Ten Ways to Ski Free

Be young. At many resorts, kids ski free all year. Of course, the little ones have to be accompanied by a ticket-buying adult and the cutoff age varies from resort to resort.

Be old. Many resorts offer free lift tickets to vintage skiers, usually those over the age of 70. Be prepared to show some sort of ID that proves how old you are.

Have a gimmick. Ski areas have a sense of humor. They occasionally give away lift tickets just to see what people would do. Do you have a good memory? On Martin Luther King Day at one resort, if you can recite the full text of his "I Have A Dream" speech, you get a free lift ticket. At another place, reciting the Gettysburg Address on Lincoln's birthday will get you a free one.

Go to Crested Butte. In an effort to attract early and late season skiers to the town's lodging and restaurants, this central Colorado resort slashed prices to the bare bone and beyond. In recent years, Crested Butte has offered free lift tickets until December 1 and after April 1.

Learn to ski. In the great American tradition of the free sample, many resorts and resort associations offer a way for beginners to try skiing without cost or obligation. These packages usually include rentals and a lesson as well as a lift ticket. Significant restrictions, however, do apply. These promotions are limited to certain dates and are good only for learn-to-ski packages. But you can't beat the price.

Buy in bulk. Skiing is not dissimilar to paper towels - if you buy a lot all at once it's cheaper. All resorts sell multi-day tickets - two-, three-, or five-day passes - that are much cheaper than buying a series of single-day passes. At many areas you can buy a book of tickets - say ten - in advance. The savings are usually significant enough that at least one day of skiing is essentially free.

Bring a friend. This is simple. At many ski areas, if you bring a first timer for their first day on skis, you can get a voucher for a lift ticket for yourself. Most ski areas have group sales departments and among the incentives they offer are free tickets for the organizer of the group.

Ski a lot. You've heard of frequent flier cards? Well how about a frequent skier card? At many resorts, skiing begets more skiing (or more to the point, buying lift tickets begets more lift tickets). If you accumulate enough points under a resort's affinity program, you can trade them for free lift tickets.

Buy a season ticket. At many ski resorts, season passes are so cheap that the break-even point is 20 days or less, so if you ski a lot, you can practically ski half the season for free. A few areas are selling season tickets so cheap - around $200 if you buy well in advance - that even a vacationer could take advantage of the deal.

Volunteer. You know those people who stand around the resort on weekends in their mountain-issued jackets, answering questions, giving directions and generally being courteous? Well, come Monday most of those mountain ambassadors go back to being accountants, carpenters or school teachers. That means that you too could volunteer for this kind of program, which usually doesn't pay but does carry a free lift ticket.