Beat the heat with cool deals: season ski passes

Triple-digit temperatures got you down?  Think snow. Think cool deals like this one: Buy a season pass to your favorite winter resort and save big on lift tickets.

If you hit the slopes several days a year, the passes are totally worth it,  even at regular prices.  If you buy the passes early, you save even more. Kirkwood Mountain Resort in the Lake Tahoe area, a favorite of serious skiers and snowboarders, is a good example.

Deal: Buy your adult season pass by Sept. 7 and pay $239 for the 6Wood pass (valid Sunday through Friday, nonholiday), $369 for the 7Wood pass (valid seven days a week, nonholiday) and $529 for an unlimited pass (valid every day all season, unrestricted). Pay even lower prices for students, youths, children and seniors.

Upsides: The prices of the passes are scheduled to go up in November and again in December, so you’ll save by buying now. And with daily lift tickets for the 2009-2010 season expected to cost “within a few dollars” of last season’s price, which was $72, according to Kirkwood spokeswoman Julie Koster, you’ll save if you ski or snowboard as few as four days, depending on the pass.

Downsides: Use it or lose it; the pass is nonrefundable. You’ve got to get up to the slopes. And you won’t know exactly how much you’ll save by buying your pass early because final prices won’t be announced until November, Koster said. Last season, the final prices were $299 for the 6Wood, $399 for the 7Wood and $599 for the unlimited pass, she added.

Contact: Kirkwood Mountain Resort, (209) 258-6000.

— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

Photo: Heading down the slopes at Kirkwood Mountain Resort. Credit: Dan Thrift / Tahoe Daily Tribune

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 31, 2009 at 8:25 am by Jane Engle and is filed under California, Deals, News, Tips & Advice, Northern California, Sierra Nevada, Ski & Winter, Winter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.