The Impacts of Supra-Regional Multi-Resort Season Passes: A Hedonic Pricing Model of Single-Day Lift Tickets for US Ski Areas

Claremont Colleges

Scholarship @ Claremont

CMC Senior 5eses CMC Student Scholarship

2019

"e Impacts of Supra-Regional Multi-Resort

Season Passes: A Hedonic Pricing Model of Single-

Day Li# Tickets for US Ski Areas

Sijia Lai

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Recommended Citation

Lai, Sijia, "5e Impacts of Supra-Regional Multi-Resort Season Passes: A Hedonic Pricing Model of Single-Day Li6 Tickets for US Ski

Areas" (2019). CMC Senior eses. 2218.

h7ps://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2218

Claremont McKenna College

The Impacts of Supra-Regional Multi-Resort Season Passes:

A Hedonic Pricing Model of Single-Day Lift Tickets for US Ski Areas

Submitted to

Professor Murat Binay

by

Sijia Lai

for

Senior Thesis

Spring 2019

April 29, 2019

2

3

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Professor Murat Binay for being my thesis reader and encouraging me

throughout the journey. I enjoyed learning corporate finance with Professor Binay, and his

knowledge in mergers and acquisitions inspired me to look deeper into the ski industry

developments. In addition, I would not have been able to complete this research without the

guidance and expertise of Professor Heather Antecol and Professor Janet Kiholm Smith. I am also

thankful for my Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) professors, Professor Adrienne Martin,

Professor Aseema Sinha, and Professor Cameron Shelton, for instilling the love of reading and

writing in me. I would also like to thank the Robert Day Scholars Program for preparing me with

industry analysis knowledge.

This research also benefited from the computer science resources at the Murty Sunak

Quantitative and Computing Lab, especially the help from Tony Jiang and Abel Tadesse who

worked with me on web scraping till late night. I also want to thank Professor Zachary Dodds for

teaching me Python and Data Science and Professor Serkan Ozbeklik for teaching me

econometrics and STATA, which greatly helped my data collection and analysis.

I want to thank my Mom, Dad, and my little brother for wisdom, love, and support. I want

to thank Isaiah and the Kramer family for introducing me to skiing this season. Lastly, I want to

thank 5C Ski & Snowboard Club for making skiing accessible and providing suggestions for my

thesis.

4

Abstract

Numerous media analyses claim that supra-regional multi-resort season passes (mega passes) are

negatively impacting skiing, snowboarding, and winter-sport communities. In particular, media

claims that ski areas on these season passes are charging higher single-day lift ticket prices to

nudge people to buy their season pass products. To test this claim, I use a hedonic pricing model

to estimate the impact of season passes on adult single-day lift ticket prices. By applying OLS

regressions to a dataset of 302 US ski areas for the winter of 2018-19, I find that the ski areas on

the leading season passes (Ikon and Epic Pass) charge price premiums for their adult single-day

lift tickets. However, the magnitude of the price premiums is much smaller after controlling for

ski area characteristics and regional fixed effects.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 3

Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 4

Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ 5

1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 6

2. Literature Review.......................................................................................................... 10

3. Data and Variables ........................................................................................................ 13

4. Empirical Strategy ........................................................................................................ 19

5. Results ........................................................................................................................... 23

6. Conclusion, Limitations, and Further Research ............................................................ 29

7. Appendices .................................................................................................................... 31

8. References ..................................................................................................................... 43

6

1. Introduction

The winter of 2018-19 was a busy season for US ski areas due to the development of mega

passes (supra-regional multi-resort season passes) through mergers and acquisition and joint

ventures, especially with the two leading season passes, Ikon and Epic Pass. Founded in 2017,

Alterra Mountain Company developed the Ikon Pass to “change the landscape of the mountain

resort industry.”

1

The Ikon Pass lets pass holders enjoy access to its 46 ski resorts on the pass,

discounts on gear rental and dining services, and other benefits such as public transportation.

2

The

Ikon Pass introduced direct competition to Vail Resorts Inc. and its Epic Pass. A longtime industry

leader, Vail went public in 1997 to innovate the industry through buying and improving ski

resorts.

3

In 2008, Vail developed one of the first supra-regional multi-resort season pass in the US,

the Epic Pass, which lets pass holders enjoy unlimited access to Vail’s (then 5) resorts.

4

After

Alterra announced the Ikon Pass, Vail started to accelerate its season pass expansion to offer access

to 67 ski resorts in 8 countries on its Epic Pass.

5

Before the mega passes, regular skiers and snowboarders often buy single-resort or regional

season passes. Season pass products help ski areas to lock in pass-holders’ loyalty and gain a steady

cash flow that mitigates weather unpredictability. The new mega passes cost about the same or

less than a traditional single-resort season pass, thus reducing the cost of skiing and snowboarding

for pass-holders. Considering that the US has stagnant growth of active skiers and snowboarders

and the US ski areas are experiencing declining visits (Figure 1), these season passes should

1

Alterra Mountain Company is a joint venture of KSL Capital Partners and Henry Crown and Company. For more

information, see https://www.alterramtnco.com/news/2018/01/11/announcing-alterra-mountain-company

.

2

See https://www.ikonpass.com/en/shop-passes/ikon-pass-2018-2019 for Ikon Pass details.

3

See http://www.vailresorts.com/Corp/heritage.aspx for Vail’s history.

4

Bloomberg Businessweek’s Kyle Stock wrote a detailes story on Ikon and Epic, “One Pass to Ski Them All,”

which can be viewed online at

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-01/epic-vs-ikon-battle-for-the-

best-ski-pass.

5

See http://news.vailresorts.com/corporate/international/2018-19epicpass.htm for Epic Pass details.

7

increase skier and snowboarder visits, thus boosting local retail, restaurant, and lodging

businesses.

6

Figure 1

Numbers of skiers, snowboarders, and visits in the US from 1996 to 2018 show stagnant growth of active

skiers & snowboarders and decreasing visits.

Numbers in millions.

Source: National Ski Areas Association online survey.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/376710/active-skiers-and-snowboarders-in-the-us/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/206544/estimated-number-of-skier-visits-in-the-us-since-2000/

However, more people are concerned with the negative impacts of these new season passes.

For local skiers, season passes mean including traffic jams, lift lines, and rising accommodation

costs.

7

For smaller and independent ski areas, it is now harder to compete with ski areas on season

passes because pass-holders would most likely stay within their pass network.

8

In the US, the

number of operating ski areas has been decreasing over the years (Figure 2), and the development

of the season passes might make the ski area industry even less competitive.

6

For an analysis on the positive effects of season passes, see “The Giant Resort Companies You Hate Are Saving

Skiing” by Marc Peruzzi at Outdoor Magazine. https://www.outsideonline.com/2367016/keep-skiing-weird

.

7

Brigid Mander at Outdoor Magazine wrote an analysis on the negative effects of season passes, see “Actually, the

Mega Season Pass Is Killing Skiing” at https://www.outsideonline.com/2389964/ski-pass-epic-ikon

.

8

Many articles have addressed this concern. For an example, see “On Slippery Slopes” by Gordy Megroz in

Bloomberg Businessweek.

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Number of skiers Number of snowboarders

Number of skiers & snowboarders Number of skier & snowboarder visits

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Figure 2

Number of ski resorts operating in the US from 1990 to 2018 shows a decreasing trend.

Source: National Ski Areas Association online survey.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/206534/number-of-ski-resorts-operating-in-the-us-since-1990/

Moreover, critics are suggesting that ski areas on the mega passes might charge higher

prices for single-day lift tickets to nudge people into buying their season passes products. With

single-day lift tickets at Vail during the New Year hitting $209, Vail can claim that their season

passes can quickly pay for itself with just 3 or 4 visits.

9

Considering that skiing and snowboarding

are already expensive, this trend makes skiing and snowboarding less accessible to first-timers and

can slow the growth of potential skiers and snowboarders.

10

This paper examines the claim that supra-regional multi-resort season passes (mega passes)

are increasing the price of single-day lift tickets. By using a hedonic pricing model to control for

ski area characteristics and regional fixed effects, I find that ski areas on the leading season passes

are charging price premiums for their weekday and weekend adult single-day lift tickets. However,

the magnitude of the price differences is smaller than what media suggests, especially for smaller

9

Vanat, Laurent. 2019 International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism.

10

Stock, Kyle. “One Pass to Ski Them All.”

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Number of ski resorts

9

supra-regional multi-resort season passes. Consistent with previous studies, I also find that ski area

characteristics such as vertical drop, base altitude, and lift chairs are significant determinants of

lift ticket prices. I also find statistically significant price differences among different regions. This

study contributes to the analysis of US ski areas, the application of the hedonic pricing model, and

the impacts of market alliances by using new data from the season of 2018-19 with a focus on the

development of season passes.

I organize this paper as follows. Section 2 is a brief literature review on the application of

the hedonic pricing model and ski lift ticket prices. Section 3 presents the data and variables used.

Section 4 details my hypothesis and model specifications. Section 5 presents the empirical results.

And Section 6 concludes this paper with a discussion on limitations and possible further research.

10

2. Literature Review

Ever since Rosen (1974) formalized the hedonic pricing model, researchers have been

using the model to analyze differentiated products and their “utility-bearing attributes.”. The model

is frequently used in real estate to analyze the market, and there have been studies that apply the

hedonic pricing model to lift ticket pricing.

Falk (2011) argues that with no transaction costs, ski lift ticket prices should be a function

of the ski area’s characteristics. Falk examines the international price differences in lift tickets by

applying the hedonic pricing model to one-day and six-day lift tickets while controlling for ski

areas characteristics. Falk uses a sample of 214 ski resorts in Austria, France, and Switzerland for

the 2010-11 season and finds that there are significant price differences in international ski resorts

with Swiss and Austrian resorts charging higher prices than French resorts. The higher price

regions might be less price competitive and productive. Falk also finds that ski characteristics are

significant determinants on lift ticket prices and ski resorts that are part of a greater ski alliance

charge higher prices.

Similarly, Alessandrini (2013) uses a hedonic pricing model to estimate the weekdays and

weekends prices of 19 ski resorts in Italy using data from 2008-2012. Alessandrini finds that ski

area characteristics such as vertical capacity, length of ski slopes, the altitude of lifts, and

percentage of intermediate slopes are significant determinants of the lift ticket price. Comparing

predicted price to the actual price, Alessandrini identifies statistically over- and underpriced ski

areas.

While there are more studies on the European ski resort industry, few looked into the US

market. Fonner and Berrens (2014) apply the hedonic pricing model to ski areas in the US and

examine the effects of crowding. They used data from 181 US ski areas of the 2011-12 season.

11

Their variables included the 2011 prices for single-day lift tickets, the vertical drop and base

altitude of the ski area, the reported annual snowfall, lift capacity, and snowmaking. Using OLS,

they find that physical characteristics are significant determinants of lift ticket prices, and there

exist non-linear crowding effects on the lift ticket price. Increased skiers per hour per acre is

associated with raising lift ticket prices at first and then decreasing lift ticket prices at high levels

of crowding.

Besides the hedonic pricing model, there are other models that scholars have used to

analyze lift ticket prices. Firgo and Kugler (2018) use a spatial autoregressive model to analyze

cooperative pricing in ski areas. They applied the model on data of all ski resorts in Austria for the

2011-12 season while controlling for ski area characteristics and demand side variables. They find

that single-day lift ticket prices of resorts in ski alliances are generally higher, and prices increase

with the size of an alliance and towards the spatial center of an alliance. They also find that ski

resort characteristics such as size and capacity are significant drivers of lift ticket prices. Their

result shows that ski area alliances can have important policy implications.

Mulligan (2011) applies a two-sector Endogenous Fixed Costs model on selected ski areas

in the US from 1980 to 2002 and found higher real prices of lift tickets. Mulligan finds that

declining transportation costs encourage skiers and snowboarders to switch from regional markets

to national resorts. With the wealthiest Americans experiencing the most significant increase in

income, Mulligan finds ski areas raised lift ticket prices and chair lift capacity in both national and

local markets despite stagnant growth of skier days per season and little change in market

concentration.

Overall, few works have been published on ski areas and lift tickets. While some European

scholars have been researching on the slopes, even fewer studies have been done on the US ski

12

resorts industry. I aim to contribute to the literature of applied hedonic pricing model and ski

resorts analysis. My study uses new data from the season of 2018-19 and looks into the recent

development of supra-regional multi-resort season passes in the US. Moreover, this paper uses a

unique dataset web-scraped from OnTheSnow.com, providing a set of codes for future research

and data collection.

13

3. Data and Variables

Whether ski resorts on supra-regional multi-resort season passes (mega passes) are

charging higher single-day lift tickets is investigated by using a cross-sectional dataset containing

302 ski areas in the US for the 2018-19 season. I compiled data from OnTheSnow.com, websites

of ski areas, and websites of season passes.

11

I completed the data collection in early April 2019.

For each ski area, the dataset has information on lift ticket prices, season pass information, ski area

characteristics, and location.

One limitation of my dataset is that it does not include some lesser known ski areas. There

are about 472 operating ski resorts in the United States,

12

and OnTheSnow has information on 331

ski areas as of April 2019. Within these 331 ski areas, some lesser known ones do not have much

information online, and I cannot include them in the dataset. Thus, my dataset is a sample of about

64% of all operating ski areas in the US with selection bias for ski areas with information online.

Another limitation of my dataset is that it is only for the 2018-19 season. Because mega

passes are developed recently, it would be more comprehensive to see the difference in prices

before and after the development of mega passes.

Comparing to previous literature, my dataset lacks detailed location data to test for spatial

price correlation and price cone effect (Firgo and Kugler, 2018), lift capacity to control for the

crowding effects (Fonner and Berrens, 2014; Falk, 2011), actual number of operating days for the

season to control for efficiency (Falk, 2009), and local demand variables to control for differences

in local customers (Firgo and Kugler, 2018; Falk, 2015).

11

I web scraped data on all available US ski areas from OnTheSnow (https://www.onthesnow.com/), a website

maintained by Mountain News Corporation and a leading source of snow and resort information for travelers.

OnTheSnow has some missing data for some ski areas, and I completed the dataset as best as I could through online

research,

12

U.S. Ski Resorts in Operation during 2017/18 Season.

http://www.nsaa.org/media/340688/Number_of_Ski_Areas_by_Season_1718.pdf

14

Table 1 provides definitions and descriptive statistics on each variable used in my model.

We can see there is a variety of lift ticket prices with the cheapest being $15 and the most expensive

being $199. Appendix A provides additional information on data sources. For readers interested

in seeing my complete dataset and web-scraping codes, I have published my work on Kaggle and

Github, and the links can be found in Appendix B.

Table 1. Summary statistics

Variable

Definition

Obs

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min

Max

Price

adultweekday

Adult weekday lift ticket price (2018-19 US$)

302

$64.83

$33.78

$15

$199

adultweekend

Adult weekend lift ticket price (2018-19 US$)

302

$71.19

$31.47

$20

$199

Mega Passes

ikon

Binary variable for ski areas on Ikon Pass

302

0.09

0.29

0

1

epic

Binary variable for ski areas on Epic Pass

302

0.06

0.23

0

1

peak

Binary variable for ski areas on Peak Pass

302

0.04

0.20

0

1

powerpass

Binary variable for ski areas on Power Pass

302

0.03

0.17

0

1

powder

Binary variable for ski areas on Powder Alliance

302

0.04

0.20

0

1

freedom

Binary variable for ski areas on Freedom Pass

302

0.05

0.22

0

1

Characteristics

famous

Binary variable for highly ranked or popular resorts

302

0.12

0.32

0

1

verticaldrop

Vertical drop in ft

302

1275.38

952.02

100

4425

base

Ski area base elevation in ft

302

3491.46

3150.29

78

10800

terrainsize

Acres of skiable terrain

302

796.55

1900.56

8

26819

daysopen

Projected days open

302

118.61

31.80

25

305

snowfall

Average snowfall in inches

302

189.67

136.75

18

669

gondola

Number of trams or gondolas

302

0.19

0.59

0

4

totalchairs

Total number of chair lifts

302

8.68

6.20

1

42

percentfast

Percentage of high speed chair lifts

302

11.11%

16.76%

0.00%

72.73%

terrainparks

Number of terrain parks

302

2.49

2.11

0

14

snowmakesize

Acres of snowmaking terrain

302

162.35

262.89

0

3379

nightskiing

Binary variable for ski area with night skiing

302

0.57

0.50

0

1

Regions

newengland

Binary variable for ski areas in New England

302

0.17

0.38

0

1

midatlantic

Binary variable for ski areas in Mid Atlantic

302

0.17

0.37

0

1

southeast

Binary variable for ski areas in South East

302

0.04

0.20

0

1

midwest

Binary variable for ski areas in Mid West

302

0.22

0.42

0

1

rocky

Binary variable for ski areas in the Rocky Region

302

0.25

0.43

0

1

west

Binary variable for ski areas in the West

302

0.16

0.36

0

1

Lift ticket prices

Ski areas in the US use various strategies to set their lift ticket prices. Some ski areas set

prices before the season starts, and some change the price based on demand and timing throughout

15

the season. Moreover, with the development of online lift ticket windows such as Liftopia

(https://www.liftopia.com/), ski areas are experimenting with different discount strategies. The

general trend is that weekend prices are higher than weekday prices, and peak season prices are

higher than off-season prices. In this study, I will use the adult single-day lift ticket prices for

weekday and weekend collected by OnTheSnow and published on the ski areas’ websites.

Season passes

In the US, there are mainly three types of season passes. First, single-resort season passes

for local skiers and snowboarders. Almost all ski areas offer these season passes for their loyal

customers for a couple of hundred dollars. These passes usually include unlimited access to the ski

lifts, discounts on ancillary services such as rental and dining, and some access to nearby

partnering ski areas.

Second, local multi-resort programs. Regions such as Colorado and Utah that have many

ski areas close to each other offer local programs for local skiers and snowboarders for a much

more expanded experience. There are great varieties in these local programs. Some are fully

transferable while some are just for one person. Some offer unlimited access while some offer

limited days or discounts. The prices can range from $25 to $4,900.

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Third, supra-regional multi-resort season passes, or mega passes, are developed recently

and are the focus of this paper. These mega passes include ski areas in multiple states, and some

have international partnering ski areas. Most of these season passes offer unlimited access at some

of their member resorts. This study examines whether ski areas on these mega passes are charging

higher single-day lift ticket prices. I collected data on all US mega passes for the 2018-19 season.

13

For more details on season passes, see https://www.snowridersinternational.org/news/2018/6/6/multi-mountain-

season-passes-available-for-the-20182019-season-other-than-epic-and-ikon.

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Table 2 provides a summary of these supra-regional multi-resort season passes. Appendix C shows

a complete list of resorts on these season passes.

Table 2.

Summary of US supra-regional multi-resort season passes for the 2018-19 season.

Name

Company

# US ski areas

# Unlimited ski areas

Total ski areas

Ikon Pass

Alterra Mountain Co.

33

15

46

Epic Pass

Vail Resorts, Inc.

18

19

67

Peak Pass

Peak Resorts, Inc.

14

Power Pass

Mountain Capital Partners

10

6

11

Powder Alliance

partnership of mountains

13

1

19

Freedom Pass

partnership of mountains

19

1

19

Mountain Collective

distributed by Liftopia, Inc.

11

0

17

Notes

For more information on Power Pass, see https://www.outsideonline.com/2159326/ski-king-southwest

Powder Alliance is a partnership of ski areas. Pass-holders enjoy unlimited access to one home mountain.

Freedom Pass is a partnership of ski areas. Pass-holders enjoy unlimited access to one home mountain.

Mountain Collective is not a season pass to any resort, thus excluded from my model.

Mountain Collective gives pass-holders 2-day access and discounts to resorts in its network.

Appendix C contains lists of resorts for these season passes.

Ski areas characteristics

To control for market power from being famous or highly ranked, I generated a dummy

variable “famous” for resorts that are listed in recent articles on highly ranked, most famous, and

most popular ski resorts.

A ski area’s vertical drop is a proxy of a ski area’s experience. In this study, the vertical

drop in ft (verticaldrop) is calculated as the difference between the summit and base elevation by

OnTheSnow. The bigger the vertical drop, the longer one can ski from top to bottom, and the more

different kinds of terrain there might be. In my dataset, the mean vertical drop is 1,275.3ft, the

minimum is 100ft, and the max is 4,425ft. The skiable acre of each ski area, terrainsize, is also a

proxy for the potential experience at the ski area. The mean terrain size is 796.55 acres, with a

minimum of 8 acres and a maximum of 26,819 acres.

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Figure 3.

Ski areas on the supra-region multi-resort season passes tend to have bigger vertical drop.

The altitude of the base (base), average snowfall in inches (snowfall), and projected

numbers of days open this season (daysopen) are proxies for the ski area snow quality. The higher

the altitude of the base, the more snow the ski area might get. Altitude can also mean better view,

another factor skiers and snowboarders value.

The number of gondolas or trams (gondola), the total number of chair lifts (totalchairs),

and percentage of high-speed chair lifts (percentfast) are important indicators of the investment,

experience, and lines at the ski area. Gondolas and trams are expensive technology, and therefore

a good indicator of the development of the ski area. The more express chair a ski area has, the

more guests the ski area can have, the faster it is to get to the top. The more chairs a ski area has,

the shorter the lines.

The number of terrain parks (terrainparks), the acre of snowmaking area (snowmakesize),

and whether the ski area has night skiing (nightskiing) are additional control variables.

0

50 100 150 200

Lift ticket price (2018-19 US$) for adults on weekday

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

Vertical drop measured as difference between the summit and base elevation in ft

seasonpass non-seasonpass

Adj R-squared='0.6073'

18

There are other data that I collected from OnTheSnow. However, due to multicollinearity

concerns, I will not include variables with strong correlations in my model. Interested readers can

access my full dataset on Kaggle.

There are other characteristics that skiers and snowboarders consider. For example,

activities available after a day on the mountain, the food and bar scene, and the overall atmosphere

on the slopes are essential to the overall experience. However, these are hard to quantify and thus

left out of my model.

Regional fix effects

To control for regional fixed effects, I collected the information on each ski area’s state,

then generated binary variables indicating the region of each ski area.

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4. Empirical Strategy

The development of season passes

As mentioned in the introduction, supra-regional multi-resort season passes (mega passes)

in the US were developed in recent years. The reason for such innovation is a response to the

challenges that ski areas face. First, climate change is expected to have significant impacts on

snowfall. While the 2018-19 season has seen significant snowfall, snowfalls in the previous years

have been low.

14

By offering season pass products and ending the sale before the season starts, ski

areas can get steady cash flows regardless of the actual snowfall in the coming season. By owning

or partnering ski areas in different parts of the US and the world, ski conglomerates can reduce

risk to a specific region’s environment.

Second, there is stagnant growth in the number of skier and snowboarder visits to US ski

areas.

15

By offering season pass products, ski areas can encourage pass-holders to visit more often

because there are no more costs on single day lift tickets. Season pass products also incentivize

skiers and snowboarders to visit during non-peak times and avoid peak days, which alleviate

crowds on holidays and create a better experience.

The season pass is also another way for ski areas to develop different revenue streams. For

example, Vail has developed three segments of business: Mountain, Lodging, and Real Estate.

Vail’s lift ticket revenue for the year ended July 31, 2018 was only 43.76% of the total revenue.

16

By offering season passes, ski alliances are locking in pass-holders’ loyalty before the season starts

and encouraging pass-holders to spend on restaurants, hotels, or other services owned by the ski

resort. Because season passes eliminate the costs on lift tickets, skiers and snowboarders might

14

Vanat, Laurent. 2019 International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism.

15

National Ski Areas Association, http://www.nsaa.org/media/303945/visits.pdf

16

Vail Resorts, Inc. 10-K for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2018.

20

spend more on après-ski activities and other amenities. Moreover, because skiing and

snowboarding are social sports, pass-holders might bring their friends and families to season pass

ski resorts, creating a network effect.

Under this new dynamic with mega passes, how will ski areas price their single-day lift

ticket prices? The smaller and independent ski areas might have to lower their prices in order to

compete with ski areas on mega passes. The ski areas on mega passes might raise their prices to

nudge people into buying their season pass products.

There are other possible impacts on the single-day lift ticket prices. Ski conglomerates with

their mergers and acquisitions might improve their efficiency through the transfer of knowledge

and economies of scale, which might lower prices. However, multi-resort season passes act as

alliances of ski areas, making the industry less competitive and increasing the market power of ski

areas in the network. Moreover, by investing in ski areas, ski alliances are improving the quality

of their portfolio mountains, thus able to demand higher prices.

Thus, to test the hypothesis that being a member of a mega pass is related to higher single-

day lift ticket prices, we need to control for important factors that influence prices.

Model specifications

Rosen (1974) argues that differentiated goods are valued for their “utility-bearing

attributes.” The implicit prices of these utility-bearing attributes are called “hedonic prices.” In the

market, sellers and buyers often compare the prices of differentiated goods with the attributes that

they value, and then clear the market under equilibrium prices. Econometrically, we can estimate

the hedonic prices by regressing the actual prices of differentiated goods on their observed

attributes.

21

Rosen (1974) describes differentiated products with  observed characteristics. Each

product has  amount of the th characteristics, and this relationship can be expressed as  =

(

1

, 

2

, … , 



). There are many differentiated products in the market, offering different packages

of . The market clearing price of each differentiated product is a function of , consumer tastes,

and production costs.

Assuming perfect competition and utility maximizing behavior and ignoring random terms,

Rosen (1974) suggests prices of differentiated goods can be modeled as





(



)

= 



(

1

, 

2

, … , 



, 

1

) (demand),





(



)

= 



(

1

, 

2

, … , 



, 

2

) (supply),

for  = 1, … ,  . 

1

represents exogenous demand side variables such as income and taste. 

2

represents exogenous supply side variables such as costs and technologies.

The US ski area industry is a differentiated market with information and lift ticket purchase

options widely accessible online. Each ski area has various “utility-bearing” characteristics

differentiated through natural geography, capital investments, and operation efficiency. The lift

ticket price is essentially the price of using the ski area because it is time-consuming and

challenging to hike up the ski area without the help of chair lifts. While there are markets for

backcountry, helicopter, snowcat, and other forms of skiing and snowboarding, I will limit my

analysis to traditional alpine ski areas.

From surveying ski area literature and interviewing skiers and snowboarders, I find that

snow quality, vertical drop and variety of terrain, social scene and après-ski activities, chair lifts

quality, crowds and lines, season pass, and total costs are some factors considered by skiers and

snowboarders. Considering limited available data, multicollinearity, and potential data error, I will

22

follow Fonner and Berrens (2014) to use a simple ordinary least squares linear form to estimate

lift ticket prices.

My full model can be expressed as follows:





=  + (



) + (



) + (



) + 



where  represents ski areas,  is the price of single-day lift tickets, SP is a vector of season passes

including Ikon Pass, Epic Pass, Peak Pass, Power Pass, Powder Alliance, and Freedom Pass, SC

is a vector of ski area characteristics including reputation, vertical drop, base elevation, skiable

acres, projected days open, average snowfall, number of gondolas, total number of chair lifts,

percentage of high-speed chair lifts, number of terrain parks, acres of snowmaking terrain, and

nightskiing. R is a vector of region fixed effects including New England, Mid Atlantic, Southeast,

Midwest, the Rocky Mountains, and the West (as the reference category). Lastly,  is the error

term. With the estimate results, I can then estimate the implicit marginal prices for each ski area

characteristics:









= 



For all of my models, I will use both weekday and weekend adult single-day lift ticket

prices. I will first regress single-day lift ticket prices on binary variables of season passes, without

controlling characteristics and regions. The first model estimates the information when skiers and

snowboarders compare ski areas on and off the season pass. The binary variables on season passes

should capture the net price level shift resulting from being on the season pass.

23

5. Results

Based on the discussion above, ski areas on the supra-regional multi-resort season passes

(mega passses) might charge higher adult single-day lift ticket prices depending on the interaction

of market power and competition, efficiency and quality improvement, and their goals of making

mega pass products more attractive.

The OLS results of my models are presented below in Table 3. Season passes, ski area

characteristics and regional fixed effects are subsequently introduced. To make the results easier

to interpret, I transformed verticaldrop, base, terrainsize, and snowmakesize numbers to be in

hundreds. The estimated coefficients describe the dollar amount impacts on lift ticket prices.

Statistically significant estimates are indicated with stars.

Overall, the OLS model fit well with an adjusted R-squared of 0.833 for weekday lift

tickets in model (3) and 0.826 for weekend lift tickets in model (6). The adjusted R-squared means

that my model explains about 83% of the variation in single-day lift ticket prices. I plotted the

residuals using kernel density estimate and test normality in residuals. Appendix D shows plots

for model (3) and (6), and they approach normality. The mean VIF row reports the variance

inflation factors for each model. Usually, a VIF above 10 indicates multicollinearity. Model (1) to

(6) show low correlations among the variables. Appendix E shows the correlation matrix for the

variables used in my models.

24

Table 3.

OLS Estimates of lift ticket hedonic prices.

Dependent variable: adult single-day lift ticket prices, weekday and weekend, season 2018-19.

Weekday Prices

Weekend Prices

Variable

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

Season Passes

ikon

63.5804***

16.5748***

15.4896***

59.0523***

14.8227***

13.1133**

epic

72.6269***

20.6080***

19.9757***

67.3727***

17.6515**

17.5258***

peak

7.1071

4.9752

4.6695

6.2433

2.2240

2.0452

powerpass

16.8225*

4.1371

5.8557

11.1937

2.6114

4.9047

powder

21.3169**

3.8826

2.9164

15.4925*

.2219

-.1166

freedom

-4.36147

-.2172

-1.2809

-3.4565

1.2352

.1038

Characteristics

famous

4.9026

3.5450

5.0838

3.6813

vdrop100

.5901**

.71293***

.5910**

.6126**

base100

.1144**

.3448***

.0625

.3371***

terrain100

.0118

.0162

-.0006

.0183

daysopen

.0638

.0232

.0744

.0210

snowfall

-.0019

.0073

-.0086

.0111

gondola

4.7496

5.6351*

3.6450

4.8039*

totalchairs

1.1614***

1.2370***

1.2516***

1.4015***

percentfast

.4559***

.4420***

.4458***

.4305***

terrainparks

-.0518

-.2652

-.0185

-.1446

snowmake100

.9051

.6775

1.0025

.7024

nightskiing

-5.2539*

-2.8082

-1.9585

.2796

Regions

newengland

12.6394*

18.0968***

midatlantic

9.6770*

15.2339***

southeast

3.3155

19.5624***

midwest

8.4324

8.9376

rocky

-9.6933*

-10.8661**

_constant

53.3544***

27.8401***

17.0211*

60.8335***

34.0775***

19.4376*

Observations

302

R-squared

.5195

.8359

.8458

.5068

.8093

.8396

Adj. R-squared

Mean VIF

.5098

1.09

.8255

2.03

.8330

2.93

.4968

1.09

.7972

2.03

.8263

2.93

legend: * p<0.05; ** p<0.01; *** p<0.001

Season pass price premium becomes smaller after adding control variables

Model (1) and (2) show that including control variables of ski area characteristics in the

hedonic pricing model lowers the predicted price premium associated with season passes. Model

(1) shows that if we only compare lift ticket prices based on whether a ski area is on a season

passes, there are expensive premiums associated with season passes. For example, on average, ski

areas on the Ikon Pass charge $63.58 more for a lift ticket than ski areas not on a season pass, other

25

things being equal. Appendix F shows a more comprehensive comparison of ski areas on different

season passes. Model (2) adds measures of ski areas characteristics and the coefficients of season

passes drop significantly. For example, the Ikon Pass price premium drops from $63.58 to $16.57,

other things being equal. Model (3) adds binary variables to control for regional fixed effects, and

the estimated coefficients for season passes are similar to model (2) estimations. This pattern is

mirrored in model (4), (5), and (6) for weekend prices. The estimates in Table 3 are consistent with

the hypothesis that season passes are increasing their single-day lift ticket prices, but on a smaller

scale than we hypothesized.

Ikon and Epic Pass are associated with higher price premiums

Comparing the coefficients of season passes in model (3) and (6), only Ikon and Epic Pass

show statistical significance. Peak and Power Pass are associated with price premiums on their lift

ticket prices but a much smaller scale. Powder Alliance and Freedom Pass have unclear impacts

on their lift ticket prices. A possible explanation is that Ikon and Epic Pass have more member ski

areas and other amnesties, thus charging more for their market power and quality. Another possible

explanation is that the owners of Ikon and Epic Pass, Alterra Mountain Co. and Vail Resorts Inc.,

are the leading players in the development of supra-regional multi-resort season passes. Thus, Ikon

and Epic Pass are more actively nudging their customers to buy season passes by putting higher

price premiums on their single-day lift tickets.

Ski area characteristics and implicit marginal prices

The coefficients of characteristics confirm the hedonic hypothesis that differentiated

products such as ski areas are valued for their “utility-bearing” characteristics. Looking at model

(3) and (6), characteristics such as vertical drop, base altitude, number of gondolas, the total

26

number of chair lifts, and percent of high-speed chair lifts are statistically significant. A 100-foot

increase in the vertical drop is associate with a marginal implicit price of $0.61 for weekdays and

$0.71 for weekends.

17

A 100-foot increase in base altitude is associated with $0.34 for weekdays

and weekends. An additional gondolas or trams (gondola) is associated with $5.6 higher price for

weekdays and $4.8 for weekends. An additional chair lift (totalchairs), regardless of technologies,

is associated with $1.2 for weekdays and $1.4 for weekends. Lastly, one percent increase in the

percentage of high-speed chair lifts is associated with $0.4 increase in weekdays and weekend

price. These are consistent with intuition because higher measures of these characteristics usually

mean better skiing and snowboarding experiences.

Most characteristics show the expected sign except snowfall, terrainparks, and nightskiing.

A one-inch increase in average snowfall in inches (snowfall) has negative signs in model (2) and

(5) but positive signs in model (3) and (6). The unclear sign and statistical insignificance suggest

that while snow quality is vital to skiers and snowboarders, the average snowfall is not a good

indicator. The accuracy of the snowfall level is also up for debate. Zinman and Zitzewitz (2016)

find that ski areas often report more snowfall than other sources, and the difference is more

pronounced on weekends.

In model (2), (3), (5), and (6), terrainparks has negative signs, which means that having

one more terrain park is associated with a decrease in lift ticket price. This result is surprising

because having terrain parks means there is a variety of terrain to perform or practice tricks. One

possible explanation is that terrain parks might be associated with the risk of injury. Another

possibility is that terrain parks only appeal to a subset of skiers and snowboarders, and ski areas

cannot charge a price premium. Similarly, the impact of having night skiing is unclear, with mostly

17

Consistent with Fonner and Berrens (2014).

27

negative signs in model (2), (3), and (5). It is possible that night skiing is less appealing than day

skiing, and ski areas cannot place a price premium.

Table 4

Marginal implicit prices of statistically significant ski area characteristics.

Weekday Prices

Weekend Prices

Variable

(2)

(3)

(5)

(6)

Definition

vdrop100

0.5901**

0.7129***

0.5910**

0.6126**

Additional 100ft vertical drop.

base100

0.1144**

0.3448***

0.0625

0.3371***

Additional 100ft base elevation.

gondola

4.7496

5.6351*

3.6450

4.8039*

One additional tram or gondola.

totalchairs

1.1614***

1.2370***

1.2516***

1.4015***

One additional chair lifts.

percentfast

0.4559***

0.4420***

0.4458***

0.4305***

One percent increase in percentage

of high speed chair lifts.

legend: * p<0.05; ** p<0.01; *** p<0.001

Differences between weekday and weekend and regional fixed effects

Model (3) and (6) show that regions become statistically significant on the weekends. The

results suggest that ski areas in New England, Mid Atlantic, and South East charge higher lift ticket

prices on the weekends than on weekdays. For example, the coefficient of southeast is 3.3155 in

model (3) and 19.5624 in model (6), which means that ski areas in the South East, on average and

other things being equal, charge about $16 more on the weekends.

However, ski areas in the Mid-West, Rocky Mountains, and the West (_constant) do not

have much price differences between weekdays and weekends. The regional difference can be an

indicator of local market competitions.

Robustness check

Appendix C is a list of all ski areas on all mega passes for season 2018-19, and it shows

that Powder Alliance and the Freedom Pass has many ski areas that are also in other mega

passes. Moreover, Powder Alliance and the Freedom Pass are structured differently from the

other passes. Powder Alliance and the Freedom Pass are complementary when one purchases a

28

single-resort season pass at a ski area that is part of the alliance. Pass-holders enjoy unlimited

access to one home ski resort and some access to the other ski areas on the pass. On the other

hand, Ikon, Epic, Peak, and Power Pass all offer unlimited access to multiple ski areas.

Therefore, including Powder Alliance and the Freedom Pass in my models might be incorrect.

Table 5 presents the OLS estimates of my models excluding Powder Alliance and the

Freedom Pass. The results are similar to my models in Table 3. Previously significant variables

are still significant in model (2), (3), (5), and (6).

Table 5.

OLS estimates without powder and freedom pass variables show similar results to previous models.

Weekday Prices

Weekend Prices

Variable

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

Season Passes

ikon

62.8131***

16.1447***

15.2203***

58.5139***

14.7538***

13.1217**

epic

73.1739***

20.6450***

20.0146***

67.7843***

17.6374**

17.5230***

peak

6.4002

4.9502

4.7091

5.7436

2.1635

2.0411

powerpass

18.5150**

4.4369

5.5448

12.2762

3.3064

4.9454

Characteristics

famous

4.2198

2.9927

5.1188

3.7063

vdrop100

.6034**

.7233***

.5973**

.6123**

base100

.1171**

.3478***

.0617

.3370***

terrain100

.0092

.0147

-.0015

.0183

daysopen

.0675

.0266

.0738

.0208

snowfall

-.0006

.0081

-.0085

.0111

gondola

4.5197

5.4616*

3.6352

4.8113*

totalchairs

1.1902***

1.2608***

1.2479***

1.4004***

percentfast

.4612***

.4478***

.4438***

.4302***

terrainparks

-.0911

-.2998

-.0181

-.1431

snowmake100

.8928

.6664

1.0018

.7028

nightskiing

-4.9591*

-2.5659

-1.9807

.2693

Regions

newengland

12.4491*

18.1081***

midatlantic

9.5741*

15.2364***

southeast

3.1783

19.5655***

midwest

8.3974

8.9375

rocky

-9.8802**

-10.8590**

_constant

54.0613***

26.8597***

16.2326*

61.3333***

34.2211***

19.4778*

Observations

302

R-squared

.5020

.8355

.8455

.4960

.8093

.8396

Adj. R-squared

.4953

.8263

.8339

.4892

.7986

.8276

legend: * p<0.05; ** p<0.01; *** p<0.001

29

6. Conclusion, Limitations, and Further Research

Using a hedonic pricing model on a dataset of 302 US ski areas for the season of 2018-19,

I estimate the impact of supra-regional multi-resort season passes on adult single-day lift ticket

prices. I find that the ski areas on the leading season passes (Ikon and Epic Pass) charge price

premiums for their adult single-day lift tickets. However, the magnitude of the price premiums is

much smaller after controlling for ski area characteristics and regional fixed effects. The estimated

implicit marginal prices of ski area characteristics are intuitive and mostly show expected signs.

The model results also point out differences between weekday and weekend prices as well as

regional price differences.

While my research shows that there are price premiums associated with leading season

passes, I cannot conclude whether ski areas are doing so to nudge people into buying the season

passes. However, the price premiums on single-day lift tickets might mean day-trippers are paying

the premium without getting the benefit of a season pass. However, one interesting note is that

season passes offer friends and families of their pass holders discounted tickets based on the single-

day lift ticket window prices. To make up for the potential loss of revenue, they might charge

higher single-day lift ticket prices.

One limitation of my research is that I am only looking at the full priced single-day lift

ticket as published on OnTheSnow.com and the ski area website. In reality, many people are able

to find discounted tickets on websites such as liftopia.com. The expected price of a single-day lift

ticket can be much lower than the full price. Since percentage discounts is an important form of

advertisement, ski areas might want to charge a higher full price.

For future research, some more extensive data collection might be needed.

OnTheSnow.com has many ski areas, but not all. This research uses a simple OLS regression, but

further statistical sophistication might be more insightful. For example, Firgo and Kugler (2018)

30

use a spatial autocorrelation model to analyze lift ticket prices and find price level shift, price cone

effect, and spatial price correlation. By having more detailed location data, future research can get

a better sense of the US ski area market structure.

31

7. Appendices

Appendix A.

Description of the data sources.

Data

Sources

Prices

OnTheSnow.com

Web sites of individual ski areas.

Mega Passes

Web sites of individual passes.

https://www.ikonpass.com/en/shop-passes/ikon-pass-2018-2019

http://news.vailresorts.com/corporate/2018-19lastchanceepicpassvailresorts.htm

https://www.epicpass.com/info/stowe-faq.aspx

https://www.peakpass.com/

Season pass guides.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robreed/2018/09/11/epic

-versus-ikon-comparing-the-

20182019-multi-resort-ski-passes/#5e2ac856714a

https://www.snowridersinternational.org/news/2018/6/6/multi

-mountain-season-passes-

available-for-the-20182019-season-other-than-epic-and-ikon

Famous

Recent articles on ski areas.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christophersteiner/2018/11/28/the

-top-10-ski-resorts-in-

north-america-for-2019/#5d0fa73a5ec7

https://www.snowpak.com/usa/best-ski-resorts

https://www.zrankings.com/

https://www.planetware.com/world/top-rated-ski-resorts-in-the-world-us-co-88.htm

https://snowbrains.com/top-10-most-popular-us-ski-resorts/

https://www.travelandleisure.com/hotels

-resorts/mountain-ski-resorts/best-in-snow-

liftopia#magic-mountain-vermont

Other Characteristics

OnTheSnow.com

Web sites of individual ski areas.

Regions

OnTheSnow.com

Appendix B.

Links to Kaggle and Github.

Kaggle.com

Kaggle is an online platform for data scientists.

My datasets can be found here:

https://www.kaggle.com/sijialai/onthesnow

Github.com

Github is a software development platform.

My web-scrapers can be found here:

https://github.com/SijiaLai/OnTheSnow

Appendix C.

List of ski areas on supra-regional multi-resort season passes for season 2018-19.

Name of ski resort

Mega Pass

US Ski Area

Unlimited

Steamboat, CO

Ikon Pass

1

Winter Park Resort, CO

Ikon Pass

1

Copper Mountain Resort, CO

Ikon Pass

1

Eldora Mountain Resort, CO

Ikon Pass

1

Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, CA

Ikon Pass

1

Mammoth Mountain, CA

Ikon Pass

1

June Mountain, CA

Ikon Pass

1

Bear Mountain, CA

Ikon Pass

1

32

Snow Summit, CA

Ikon Pass

1

Stratton, VT

Ikon Pass

1

Snowshoe, WV

Ikon Pass

1

Crystal Mountain, WA

Ikon Pass

1

Tremblant, Canada, QC

Ikon Pass

0

1

Blue Mountain, ON

Ikon Pass

0

1

Solitude Mountain Resort, UT

Ikon Pass

1

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, WY

Ikon Pass

1

0

Big Sky Resort, MT

Ikon Pass

1

0

Sugarbush Resort, VT

Ikon Pass

1

0

Boyne Highlands, MI

Ikon Pass

1

0

Boyne Mountain, MI

Ikon Pass

1

0

The Summit at Snoqualmie, WA

Ikon Pass

1

0

Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Canada, BC

Ikon Pass

0

Cypress, Canada, BC

Ikon Pass

0

Sunday River, ME

Ikon Pass

1

0

Sugarloaf, ME

Ikon Pass

1

0

Loon Mountain, NH

Ikon Pass

1

0

Taos, NM

Ikon Pass

1

0

Deer Valley Resort, UT

Ikon Pass

1

0

Brighton, UT

Ikon Pass

1

0

Thredbo, Australia

Ikon Pass

0

Niseko United, Japan

Ikon Pass

0

Valle Nevado, Chile

Ikon Pass

0

Snowmass, CO

Ikon Pass

1

0

Aspen Mountain, CO

Ikon Pass

1

0

Aspen Highlands, CO

Ikon Pass

1

0

Buttermilk, CO

Ikon Pass

1

0

Snowbird. UT

Ikon Pass

1

0

Alta. UT

Ikon Pass

1

0

Killington, VT

Ikon Pass

1

0

Pico, VT

Ikon Pass

1

0

Banff Sunshine, Canada, AB

Ikon Pass

0

Lake Louise, Canada, AB

Ikon Pass

0

Mt. Norquay, Canada, AB

Ikon Pass

0

Mt Hutt, New Zealand

Ikon Pass

0

Coronet Peak, New Zealand

Ikon Pass

0

The Remarkables, New Zealand

Ikon Pass

0

Sum

33

15

Total

46

Vail, CO

Epic Pass

1

Beaver Creek, CO

Epic Pass

1

Breckenridge, CO

Epic Pass

1

Arapahoe Basin, CO

Epic Pass

1

Park City, UT

Epic Pass

1

Keystone, CO

Epic Pass

1

Crested Butte, CO

Epic Pass

1

Heavenly, CA

Epic Pass

1

Northstar, CA

Epic Pass

1

Kirkwood, CA

Epic Pass

1

Stevens Pass, WA

Epic Pass

1

Wilmot, WI

Epic Pass

1

Afton Alps, MN

Epic Pass

1

33

Mt Brighton, MI

Epic Pass

1

Stowe, VT

Epic Pass

1

Okemo, VT

Epic Pass

1

Mount Sunapee, NH

Epic Pass

1

Whistler Blackcomb, Canada, BC

Epic Pass

0

1

Telluride, CO

Epic Pass

1

0

Fernie Alpine Resort, Canada, BC

Epic Pass

0

Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, Canada, BC

Epic Pass

0

Kimberley Alpine Resort, Canada, BC

Epic Pass

0

Nakiska Ski Area, Canada, Alberta

Epic Pass

0

Mont-Sainte Anne, Canada, Quebec

Epic Pass

0

Stoneham, Canada, Quebec

Epic Pass

0

Hakuba 47 Winter Sports Park, Japan

Epic Pass

0

Hakuba Cortina Snow Resort, Japan

Epic Pass

0

Hakuba Goryu Snow Resort, Japan

Epic Pass

0

Hakuba Happo-One Snow Resort, Japan

Epic Pass

0

Hakuba Iwatake Snow Field, Japan

Epic Pass

0

Hakuba Norikura Onsen Snow Resort, Japan

Epic Pass

0

Jiigatake Snow Resort, Japan

Epic Pass

0

Kashimayari Ski Resort, Japan

Epic Pass

0

Tsugaike Kogen Snow Resort, Japan

Epic Pass

0

Hakuba Sanosaka Snow Resort, Japan

Epic Pass

0

Perisher, Australia

Epic Pass

0

1

Val Thorens, Les 3 Vallees, France

Epic Pass

0

Méribel, Les 3 Vallees, France

Epic Pass

0

Courchevel, Les 3 Vallees, France

Epic Pass

0

Les Menuires, Les 3 Vallees, France

Epic Pass

0

Saint Martin de Bellevelle, Les 3 Vallees, France

Epic Pass

0

La Tania, Les 3 Vallees, France

Epic Pass

0

Orelle, Les 3 Vallees, France

Epic Pass

0

Brides-Les-Bains, Les 3 Vallees, France

Epic Pass

0

Les Arcs, Paradiski, France

Epic Pass

0

La Plagne, Paradiski, France

Epic Pass

0

Peisey-Vallandry, Paradiski, France

Epic Pass

0

Tignes, France

Epic Pass

0

Val D’Isere, France

Epic Pass

0

Madonna di Campiglio, Skirama Dolomiti, Italy

Epic Pass

0

Pinzolo, Skirama Dolomiti, Italy

Epic Pass

0

Folgarida-Marilleva, Skirama Dolomiti, Italy

Epic Pass

0

Peio, Skirama Dolomiti, Italy

Epic Pass

0

Ponte di Legno-Tonale, Skirama Dolomiti, Italy

Epic Pass

0

Andalo-Fai della Paganella, Skirama Dolomiti, Italy

Epic Pass

0

Monte Bondone, Skirama Dolomiti, Italy

Epic Pass

0

Folgarida-Lavarone. Skirama Dolomiti, Italy

Epic Pass

0

Verbier, 4 Vallees, Switzerland

Epic Pass

0

La Tzoumaz, 4 Vallees, Switzerland

Epic Pass

0

Nendaz, 4 Vallees, Switzerland

Epic Pass

0

Veysonnaz, 4 Vallees, Switzerland

Epic Pass

0

Thyon, 4 Vallees, Switzerland

Epic Pass

0

Lech, Arlberg , Austra

Epic Pass

0

Zurs, Arlberg , Austra

Epic Pass

0

Stuben, Arlberg , Austra

Epic Pass

0

St Christoph, Arlberg , Austra

Epic Pass

0

34

St Anton, Arlberg , Austra

Epic Pass

0

Sum

18

19

Total

67

Attitash Mountain, NH

Peak Pass

1

Crotched Mountain, NH

Peak Pass

1

Wildcat Mountain, NH

Peak Pass

1

Hunter, NY

Peak Pass

1

Alpine Valley, OH

Peak Pass

1

Boston Mills, OH

Peak Pass

1

Brandywine, OH

Peak Pass

1

Mad River, OH

Peak Pass

1

Jack Frost, PA

Peak Pass

1

Big Boulder, PA

Peak Pass

1

Liberty Mountain, PA

Peak Pass

1

Roundtop , PA

Peak Pass

1

Whitetail, PA

Peak Pass

1

Mount Snow, VT

Peak Pass

1

Sum

0

14

Total

14

Purgatory, CO

Power Pass

1

Hesperus, CO

Power Pass

1

Arizona Snowbowl, AZ

Power Pass

1

Pajarito, NM

Power Pass

1

Sipapu, NM

Power Pass

1

Nordic Valley, UT

Power Pass

1

Copper Mountain, CO

Power Pass

1

0

Kiroro Ski Resort, Japan

Power Pass

0

Loveland, CO

Power Pass

1

0

Monarch, CO

Power Pass

1

0

Powderhorn, CO

Power Pass

1

0

Sum

0

10

6

Total

11

Angel Fire, NM

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Bogus Basin, ID

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Bridger Bowl, UT

Powder Alliance

1

NA

China Peak, CA

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Castle Mountain Resort, Canada, AB

Powder Alliance

0

NA

Loveland, CO

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Kiroro, Japan

Powder Alliance

0

NA

La Parva, Chile

Powder Alliance

0

NA

Mountain High, CA

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Ski Marmot Basin, Canada, AB

Powder Alliance

0

NA

Monarch Mountain, CO

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Sierra-at-Tahoe. CA

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Mt. Hood Skibowl, OR

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Schweitzer, ID

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Sugar Bowl Resort, CA

Powder Alliance

1

NA

SilverStar, Canada, BC

Powder Alliance

0

NA

Stevens Pass, WA

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Whitewater, Canada, BC

Powder Alliance

0

NA

Timberline, OR

Powder Alliance

1

NA

Sum

13

NA

Total

19

35

Lost Valley, ME

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Black Mountain, NH

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Dartmouth Skiway, NH

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Whaleback, NH

Freedom Pass

1

NA

McIntyre, NH

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Bolton, VT

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Magic, VT

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Plattekill, NY

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Yawgoo, RI

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Buck Hill, MN

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Ski Cooper, CO

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Sunlight, CO

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Ski Hesperus, CO

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Purgatory, CO

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Nordic Valley, UT

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Pajarito, NM

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Sipapu, NM

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Arizona Snowbowl, AZ

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Eaglecrest, AK

Freedom Pass

1

NA

Sum

19

NA

Total

19

Alta, UT

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Aspen Snowmass Mountains, CO

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Banff Sunshine, Canada, AB

Mountain Collective

0

NA

Big Sky, MT

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, New Zealand

Mountain Collective

0

NA

Jackson Hole, WY

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Lake Louise, Canada, AB

Mountain Collective

0

NA

Mammoth Mountains, CA

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Revelstoke, Canada, BC

Mountain Collective

0

NA

Snowbasin, UT

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Snowbird, UT

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, CA

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Sugarbush VT

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Sun Valley, ID

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Taos, NM

Mountain Collective

1

NA

Thredbo Alpine Village, Australia

Mountain Collective

0

NA

Niseko United, Japan

Mountain Collective

0

NA

Sum

0

11

NA

Count

17

36

Appendix D.

Using kernel density plots to check normality of residuals of model (3).

Using kernel density plots to check normality of residuals in model (6).

37

38

Appendix F.

Summary statistics for ski areas on each mega passes and not on mega passes in my dataset,

Ski areas on the Ikon Pass.

Variable

Obs

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min

Max

adultweekday

28

$117.54

$31.63

$70.00

$179.00

adultweekend

28

$120.29

$29.77

$78.00

$179.00

verticaldrop

28

2,505.46

999.07

500

4,406

base

28

5,325.50

3,292.69

620

9,712

gondola

28

0.86

1.04

0

3

totalchairs

28

16.96

9.89

6

42

percentfast

28

33.5%

16.2%

8.3%

66.7%

Ski areas on the Epic Pass.

Variable

Obs

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min

Max

adultweekday

17

$127.24

$49.54

$52.00

$199.00

adultweekend

17

$129.12

$47.04

$59.00

$199.00

verticaldrop

17

2,380.18

1,247.06

230

4,425

base

17

5,461.94

3,463.59

800

9,600

gondola

17

1.12

1.22

0

4

totalchairs

17

19.88

9.23

10

41

percentfast

17

30.4%

19.7%

0.0%

64.5%

Ski areas on the Peak Pass.

Variable Obs

Obs

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min

Max

adultweekday

13

$60.46

$15.31

$39.00

$79.00

adultweekend

13

$67.08

$17.89

$43.00

$89.00

verticaldrop

13

920.54

660.68

230

2,112

base

13

1,109.00

487.27

570

1,950

gondola

13

0.00

0

totalchairs

13

9.69

4.48

5

20

percentfast

13

9.1%

10.5%

0.0%

23.1%

Ski areas on the Power Pass.

Variable

Obs

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min

Max

adultweekday

9

$79.56

$34.79

$45.00

$158.00

adultweekend

9

$80.11

$34.20

$47.00

$158.00

verticaldrop

9

1,723.78

626.53

960

2,738

base

9

8,907.33

1,616.76

5,440

10,800

gondola

9

0.11

0.33

0

1

totalchairs

9

9.11

6.11

4

24

percentfast

9

10.7%

11.7%

0.0%

29.2%

Ski areas in the Powder Alliance.

Variable

Obs

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min

Max

adultweekday

13

$82.85

$16.76

$63.00

$125.00

adultweekend

13

$83.23

$17.36

$63.00

$125.00

verticaldrop

13

2,017.69

646.29

1,162

3,690

base

13

6,684.92

2,288.11

3,600

10,800

gondola

13

0.08

0.28

0

1

totalchairs

13

10.23

2.28

7

14

percentfast

13

21.3%

20.0%

0.0%

62.5%

39

Ski areas on the Freedom Pass.

Variable

Obs

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min

Max

adultweekday

16

$54.25

$18.47

$29.00

$89.00

adultweekend

16

$60.88

$14.78

$45.00

$89.00

verticaldrop

16

1,257.88

584.29

240

2,300

base

16

4,371.44

3,853.70

255

10,500

gondola

16

0.00

0

totalchairs

16

5.50

2.28

3

12

percentfast

16

2.3%

6.8%

0.0%

25.0%

Ski areas not on a supra-regional multi-resort season

pass.

Variable

Obs

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min

Max

adultweekday

215

$53.06

$20.06

$15.00

$135.00

adultweekend

215

$60.56

$18.79

$20.00

$135.00

verticaldrop

215

1,006.40

743.38

100

3,430

base

215

2,963.03

2,862.32

78

10,780

gondola

215

0.07

0.30

0

3

totalchairs

215

6.82

3.17

1

18

percentfast

215

6.9%

13.3%

0.0%

72.7%

Appendix G.

List of ski areas used in this study.

Ski area name

State

Alyeska Resort

AK

Eaglecrest Ski Area

AK

Hilltop Ski Area

AK

Arizona Snowbowl

AZ

Sunrise Park Resort

AZ

Yosemite Ski & Snowboard Area

CA

Bear Mountain

CA

Bear Valley

CA

Boreal Mountain Resort

CA

Dodge Ridge

CA

Donner Ski Ranch

CA

Heavenly Mountain Resort

CA

June Mountain

CA

Kirkwood

CA

Mammoth Mountain Ski Area

CA

Mt. Shasta Ski Park

CA

Mountain High

CA

Mt. Baldy

CA

Northstar California

CA

Sierra-at-Tahoe

CA

Ski China Peak

CA

Snow Summit

CA

Snow Valley

CA

Soda Springs

CA

Squaw Valley - Alpine Meadows

CA

Sugar Bowl Resort

CA

Tahoe Donner

CA

Arapahoe Basin Ski Area

CO

Aspen / Snowmass

CO

Beaver Creek

CO

Breckenridge

CO

Copper Mountain Resort

CO

Crested Butte Mountain Resort

CO

Purgatory

CO

Eldora Mountain Resort

CO

Howelsen Hill

CO

Keystone

CO

Loveland

CO

Monarch Mountain

CO

Powderhorn

CO

Silverton Mountain

CO

Cooper

CO

Ski Granby Ranch

CO

Sunlight Mountain Resort

CO

Telluride

CO

Vail

CO

Winter Park Resort

CO

Wolf Creek Ski Area

CO

Mohawk Mountain

CT

Mount Southington Ski Area

CT

Powder Ridge Park

CT

Ski Sundown

CT

Woodbury Ski Area

CT

40

Bogus Basin

ID

Brundage Mountain Resort

ID

Kelly Canyon Ski Area

ID

Lookout Pass Ski Area

ID

Magic Mountain Ski Area

ID

Pebble Creek Ski Area

ID

Pomerelle Mountain Resort

ID

Schweitzer

ID

Silver Mountain

ID

Sun Valley

ID

Tamarack Resort

ID

Chestnut Mountain Resort

IL

Four Lakes

IL

Ski Snowstar Winter Sports Park

IL

Villa Olivia

IL

Paoli Peaks

IN

Perfect North Slopes

IN

Mt. Crescent Ski Area

IA

Seven Oaks

IA

Sundown Mountain

IA

Camden Snow Bowl

ME

Lost Valley

ME

Mt. Abram Ski Resort

ME

New Hermon Mountain

ME

Shawnee Peak

ME

Sugarloaf

ME

Sunday River

ME

Wisp

MD

Berkshire East

MA

Blandford Ski Area

MA

Bousquet Ski Area

MA

Jiminy Peak

MA

Nashoba Valley

MA

Otis Ridge Ski Area

MA

Ski Butternut

MA

Ski Ward

MA

Wachusett Mountain Ski Area

MA

Alpine Valley Ski Area

MI

Big Powderhorn Mountain

MI

Bittersweet Ski Area

MI

Big Snow Resort - Blackjack

MI

Boyne Highlands

MI

Boyne Mountain Resort

MI

Caberfae Peaks

MI

Cannonsburg

MI

Crystal Mountain

MI

Big Snow Resort - Indianhead Mountain

MI

Marquette Mountain

MI

Mont Ripley

MI

Mount Bohemia

MI

Mt. Brighton

MI

Mt. Holiday Ski Area

MI

Mount Holly

MI

Mulligan's Hollow Ski Bowl

MI

Norway Mountain

MI

Nubs Nob Ski Area

MI

Schuss Mountain at Shanty Creek

MI

Ski Brule

MI

Swiss Valley

MI

The Homestead

MI

Afton Alps

MN

Andes Tower Hills Ski Area

MN

Buck Hill

MN

Buena Vista Ski Area

MN

Coffee Mill Ski & Snowboard Resort

MN

Giants Ridge Resort

MN

Hyland Ski & Snowboard Area

MN

Lutsen Mountains

MN

Mount Kato Ski Area

MN

Spirit Mountain

MN

Welch Village

MN

Wild Mountain Ski & Snowboard Area

MN

Hidden Valley Ski Area

MO

Snow Creek

MO

Big Sky Resort

MT

Blacktail Mountain Ski Area

MT

Bridger Bowl

MT

Discovery Ski Area

MT

Great Divide

MT

Lost Trail - Powder Mtn

MT

Maverick Mountain

MT

Montana Snowbowl

MT

Red Lodge Mountain

MT

Showdown Montana

MT

Teton Pass Ski Resort

MT

Whitefish Mountain Resort

MT

Diamond Peak

NV

Elko SnoBowl

NV

Lee Canyon

NV

Mt. Rose - Ski Tahoe

NV

Attitash

NH

Black Mountain

NH

Bretton Woods

NH

Cannon Mountain

NH

Cranmore Mountain Resort

NH

Crotched Mountain

NH

Dartmouth Skiway

NH

Gunstock

NH

King Pine

NH

Loon Mountain

NH

Mount Sunapee

NH

Pats Peak

NH

Ragged Mountain Resort

NH

Waterville Valley

NH

Whaleback Mountain

NH

Wildcat Mountain

NH

Campgaw Mountain

NJ

Mountain Creek Resort

NJ

41

Angel Fire Resort

NM

Pajarito Mountain Ski Area

NM

Red River

NM

Sandia Peak

NM

Sipapu Ski Resort

NM

Ski Apache

NM

Ski Santa Fe

NM

Taos Ski Valley

NM

Belleayre

NY

Brantling Ski Slopes

NY

Bristol Mountain

NY

Catamount

NY

Dry Hill Ski Area

NY

Gore Mountain

NY

Greek Peak

NY

Holiday Mountain

NY

Holiday Valley

NY

Holimont Ski Area

NY

Hunt Hollow Ski Club

NY

Hunter Mountain

NY

Kissing Bridge

NY

Labrador Mt.

NY

McCauley Mountain Ski Center

NY

Mount Peter Ski Area

NY

Oak Mountain

NY

Peek'n Peak

NY

Plattekill Mountain

NY

Royal Mountain Ski Area

NY

Snow Ridge

NY

Song Mountain

NY

Swain

NY

Titus Mountain

NY

Toggenburg Mountain

NY

West Mountain

NY

Whiteface Mountain Resort

NY

Willard Mountain

NY

Windham Mountain

NY

Woods Valley Ski Area

NY

Appalachian Ski Mountain

NC

Cataloochee Ski Area

NC

Sapphire Valley

NC

Beech Mountain Resort

NC

Sugar Mountain Resort

NC

Wolf Ridge Ski Resort

NC

Alpine Valley

OH

Boston Mills

OH

Brandywine

OH

Mad River Mountain

OH

Snow Trails

OH

Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort

OR

Cooper Spur

OR

Hoodoo Ski Area

OR

Mt. Ashland

OR

Mt. Bachelor

OR

Mt. Hood Meadows

OR

Mt. Hood Skibowl

OR

Timberline Lodge

OR

Willamette Pass

OR

Bear Creek Mountain Resort

PA

Ski Big Bear

PA

Blue Knob

PA

Blue Mountain Resort

PA

Camelback Mountain Resort

PA

Elk Mountain Ski Resort

PA

Jack Frost

PA

Liberty

PA

Mount Pleasant of Edinboro

PA

Roundtop Mountain Resort

PA

Seven Springs

PA

Shawnee Mountain Ski Area

PA

Ski Sawmill

PA

Montage Mountain

PA

Spring Mountain Ski Area

PA

Tussey Mountain

PA

Whitetail Resort

PA

Deer Mountain Ski Resort

SD

Terry Peak Ski Area

SD

Alta Ski Area

UT

Beaver Mountain

UT

Brian Head Resort

UT

Brighton Resort

UT

Deer Valley Resort

UT

Eagle Point

UT

Park City

UT

Powder Mountain

UT

Snowbasin

UT

Snowbird

UT

Solitude Mountain Resort

UT

Sundance

UT

Nordic Valley Resort

UT

Bolton Valley

VT

Bromley Mountain

VT

Burke Mountain

VT

Jay Peak

VT

Killington Resort

VT

Mad River Glen

VT

Magic Mountain

VT

Mount Snow

VT

Okemo Mountain Resort

VT

Pico Mountain

VT

Smugglers' Notch Resort

VT

Stowe Mountain Resort

VT

Stratton Mountain

VT

Sugarbush

VT

Suicide Six

VT

Bryce Resort

VA

Wintergreen Resort

VA

49 Degrees North

WA

42

Bluewood

WA

Crystal Mountain

WA

Mission Ridge

WA

Mt. Baker

WA

Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park

WA

Stevens Pass Resort

WA

The Summit at Snoqualmie

WA

White Pass

WA

Canaan Valley Resort

WV

Snowshoe Mountain Resort

WV

Timberline Four Seasons

WV

Winterplace Ski Resort

WV

Alpine Valley Resort

WI

Bruce Mound

WI

Cascade Mountain

WI

Christie Mountain

WI

Devils Head

WI

Grand Geneva

WI

Granite Peak Ski Area

WI

Mount La Crosse

WI

Nordic Mountain

WI

Sunburst

WI

Trollhaugen

WI

Tyrol Basin

WI

Whitecap Mountain

WI

Wilmot Mountain

WI

Grand Targhee Resort

WY

Hogadon Basin

WY

Jackson Hole

WY

Sleeping Giant Ski Resort

WY

Snow King Resort

WY

Snowy Range Ski & Recreation Area

WY

White Pine Ski Area

WY

43

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