Im with everybody else, skiing is way expensive and over priced. Be careful riding without a pass though. My GF got caught at my local hill. They did the same thing, escorted us to the lodge and they gave me the whole story that if they catch people poaching their policy is to make you buy a full day lift ticket, ban you from the mountain for the day, and if they feel the need to, they can have the state troopers arrest you. Good times. I ended up buying her a season pass that day. Gotta love inflation, every year tickets/passes get higher and higher, what do they expect ski bums to do.