Skiing Is Obscenely Expensive. The Resort That Makes a $329 Lift Ticket Feel Worth It
Skift Take
On Experience
Colin Nagy is a marketing strategist and writes on customer-centric experiences and innovation across the luxury sector, hotels, aviation, and beyond. You can read all of his writing here.For the past several seasons, I've flown out to Park City, Utah, to ski at Deer Valley with a mixture of anticipation and, yes, a slight wince at the price tag. But something remarkable happens each time I visit: That sticker shock fades away. Instead, I focus on the meticulously crafted experience.
What strikes me isn't just the groomed corduroy runs or the relative lack of lift lines – it's the narrative consistency that extends from their upstream marketing promises to the smallest service interactions.
It's the thoughtfulness evident when a server ensures the hot chocolate isn't too hot for my nephew in ski school (I actually witnessed an ice cube being placed in the children’s cocoa while they were on a break), or when a lift operator notices a first-timer's uncertainty and offers reassurance.
Everything communicates luxury, detail, and warmth, and the brand is delivering this consistently.
Deer Valley was founded by Edgar Stern, a hotelier with an obsession for elevated hospitality and was a big disruptor at that time. Europe had its resorts for the well heeled like Saint Moritz but this was a new concept stateside back in 1981.
Back to the present day, skiing in the States has become an obscenely expensive proposition. With day passes at major
