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How Vail Destroyed Skiing

More Perfect Union | November 19, 2025



The real reason skiing sucks now is because two companies—Vail & Alterra—control the entire sport. They’ve jacked up day passes at Park City by 263% since 2011. Now you get packed trails, pricey meals, and an empty wallet… and execs get rich.
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Comments

This post currently has 45 comments.

  3. @MV-Dan

    November 19, 2025 at 10:08 pm

    I stopped riding when I was about 22. I used to get my young adult restricted season pass for $189. I’m 37 now and a family of 5. I always envisioned being a ski family and I’m realizing how insane the prices are, parking passes? Wtf. My local mountain can’t even guarantee parking.

  7. @dorimang

    November 19, 2025 at 10:08 pm

    I worked for vail snowmaking. We busted our ahh to get the mountain open, on 95% man made snow. The reward? All staff banned from opening weekend. lol

  10. @kercadolexi

    November 19, 2025 at 10:08 pm

    I was planning to take my husband on a snowboard trip on his bday until I saw it was $250/day. We both have good jobs but could not stomach dropping damn near $1k just for boarding 😭😭😭

  17. @budgiekiller2

    November 19, 2025 at 10:08 pm

    I'm glad I've aged out of skiing. I did all the extreme steep stuff long before GoPro was a thing. Lots of great memories. Yes, we had lines waiting for 2-seat chairs and you had to climb the last part of the peak to get the untracked snow first thing in the morning. I was a weekend volunteer ski-patroller from the late 1970's to the early 2000's, then as a ski club member after that. The lawyers and insurance companies pushed the ticket prices up with all the lawsuits. Property developers and resort corporations did the rest. If you're rich, life is good. The north american resort ticket prices today are stupid expensive and the resorts treat skiers like cattle to be milked for cash. We head to the beaches down south for winter now.

  18. @katg-nw5tc

    November 19, 2025 at 10:08 pm

    Sad. My big brother Guru Dave at Snowbird Utah has been skiing for almost 50 years there. He said skiing is less and less attractive these days. We lived in Germany and would take our children to Czech Republic to ski. Private lesson including lunch was $10, ski pass and rentals also about the same. Those were the days.

  22. @AmusementLabs

    November 19, 2025 at 10:08 pm

    Hi More Perfect Union, I've been listening to this piece and I'm next door to California's Great America, a six flags park. I've noticed so many parallels between Vail and 6F and I think it would be a perfect company to profile next.

  23. @vlast8107

    November 19, 2025 at 10:08 pm

    The obvious solution is a guest limit per day. But I'm sure ski patreons would flip out about that too. I imagine the legislation for creating or expanding ski areas is quite intense in many states too, considering the sheer amount of land involved.

  32. @robmcguckin7605

    November 19, 2025 at 10:08 pm

    My son moved to Japan to teach English at the high school in his town of 25,000. He has two ski mountains 20 minutes from home to choose that charge $17 for a day lift pass. This year he opted for a season pass which cost him $145.

  33. @brian9438

    November 19, 2025 at 10:08 pm

    9:05 "The price is so staggeringly high . . ."
    9:58 ". . . massive overcrowding at these resorts . . ."

    Why should we be mad at these companies when people are willing to pay? Serious first-world problem. Honestly, it kinda sounds like Vail is just doing good business to me. If they're obeying the law, why shouldn't they be trying to maximize profits?

    We must be having pretty decent lives if we're concerned about how best to slide down mountains.

  40. @SuburbanProperty

    November 19, 2025 at 10:08 pm

    Crotched Mountain is a small mountain in Bennington, New Hampshire. I gewe up 5 minutes down the road and it was a huge part of my childhood. It used to be a chill, cheap, fun place to go. Now, it's giant waits, overpriced and overcrowded. It's genuinely depressing.

Comments are closed.

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