Not true. If you're on vacation looking to ski for 3 days, you're right in the crosshairs of the ski resort's price model, and you're not getting around it.
I also don't see how the product is superior to what was offered prior
I also don't see how the product is superior to what was offered prior
Expensive options with lots of extras that not everybody wants—and some may actively dislike—replace broadly affordable options with fewer bells and whistles. Everyone is catering to the whales and, thanks in part to our robust lending industries, trying to convince the minnows that they can be a whale too.
That's exactly my point. If you take a 3 day family ski vacation once a year, you are the demographic whose money keeps the whole industry afloat, and allows the $600 season passes to exist.
>I also don't see how the product is superior to what was offered prior
Lifts today are a completely different thing from the 70s. You were talking single speed doubles and T-poles back then for basically everything, and there was nowhere near as much terrain developed. Getting six digit vertical days was completely unheard of. Now you take a high-speed detachable quad from base to the top, and have vastly more terrain available. Practically every major ski area has expanded massively since then.