Stick to areas like Solitude or Snowbasin and your ski budget will last longer.
In our case, the cost was greatly mitigated by having friends with a ski house in Park City.
Mrs. JimRed's best friend and her husband (both widowed, remarried summer before last, classic beach wedding at Rehoboth, DE) invited us for a stay at their ski house. Couldn't say no to that one! Five days skiing, one at Park City and four at Deer Valley (they limit lift ticket sales so no crowds, and do not allow snowboarders so no terrifying near misses). Senior citizen discounts help a great deal- never thought getting old would be a good thing!
Other house guests were our hostess's sister and husband (a retired USN Captain). Three conservative guys, three liberal wives; THAT was interesting! At dinner Tuesday night we had our host's good friend and wife over- ready for this? Brigadier General James Johnson (ARNG-ret). You may recall that he was in charge of security (Commander, Joint Task Force Olympics, Salt Lake City, Utah) at the 2002 Winter Olympics at SLC. Great inside stories of how the venues were protected so soon after 9/11.
Without our wonderful hosts, I'd have been stuck with day trips to Shawnee, Camelback and Hunter!