Photo: Mountain Capital Partners
Lift ticket prices are absurd. Sure, just existing in the United States has become exponentially more expensive over the past five years, but lift tickets at ski resorts across the nation are outpacing inflation by a notable margin.
To give an example of the growing gap between the cost of living and lift tickets, The Times reported last fall that Deer Valley and Vail single-day ticket prices had jumped from $299 in 2024 to $329 in 2025. That 10 percent leap was more than three times the 2.9 percent inflation across the United States. That same report highlighted a 25 percent increase at Steamboat, while listing Tahoe’s Northstar, Arizona’s Snowbowl, and Park City as resorts that were also joining the $300 club thanks to things like dynamic pricing models. That was all before last winter. We will no doubt see a $400 club this winter, and the issue has become prominent enough that the resort operators accused of fueling the problem are facing multiple antitrust lawsuits.
At least one resort operator is endeavoring to combat high lift ticket prices and likely earn good favor with skiers and snowboarders along the way. Mountain Capital Partners (MCP) announced this week that it’s responding to the issue directly by making tens of thousands of $9 lift tickets available to the public this winter.
The affordable tickets are already on sale at Purgatory (Colorado), Arizona Snowbowl, Brian Head (Utah), Lee Canyon (Nevada), and Sipapu (New Mexico). A press release from MCP stated that the massively discounted tickets will go on sale later this fall for Pajarito (New Mexico), Willamette Pass (Oregon), Nordic Valley (Utah), and Sandia Peak (New Mexico). They say tickets can be purchased through each resort’s individual website.
“Making skiing more affordable isn’t a new idea for us. We are driven to give people the freedom to ski, and that’s guided us from the start,” said James Coleman, founder and managing partner of Mountain Capital Partners. “These $9 lift tickets are one more way we’re giving our guests that freedom.”
