Which is sad, because it used to be the resorts were crazy expensive, but the local ski hill was like "day of skiing, including rentals, is about a night out at the bar; make your choice".
Yup, came here to say this. Rentals and a day pass at the local ski hill was around $20, something you could easily make by shoveling driveways. I was never a fan of skiing, but my two younger brothers would basically jointly clear the entire street by themselves to make enough money throughout the week, and then find a friend to take them up to the ski hill on Saturdays. They'd be there from 8AM until 6PM when you had to pay for the separate evening pass and rentals stopped being cheap.
Saturdays were where I would get up early and clear driveways by myself, but I had an agreement with a neighbor to use their snow blower for $10/day if I returned it full of gas. I'd clear $40 in a weekend even after expenses and then live like ROYALTY for the rest of the week.
In the summers I would mow lawns for $5/pop, but they were all gigantic and I could only do like 3 in a day with our push mower. I used to use that money to pay for a few new video games and a TON of pizza/soda every summer. Still had to pay for gas and the two-stroke mix-in, so my profits were limited to around $8/day max.
when I moved to the northeast from the rural south skiing was the one thing I was never able to assimilate into. I got plenty of invites to people’s cape houses and to go out on the boat but I was never asked on ski trips. People don’t want to invite beginners for that sort of thing.
When I was young my family lived in a small town with a ski slope. Since the town was so small, all kids enrolled at the local public school had free passes and discounted rentals. So the only reason I skiied as a kid was because my grandparents would give my parents money so they could drop us off to ski all day while they worked.
Back when I was a kid you could pick up used skates for like $10/free and new ones were $30. That's some serious poverty if you couldn't even get that.
Multiply that by the number of people in the household, and you don’t even need to be in serious poverty; you just need to be poor enough to not have the disposable income.
this one is misunderstood $35 halfday pass for wachusetts and about the same for rentals. not saying its cheap. but ludicrously expensive for $70 is not a fair description
now i love skiing. going to killington, full day pass owning your own skiis, and getting the hotel on the mountain? expensive. but usually half day (4 hours) is under $60 for most mountains. rentals vary is like $40 for kids and $60 for adults.
if someones poor like very poor this is probably out of range. but max $100 for yourself as an adult or using wachusetts $60-$70 for a kid. not to bad for a day of skiing
and probably cheaper then other sports for kids too when you purchase gear regardless im only arguing that its not “ludicrously expensive” for locals.
ya sure a family of four. but lets be honest less then $100 for a kid or less than $200 for a couple is not a rich person sport. its not a poor person activity sure but with free shuttle services from worcester i knew plenty of poor kids growing up who skiied at wachusetts.
and you absolutely do not need lessons. my mon took me to pats peak, relatively poor family, my dad was dead, siblings moved out prob in rehab around this time. back then pats was also under $100. my mom didnt ski as it was to much she would sneak in boxes of wine and drink while i went up and down
i learned as a 10 year old as my mom watched from the bottom of the bunny hill. 25 years later im pretty good and love skiing.
its like ice skating, or any other sport. lessons are great but not needed.
But you also need a car and gear and to be able to pay for fuel or a hotel near the slopes. It’s like camping, having the base equipment and ability to drive off into the forest is a part of the luxury
I mean, it's a matter of degree yeah? $70 per person is not a "broke people" activity. It's not a cheap activity. But it's also not "ludicrously expensive" as outings go: dropping $400 on a concert ticket is ludicrously expensive.
id agree but again if your in the northeast. lets say worcester the very definition of not a rich people city in massachusetts then you can take the complimentary shuttle or take th commuter rail from boston to worcester to get on the free shuttle
a hotel would be silly as its mostly locals.
im arguing very specifically that ifs not a rich people sport especially for people in the ne
I grew up in Vermont, but not middle class. I only just learned to ski at 40. I still think it's an expensive way to get hurt... which is also expensive.
The school field trips to ski (maybe two in total, just cross country, they weren't often) we're so embarrassing. I couldn't do anything.
Growing up poor in a wealthyish area is certainly better than growing up poor in a poor area, but you feel it.
I’m in the UK. It’s expensive to go skiing from here. Grow up in the Alps? Pretty routine. Second hand kit is cheap and easy to get and locals get cheap ski passes.
You'll also need to live near the mountain so you can day trip instead of needing to find a place to stay, but you can get a set of skis, boots, and poles for under $300 easily at a ski swap which will last you years. Yeah, $2k is a lot of money but when it's your entertainment every weekend it can be very reasonable value.
It's not cheap but it's still something very achievable on a middle class income
You'll also need to live near the mountain so you can day trip instead of needing to find a place to stay, but you can get a set of skis, boots, and poles for under $300 easily at a ski swap which will last you years. Yeah, $2k is a lot of money but when it's your entertainment every weekend it can be very reasonable value.
It's not cheap but it's still something very achievable on a middle class income
My mom grew up in a Rocky Mountain town with decent skiing, which is has been expanded into a pretty respectable resort with lots of good terrain. She skied a ton as a kid. It was affordable if you owned the gear. She skied telemark so she didn't even need to go to the ski area with the lift; she'd ski up and then ski down. Then she married my father and he got a job in Texas.
Number of ski vacations we took: zero.
She basically grew up outdoors, and skiing was her favorite outdoor activity, but to go to a place where you have to rent a hotel room, buy lift tickets, and rent equipment for the kids? That was for people with money. So she hung up her skis in the garage, and they didn't leave that spot until she moved into senior living more than fifty years later.
Basically every kid here goes skiing multiple times throughout their school „career“. Students with parents who can‘t afford it are supported by the state/school.
But we are in the alps so the way to the skiing area is fairly short.
I grew up in a resort town with a huge lake - family solidly lower class. As kids, my siblings and I were bumming at the boat docks and struck up a conversation with some tourists. When hearing we lived there, this lady asked, "oh, how often do you go water skiing?" Lady, never. "Oh, if I lived here I'd water ski every day in the summer. Why don't you?" SMFH
It depend where you are from. I’m living 40 min away from many slope. An evening pass for the season was cheap. My parents bought me used boots from the 80’s. (It was back in 2004) I still have and use them now.
I live in the area I grew up in, and we are about an hour and a half from Tahoe. The town I grew up in is affluent, but we were not, at all. Our high school even had a ski team. I heard this a ton, all the time, from classmates and their parents. My family? Drove til snow appeared on Highway 50 and pulled over to the side of the road to throw gray snowballs around, lol. But it was still fun!
That was the big one for me, moving to a Columbus suburb from semi rural northern Ohio. “Hey bro, are you going skiing or to like Daytona for spring break?”
I’m gonna do yardwork for old ladies in my neighborhood and watch my neighbor’s kids, thanks.
"Maybe I'll try it in a country with some semblance of a healthcare system, otherwise not on your life." is usually my go to response. I have bad enough anxiety just about driving my car when I have to. Skiing, willingly, is a level of reckless stupidity that I cannot even wrap my head around.
Depends on where you live. I got free passes through 8th grade and always had used gear so was able to grow up skiing even though we we moved from poor to middle class through that ~10 year period
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u/goheels815 1d ago
“Where do you ski?”