February 25, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

The best of times are ahead

by Tony Chamberlain/

Late winter into spring means destination resorts are looking to cut some deals. (photo: Tony Chamberlain)

Late winter into spring means destination resorts are looking to cut some deals. (photo: Tony Chamberlain)

As many years as people go through this seasonal cycle, most never get the message: We are now getting into the best weeks of the skiing/riding season. In fact, most years you can throw away the month from Thanksgiving through the Christmas holidays and add that month to the end — mid-March into April.

But it never quite happens that way. After the February vacation, there’s a slight creeping attitude that we’re headed toward spring, golf, boats, fly fishing — whatever your warm-weather pleasure.

So, as the market for skiing begins to unwind in late February, it’s time to make a plan. The skiing and riding is at its very best at a time when the resorts are almost forced to give heavy discounts, favorable packaging and excellent group rates.

Also, this is not a heavy travel time of year and the airline rates are generally at their best, since this time is a lull between vacation periods. So, if you’ve done some comparison shopping earlier in the season, it’s time to have another look.

For example, if you’re heading to northern Vermont, check out the prices of a Burke Mountain over some of the better-known bigwigs. Using day ticket as a standard measure, Burke’s $57 per day is $27 less than Stowe’s. Only you can judge whether the skiing at Stowe is 45 percent better than that at Burke, but multiply that by a family of four and you’re talking real money.

And the big story in Maine this year is the push by Saddleback in Rangeley, where the adult day ticket is $40, as compared to neighboring Sugarloaf, which gets $72. The operative theme here is when you see a lesser player trying to grab market share from a bigger one — especially with roughly similar product — the consumer wins.

As a general rule this season, the day trip resorts are doing better than the destination areas, and as the season wears on, the pressure to make deals, especially in lodging, will only be mounting on the hotel and condo markets. It’s certainly worth it to make offers and enter into some bargaining, though for some reason Americans are used to haggling only for cars, boats and real estate.

Want to ski for four days in March somewhere in northern Vermont? Figure out a reasonable package rate you’re willing to pay, then make an offer to test the old theory that there’s nothing less productive than an empty hotel room.

Late winter into spring is also a really fine time to buy ski gear and clothes for next year. Retailers are eager to dump their inventories, and you might be amazed to see how deeply ski wear is discounted especially this late winter, given the economy.

As warm weather comes on, snow changes more during the day, corning up and freezing at night. I look for ski areas that have lots of runs enclosed in trees — either glades or narrower trails through the woods — rather than open slopes.

This is also a time of year when, as the snow melts in your back yard and the crocuses begin to poke up, you have to work harder on your resolve to get up to the mountains where the skiing and riding is worlds better than it was last December.

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