I think I want to pick up an Advantage card for Liberty/Whitetail/Roundtop. I've never purchased any sort of pass or discount card for skiing, and I'm trying to decide if it's worth it.

The pricing for the season pass is pretty tempting ($399), but I don't know if I'd actually ski there enough to break even (figuring around 8 visits to the break even point). The $84 Advantage card is a little less painful up front, and really only takes 4 visits to break even. After the 5th visit (with the free ticket on the 6th), things get better...

Is my math OK? If I plan to ski 10-12 days/nights at one of those mountains, the Advantage Card is the best option for me, right?

I think I'd shoot for 2-3 nights of night skiing at Liberty or Whitetail each month, and maybe hit a few weekends if the conditions get really good...

Anyone else have the card? Any thoughts?


aaron

Less cost and less risk up front If the season ends up being really bad for the area or for you, you are out alot less. The real break-even question will be if you to find out how many trips it takes to ring up 399$ in advantage club+lift ticket fees. Places like Wisp and the "mountains of distinction" resorts have various discounts that apply to season passes, but not discount cards.

We have a "ski club" at our office, which means we get the Night Club Card. I usually get the basic (169$) plus advantage card (20$) One pre january trip or a day at the slopes pays for the advantage part immediately. Otherwise, sking at night is allready "paid for".

A big thing I noticed, for better or for worse, is that when I go to ski on my night club card, I have no problem packing up and leaving after an hour if conditions are cruddy, or I am tired. If I am there on a lift ticket I bought, I feel I have to get as much value as I can out of the ticket and ski til I can't any more.

Just a few thoughts.

Bingo. By far the best option.

Sounds like a good option, but that doesn't match the pricing that I see... Is that a special deal through your company? Or am I missing something?

The night pass pricing I see is at $259 pre-October 31, which changes the numbers a bit.


aaron

That's because you're not looking at the club discount.

There is a list of ski clubs on the DC Ski portal.

What he said. In Theory, there is nothing that would prevent there from being a "dcski.com" ski club, other than permission from the powers that be. It would just need the commitment of one or two to organize the club and make sure the forms and monies get submitted on time. (Don't look at me!) I know there is some sort of sliding scale benefit for the leaders, based on numbers signing up.

The real question is if there are 15 or more people here that would commit.

I would rather that DCSki.com remain solely an on-line publication, and not a ski club. There are a wealth of excellent and active ski clubs in the mid-Atlantic region, and I would encourage readers to join one of them. They are always looking for more support. A complete list of local ski clubs is here.

aaron,

Check out the quick compare tab in my calculator . 7 weekend visits is all you need to break even on a seasons pass, but an advantage card is cheaper until 10 visits.

Remember you can get $5 off an advantage card (new and renewals) by getting them at at ski swap or event where snowtime has a booth. We have multiple events going on every weekend this month.

Thanks, Rusty... Now mine looks a tad pedestrian by comparison.

Does the $5 apply to other passes/combinations, too? Or just the advantage card?

I think we're going to go night club + advantage. It really does make the most sense, but we're going to have to make a point of skiing at least once a week, which will be a real new experience for us! I hope we can keep up!


aaron

Proud member of the Fredericksburg Ski Club right here! Been on a number of trips with them already. Last year, it was Steamboat, CO (and my first experience to ski some chest deep pow! Friggan WICKED!) This year, looks like Keystone, CO). But I whole heartedly agree, joining a ski club would be an excellent idea and most of them are not that expensive to join (Fredericksburg SC is only $15/year for an individual, or something like $25 for a "family" membership).

As for the pricing of passes themselves, can't help you there as I've never needed one, being a member of the ski patrol for one of the local areas.

The show discount this year is only for the advantage card (either single or fmaily card). In previous years, we also gave a discount of $25 for a season pass, but that is dropped this year because the price of the pass is already discounted down to $399.

Hmm - I need to check if my calculator can do both a night club and an advantage together .... This is how the damn thing grows bigger every year. That's a really good deal BTW. I run into a lot of people who do this.