Skiing is a timeless sport, but it is also notoriously expensive. In the early days of skiing and winter sports it was reserved only for the richest and famous people. It makes sense why due to all the gear, clothing, transportation, lift tickets, and food, but how expensive is too expensive?

Skiing became more of a family friendly activity in the late 80s, and early 90s. This is when skiing started to boom due to the amount of young people participating. Though it was still expensive, it wasn’t nearly as inaccessible as earlier years.

Unfortunately, many people predict a spike in ski costs once again. In Utah, big players in this price boom are Snowbasin and Powder Mountain.

First, Snowbasin has consistently been raising their prices for a few years. Between food, passes, and gear, a typical ski trip at Snowbasin could cost you as high as $250 for just one day. This doesn’t seem horrible, but this doesn’t include any rentals if you don’t own your own gear. This price can add up and really become expensive fast.

Powder Mountain has historically been a cheaper resort compared to the other big ones in Utah. But they just raised they’re pricing a lot. In fact, PowMows prices have raised 860%. Yep. 860%. The new season pass ticket costs $1499. Elderly people used to be able to ski free and now they ski for $1049. “Powder Mountain has for a long time had a waitlist of people that want to come up and get a pass, and that meant a lot of disappointed people who couldn’t get one,” general manager Kevin Mitchell “So we want to make the resort available to them.” This is referring to the old cap that PowMow used to have so the passes were limited to keep crowds down. Now, without the cap, there will be double the crowds.

Powder Mountain, and particularly Mitchell and new majority owner Reed Hastings, have gotten an earful since the announcement. In online forums, people have mourned a move they see as the antithesis of the resort’s motto: “Uncrowded by design.” In addition, they’ve completely changed Powder’s management for making a series of subsequent changes. Among them are increased pass prices, paid parking in some areas and greatly diminished benefits for military members, firefighters, teachers, and students.

Many people are posting on social media, slandering the company, and telling exactly what they could do for the price of a season pass. The company rarely responds and when they do they delete it within 24 hours.

In one such post, a person asked why they could fly to Europe and ski for 10 days for the price of 10 tickets to the mountain in their backyard. The official Powder Mountain account responded with two emojis: one of a plane and one of a waving hand. The reaction was later removed but lived on in screenshots posted on the platform.

Powder Mountains price raise has sparked so much controversy in the Utah ski community. And many people are asking the question, is skiing becoming too expensive? Well, technically no. Though Powder Mountain and many, many other ski resorts are doing this, there are still many resorts which are well priced and perfectly rated. Though it seems so, skiing is not getting more expensive.