Roger Moss wrote:

Which, of course, would buy you a whole day's ski-pass in most of the Alpine
areas...

Yes, which is great if you live 30 minutes away from an alpine area.

Odd, indeed.

Not really. Alpine areas get free snow (mostly) and the slopes were
built for free hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Indoor slopes have to make all their own snow, cool the building and
build the slope themselves.

I think what's odd is how alpine areas can justify charging so much!