Rising Cost Of Fun

Some chichi Western ski areas this year are charging $50 for a lift ticket. Some people say that’s obscene. Maybe it is.

The original “F” word in skiing was, of course, “forty.” A decade ago, the price of a lift ticket was rising like a spring thermometer through the thirties, pushing toward a number people scarcely wanted to breathe: “forty bucks.”

Costs of liability insurance skyrocketed as class after class of ambulance chasers emerged from law school looking for work.

Nevertheless, alpine skiing - not counting travel costs - still compares favorably to other draws on the entertainment dollar. In 1975, lift tickets, good for at least six hours of recreation, cost $15-$18 a day at the top end, which makes today’s average of around $42 a 20-year increase of about 150 percent.

Other indices

Item 1975 1995 %increase hours

Round of golf $20 $50 150 4

Red Sox ticket 7 20 185 3

Bruins ticket 16 40 150 3

Celtics 8 69 750 3

First run movie 3 7.50 150 3

Rock concert 10 38 280 4

Box of Cheerios .99 3.99 400 -

You see, everything costs at least three times what it did in 1975 but few things are any better or of any greater quantity. Except skiing.

Resorts have produced more and wider trails, more open glades for tree hoppers, longer bump runs, machine-made snow on the trails, much better grooming.

High-speed lifts give customers much more skiing than in the past. A monster ski day from a couple of decades ago was 10 to 12 runs. Today skiers can do that by lunchtime.