Ear to the ground

“We should take up a collection and send her to the police academy.”

-A local man offering a suggestion for what to do with an overzealous, local meter-reader

Knee-deep discounting

There’s good news for the dirtbag skier in each of us. In the spirit of Hotwire and Priceline, a new website is bringing cheap lift tickets to the masses. Liftopia.com was started by two avid California skiers. The pair hopes to offer value-based prices on the tickets and help resorts bring in more skiers on slower days.

“You shouldn’t have to pay full price on a Tuesday when the weather is terrible, as on a Sunday where there is fresh powder,” said Ron Schneidermann, co-founder of Liftopia.com. “What we’re trying to do is align the price of the lift ticket with the value.”

Liftopia now has eight ski resort partners, including Colorado’s Crested Butte and Arapahoe Basin; Angel Fire in New Mexico; Kirkwood Mountain Resort, Diamond Peak in Lake Tahoe and Mt. Baldy in California; and Windham Mountain and Shawnee Mountain in New York. But eight is only the beginning. Liftopia hopes to get many more resorts on board throughout the nation.

The website works much like a hotel or airfare discount site, offering “by-day” pricing, which means that lift ticket discounts can change at any time, and some of the largest discounts are during the week and at the last minute. “We’re not trying to target the family who flies into Aspen to ski on the weekend. We want to target the local skiers, the guys who have the flexibility to go mid-week or last-minute,” said Schneidermann.

World Cup returns

Don’t bank on cheap tickets, but it looks like the world’s best skiers are coming to either Aspen or Beaver Creek in early December. Because of lack of snow, World Cup Ski Racing is struggling in Europe, and the International Ski Federation (FIS) hopes to reschedule at least one race in Colorado.

At press time, FIS planned to make an announcement that one of the canceled women’s races in St. Moritz, Switzerland, would move to either Aspen or Beaver Creek on Dec. 9 & 10. In addition, a men’s downhill and super combined race was cancelled in Val d’Isere, France, and though the announcement was still pending, it looks like Aspen or Beaver Creek will host a super combined for both men and women.

For up-to-date details, visit www.fis- ski.com.