After reading a thread on snowshoe discounts I wanted to compare some resort ticket prices. I always wonder if it is worth it. I couldn't find a table posted anywhere with side-by-side comparison but found a few aricles. I pulled most of the information below from a Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113000774_pf.html) and
http://www.skireport.com. The prices are the season high for comaprison reasons. I know there are few other other factors besides the typical mountain stats of vertical feet, number of trails, acres, average snow, and type of beer on tap but these would be a good first step characterize dollar value of a lift ticket. the comparison percentage is a formula I used to create a figure of merit and divided by the average. Here is the formula and average values. vert(898 ft)*lifts(8)*trails(29) /Ticket cost($60). I would like to take into account number of double blacks and other factors but I have already wasted too much time on this.
Bottom line is that looking at it this way, Snowshoe is a 518% greater value then the average resort compared. It blows away everything else. I don't know how well this will post, but hopefully you can follow it. Maybe I can take a skier satisfacton rating and work into the formula as well next time I have too much time on my hands.
Remember this is in fun and not very scientific. It does not "rate" a resort, just determines based on these factors if the ticket price is a good value or not.
Ski Area - Top Elev (ft)- Vert Rise (ft) - Lifts - Runs - Season High Ticket Prices - comparison
Massanutten - 2,925 - 1,175 - 8 - 14 - 71 - 53%
Snowshoe Mountain - 4,848 - 1500 - 14 - 60 - 70 - 518%
Wintergreen - 3,500 - 1,003 - 7 - 25 - 64 - 79%
Bryce Resort - 1,750 - 500 - 4 - 8 - 62 - 7%
Canaan Valley - 4,280 - 850 - 3 - 39 - 61 - 47%
Liberty Mountain - 2,400 - 650 - 9 - 16 - 59 - 46%
Whitetail - 1,800 - 965 - 7 - 19 - 59 - 63%
Ski Roundtop - 1,400 - 600 - 9 - 19 - 58 - 51%
Timberline Four Seasons - 4,268 - 1,000 - 4 - 37 - 57 - 75%
Wisp - 3,080 - 610 - 13 - 32 - 57 - 128%
Seven Springs - 2,994 - 754 - 14 - 44 - 55 - 243%
Elk Mountain - 2,693 - 1,000 - 7 - 27 - 51 - 107%
Blue Knob - 3,152 - 1,072 - 5 - 34 - 50 - 105%