In 1978, Randy Hall moved to Ketchum from Los Angeles, thinking he would be a ski bum for a season, and move on. The plan: ski for cheap, work as much as needed to pay for a ski pass.
Thirty years later Hall, now the mayor of Ketchum, is wondering if current lift ticket prices would allow for his kind of story to re-occur.
"The challenges are different now—the cost of living has gone through the roof, largely because of the exponential increases in the real estate market," Hall said. "This has an impact on the quality of life. Whereas people were previously going hiking or fishing or rafting, they now have to spend that time at second or third jobs."
Vibrancy and youth: Hall has bandied these two words about in the quest for revitalizing the streets of downtown Ketchum. They are used as reasons to support events like 48 Straight, the construction of affordable workforce housing and the attraction of new businesses.
But would a Randy Hall of 2008 be willing to pay $2,050 for a season pass to Bald Mountain?
As ski areas across the country are looking at data showing record number of skier visits, they're also setting their lift ticket rates for this winter.
Sun Valley Co. Marketing Director Jack Sibbach said the price of a season ticket is directly correlated to the resort's expenses.
"It's economics—as our costs go up, so do ticket prices," Sibbach said. "We have to take into consideration the cost of fuel and the power to run the mountain. Maybe if we dropped the price we would get a higher skier count, but it wouldn't be enough to make up for the drop in revenue."
However, if last season's skier counts are any indication for the upcoming winter, purchasers of Sun Valley's $2,050 season pass will contribute to a skier count of around 400,000, while other resorts are managing to stay afloat with higher skier counts and lower pass prices.
One of the prime examples is the $579 Epic Pass, which offers unlimited access to Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin, as well as Heavenly Valley in California, with skier counts ranging from 430,897 to 1.6 million for the 2007-08 season.
"The Epic Pass sends a message to anyone who's contemplating being a ski bum, whether it's for a year or three," said Baird Gourlay, owner of Paul Kenny's ski shop in Ketchum and a member of the City Council. "It's hard to consider Sun Valley when it costs more than three times other quality resorts."
Gourlay moved to Ketchum in 1980, soon after graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont, and has since ensconced himself in the community.
"The retail is a real struggle, especially for small, mom-and-pop stores," Gourlay said. "We have to look at who it's competing with—at some point we can't just keep catering to the retired community."
As a solution, Gourlay said that he would like to see a program in which full-time employees in the community are offered a discounted pass.
"Sun Valley gives it's employees passes, but that doesn't help us," Gourlay said.
Of course, the resorts offering the Epic Pass benefit greatly not only from economies of scale, as they are all owned, or once were, by Vail Resorts, but also by their proximity to metropolitan areas.
Though Sun Valley's geography precludes it from taking advantage of easy access, the similarly situated Aspen has implemented a program with its Chamber of Commerce to offer discounts to local employees.
Purchased before Sept. 12, nearly two months after Sun Valley's early purchase discount deadline, an employee of an Aspen chamber member pays $1,299.
"It has been very successful and the majority of local passes are purchased through this chamber program," said Jeff Hanle, a spokesman for Aspen Skiing Company. "It's not something we can take away. If we did, we would likely see our buildings burnt down. It's not only a measure of good will, but it keeps us vibrant."
The program has been around for more than 10 years, Hanle said.
While a cheaper season pass would be far from a panacea for Ketchum's economy and housing woes, it might help take advantage of the surging interest in skiing and snowboarding.
"In order to stay competitive, is this a factor? I think it certainly is, but I know the company looks closely at its prices and has to do what's economically feasible," said Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall. "However, it does make it much harder to attract the type of people that came here in the '70s and '80s."
Prices aside, ski areas saw lots of activity last year.
According to the National Ski Areas Association's 2007-08 End of Season Survey, the U.S. ski industry set a record with a collective 60.5 million visits, up 2.7 percent from the previous record, set in 2005-06.
Sun Valley saw 410,615 skiers and snowboarders take to Bald and Dollar mountains last season, an increase of nearly 50,000 over the previous season, though still well below many of its competitors.
For the upcoming season, the resort is offering a new unrestricted 20-day pass for $800. When purchased in in conjunction with the $180 early/late pass, skiers stand to save over $300 and get in more skiing than allowed by the now-discontinued unlimited 20/20 pass.
However, this might not be enough, according to iconic ski bum Dick Dorworth, a man who once held the title of the "fastest man on skis."
"When I go into the River Run Lodge in the morning, other than the kids working there, I'm often the youngest person there, and I'm almost 70," Dorworth said, only half-joking. "The day of the ski bum is a bygone era here. The skiing on Bald Mountain is still the best, but the culture is not."
