Skiing can be financially intimidating. You need the right gear, the right clothes, the lift tickets or season passes. When you factor in multiple children, it really adds up.
Skiing as a family doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. Sure, if you just dive in and throw your credit card around, you’ll end up spending a bunch of money, but a little planning can save you a lot of cash. Our partners at evo helped us identify some money-saving tips to get families out on the slopes, without breaking the bank.
Money Saving Tips for Ski Gear
Rent kids’ ski gear instead of buying
Kids’ ski gear is one of the biggest expenses of skiing as a family, because they grow so fast. They’ll often end up needing bigger skis, boots, pants, and poles every season, if they even make it that long without their feet growing out of their boots. But there’s a simple solution: often your local ski or snowboard shop will offer a season ski rental.
For a fraction of the cost of buying a full set of ski or snowboard gear, you can rent a new set, that fits your child perfectly, for the full season. Just pick it up in the fall and drop it off in the spring. If your kid grows out of something during the ski season, you can often swap to a different size at the shop for no extra charge. 
Get the most out of your gear
- For gear that you do own, take good care of it, and it will last you much longer. This especially helps when siblings hand down gear to younger brothers and sisters.
- Keep skis and snowboards waxed regularly.
- Make sure boots get dried all the way after every day on the mountain, this is the only foolproof way to keep them from stinking.
- If you do damage your gear, get it fixed immediately.The saying “a stitch in time saves nine” applies to ski and snowboard gear as well. If you get a core shot, or an edge compression, take your ski or board to a ski repair shop immediately and get it fixed. Even if it’s just a small problem, if you let water get into the core it can rot it out and cause bigger issues down the road.
Treat your ski gear well, and it will treat you well, saving you money along the way.
Demo specialty skis
It’s tempting to want to build up a huge quiver of different skis for every snow condition. But when you multiply that number of skis by the size of your family, you can spend a bunch of money very quickly. Instead, find everyone one set of skis, or a snowboard that they really like in most conditions, and then, if you run into extraordinary conditions, like a really deep powder day, consider demoing ski gear. Demo skiing allows you to try new, expensive skis, for just a little more than the cost of a regular rental. You can demo fat powder boards for the whole family for that one deep day, for the cost of buying just one pair for yourself. Demoing gear before you buy can help guard against making costly purchasing mistakes that you’ll regret.
Money Saving Tips for Lift Tickets
Look for season pass deals
Season passes cost a lot more than day tickets, but it’s a good idea to do the math. How many days are you planning to ski this year? Multiply that by the average price of a lift ticket. Even if you’re just going on a week-long ski vacation, a season pass might end up costing less than five-day tickets for each of your family members.
Look for ski school and ski club deals
Often ski schools and clubs offer package discounts that get you rental gear, lift tickets, and a lesson for less than the cost of a lift ticket. Ski resorts are trying to create repeat customers, so they’re happy to give you a deal when you’re learning how to ski. That’s an especially good deal for kids, you can save money, and hand them off to an instructor while you go ski.
Consider a conglomerate pass
Passes to multiple resorts, like the IKON and Epic passes are a great way for families to save money while also skiing at multiple resorts. If you’re looking to ski new places, and don’t need to ski a bunch of days at a single mountain, a conglomerate pass could be perfect for your family.
Look for local deals
If you’re not going the season pass route, many resorts often offer discounted deals through local businesses like gas stations or ski shops. Google and ask around, there are often buy-one-get-one-free deals available that can save your family a lot of money.
We are evo Portland – a ski, snowboard, mountain bike, surf, wake, skate, camp, and lifestyle retailer.
evo explores the collaboration between culture and sport by seamlessly joining art, music, streetwear, skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing, mountain biking, and wakeboarding. Our aim is to bring all things relevant to the urban, action sports lifestyle into one creative space. Whether it is on the website, on the phone or in our stores, our aim is to make all who come into contact with evo feel welcome and excited about their experience.
