Methodology · Planning
How Skiboard reads ski pass prices
Every day-pass price on Skiboard was read on the operator’s own ticket shop or tariff page, on a stated day, and links the page it was read on. 176 of the 304 Swiss ski areas in the catalog have one for Sat 16 Jan 2027, read on 24 Oct 2026; 42 of them at the shop’s price for that date. This page says how the reading works, step by step, what it leaves out, and how newsrooms and researchers may use it.
Step by step
One ticket per area: the adult one-day pass
For each area Skiboard reads one price: the adult day pass for the whole area, as the operator names it. An area’s own pass comes before a regional one, and where the pistes are reached only by a cable car, the pass that includes it. A small area sold on a region’s pass shows that pass’s price, and the ticket’s name under the area says so. 5 areas that straddle the French border sell in euros; their price is shown as sold, with francs at the European Central Bank’s reference rate of the day it was read.
Only where the operator sells or publishes it
A price is read on the operator’s own shop, on the marketplace that resells it where the operator sells nowhere else (Ticketcorner Peak), or on the operator’s tariff page: 134 shops and pages for the 176 areas, never a portal or a price comparison. The readers obey each site’s robots.txt and make the requests a visitor’s browser makes: no key, no account, no purchase. Where a shop asks for a card or a login before it shows a price, the area has no price.
Every morning, for three days
The readers run every morning between six and nine, Swiss time, and ask each source for three days: the coming Saturday, the coming Sunday, and a reference day, the third Saturday in January (Sat 16 Jan 2027 this winter), which is on sale as soon as an operator’s winter prices are up. A shop price is shown for 36 hours after it was read and a tariff for 8 days; after that the area shows no price rather than an old one. The January guide is a dated snapshot of that reference day; the weekend pages carry each morning’s read.
Say which price it is: online or tariff
“Online” (42 areas) is the shop’s price for that date on the morning it was read. Where the area prices by date or by demand, it can be higher or lower when you buy, which is why every price carries its date. “Tariff” (134 areas) is the operator’s published price for the season, the same whenever you buy. Skiboard knows which shops sell a price per date; it does not know why a price is what it is, so it never says which areas price “by demand”.
Count what is covered, and say what is not
176 of the 304 areas in the catalog have a price for Sat 16 Jan 2027, among them 59 of the 65 with 20 km of pistes or more. The 128 without one mostly still show last winter’s tariff, publish no price at all, have a shop that does not sell this winter yet, are covered by a neighbour’s regional pass, or run a site that refuses automated reading. Their pages say “price pending”, and they join the tables the morning their operator publishes this winter’s price. Nothing is estimated, carried over from last year or copied from another site.
Keep every answer as it arrived
Every page and every shop answer is archived as it arrived, since the first run on 23 October 2026. A price on Skiboard can be traced back to the page that said it on that morning, and a price history for one day of the winter can be read out of the archive on request.
Correct what an operator says is wrong
An operator who finds a wrong price, ticket name or shop link writes to hello@skiboard.ch or through the page for ski areas, and it is corrected for free: the fix goes into the reader, so the next morning reads it right. Skiboard sells no tickets and takes no fee from a ticket link; the stay links on resort pages are partner links, disclosed where they appear, and never change the ranking or a price.
Use the data, with the source
Newsrooms, researchers and operators may use the prices for free with “Source: Skiboard” and a link to the page they come from. The price guide, the weekend page and each resort page are the public tables; a table for a chosen Saturday, or a price history, comes on request from hello@skiboard.ch. The limits, so they are not misread: adult one-day passes only, no children’s, family, multi-day or season passes; the price when it was read, not when someone buys; no rental, travel or parking; and not every area.
The day-pass dataset as read on 24 Oct 2026
| What | Count |
|---|---|
| Ski areas in the catalog someone can ski on this winter | 304 |
| Areas with an adult day pass Skiboard reads | 176from 134 shops and tariff pages |
| Of the areas with 20 km of pistes or more | 59 / 65 |
| Read in a shop, at the shop’s price for the date | 42“online” in the tables |
| Read on a published tariff, the same all winter | 134“tariff” in the tables |
| Sold in euros, converted at the ECB rate of the day | 5 |
| Median adult day pass for Sat 16 Jan 2027, 20 km or more | CHF 6959 areas |
| Median at the smaller areas | CHF 34117 areas |
| Shown for, after a read: a shop price / a tariff | 36 h / 8 dthen no price at all |
Last reviewed 2026-10-24. Catalog facts from OpenSkiMap; this is not a live snow report.
What the ranking does with a price
The weekend ranking scores the day’s price where the weekend is on sale and the January price until then, and measures each pass against what areas of the same mapped size and vertical charged for the reference day (the “Value” preset, and the “for the size” line on each resort page). A pass holder’s ranking drops the price weight instead of scoring it. A price never moves an area up or down on its own: snow, weather, travel time and crowds weigh in alongside.
Questions
- Where do Skiboard’s ski pass prices come from?
- From each operator’s own ticket shop or tariff page, read every morning for the coming weekend and for Sat 16 Jan 2027: 134 shops and pages for 176 areas as of 24 Oct 2026. Never from a portal, a comparison site or last year’s list. Every price links the page it was read on and says which day it was read.
- Are the prices live?
- They are a morning’s read, dated. A shop price is shown for 36 hours and a tariff for 8 days, then the area shows no price rather than a stale one. A shop that prices by demand may ask something else by the evening, so the page you buy on is the price you pay.
- Why does an area say “price pending”?
- Because no price for this winter could be read: the operator still shows last winter’s tariff, publishes none, has a shop that does not sell the winter yet, is covered by a neighbour’s regional pass, or runs a site that refuses automated reading. 128 of the 304 areas were in that state on 24 Oct 2026. Nothing is estimated in their place.
- Can I use the prices in an article or a study?
- Yes, for free, with “Source: Skiboard” and a link to the page the numbers come from. Tables for a chosen Saturday and price histories from the archive come on request from hello@skiboard.ch. Quote the limits with them: adult one-day passes, the price when read, not every area.
- Does Skiboard sell tickets or earn from the prices?
- No. Skiboard sells no tickets, is affiliated with no operator or shop and takes no fee from a ticket link; the ranking cannot be bought. The stay links on resort pages are partner links, disclosed where they appear, and never change the ranking or a price.
Sources
- European Central Bank: euro reference exchange rates
- Ticketcorner Peak: the ski areas whose passes it resells