Downhill skiing is rarely cheap. The booking site Hipmunk found the median price for two people over two nights in a popular ski town like Vail, Colo., or Park City, Utah, with round-trip economy flights, runs about $1,700 to $2,200.

Going to smaller resorts is one reliable strategy for saving money. As is buying lift tickets in advance of your trip; according to Liftopia, which sells tickets for more than 200 ski areas, the average savings is 30 percent for tickets booked 11 days in advance. You may also save by skiing in January; Kayak found seven of 10 popular ski destinations in its searches had the lowest median round-trip airfares in January, including Bend, Ore., at $230, and Banff, Canada, at $298.

But to get nitty-gritty budget-saving tips, I turned to ski-town locals and winter fanatics, a.k.a. ski bums, to get their strategies.

“Living with your parents is one,” Bryant Dulin, 34, an avid skier and app developer based in Basalt, Colo., said. “Or knowing people at the tuning shops to redo the wax for a 12-pack of beer.” Bartering is common, he added. “A lot is done in exchange for beer.”