Dear season passes...

We have three mountains in Park City and three different pricing structures for each one of them. I'm not talking about the full price day lift ticket that has reached $90 during the peak season at our very own Deer Valley, but of season passes. This coming winter season, both Park City and the Canyons have realized that with a bad economy and a negative inflation, it might wiser to keep prices flat.

Deer Valley thought otherwise and since they were voted the number one resort by the dubious Ski Magazine's reader poll they felt they could nudge their prices a bit higher. They probably didn't pay close attention to the fact that – for the first time – richer Americans that are their prime clients are hurting; many of them are on thin ice with their jobs, all of them have lost 35 to 50% on their personal retirement accounts depending on how they have reacted when the market sank and the vast majority of them that had a house worth more than one million dollars have a residence now worth significantly less and that can no longer be used as the magic ATM homes used to be.

So what was Deer Valley thinking in pricing their passes? They must know something I don't and if they enjoy a record-breaking season, I will ask to borrow their crystal ball... Oh, by the way, according to my computations, The Canyons comes as the very best value against its neighbors and 2 to 1 against Deer Valley!

Click on table to enlarge it...