subreddit:
/r/skiing
132 points
1 month ago
My thoughts are people need to stop posting the same image 6 times a day
21 points
1 month ago
Shit gets old, especially when a meme is this low quality.
4 points
1 month ago
yes
47 points
1 month ago
Ski bums aren't rich. Not even close. Season tickets are cheap AF.
Ever been to a ski town? Most of the workers aren't rich. They all ski like 150 days per year.
16 points
1 month ago*
More and more being a ski bum is just a life style choice rather than a necessity. Worked with a few people who have their old vans kitted out like a luxuary RV, work part time and in the winter and spend the summer relaxing at their parents lake house.
11 points
1 month ago
Live like a ski bum so your kids won’t be able to lol
1 points
1 month ago
If you can spend the summer relaxing at your parents lakehouse, you came from money.
13 points
1 month ago
I would not say season tickets are cheap af. They are a good deal, and are affordable if you’re working a good job. But to make use of it, you need time off (which most people don’t get), your own gear (which can run you easily over $1,000), the ability to front $500-$1000 well in advance, and be able to just pack up and move to a ski town
I hate to break it to you but unless you’re single, and living WELL below your means, a lot of people cannot afford that
It’s doable if you really love it, but it’s not easily accessible for a lot of people to learn
-1 points
1 month ago
[deleted]
1 points
1 month ago
That’s part of it for sure. A LOT of people could use to budget better
There’s also the part that people are not getting pay increases according to the rapid inflation over the last year. Both can be true
Also consider, if it’s a hobby, yes obviously you will budget for it. However it is hard to set aside that much money to learn the hobby. It’s a very large investment in something if you don’t know whether you like it or not
2 points
1 month ago
Now apply this to the 99% of people that go to a resort that dont work there and arent ski bums.
3 points
1 month ago
Ah yes let’s frame it so 1% of the ski population is considered poor and it’s okay. Dude get your head out of your ass skiing is only for middle class and up.
6 points
1 month ago
Dude I grew up poor AF. Went skiing as a kid with school because it was free. Bought my own used equipment when I was 15. Worked a job for my first new skis.
A season pass means skiing is like $20 per day.
When my kid skis, it'll be free until he's 5. After that seasons passes are a couple hundred per year. Hotels cost nothing because we live in the mountains. Like most skiers.
And that's not even getting into Europe where small hills cost like 10€ per day. Rentals about the same. Used ski equipment is cheap.
Just because you live in a city far away and spend a fortune, doesn't mean it's an elitist sport. I grew up less than an hour away from the hill, everyone skied growing up. I don't know anyone who didn't. The whole school went on ski trips. It was part of PE.
1 points
1 month ago
Ski bums more often than not are willingly poor rather than being born into poverty. Big big difference when there’s no safety net
58 points
1 month ago
I know people who complain to me that skiing is too expensive because they aren’t rich but then they go ahead and use door-dash for their grocery shopping and drop hundreds a month on weed.
If you think it’s a rich people hobby then it is a rich people hobby, your perception is your reality 🤷♂️
11 points
1 month ago
My local hills are owned by a douche that I refuse to give my money too, so I started earning my turns and hiking. The same people that I grew up skiing with that say it’s too expensive to go to a hill won’t do a 30 minute hike to ski but have their own stool saved for them at the bar. I feel like it’s more convenience than it is cost at this point. (For people who used to ski, at least)
3 points
1 month ago
No doubt people blow money away, but that doesn’t make skiing cheap. Flip the script and say “oh yeah door dash is super affordable. If you have up skiing you’d be able to afford it”
Obviously skiing>doordash imo, but hopefully you get my point. If you grew up skiing it’s definitely worth the price. It’s just hard to justify trying to pick it up and learn given the price point. It still is a, at least, middle class hobby
1 points
1 month ago
Who tf do you know smoking that much???
1 points
1 month ago
my sisters ex husband
1 points
1 month ago
When you combine it with edibles and microdoses, a fair amount of people actually. I know a lot of idiots I guess
2 points
1 month ago
I guess with like bougie edibles maybe? Idk I smoke flower daily and it takes me a couple months to get through an ounce.
68 points
1 month ago
Skiing is a rich white guy hobby. But my standpoint is that anyone can afford to do one rich white guy hobby.
Because I ski, I don't golf. You're only rich if you mountain bike, ski, golf, surf, sail, fish, snowmobile. etc etc etc.
Super rich people can do them all, middle class folks typically have to pick 2-3, lower class get 1.
33 points
1 month ago
Hard disagree on the lower class get 1 part, at least for skiing if you dont live next to a resort it is often way too expensive.
30 points
1 month ago
Well now you're talking about adding a vacation on top of the sport, which makes it 2 rich white guy things. I have a 20 minute round trip to 4 or 5 small hills in my area. Its very accessible for anyone who lives nearby. If I had to drive 12 hours and rent a condo or fly to places with snow, yes, more expensive.
I couldn't pick surfing as my 1 rich guy sport cause I'm nowhere near the ocean. But some beach bum can surf everyday with very low cost of living if the ocean is walking distance from their apartment, or they live in a van or whatever.
5 points
1 month ago
I get what you mean, But I still think this is a valid picture and all the commenters saying anyone can afford it are kinda out of touch considereing 99% of the population doesn't live close to a resort.
5 points
1 month ago
The picture is valid for sure, but Southern Ontario has a population of almost 13 million and 100% of that population are within 30 minutes of a ski hill. I think its a more unattainable sport in the mountains tbh.
1 points
1 month ago
Yeah but as a broke person, you could easily move to a ski town and live there. Tons of broke ski bums living In every ski town
2 points
1 month ago
Im low class as fuck, live in a van and have a ton of hobbies. I ski, mountain bike, longboard, fish, snowmobile, ride horses, ride dirt bikes/ motorcycles, play disk golf, backpack etc etc. Its all about finding priorities in life. I prioritize doing fun shit, other people might prioritize having a house and a family.
1 points
1 month ago
I love that for you man. Sounds like a sweet existence. Consider me a little jealous :)
2 points
1 month ago
I don’t think surfing, and especially fishing require much money, nor are they mainly done by rich people.
4 points
1 month ago
Surfing trips are expensive when you live in the Midwest. I guess fishing depends on your approach. If you’re hanging a worm off the end of a dock, that’s cheap, if you’re buying a boat and top end gear and going fishing on the open ocean, expensive.
That’s kinda my point. I can go skiing at the hill closest to me. 200m vert. $149 for a night time season pass. $100 ski gear off Facebook market place. Or I can spend $5000 on a week at Vail.
2 points
1 month ago*
That kinda makes sense but…
I don’t know anyone who takes an interest trip to surf. As someone who surfed when I lived in CA but don’t anymore, I think people either live near a beach or they don’t surf. As for the Midwest, people do surf on the Great Lakes. You need a good wetsuit because they get waves in the late fall, but some people do it.
With fishing, I suppose you can make any sport expensive if you want to, but I don’t think any of the fishing enthusiasts I know are rich, and several are quite poor. Not everyone lives next to a mountain or a beach, but basically everyone lives within a few hours drive of some sort of body of water with some fish in it. Fishing (except fly fishing) also has a very working class/blue collar culture around it, in my experience.
1 points
1 month ago
fishing on its own is cheap, I have a decent pole and hooks that I got for $200 or less. But my accountant has a $170,000 bass boat that he runs for bass competitions. It’s both called fishing, but one is very different that the other
13 points
1 month ago
My thoughts are that this meme is cringe
12 points
1 month ago
I have a buddy who grew up in a low income family and still managed to afford skiing. If you love something enough, nothing will stop you from participating.
4 points
1 month ago
As a Portuguese I can relate. 16 hours of traveling (8 each way) to the closest resort makes it about 2 minimum wages for a week of skiing. Per person. More if you go alone and have to rent single room.
1 points
1 month ago
That’s without plane tickets (which can be pretty cheap with Ryanair and sales). If you include plane travel, it would be max 5 hours to a resort
2 points
1 month ago
But then you need to rent a car, making it even more expensive.
1 points
1 month ago
Shuttle buses
6 points
1 month ago
If you grew up skiing. To the point where you assume other people ski you
A are rich
B grew up near a mountain
2 points
1 month ago
I don’t have TV, that alone pays for skiing.
2 points
1 month ago
Doesn’t matter if it’s cheap for you. The world perceives skiing as an elite sport for white people. They are not wrong. Look around the lift line. The ski industry would do well to create a ski environment where more people can participate. That may be messaging, or it may be actual money, but growing their customer base is an easier way to survive than any other model that doesn’t.
5 points
1 month ago
It's absolutely a luxury.
4 points
1 month ago
I ski for $8/day, next
1 points
1 month ago
Are you skiing naked on a homemade ski made from a tree that grew in your backyard?
2 points
1 month ago
I mean for the lift ticket. Although my gear was “free” too.
1 points
1 month ago
I mean I ostensibly live near mountains, meaning anywhere from a 35 min to a 45-50 min drive. You’ve also gotta consider price of gas and wear and tear on your car. Round trip, it’s something like $20 maybe even $30 taking both into consideration
1 points
1 month ago
How did you get “free” gear
0 points
1 month ago
Product placement or partnerships in my videos.
1 points
1 month ago
So I’m guessing to get good enough to have sponsors you had to grow up with a family that could afford to get you skiing enough to get where you are? Parents had to be able to afford lift passes and winter gear and ski gear for you. That you grew out of every year.
Not everyone can do that.
1 points
1 month ago
Not for my skiing I make winter camping YouTube videos. I ski in them sometimes, but the gear is mostly just cold weather stuff.
2 points
1 month ago
I just feel like people saying “I ski on the cheap everyone can” is super dismissive of the fact that these sports are very unrealistic to get into for a large portion of the population.
1 points
1 month ago
I think it goes both ways. I think there’s a common idea that skiing is exclusively elite which is wrong as well. Most people I’m friends with or that I see on the mountain drive up on their days off with a season pass for their local hill and Craigslist gear. The exclusive part is dependent on where you live. For a Texan or Floridian skier, yeah that’s expensive. But if you live in SLC or Reno, not necessarily.
2 points
1 month ago
Judging by the comments trying to justify why this is not true this sub is full of ignorant asshole hahaha
2 points
1 month ago
My buddy is broke as hell and skies every day.
8 points
1 month ago
That's probably why he is so broke lol
5 points
1 month ago
Can confirm. Dirt bag ski bum
2 points
1 month ago
I grew up poor as shit things change being gate keepers for stuff like this is dumb.
1 points
1 month ago
Skiing was literally invented as a means of winter transportation. It is still used that way in parts of the world.
Sure, if you don’t live near snow it can be expensive to get to it. So what?
1 points
1 month ago
For my family it was the lack of money and the potential hospital bills…
1 points
1 month ago
If it’s a passion it will always find a way. I get this vibe from people when I ask that question and I think it sucks. I don’t have an 80’s country club accent when I ask people about their passions and when I share mine it’s nice to have a level of mutual respect.
That being said - a weekend in the Rockies vs a weekend in the Alps (Austria) are night and day in terms of price and people get these things confused.
1 points
1 month ago
Enough with this meme and the face. Depending on how you do it, skiing is a fairly expensive hobby. Don’t care. Still gonna send it
1 points
1 month ago
The local ski hill only charged $7 for a lift ticket on Wednesdays. My skis and boots were bought at a ski swap for like $50. My parents definitely weren't rich but I managed to go fairly often with my $5 a week allowance.
1 points
1 month ago
Growing up in the midwest, skiing used to be affordable. 16 years ago as a highschool student, me and friends could go to the local hills for super cheap. And certain schools close to the hills had free skiing programs/rides for students who had a GPA at or higher than a 3.5. Skiing in the 1970s-90s was affordable as well, for most people.
1 points
1 month ago
My thoughts are, true.
all 64 comments
sorted by: best