With the ever increasing price of gas, I'm sure there will be many of us re-examining our mode of transportation to ski resorts. Winter Park has the ski train that provides an efficient way to get to the mountains, but what about your nook in the woods? What are some alternatives that your home mountain (or others) that provide more cost and environmentally friendly alternatives?

__________________
Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take
But by the number of moments that take your breath away~

No real alternatives out here. But the larger cities will hopefully start some charter bus options for weekends. Sugarloaf plans to expand its shuttle bus service and may be heading daily down to the nearest "big" town (big being a relative word). Otherwise, they may wind up VERY short-handed next season for employees. Many come up from that town's college campus.

Not sure what I will do. It may come down to a budget choice between heating oil and gasoline. Many parts of New England (especially rural) never advanced beyond the 1950's and prodigious use of heating oil for homes. (same as diesel, same price) Next winter is going to be unimaginable for this part of the country.

My monthly heating bill will be between $600-1,000.

We have been considering various means to supplement our heating which is oil based. I'm not sure I would have it differently however, regardless of cost. I really would not feel comfortable with natural gas coming into our house - too many news stories of houses blowing up have been imprinted in my brain. I know it's not a common occurance to have a gas leak and the subsequent consequences, but it's not a situation I want to have around to let my mind run off in paranoid fashion. As for electric heat I'm not big fan of that - it *might* be cheaper than oil this year, but traditionally has not been. Additionally it's truly a problem if you lose power you have no heat source - at least with the oil burner there may be a work around.

So things we have looked into have included wood pellet stoves/inserts - we considered these about 2 years ago as well and were pretty convinced we might get one of these by this fall, but at last look the stores/manufacturers have all jacked up the prices - no way prices have just gone up that much in such a short time. So perhaps we'll check regular woodburning stoves and inserts. Otherwise we may look into some of the portable type heaters. We've already planned on keeping our thermostats much lower and actually pulling out the heavy comforter. I have a feeling the kitties may be spending much more time sleeping with us this winter.

^^^ I lived with natural gas for about, oh, 45 years, w/o incident. This "fear" in New England of same is one of the reasons we are in the situation we're in right now. It's unfortunate. I have friends back in the Midwest who pay less than 1/4 of we do to heat the same square footage. It's like anything else: the mishaps are news and rare.

Pellets will inevitably go higher because paper mills have cornered the market on them for pulp production. No argument there: DH works at one, and our livelihood depends on it. Better option is regulation wood-burning. Wood by the cord will still be more reasonable (although all will be more $) than pellets.

If power goes out, your oil burner can't function. Period. Requires electric, also the pump to send the water through the pipes. Generator or bust.

We have 3 small electric space heaters that we use in various rooms when we're in them. They work fine. Go in, turn it on, leave, turn it off. Cheaper than jacking thermostat last winter. This coming winter, hands down cheaper.

New England is still stuck in the 1950's for home heating technology. Sorry, them's the facts.

The Winter Park Ski train is a ton of fun...but at an extra I think, $45/person, it is still less expensive to drive yourself.

__________________
I'm not a native, but I got here as fast as I could

Oh I fully admit that my fear of gas is completely irrational, but alas it is what it is. I've nearly always lived with FHW oil heat (except 1.5-2 years we rented a place with electric heat - eek we thought those bills were high then!). It's a type of heat I'm comfortable with and used to.

However our oil burner is new (< 2 years old) so highly efficient (it and the indirect hot water heater are top of the line in terms of energy efficiency for oil), employs this thing called a "heat miser" to keep it from cycling unneccessarily, and we used MASS-SAVE's program to get our house's efficiency auditted and installed the extra insulation and sealing to make it as efficient as possible. In doing these improvements we took advantage of several programs in place 2 years ago to get ourselves ahead of the curve and get rebates and other incentives to make it even cheaper to do. I'm very glad we did. The only piece of our home which is not at maximum efficiency is our windows - previous owners did "good" replacements and the energy audit pointed out there was little to be gained by updating them. But as I said we were lucky to do the things we did when we did them. I would hate to imagine if we had not.

But we'll definitely be doing all of the above to cut our usage even further this winter. For the first time we might be actually sealing windows or getting the thermal shades to help retain heat. (Hrm. I'm thinking that this conversion probably merits its own thread) fftopic:



Unfortunately for getting to the mountain there isn't an option. We have to drive here in New England, however there will be some other areas that we work on to save money in the process. We still plan to do a good deal of skiing next year.

Gas (natural gas and/or propane) is very common down here where I live. You will find it used for furnaces, hot water heaters, and rangetops in many homes. Some folks even use it for dryers and ovens (I prefer electric for both). I can't remember *any* news story about a home blowing up as a result of gas. I suppose it could happen, but you would have to have no sense of smell not to notice all that gas leaking into your home.

Meanwhile, back on the topic ranch, I am so hoping to see charter bus transportation get underway in New England, from larger metro areas to resorts. There's much talk about it on various other resort-specific forums, with assorted polls to find out if anyone would use it. I'm thinking this may come down to necessity....my resort has upped its regional transportation, as previously mentioned, has several new biodiesel shuttles, as shuttle is necessary from all day-skier parking lots.

All of us need to start thinking out of the box here. None of us is going to give up skiing, but how we get there and back is definitely going to have to change. And soon.

Ski Market, a New England based ski/boarding/biking shop provides bus transportation to resorts in NH/MA/VT and I think even Ontario. I have used this service three times and each time has been successful. I believe the cost was $72 which included the lift ticket for the day. A GREAT bargain! They typically have 2-3 day trips per week and also offer weekend trips.

Here's the details provided by Ski Market:

Watch for 2008/2009 Schedule in October 2008



Schedule
Ski Market day bus trips depart from Massachusetts locations in Boston, Pembroke, Danvers, Dedham, Woburn, Shrewsbury, and Framingham; Rhode Island location in Warwick; Connecticut locations in Avon, Manchester, Norwalk and Danbury; and New York location in Latham. Click on the individual location to view schedule.

Reservations
Reservations for bus trips can be made by phone (credit card only) or in person at the store from which you will be departing. Trip must be paid in full at time of reservation.

Cancellations
Reservations for trips can be cancelled up until forty-eight hours before departure time. Cancellations received less than forty-eight hours before departure time will be subject to a $25 cancellation fee.

If you have any questions regarding cancellations due to severe weather conditions, please contact the SnoSearch office at 1-800-232-2415.

Restrictions
All trip participants under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
No glass or alcohol allowed on buses.
Departure Points and Times
Please arrive at least one-half hour prior to scheduled departure time. Departure times subject to change. Please confirm at store where reservation was made or by calling the SnoSearch office at
1-800-232-2415.

Ski Market
Departure Time
Departure Point
CONNECTICUT
Avon
860-677-2186
6:00 am
I91N Exit 35B
Park & Ride
Manchester
860-644-6200
6:00 am
I91N Exit 35B
Park & Ride
Norwalk
203-847-8660
5:00 or 5:30 am
Depends on destination. Call Norwalk store to confirm.
Store
Danbury
203-798-6616
5:00 or 5:30 am
Depends on destination. Call
Danbury store to confirm
Store
Massachusetts
Boston
617-731-6100

5:30 am (Sugarbush/Stowe)
6:00 am (All Others)
808 Commonwealth Ave.
Pembroke
781-826-1155
5:00 am Store
Dedham
781-461-1212
5:30 am
66 Wood Road
Braintree
Woburn
781-932-6766
6:00 am (Sugarbush/Stowe)
6:30 am (All Others)
Store
Shrewsbury
508-756-3044
Framingham
508-875-5253
6:00 am
Rt. 146/10A Mass Pike
Park & Ride
New York
Latham
518-785-5593
6:00 am Store
Rhode Island
Warwick
401-732-6390
5:00 am
I95 Exit 10
Park & Ride
Intersection of 95/117

__________________
Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take
But by the number of moments that take your breath away~

What a lot of the resort-specific forums here in Maine are discussing is their hope that similar transportation becomes available from target cities like Boston to Maine resorts without inclusion of lift tickets, as many as season's pass holders and only want the bus service.

I've lift-chatted with people who have done this - taken the day bus that includes lift ticket, and then sold the lift ticket for whatever its face value, as they already had season's pass.

That is a great idea! I know that with Ski Market you can opt out of the lift ticket portion, but it is still $30 which isn't as great of a deal.

__________________
Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take
But by the number of moments that take your breath away~

For someone wanting to do a solo day, that seems like it would be less than the gas to drive up alone?? Not a deal, though, if there's a group. Then carpooling is the way to go.