This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Jan. 4)

Holy Ticket Shock, Favorite Article of 2018, Belleayre, Ski Test Series, Flyin’ Mystery, Encore For Layering Basics, Sir Arnold Lunn.

There is a reason SeniorsSkiing.com tries to promote reasonable pricing for seniors who have been supporting the sport for decades.

News like the following is evidence that the voice of seniors is needed to get a lot louder in the corporate halls of the ski industry. The headline is from New England Ski Industry.com.

In case you can’t read it the graphic, it says “Stowe Sets New England Record With $147 Lift Ticket.” Read the whole story by clicking here. All of this is designed to push consumers to purchasing Epic season passes which may or may not be a good deal, depending on how often you ski and where you go.

This week’s Short Swings has an excellent summary of the lift ticket/season pass situation in a Ski History article by none other than John Fry, long time snow sports journalist and member of the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. If you’re a relatively infrequent skier—say five or six times a season—you’re going to be paying the highest ever ticket prices. If you are a frequent senior skier, you’re not going to get the big discounts you used to get at big resorts. Clearly, the multi-resort season pass is focused on the sport’s “best customers”, those who ski frequently and who often head to destination areas, but who represent only about 28% of the total skiers. Pareto Principle, 80-20 rule. Does this strategy make sense?

Favorite Article Of 2018: Free Skiing For Seniors

That is why many of our readers favor “mom and pop” areas, the archetypical ski resort that has low-key facilities, moderate terrain, and reasonable prices. In fact, many of these areas offer free or almost free skiing for seniors. And that is also why our annual listing of resorts that offer free or almost free skiing was the most read article of the year.

If you haven’t seen our directory of 145 ski resorts in the US and Canada that offers free or almost free skiing to seniors, click on the third menu box that reads Free Skiing For Seniors. You may be asked to re-enter your name and email address to access subscriber-only content.

This Week

We have a new resort review for Belleayre Mountain, a two-hour drive from the NY metropolitan area from Bob Nesoff, a veteran snow sport and travel journalist. Did you know Belleayre has a brand new gondola to whisk skiers up the slopes? A gondola in the Catskills!

Janet Franz reports on the basics of layering, based on a presentation by North Face’s Stan Kosmider at the recent Northeast Winter Weather Summit. There are nuances about what is worth wearing and why that we didn’t know. If you’re wearing the same old waffle long underwear that you’ve worn for years, you’ll want to think about how to re-dress.

Our Mystery Glimpse this week is a family affair. Should be quick recognition for those who live and play in a certain part of the country. ‘Nuff said. Check out the clue and read about last week’s amazing snowboard Olympic champ, Shannon Dunn-Downing.

Correspondent and long-ago SKI magazine associate editor Marc Liebman brings an introduction to his new ski test series that offers a history of how it was done ‘way back in the 70s. Remember, that was a time when the number of products proliferated, and readers needed a way to sort through and make decisions. Both Ski and SKIING magazines pioneered ski testing. Marc presents a capsule history.

Finally, Jan Brunvand offers a delightful selection from Sir Arnold Lunn’s The Mountains Of Youth (1925) from the early days of “ski-ing”. Lunn was the British athlete who set the rules for downhill racing, advancing the sport and attracting untold numbers of new skiers.

January is Learn To Ski and Snowboard Month.  Bring a friend and get some discounts. Find out where and how by clicking here.

Happy New Year! Don’t wait, go out there and enjoy the winter. Tell your friends about us.

Remember there are more of us every day and we aren’t going away!