Dynamic ski pass prices: what moves them, and how to pay less

Two clocks: the day you ski and the day you buy

A dynamic ski pass carries two prices. One depends on the day you ski: a February Saturday costs more than a Tuesday in mid-January. The other depends on the day you buy: the same Saturday costs more on the Wednesday before than it did in October. The table shows the first clock only, because the shops were asked on one morning. For the second, the best public evidence is the Konsumentenschutz’s watch of nine dynamic areas through the 2023/24 winter: prices rose and never fell, the rise sped up two to three weeks before the ski day, the biggest jump came in the last six or seven days, and buying on the day itself was always the most expensive. In February 2025, Laax charged CHF 120 to people who bought on the morning of the ski day (SRF); this October, its shop asked CHF 97 for the dearest day of the coming winter. Arosa Lenzerheide keeps last winter’s ceiling, CHF 84 online and CHF 89 at the counter (Blick); in October, the most its shop asked for any day read was CHF 69.

Not every shop that prices by date does it the same way. Across the 53 shops we saw four models. One price all winter: 23 shops, among them Andermatt-Sedrun (CHF 92), Saas Fee (CHF 86) and Villars (CHF 75). A calendar of seasons: Zermatt asked CHF 92, 94 and 104 depending on the week, Verbier CHF 71.10, 80.10 and 82.80. A weekend surcharge: the Jungfrau region asked CHF 79 on weekdays outside the holidays and CHF 83 at weekends; Flumserberg CHF 72 and CHF 76. And a price that changes almost daily: Laax asked 45 different prices across the 57 days read, St. Moritz Corviglia 41, Arosa Lenzerheide 23.

What the shops asked across the winter

Holidays move the price more than weekends do. At 26 of the 30 areas that price by date, the season’s highest price first came between 19 December and 3 January, or in February, when the cantons take their sports holidays in turn. St. Moritz Corviglia shows it plainly: CHF 102 on Tue 29 Dec, CHF 71 on Sat 16 Jan, CHF 100.50 on Tue 9 Feb. A February Tuesday there costs more than a January Saturday.

Where the week matters, Saturday is the dear day. At 19 of the 30, the median Saturday cost more than the median Tuesday. Laax on the weekend the January price guide uses: CHF 85 on Sat 16 Jan, CHF 74.50 on the Sunday, CHF 62.50 on Tue 19 Jan. Sunday cost less than Saturday on most weekends at Arosa Lenzerheide, Laax, Engelberg-Titlis and Lenk; at 14 areas the median Saturday and Sunday cost the same.

The cheapest days are at the edges of the season. At 23 of the 30, the lowest price fell in December before the Christmas holidays or from mid-March. Laax’s lowest was CHF 52.50 on Tue 1 Dec, its highest CHF 97 on Tue 16 Feb.

23 shops asked one price for every day read. For some that is a choice made against the trend: Sörenberg dropped dynamic pricing in 2024/25 (its shop asked CHF 64 for every day), Crans-Montana and Gstaad did for this winter, and Andermatt, Sedrun and Disentis campaign with the line “Transparent statt dynamisch”, transparent instead of dynamic. Crans-Montana’s shop asked CHF 79 for every day; Gstaad’s, on its new seasonal fixed prices, CHF 84 and 89.

Why resorts do it

A lift costs nearly the same to run whether it carries 500 skiers or 5,000, and it cannot carry more than its capacity. A high price on the days everyone wants is meant to spread people over the week and the season; a low early price fills days that would stay empty, and brings the money in before anyone knows how the snow will be. “On such days we are simply at capacity,” Laax chairman Reto Gurtner told SRF about his CHF 120 days in February 2025.

It also earns more per skier. A Lucerne University of Applied Sciences study of 65 areas found the extra revenue came mainly from charging each guest more, not from more guests (SRF, 2023). Seilbahnen Schweiz counts 56% of a 39-area sample on dynamic prices for 2026/27 (watson). The bill falls on the people who decide late: day-trippers who wait for the forecast, and families tied to the school holidays.

Why it is so hard to compare

The price exists only in the shop, one date at a time. Portals and snow reports print one list price per season, a “from” price, or nothing. Zermatt’s “from CHF 89” holds only from 1 to 27 November and from 19 April; for the days in between, its shop asked CHF 92, 94 and 104. Adelboden-Lenk and Engelberg-Titlis publish neither a minimum nor a maximum price (Blick). And when the Konsumentenschutz checked twelve dynamic areas in January 2025, six refunded nothing for illness or injury: Aletsch Arena, Chäserrugg, Crans-Montana, Engadin St. Moritz, Gstaad and Zermatt. Five of them sell insurance instead.

That gap is why Skiboard reads prices the way this table was read: from each operator’s own shop, every morning, for the coming Saturday and Sunday. Each area’s page shows that weekend’s price once it is on sale, and “What a day pass costs this weekend” puts them all side by side.

How to pay less

Three levers follow from the table: buy early where the shop prices by date, since the price only rises towards the day and the window on the morning is the dearest; ski a Sunday, a weekday or the edges of the season, where 23 of the 30 shops had their lowest price; and where you want to decide on Thursday, pick an area with one tariff. The guide to paying less takes these and six more step by step, each with the number behind it, and names the day passes furthest below what areas of their size charge.