Your definition of “need” is very different from my definition of “need.”
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A close family friend my age decided to go to college in Vermont because he wanted to ski as much as possible. He was on financial aid and had jobs the whole time, and managed to ski at every available opportunity. Locals ski for a lot cheaper than visitors. And an nyc financial lens on anything is usually grossly distorted.
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I’m just remarking that no one “needs” to ski, unless you have a job as an instructor or a member of the ski patrol. If you want to, and you can swing it, sure. But it is a recreational activity.
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Oh yeah. Skiing and golf are definitely wealthy people’s recreation anytime you’re traveling for it and it’s not a local activity. My point was, lots of people who aren’t wealthy also do it, they just find cheaper ways.
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Ha!
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And it sounds much less stressful than always running to keep up with the Joneses
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You’ll eventually realize that the Jones’ have no taste. 
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I generally agree, but it’s easy to say because although I enjoy skiing, it’s not really a passion for me. But consider that my kids were all good at both karate and soccer and we wanted them to continue as long as they were enjoying them. We didn’t actually “need” to have them on elite travel teams, or in karate up through brown/black (but only one daughter followed through to black). These items are both in the range of 1.5-2K/year. With 4 kids, we were pushing $18K/year just for “recreation” stuff for the kids. Stuff adds up.
Still, our choice. Everything I did as a kid was free or nominal cost.
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No one needs to do anything but to paraphrase Franklin pay taxes and die. But in the story the family goes skiing on one day in the week covered. They’re locals in Big Sky. They ski. If that is their lifestyle then yes you will need a season pass and own equipment as it’s far cheaper that way if you ski regularly. It would be part of their costs which isn’t listed in the story.
Lots of not wealthy locals ski. I know them. Once you have a pass the incremental cost of skiing a day is essentially 0. With an Epic LocalPass, one of the cheapest activities you can have is skiing.
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I skied from the time I was six until back surgery took me out of commission. I know all about skiing when you’re not wealthy. What people need is food and shelter. No needs a lifestyle, just a life. I can also advise on scraping by in Manhattan for less than $500K, because I’ve been doing that since 1983.
And I’m not judging anyone for what they choose to spend their money on. But call it what it is - a choice.
Absolutely. I’ve been snowboarding in Lake Tahoe for 20 plus years and almost always get a season pass - usually the local pass that has blackout days on major holidays, but who wants to deal with the crowds on those days anyway. Once you ski 4 days the pass has paid for itself and the rest is gravy. We have our own gear so don’t have to rent. We drive up from S.F. at 5:00 a.m. Saturday mornings both to avoid traffic and the expense of an extra hotel night (and to get on first chair). When I was younger we’d bring our lunch - and I’m thinking of starting to do that again since the food at the resorts in Tahoe generally sucks.
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Early on, we were in a group of 6 guys that rented a ski cabin for the season. We’d ski every weekend until snowmelt. Big breakfast at the cabin, brown bag lunch on the slopes, dinner at home, then out for a couple of hours of “twist and shout”. The guys insisted that we be at the head of the line when the lifts opened, and they skied until the hill was swept. I decided I was filthy rich when I felt comfortable calling it quits at 3 in the afternoon.
Several of the guys had cars that they didn’t want to take to the mountains, so they went in together an bought an aged Peugeot from a Cal student for $80. which we crammed into every weekend. Once it refused to start on a below freezing morning so husband built a fire in a snow shovel and wafted it under the car. The others were sure that he was going to blow it up, but it purred to life without complaint. (An old Montana trick, apparently.)
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Pretty much true at every resort. $25 for an overcooked burger anyone? I seldom eat on the mountain these days. Ski through lunch and quit earlier and grab something to eat then.
Neat trick. Not one of the new plastic versions I’m guessing.
Life is all about making choices and at the time, you may not likely have a clue about the impact of that decision later in life. We’re all too often focused on the immediacy. When Dennis Gartman was still publishing his newsletter he wrote a very on point piece about the little choices we all make in life and how they add up over a lifetime. Growing up, I didn’t know the industry in which I have ended up even existed. Didn’t choose it. But various choices small and large lead me there through a convoluted path.
One of my favorite lyrics about choices: if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice
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My wealthy brother in law is building a very large ski house outside of Park City so I hope to be boarding there next winter, but I think it may not be ready by until the following winter.
This was the premise of a management course my employer presented. It proposed that an executive have a credenza behind his desk on which he placed/dumped non-emergency problems, returning to them from time to time, addressing some and leaving others for a later time, which may or may not take place. A valid “decision” either way.
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Montanans really prefer to plug their pickup into a headbolt heater when cold weather makes starting a car a problem, but when it comes to what we will actually do to get our vehicles to work? Small fires are fine.
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I hope you make it there. This year the snow was amazing. Over 450” of snow but the California resorts also got a lot. Three ski areas in town though if you are a boarder you will be limited to Park City and Canyons. There are also a bunch more an hour or so away. Food in town is great too. I wrote a bit about some of my favorite places. When you go I can give you some recommendations.
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The easy way around ski passes for locals is to volunteer as a mountain host, and take visiting skiers /boarders around the mountain. Free list tickets for the mountain hosts. So many middle aged and senior mountain hosts at every resort I’ve visited out west.
As for ski gear in a ski town- there are swaps,and the rentals from the resort as well as sports shops often are sold at the ended season. There are also second hand shops and consignment shops. There are ways to ski for less if you’re lucky enough to live in a ski town.
Now with regards to Big Sky, I spent a week there in 2018. It barely has a village. Very limited number of restaurants. I didn’t know there were any locals, just staff that live there. It’s mostly condos and hotels. If I remember right, the store was a convenience store. Bozeman isn’t far away, of course.
I’m not sure why people keep trying to educate me about ways to save money skiing. I made the point upthread that I know all this, because I used to ski.
