Expect to get reamed in the ass HARD when it comes to lift tickets...you really will not find any discount lift tickets at Steamboat, so expect to pay full price (74 to 81$ depending on when you're here).  As mentioned, the Boat cracks down hard on people selling their lift tickets so don't really expect any sort of hook up.
As for cliffs, there are some small ones inbounds in St. Pats and East Face, but if you're looking for some truly legit shit you gotta go out of bounds into Fish to find it.  Hells Wall goes 80 to 90 feet I'd say, so there are some big cliffs out there...