martinjy.com — Martin Young’s blog

Australian ski resort lift tickets pricier than rest of world

With the Aussie snow season just around the corner I thought I’d pay ski.com.au a quick visit, you know, just to check on the latest news and stuff. Maybe get a bit stoked up for the season. Ignore the naysayers on the forums who predict shitty seasons year after year.

But this is the first thing I saw:

Australian ski lift prices now highest in the world
Australian ski lift prices are now the highest in the world, according to an annual survey by the Australian Alpine Club.

Adult day ski lift prices at five major Australian alpine resorts were benchmarked against eleven resorts in seven other developed countries. The survey did not try to compare other factors such as terrain, snow-depths or ski lift capacities.

2008 lift prices (A$)
$98 Perisher Blue
$97 Thredbo
$94 Falls Creek
$94 Mt Buller
$94 Mt Hotham
$92 Vail (USA)
$91 Alta Snowbird (USA)
$85 Deer Valley (USA)
$85 Whistler (Canada)
$77 St Moritz (Switz)
$74 Mt Hutt (NZ)
$72 Val D’Isere (France)
$71 Arlberg (Austria)
$66 Klosters (Switz)
$56 Niseko (Japan)
$48 Hakuba 47 (Japan)

(15/04/2008 exchange rates, rounded to nearest A$)

Hmmm.

With halfway-decent on-mountain accommodation for a couple (no kids) coming in at more than $250 a night in July/August, a week’s snow holiday at Falls Creek would easily cost us more than $2,500.

Now I love Falls Creek. I’ve had some great stays up there. The village is awesome and the nightlife’s great, even if you’re a crusty old Gen Xer like me. But it gets 2 metres of snow for the season (in a good year), and most of the runs are short and shallow. I know this is debated on the ski.com.au forums every year, but I can never remember why the tickets are so pricey.

Maybe I’ll just go surfing instead. :-(