Resort Review: Mt. Baldy BC Has A $19 Senior Season Pass! Seriously.

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A Small Area Enchants Seniors, Offering Bargain Skiing In Big Powder.

Mt. Baldy is small but powdery and friendly. Credit: Mt. Baldy

Mt. Baldy is small but powdery, friendly and inexpensive.
Credit: Mt. Baldy

Editor Note: This review was written by Jim Barber, a long time skier and ski business veteran.  He lives near Mt. Baldy and loves his retirement home in BC.  Here’s his story:  “My wife and I started our life together in the ski shop business at Hunter Mountain N.Y. in the seventies. We helped Lloyd Lambert set up the Hunter Mt Ski museum and the first 70 plus ski club.  We have no kids by choice so we have had plenty of time and money to ski all over North America. We moved to Washington state and got married in the late seventies. I worked for Weyerhaeuser in forestry research and my wife Marian taught Special Ed in a juvenile  institution. We knew we wanted to semi retire to a ski hill and the rest is history. Today our two homes are 40 miles apart in two different countries.”

Mt. Baldy Ski Resort is in British Columbia’s southern Okanagan, just over forty miles from Washington State and the Canadian border. We found it fifteen years ago while on a skifari to find out were wanted to spend our senior skiing years. We found it at Mt. Baldy, the last ski area we thought we would end up at after skiing at many ski mountains across North America.  We moved here from upstate New York’s Hunter Mountain.

 Mt. Baldy started in late 60s as a Cat skiing site. Soon, a t-bar was added and Mt. Baldy started to grow. It has the highest base elevation—5,800 feet—with all natural BC powder.  No snow making is needed here! Cat skiing without the cat!  One thing that sold us on Baldy was the number of seniors that own cabins and ski here. When we first started skiing here, there was a 90-year-old snow boarder. Need I say more?

We have two near by towns—Oliver and Osoyoos—with ample lodging and restaurants. There are countless vineyards in this region boasting BC wines. Oliver’s motto is “Wine Capital of BC.” If you love golf, you can ski in the morning and golf in the afternoon. On the mountain, there are cabins to rent and the Honky Tonk Hotel. There’s a ski rental shop and a great ski school. The lodge has a full cafeteria and upstairs is the infamous Baldy Bar and restaurant, staffed by top chefs from the wineries.  Baldy is a little out of the way, but if you are on a ski trip through the great Northwest, stop by a ski resort were everyone will show you their secret powder stashes, and you are valued and respected for being a senior skier/snowboarder.

 There is no rush at Baldy and no lift lines. No high speed lifts, because you need the time on the lift to rest and meet the locals. Eventually, everyone at Baldy becomes a local. Baldy is what skiing used to be and still should be.  That’s why workers from other resorts ski at Baldy on their days off.

Snow and Terrain:  This small area—there are only two major lifts—boasts of boundless powder, a meteorological fact of life in southern BC. There were 13 meters of natural snow on Mt. Baldy in the 2015-16 season. The mountain has 500 acres of skiable terrain with a total of 22 runs with something for every skill level. The Eagle Chair base is at 5,650-ft. above ski level, the highest base altitude of any resort in Canada. There’s also a terrain park.

Culture: Super friendly, lots of seniors, instant friendships and acceptance.  Less glitzy areas like Mt. Baldy breed great skiing relationships. Lots of slope-side accommodations make easy access. New owners have big plans for the helping Mt. Baldy achieve its potential.

Bottom Line:  We saved the best for last. Seniors ski for $19 a day, and guess what?  You can by a Season Pass for the same price.  Yup.  $19. That’s. A. Bargain. The season starts on Dec 1, 2016 and goes until mid-late April.

Trail Map: Click here for Mt. Baldy trail map.

Here’s a 2010 video of First Tracks on Mt. Baldy on a powder day.  Check the music and the skier whooping it up.

seniorsskiing

Special Edition: First SeniorsSkiing Ski Area Survey Results

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Free Skiing, Deep Discounts For Senior Skiers Plus “Senior Friendly” Awards

oldfashionedskierWhich areas are truly trying to accommodate 50-plus skiers? To find out, we surveyed 85 North American resorts. Several resorts stand out for giving senior skiers special attention and deals. They received the new SeniorsSkiing Skier Friendly Award. Those with the deepest discounts and best amenities received Gold awards. Those with better than average discounts received Silver Awards.

The survey had a 34 percent response and will be conducted annually. We hope that by asking the right questions for our readers, SeniorsSkiing.com will help drive greater recognition, discounts and amenities for senior snow sports enthusiasts.

SeniorsSkiing “Senior Friendly” Gold AwardsGold_Waterville_Valley_Resort

Of all respondents, six stand out with the best discounts and amenities.

  • Whitefish Mountain Resort, MT — Free skiing for 70-plus skiers
  • Hood Ski Bowl, OR — Free skiing for 71-plus skiers
  • Ski Whitewater, BC — Free skiing for 75-plus skiers
  • Alta, UT — Free skiing for 80-plus skiers
  • Lake Louise, AB — $20 season pass for 80-plus skiers
  • Waterville Valley, NH — Hosts Silver Streaks, the country’s longest running senior ski program. “We provide the structure and facilities; the members organize their own events,” explains Peter Sununu, Waterville spokesman. Members gather daily for coffee and pastries in a designated meeting area; enjoy mid-week NASTAR races, complimentary clinics, preferred parking, après-ski parties, awards banquets, other amenities.

Free skiing as a strategy to introduce the next generation

The percentage of all midweek senior skiers at resorts which offer free lift tickets for seniors is estimated to be about 50 percent. Mt. Hood Ski Bowl’s Hans Wipper explains the value of providing free skiing to the older customer, “We want to reward loyal skiers, and we want them to bring their extended families.”

SeniorsSkiing “Senior Friendly” Silver Award

Silver_Copper_MountainThese respondents had great discounts for seniors:

  • Sutton, QUE — 55 percent off tickets Tuesdays, January – mid February.
  • Okemo, VT — pre-December season pass purchase (includes Mt. Sunapee, Pico Peak, Killington, Crested Butte): 45 percent off for 65-plus; 70 percent off for 70-plus.
  • Ski Butternut, MA — pre-December season pass purchase: $125 for 65-plus
  • Sugarbush, VT — $199 for Mid-Week Boomer Pass for 65+ (was $99 before Sept 9).

Other Silver Awards went to:

  • Alpine Meadows, CA
  • Copper Mountain, CO
  • Vail, CO
  • Hunter Mountain, NY
  • Windham Mountain, NY
  • Deer Valley, UT
  • Snow Basin, UT
  • Snowbird, UT
  • Red Mountain Resort, BC
  • Whistler Blackcomb, BC
  • Mont Tremblant, QUE

Takeaways: Lift ticket deals are out there, especially for the early-bird, pre-season buyer. So are discounts in restaurants, rentals and other amenities. Look and ask.

We also encourage ski area management to consider the business benefits of catering to the interests of the senior skier: increased mid-week traffic, younger “tag along” full paying clients, and a loyal and vocal clientele.

Sugarbush
mikemaginn

Sugarbush Offers$199 Mid-Week Boomer Season Pass. Thank you, Sugarbush.

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Thanks, Sugarbush, For The Deal!

Mid-Week Skiing Means Deals and No Crowds Credit: Sugarbush

Mid-Week Skiing Means Deals and No Crowds
Credit: Sugarbush

 

 

Sugarbush Resort is offering a wonderful deal: Mid-week season pass for $199 for 65+ skiers.   For mid-week Boomer skiers, this is a good thing.  Thanks, Sugarbush, for acknowledging senior skiers. Click here to BUY NOW.

mikemaginn

First Ski Area and Resort Survey Results Coming Soon!

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We were curious about what ski areas and resorts were doing to accommodate the rapidly growing number of senior snow enthusiasts who were coming to play.  So, we launched our First Ski Area and Resort Survey, polling a number of key areas in the US and Canada about lift discounts, amenities and special deals for seniors.  The Good News:  There are great deals out there including FREE SKIING! at some very special senior-friendly ski areas.  The Opportunity: There is a lot of room for improvement for expanding many ski areas’ programs that will attract seniors. We are still muddling through the survey data, but we’ve already identified a number of ski areas that will be named Super-Friendly for Senior Snow Enthusiasts.  Stay tuned to find out!

SurveyGraphPost2

One of our excellent questions.