There's little a serious skier won't do to save a few bucks on a lift ticket. I've stood on street corners to solicit coupon books. I've stopped at every gas station, grocery store and sporting good store within a 100-mile radius of a resort looking for discounted tickets. But those were the old days, back when we were all walking uphill in the snow to school. With the introduction of discount cards a few years back, the hunt became considerably easier.
Resorts offer the cards to entice skiers back to their slopes.
Each fall skiers head to local snow sport shows to sign up for these cards, which guarantee the holder the cheapest price for a ticket on any given day and a free day of skiing after they've paid for a certain number. In other states, state skiing associations offer up cheap season passes that are good for a set number of visits to each of their resorts. Of course, season passes don't do much for visitors coming in for a week on the slopes. But visitors aren't left out in the cold when it comes to discounted tickets. If you make a few exploratory calls, the first thing the resorts will tell you is that nobody actually pays full price.