January 28, 2010 E-MAIL PRINT

Keep ski trip costs reasonable

by Tony Chamberlain/

Morning in a ski town is for getting up on the slopes, not milling around in ski shops. (photo: Tony Chamberlain)

Morning in a ski town is for getting up on the slopes, not milling around in ski shops. (photo: Tony Chamberlain)

We all know what havoc a bad weather forecast can wreak on ski country, and travel of all kinds, for that matter. But now the airlines are making their mark in the way folks do their travel planning.

Just look at the new baggage check fees being increased by Continental, United, and Delta. These airlines now charge $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second.

Since most folks are in the habit of packing a suitcase, bootbag, and ski bag, suddenly this is adding up to hundreds of dollars more in a round-trip ski trip — something many New Englanders like to do at least once per season.

For starters, know what airline you're choosing. While those three are croakers, there are some airlines that offer slight discounts for checking bags online. And Southwest Airlines does not charge for the first two bags at all. Frequent fliers might get the fees waived on other carriers if they have enough frequent-flier miles.

There is another option, if you're super-organized: pack your stuff ahead of time and ship it, having first worked out with your lodging destination just how to accomplish this. Of course that means reshipping to get it home again, and that amounts to a pretty pricey solution as well.

My own choice of giving up traveling with my own skis came the day I stood lost and clueless at Japan's Narita Airport with a suitcase carrying nearly a month's worth of clothes and ski stuff, a boot bag stuffed with boots and a bunch of Olympic souvenir T-shirts, ski bag — ditto — and a laptop computer over my shoulder.

So, in my ski travel, I lost the skis, but I would not recommend rental boots, not if you're living comfortably with the boots you're in now.

But something has to give — maybe a small roll-on and boot bag stuffed with clothes — both carry-on. This approach turns us all into kind of itinerant ski bums again, but it saves the bucks.

Here's another approach. On those occasions when you might rent all your gear, or even just skis and poles or snowboard, but can't bear wasting half a morning of ski time in the rental shop, check out an outfit called Ski Butlers, which operates in about 25 western resorts.

Ski Butlers is an in-room rental service that brings the gear to you at an appointed time, and presumably not during times you want to be out on the slopes. Each fitting comes with enough inventory to assure a custom boot-fit and choice of equipment to suit the current conditions — i.e. powder, ice and so on.

A list of Ski Butlers includes Heavenly, Kirkwood, and Sierra in California; Aspen, Snowmass, Highlands, Buttermilk, Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper, A-basin, Telluride, Vail, Beaver Creek, and Arrowhead in Colorado; Park City, Deer Valley, The Canyons, Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon resorts in Utah; Jackson Hole Wyoming; and Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia.

Ski Butlers is accessible through facebook.com/ski butlers or twitter.com/ski butlers, or call (435) 658-0458.

This innovative approach to outfitting oneself on a ski trip to the west may not save much money, but in these days of soaring costs of schlepping your stuff in the air, perhaps a reasonable choice. Worth checking out, for sure.

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