You are lucky guys. If I want to ski in my region I pay 23 EUR for a vertical of 250 m and the longest descent is 1.500. For lunch at “Möppi’s” you pay around 10 EUR. The highest peak is the “Kahler Asten”, 840,7 m. This season I started doing some “skitouring” (avoiding skipasses), yes with skins. And then I met a Spaniard there doing the same thing, that was strange. Bookings are good, here the worry is always: Will there be (enough) snow?
Did you guys in Europe know that we idiots in USA pay at a good ski are close to $100 for a day of skiing, and a seasons pass is about $1300 to 1800. Thank you Crown family.
I’ve lived in Cham for ten years and about five years ago bought a house there. I know plenty of brits/foreigners who work really hard to maintain their quality of life in Cham and plenty more who couldn’t cut it and had to go home. In the midst of all this I’m really bored of these useless generalisations about stacks of cash and stupid tourists, everyone I know I cham spends pretty much their entire income, be it 500 or 50,000euro a month, on living. This is the same as London, Paris and Sallanches there is nothing weird or different about the economics of living in Cham.
What is needed though is for Cham to sort out it’s schizophrenia, repeat business (which I understand is the key to success) will never prosper until issues such as the management of lift lines, transport (green transport) and quality of service on the mountain improves for the visitors.
What I mean by this is: if Cham is going to be a hardcore area serving hardcore skiers then that is one particular set of criteria that needs to be adhered to however if Cham has set its sights on the well heeled then this is a contradictory criteria. Russian fat cats don’t want to be sharing bar space with Scando ski bums, and vice versa I’m sure but I’m even more sure that like belly buttons everyone will have their preferences about which flavour of visitors they’d like to see in town (even the persisting delusion at the tourist office of high disposable income, ski mad, French families – they must exist, but not in the Cham saving numbers required). What I’m completely sure about though is that trying to please everyone is sure to result in pleasing no one and after reading this I guess I must be right?
PS A annual pass for residents is ca 500euro, this is stunning value for money in anyone’s language.