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This post was updated on .
I think it's all very sad. Skiing is going the way of golf -- just like there used to be little public 9 hole courses all over the place there used to many more small mountains (even before serious snowmaking). It was objectively healthier for people of all income bands to be out playing golf in the summer and skiing in the winter then sitting inside on Twitter. I know it's not that simple, but the trend line is not in favor of getting outdoors for kids or adults.
I have a larger thesis that the social element of golf, skiing - heck, even going to a bar, is the opposite of social media in its impact. When, say, a group of middle age men play golf or ski ever couple weeks I think the group dynamic is that crazy, nutty stuff gets sort of normalized out through in person interactions -- i.e., "Hey, Steve, come on man.. that's a little out there now." On the other hand social media awards the crazy with lots of views and likes. When we're not getting together to play golf, bowl, ski, and just be present with each other in person, and trading that for social media, we are losing a lot (I'd note that "traditional" online forums like this seem to function a bit better than FB or TWTR).
As a Gen X dad, it's very expensive to ski with kids. We did one day at Windham this week from NYC. We own our own equipment and packed our own food. But between the bus and lift ticket it was over $400 for myself and my boys. It would be cheaper on one day basis if we owned a car, but annualized it's more expensive (we used to own a car that we parked on the street and used at most 6 times a year, mostly for ski trips). When we do multi-day trips with hotel, food, and a rental car that gets to $600 / day quick.
To be bit political for a second, it seems like we've decided as a society that we're ok with a two class system -- a small elite that can afford vacations, recreation, skiing, etc. and a much larger set of working people who barely make ends meet. That I can tell no politician on the right or left seems to be truly concerned with the problem of income inequality and the related issue of the rise in the cost of living, especially housing. It seems like we'd rather have the dream (fantasy) that we'll all some day each become Mark Zuckerberg than the type of economic security and stability that some other 1st world nations enjoy (which comes at the price of entrepreneurship and some economic dynamism it should be noted).
I don't think we're going to full appreciate what we've lost for another few decades but when I looked back at my two grandfathers who worked hard but were home at 6pm and had the money through their respective single incomes in middle management jobs to each support families of 6 (themselves, my grandmothers, and 4 kids each) and play golf ever week, have a boat, take vacations, go skiing, have a small summer camp, etc. I am envious of the lives they had (after they served in the war, of course). All of that seems so out of reach to me, so unimaginable, and I have only 3 kids and make much much more in economically adjusted terms than either of them did. If we get to the beach a couple times a year, and ski 3-4 days a year, I feel like that's a huge accomplishment and big lift economically (in part because I know I have to save >$500k for the college for 3 kids and then a couple million in our retirement accounts since we can't count on social security being still around or any form of public/socialized help). Every month we wonder if we'll make it month to month and every one i know is in the same boat. Everyone is scared that they'll lost their job and everyone works 12-14 hours a day + weekends.
Back to skiing, it's become a luxury industry where corporations are looking to maximize revenue per (affluent) skier rather than attract a wider set of skiers at a lower per day revenue level.
[EDIT] And, it should be noted, millennial have it worse economically than Gen X. It was not treat 1) graduating in the early 90s to a tepid economy, being in my late 20s for the 1-2 bunch of punch of the dot-com bust and 9/11 and then in my mid 30s for the financial crisis -- this is why so many Gen X folks complain about feeling like they got old before they ever got started. But I've come to see that even the Millennials are having a harder time. They have huge debt levels from college and for most of the ones I know the idea of buying a house is completely out of the question (buying a house now is really just yet another huge transfer of wealth from the younger generation to the older generation, just like the recent tax bill to be political again. This is the opposite of what we should be doing. We want our elders to be able to live their lives out in comfort of course, but generally we want wealth flowing from older to younger not the other way around). Then again, we, the nation that came together to lead the victory in WWII and then the space race and cold war, seem to have now decided it's more fun and important to "own the libtards" then deal with climate change, so as others have pointed out there won't be much skiing anyway in a few years.
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