Money woes often conflict with their love of skiing, snowboarding, and basic enjoyment of a good day on the mountain, just as it does for many during an economic recession. Maybe it's changing now, but this may have also contributed to a five-year, nation-wide decline in newcomers to the sports.

Saving a few bucks was their incentive for starting Slide4less.com, where some of the cheapest lift tickets around are found.

Back in the 'early days' of their adventures, San Francisco Bay Area residents Steve Steinberg and Darren Romar would spend their days searching for discount tickets by scouring promotional shows, magazine ads, sporting goods stores and anywhere else where bargains were advertised.

They were known to crash (cheaply) in their motorhome in the resort parking lot, consuming bags of Top Ramen noodles, maybe some cold sandwiches, and lots of cheap beer - subsistence living for the modern-day ski bum. They were also known for sometimes 'poaching' a free dip in the nearest pool or hottub, and selling any extra tickets they had to others who were on the cheap. After all, the price of a lift ticket at most major U.S. resorts is pushing $60 these days, not to mention the 'consumable' goods being sold on the side of the mountain at what were once rock concert-only prices.

These days, the boys at Slide4less.com have another interest: the 'scalping' that often occurs outside resorts by offering an online venue for buying and selling discount tickets.

"We would go up skiing all the time, get ski deals, ski coupons, that type of thing," said Romar. "We started out doing some ski deals and promotions for area resorts (but) we had a couple of bad deals. We got wrapped up with the corporate ski industry and we go screwed, basically."

Often on their trips to the mountains - they frequent the Lake Tahoe area - they would notice young people of mostly modest means trying to buy  or sell scalped tickets in the resort parking lots.

These kids, Romar and Steinberg reasoned, didn't deserve to be denied the sport they love for simple economic reasons. And not only that, scalping is often taken very seriously by the resorts, who have been known to call the police, just as they would for a lift poacher or 'clipper' - someone who clips the already-used ticket from another person and reuses it.

"Here we have some people who really can't afford to ski," Steinberg said. "It's over $100 per day for the average person to come up here and ski. We're just trying to get them up on the mountain and out of trouble."

These days, Slide4less.com, along with a handful of other 'projects' between the two - including manufacturing and selling electric 'Exkate Powerboard' skateboards, promoting extreme sports and surfing - keeps them busy. Along with posting and updating (weekly) the popular Top 10 Ski Deals of North America on their website, they are also involved in promoting the medicinal benefits of marijuana in conjunction with California's Proposition 215 that made possession of marijuana legal with a doctor's prescription for the drug. People with serious ailments use pot to alleviate symptoms such as mild pain, weight loss and nausea, but recently the federal government has taken the hard-line approach of busting doctors who prescribe the drug to their patients.

But dealing in lift tickets and ski-related merchandise is the first love of Romar and Steinberg, who practice their craft to perfection.

"Basically the resorts don't know what to think of us," said Romar, "because on the one hand we're promoting like crazy for them on our site, and they know we drive a lot of traffic to the shows and resorts. But at the same time, we're out there encouraging some stuff that's kind of borderline. We're hoping the resorts realize what benefits we can provide, not only in keeping the scalpers and poachers to a minimum, but also encouraging people who might not have been able to afford it to learn to ski and snowboard.

"Most ski resorts have not grown in terms of skier days for more than 20 years, even with the advent of the snowboard," Romar added. "It's been a relatively flat industry for a long time. Over time, the ski crowd gets richer and richer and resorts have been able to increase income by appealing to the upper-income crowd by adding real estate to their offerings. They know this situation eventually has to change, and a big key is that people from 'lower income classes' get up on the slopes."

The owners of Slide4less are unapologetic about running what they admit is a 'fringe' activity - buying and reselling lift tickets. They even boast of being 'real outlaws' at some area resorts in the past. But they say that a little organization in the process may prove the key to turning the business into something reputable, and maybe even appreciated by resort owners.

"When we originally started it we didn't have it going in that (positive) direction," Romar said. "We were going to do a site to promote some ski deals, that type of thing. Then it totally reversed and became this nefarious thing where we were real outlaws at the resorts. The resorts have a big problem and we didn't start that problem. It's really hard to control scalping because they say it's illegal but every body does it. We believe that in the long run there will be great benefit to driving the price of lift tickets down, while also eliminating the need for kids to poach or clip tickets."

"Here are people who can't afford to ski, but hey, you get a bunch of these tickets for $10 apiece at a show and it becomes affordable for them," Steinberg said. "When these kids grow up and have families of their own, it means they'll be hooked, they'll be driving up here with families of their own someday."

In the meantime, as their business grows, Steinberg and Romar keep their eyes open for other opportunities involving the skiing and riding community.

"We make money on the ultimate coupon pack, which is all these coupons we've collected here in Tahoe like free drinks, $10 off lift tickets, stuff like that," said Steinberg. "We also wrote a book called the Ski Bum's Guide (available for purchase on our site). We have battery powered skateboards and other high-tech electric vehicles, which is an up and coming thing."

More Information on Scalping Lift Tickets