Resort Skier vs. Backcountry Skier, ROI

I have not looked thru the archives to find any similar threads so do forgive, but with so much down time on my hands and all my weekend projects caught up I had a thought while surfing snow reports...

Question: how does the price per run (PPR) compare to the resort skier? I asked this question to a friend and at first thought it a simple answer that the BC skier wins at zero/run, but he mentioned gear investment is roughly double for the BC guy so we had to figure that into the equation. Here goes...

I have not skied the resort in 3 seasons now just because I love the BC so much more, so I asked a resort skier (RS) friend how many average runs he gets on an good day: 15 was his average. The cost of an adult ticket at Mt Hood Meadows is $69.00 so thats about $4.60/run. So... (Assuming an average BC ski run equals in length an average resort run), the BC skier earns $4.60/run towards the purchase of his gear investment (ROI). For the BC person, his/her savings per run stays the same at $4.60 until his gear is paid off (talk about motivation to hike faster). The resort skier (RS) has to pay off his gear but also pay $4.60/run... and that ticket price is subject to inflation... I'm not quite certain yet how to calculate his "adjusted" PPR. my guess is until he pays off his gear at the same value of $4.60 his PPR is $9.20 (double) not including inflation of resort prices. In both cases there is minimal maintenance cost say if you break something... but technically it's pretty low in both cases... albeit slightly higher for the BC guy. Also the RS skier pays off his initial investment sooner....   Plus there are different savings categories for the RS being if he buys a season pass or not. For my study, I chose not... but its a valid argument.

Then there is a BC guy like me... who has a quiver of gear. And thanks to Steep and cheap and ebay etc... and my cheapskate ass, I can honestly say my gear is most likely paid off by now. My “newest” investment are now 2 years old, K2 Bakers. I literally ski for free.  (...i only paid $150 for my Bakers on ebay... NEW At a conservative average 3 BC runs per day x $4.60 that is $13.80/day I get back on my investment for my skis alone, I estimate 13 BC days last season.... that equals $179.40.... yeah, I'm definitely skiing for free.

I think what I'll do is make myself pay myself a BC "lift ticket" fee of $13.8/day. I'll put the money into a savings jar to cover the cost of my maintenance fee... This is awesome, now I feel like I'm literally being paid to ski the backcountry so I can buy more cool gear

Of course there are many variables in all this, feel free to chime in... but in the end I can add one element to the equation being the quality of the run.... moguls.... WTF?

Anyone?

skiing moguls is kinda fun ...

Sadly I think your math is off. Most of us buy cheap early season passes and the cost per day goes way down. It's gone up a little but there have been years where it cost me 3 bucks a day.

You forgot to quantify the obvious factor of how being a BC only skier makes you way cooler than us mostly lift served types. Oh wait... you weren't saying that? Sorry.

Seriously? Nice quiver BTW.

What Corey said.
With my pass, and the number of days I get in a season, it works out to less than $6 a day, and about .40¢ a run. Obviously I'm not just in it for the powder or perfect days. I'll ski on whatever is available to me given no other choice. Quiver, Heh...

Not taking into account inflation, 20 years ago I used to ski 100 days a year on a $300 student pass and average 30 mogul runs per day on $50 ski swap skis that would typically last one season.  So, my cost per run would be:

$350/100/30=11.7 cents per run.

Now, take into account my tuition fees in having to retake my winter term classes the next semester as approximately $4000 per year and my future knee and back surgeons fees from having skied 3000 mogul runs per year for 10 years of roughly $300,000.  We now have a cost per run of:

11.7 cents + 4000/30/100 + 300,000/10/100/30 = 11.7c + $1.33 + $10 = $11.45 per run.

Now take into account my lost earning potential from flipping burgers for a living while having an engineering degree stashed in the bottom of a box in the shed I was living in as approximately $50,000 per year for 10 years.  We now have a cost per run of:

$11.45 + 50,000/100/30 = $11.45 + $16.67 = $28.12 per run

That equates to:

$28.12 * 30 *100 = $84,360 per year

Wow!! And 20 years later I'm now paying for my kids tickets as well.  Maybe I should take up golf or roulette and save some money.