Need some snow deals?
Last chance for great prices on lift tickets, season passes and gear is this weekend
The Denver Post
If you missed out on snow sports deals over Labor Day, the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo this weekend could be your last chance to score.
Resorts will be offering fourpacks and season passes at great prices — in some cases, less than the prices they were charging at Labor Day — before early-season pricing ends after the show. Gear dealers will be offering last year’s equipment and apparel at clearance prices, generally 40 percent to 60 percent off.
Almost every Colorado ski mountain will be represented at the event, held Nov. 10-12 at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver, as well as a half-dozen out-of-state resorts. More than a dozen ski and snowboard equipment manufacturers will have booths.
The expo, now in its 26th year, is always a good place for veteran skiers and riders to make their plans for the upcoming season, but it’s also where Colorado newcomers can wrap their minds around snow sports offerings in the state. There will even be a new booth this year geared to advising Never-Evers, explaining what different resorts are offering in package deals and pointing them to the best destinations.
Admission is $15 ($12 with a coupon from the special section in the Nov. 5 Denver Post). Hours are Friday from noon until 10 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Maybe the best deal for newcomers will be Copper Mountain’s Ski & Ride University program for first-time adults. For $249, you can get three days of lift tickets, lessons, rental gear and free parking. Better yet, those who “graduate” get a pass for the rest of the season.
Silverton Mountain is offering a crazy deal for $169: Seven unguided days at Silverton and up to 36 days at 12 other resorts,
including Monarch, Sunlight and Powderhorn.
Denver’s Meier Skis has a special deal for the event: 20 percent off one pair of skis, 25 percent off a second pair, and 30 percent off if you order three or more. Meier manufacturers handmade skis in central Denver.
Here are just a few of the other deals available at the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo:
Arapahoe Basin is offering a transferable four-pack with no blackout days for $189, as well as a non-transferable four-pack for $169.
Copper Mountain is dropping its four-pack price to $169.
Loveland is cutting its fourpack price to $149 and will be playing Loveland Lotto at its booth. It’s a scratch-and-win game with prizes ranging from season passes to lift tickets, lessons and gift cards.
Steamboat and Winter Park
will be selling the Route 40 pass (two days at each resort) for $259.
Winter Park will be selling four-packs for $239 (unrestricted dates) and $179 (with date restrictions).
Steamboat is offering three days of early-season passes for $179 and in midseason for $199.
Eldora is offering two lift tickets (before Dec. 15) for $109.
Monarch is selling unrestricted four-packs for $179.
Vail Resorts will be selling unrestricted four-packs good at 14 resorts including five in Colorado (Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin) for $459. It’s also offering a $209 four-pack good at Keystone and Arapahoe Basin (with holiday restrictions).
Purgatory will give a free early season lift ticket (Nov. 19-Dec. 15) to anyone who stops by its booth, and it will be selling a $50 Power Card good for one day of skiing and discounts on future lift tickets.
Sunlight will be selling Slope & Soak two-packs for $99. That’s two lift tickets and two day passes to either the Glenwood Hot Springs or the Iron Mountain Hot Springs.
Crested Butte is selling a sixpack (four ski days and two summer days on the mountain) for $189, although blackout dates apply.