The best time to strike is when the iron is hot. Likewise the best time to go on a ski vacation is whenever you can get away. But if you have the luxury of picking your window the folks at Ski.com have crunched all the numbers on the three key factors and came up with the week of January 28 to February 3.
“Price, crowds and snow conditions are the top three factors that can make or break a ski vacation,” says Dan Sherman, CMO at Ski.com. “While we know not everyone has the luxury of flexible dates when booking a mountain getaway, we have found the last week of January through the first few days of February to be the perfect time to travel this winter. While the absolute lowest pricing and least crowded resorts can be found in early November and late April when conditions are less predictable, this week offers the best possible combination of all three factors.”
As one of the largest custom ski vacation designers, Ski.com used its own database of 25,000 reservations and 46 years of business to make the prediction.
In a press release the company said skiing for five days at Jackson Hole or Breckenridge between January 28 and February 3 is 45 percent cheaper than in December. The week is also a lull in travel across the ski industry, with fewer arrivals booked so far. That translates to shorter lift lines, less competition for fresh snow and fewer crowds at apres-ski attractions. As for the snow, that’s the hardest one to predict, but late January tends to correspond with solid snowpacks and predictable mid-winter weather.
RYAN REPORT is a frequent web post by Ski Canada magazine’s technical editor, Ryan Stuart.
