Grew up near the mountains, learned skiing in kindergarten, went skiing so frikkin much as a teenager and young adult.

Haven't been skiing in years now, mostly because it's no longer affordable. Used to go skiing in the afternoon, just after getting out of school, but all those little lifts have closed because there's not enough snow any more. Skiing resorts used to be nearby and affordable, but they're no longer an option, either.

There was a scandal a few years ago with one of the bigger resorts because people had bought season passes, but even at higher altitude there were only a couple of weeks of good snow, and the resort refused to refund. They've since put in new water ponds and pumps and snow cannons, and they invested in new snowcats and trail groomers and all that jazz, but ultimately that just means that tickets are now incredibly expensive, while the season is still significantly shorter than it used to be.

That leaves traveling all the way to one of the big resorts high up in the mountains, and that's just not economical. The best option for going there is really going on a ski vacation for a week, buying a week pass, staying in a hotel, maybe getting some combo deal...

But essentially, the proposition has changed from "want to spend 20 bucks and go skiing for a day" to "want to spend 2,000 bucks and go skiing for a week?"

On the flip side, alpine hiking is pretty great, and it's still pretty affordable!