Skiers and snowboarders in Hamilton should rejoice.

Just 44 miles south of town is Lost Trail Powder Mountain, one of the cheapest ski areas in the state which also has some of the best average snowfalls every year.

''It's very sweet,'' admitted Robert Perry, a ski shop worker at Bob Ward and Sons in Hamilton.

Every week during the ski season, Perry goes with his wife and five children to Lost Trail, so affordability is a key concern. But he also admires the ski hill's close proximity, snowfall and mix of runs that entertain beginners, intermediates and advance skiers.

''They're starting to step things up,'' Perry said. ''They're putting money into grooming,'' as well as building a terrain park for snowboarders. ''And it's really a family friendly place, not real snobby. Most everyone knows everybody there. That's really nice.''

Using a range of variables and comparisons, The Billings Gazette set out to discover just how cheaply a skier can hit 11 ski areas in Montana this season. Prices will be comparable for snowboarders, although our survey looked only at basic ski rental prices to simplify the comparison.

The Gazette also avoided getting into the jumbled picture that would be painted if we tried to consider package deals and special prices that are offered. No doubt, skiers and boarders may be able to find cheaper deals for special situations, but to ease the comparisons we chose to avoid clutter. We also disregarded mountains with lifts incapable of moving fewer than 1,000 skiers per hour.

Based on this methodology, Lost Trail's $27 adult daily lift ticket stands at the top of the cheap heap for ski areas in Montana. Adding to its luster, Lost Trail offers 45 named runs, the longest of which is 2.5 miles.

Where it falls short is in lift capacity, offering the slowest movement of skiers -- 1,925 skiers per hour -- of all other comparable ski areas in the state.

''That's kind of a nuisance at times,'' Perry said. ''But we take the good with the bad.''

Even figuring in the cost of a basic ski rental package ($17 plus the $27 adult lift ticket for a total of $44), Lost Trail still costs less than its competitors, by as little as a dollar (Blacktail Mountain's combined price is $45) to almost $50 (Big Sky's combined price is $93).

Undeniably, Big Sky Resort is the state's top ski area in many ways. Ski and boarding connoisseurs can convincingly argue that there is no way to compare Big Sky's 18 lifts, 150 runs and 400 inches of average snowfall with any other ski area in Montana. And sure, if you look at Big Sky's cost based on the size of the mountain and its lift capacity of 3,600 skiers an hour, it's a great value.

But let's face it, not everyone can afford to shell out $65 a day for a lift ticket, up from $61 last season.

As a way to measure and compare the value of a lift ticket, The Gazette assumed a skier would make 10 runs in a day to reach a cost per run figure. We also compared the cost per run for a skier who rents equipment.

Lost Trail, again, stands above the crowd with a cost of $2.70 per run or $4.40 with rental skis.

No. 2 on the cost-per-run basis was Great Divide, north of Helena, at $2.90 per run. It can't hold that spot with the cost of rentals figured in, however. With rental skis included, Discovery Basin near Anaconda takes the No. 2 spot at $4.50 per run.

Sharing the No. 3 spot were three ski areas fairly comparable in size and stats -- Blacktail Mountain, near Polson; Discovery Basin and Showdown Montana, near Neihart. All three were priced at $3 a run without rentals.

Obviously, our skiing and boarding brethren in Bozeman are blessed. They have three ski areas within an hour to an hour-and-a-half's drive -- Bridger, Big Sky and Moonlight Basin. Helena and Butte residents are also centrally located to visit a number of ski areas, but their closest mountains can't compete with the caliber of riding found near Bozeman, which can easily be deemed Montana Ski/Board Central.

Looking past all the numbers, it is worthwhile noting that ski hill choice is sometimes as much about atmosphere as it is snow conditions -- people like to go where they are treated nicely, get good service and feel relaxed.

Skiers and boarders also will pay a little extra to avoid long lift lines and crowded slopes.

And if the snow is good, people don't mind making a longer drive.

Perry, the Hamilton ski shop worker, said if cost was no concern and excluding his home base of Lost Trail, he would chose Discovery Basin over any other ski area in the state. His reasons?

''Snow. It's very family friendly, like Lost Trail. The back side is experts only and the front is great for beginners and intermediates.''

Are ski areas pricing out average Joes?

In 1976, Bill Laurent moved from Grand Forks, N.D., to Montana for the downhill skiing. Almost 30 years later, Laurent is still in Montana, but he doesn't do much skiing.

''I skied the whole season in '76 for $75,'' recalled Laurent, principal at Independent School in Billings. ''I was only working for $3.50 an hour, but it seemed to me that proportionately, it was much easier to go skiing then than now.''

Nowadays for Laurent to take his two teenage daughters skiing for the day, including meals, lift tickets and gas, would cost about $200, he said.

''There's something wrong with that,'' Laurent said. ''Montanans are some of the lowest-paid people of any area in the country. How many $200 ski days can a family afford?''

Part of what's wrong is the rate of inflation. Laurent's $75 in 1976 is equal to $256 in 2005 -- a 242 percent change. And that $3.50 an hour, while not sounding like much now, is equal to almost $12 an hour in 2005.

Like Laurent, ski area's costs have also gone up, for everything from fuel to electricity, insurance, staff and maintenence. Some of those costs, such as fuel, have even exceeded the rate of inflation.

''Last year we spent more on electricity than we ever had before,'' said Chip Vicary, chief financial officer for Red Lodge Mountain Resort. ''Most years, our prices have gone up less than the rate of inflation. We try to balance the continuing increase in our operating expenses against the attempt to keep our product affordable for the families in Montana and Wyoming.''

Other ski areas have no such compulsion. This year, Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts in Colorado raised their lift ticket prices to $81 a day for an adult, $4 higher than last ski season. The ski area justified the cost by touting the many improvements it has made.

Tim White, of the National Ski Areas Association, said the high-priced lift ticket is comparable to buying an airline ticket the same day you plan to travel. ''Most resorts offer discounted programs, online deals,'' White said. ''Smart shoppers are looking for the bargain, and they are out there.''

Across the United States, White said, the average adult weekend ski lift ticket price is $47.51, compared to $44.51 during the weekday.

Compared to the rest of the nation, Montana doesn't seem like such a bad deal for skiers and snowboarders.

Montana's largest ski area, Big Sky Resort, charges $65 for an adult all-day lift ticket, and the much smaller Lost Trail Powder Mountain comes in at $27 a day, reflecting the range of prices available to Montana skiers and boarders.

In a comparison of adult lift ticket prices at Montana's 11 largest ski areas, The Gazette found it would cost an adult $414 to purchase a lift ticket at each mountain, for an average ticket price of $38.

''Skiing is a great bargain considering what you get for the price of a lift ticket,'' White said. ''Compared to going to a theme park for a day or going to a professional baseball or basketball game, skiing for eight hours is a great value.''

Vicary agreed. ''Our top lift ticket this year is $42, which is what we charged for tickets back in New England during the mid-1980s, where I spent the first 11 years of my career,'' he said. ''Montana is a screaming deal.''

The climbing cost of skiing does, however, prompt a question: Is skiing becoming an elite sport?

A National Ski and Snowboard Retailers Association survey would seem to indicate that the two sports are increasingly becoming the domain of those with higher incomes.

The association's annual survey showed 54 percent of snowboarding participants age 7 and older in 1990 had a household income of more than $35,000 a year. This demographic had risen 26 percentage points by 2004.

The same can be said of downhill skiing participants. According to the association's survey, 48 percent of participants in 1985 had a household income of $35,000. As of 2004, 87 percent of participants had a household income of $35,000 or more and the majority, 75 percent, had an income of $50,000 or more.

What the comparison doesn't show, however, is that in 1990 dollars, $35,000 is equal to more than $50,500 in 2004 dollars when accounting for inflation.

Not surprisingly, as prices have gone up and the population has aged along with the Baby Boomers, skiers like Laurent have disappeared from the slopes.

Downhill skiing participation has fallen from 9.4 million people in 1985 to 5.9 million in 2004 -- a loss of 3.5 million skiers. The highest participation level during the survey period was in 1988 when it hit 12.4 million, making the loss even greater.

Oddly, although there are fewer skiers, those who do ski are skiing more. Skier visits in 2004 totaled 57.1 million compared to 51.4 million in 1985.

This could reflect an increase in leisure time, since ski participants have steadily aged during the survey period from a median age of 24 in 1985 to 31 in 2004. The survey also found that 61 percent of skiers were 25 or older in 2004, compared to 46 percent in 1985.

The aging of the downhill skiing population may be because those new to snow sports are choosing snowboarding over downhill skiing. Backing this theory up, the survey shows that snowboarding is a young sport with 77 percent of the participants age 24 or younger.

Volume is key to operating a small resort such as Red Lodge Mountain, Vicary said, where ticket sales generate about 60 percent of the ski hill's winter revenue. And skier volume is reliant on snowfall, which the resorts have no control over.

''When you have the snow, you're going to have a pretty good year,'' Vicary said. ''People will gladly pay for great conditions, and never seem to mumble about price increases. When you don't have (snow), no amount of discounting, promotions and other price specials will ever make up for your lost business volumes.''

So is skiing more expensive? The answer seems to be yes and no. Accounting for inflation, prices for everything have gone up. And in some instances, lift ticket prices have exceeded the rate of inflation. But skiers and snowboarders also have many more services available at mountains than in years past.

''Ticket costs, like all prices, have gone up,'' White said. But they've risen along with ski resort operating costs for everything from labor to energy and equipment.

But in Montana at least, Laurent sees such investments as just one more way to price locals off the mountain.

''It's just grated on me over the years,'' he said. ''I'd love to be able to send my kids more.''

Really cheap skiing

To encourage newcomers to the sports of skiing and boarding, many Montana ski areas have partnered with the state's Travel Montana tourism promotion division to offer an ''Easy Ski'' program that costs from $59 to $129 for three lift tickets, three lessons and three equipment rentals. ''Second Graders Ski Free'' is another program providing free skiing to school children. Program details can be found at www.wintermt.com.

Skiing for a family of 4

Let's compare costs for a Montana family of four -- father and mother, one child age 12 and another age 16. The costs for the entire family to go skiing for a full day, not including rentals or lessons, ranges from $93 at Blacktail Mountain near Polson to $200 at Big Sky Resort south of Bozeman.

The age at which discounts are offered for youngsters varies widely from ski area to ski area. For example, at Big Mountain near Whitefish children 6 and under ski free. At Big Sky children 10 and under ski free, while at Blacktail Mountain children 7 and under ski free.