Cost of Banff Ski Pass

Hi All,

Hope you all had a Merry Crimbo.

Am off to Banff end of January 2009 for 11 days.

Regarding Ski Passes for the Big 3.....can buy pass from Holiday Company here. I wondered if it's cheaper/easier to buy in the resort?

Many Thanks

Much of a muchness, bloody expensive whatever you do and the TO's will not be much cheaper. You will love Banff :D

Cheers

I buy as ski pass yearly and find that the cost of same will pay for itself in nine or ten days of skiing. If you intend to ski that many days the yearly pass may be the cheapest route to go. At almost $1400 for that pass it will take 18 days of skiing to pay.

The next cheapest is to by multi-day passes or a card for each area. these passes are only available locally and usually allow the 3,5,7 day free which saves $200 or so.

I would ski one area for a few days at a time rather than get the big 3. Multi-day passes are usually 10-15% cheaper than daily passes. You may find that you won't ski Norquay for instance unless you are an expert skier - not too many easy hills there. Sunshine will probably be you best bet for the easier stuff. LL will be your big mountain experience with 3 distinct mountains to ski on. Each mountain has different terrain and will seem like a whole mountain.

You can also do as I do, get up early ski the AM and flog your day pass in the parking lot to someone for cash equal to half day price is about right. This allows half day rates when the snow is the best. Normal half days start at 12:30pm or so and are about 2/3 the cost of a whole day. It's great to do this while you are jet lagged or hung over whatever. :oops:

If you choose to ski the big 3 great - don't forget to get one day down the road to Kicking Horse. That's the real Canuk experience as there are few "touri" who wish to venture that far - all of one hour past LL and worth the trek. Check out the web site and see if I lie. When you go dine at the top of the gondola for a real experience. Order the salmon mmmmmm. Kicking Horse is my favorite RR resort. I will be there a week in late JanFeb on my way to Whistler. :mrgreen:

Don't know if I helped..... best of fun and a big Western Canada welcome to you. As we say out west Yahoo!, with a tip of the Stetson to y'all.

Yup you will see cowboy boots, rodeo belt buckles and Levis galore out this way - seriously. It ain't Montana but we all have real cowboys in the Rockies in Canada too!

Check out my cowboy hero Corb Lund on YouTube to get in the mood.
So Long, dude.

JamesA - Hi, Do the individual area passes include the Ski Bus?
We've heard that if you don't buy the Big3 Whole Area pass that you have to pay for the Ski Bus @ $15/day, is this correct do you know?

There's 6 of us going to Banff in early March and we've been scouting around for the cheapest lift passes as Inghams want to charge us £432 for 10/13 days for the whole area. (£264 for 6 days plus £42 per additional day).

Buying direct from www.skibig3.com works out about the same @$78.35 per day, that is unless the pound takes a steep rise upwards and we can get a better exchange rate - we can live in hope!!

The single area passes (ie. Norquay, Sunshine, Lake Louise) DO NOT include the Ski Bus.

Note, Norquay is pronounced 'Norkway' not 'Norkey'

Thanks Ross. I think it will be wise just to buy the Whole Area pass before we go, less to worry about once we're there.

Yeh the busses are pretty awesome and most of the drivers pretty decent. Where are you staying?

I was in Banff last year and will be going back in March this year. My advice on the lift pass would be to got with Inghams, its organised, all in, and bought and paid for before you go!!!

Are you heading out this year Ross? And did you do your CSIA with the Rockies Academy?