THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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DENVER - Colorado ski - rental shops are expanding their inventory and making easier for vacationers to rent equipment amid increasing airline baggage fees, according to The Denver Post.

The spike in inventory at some shops comes as industry experts say bringing all the necessary skiing equipment in a second, oversized bag can cost skiers as much as US$250 each way on some airlines - and that's not counting what it would cost to bring skis for the whole family.

"You can buy a new set of skis for these prices," Mike Boyd, with Evergreen's Boyd Group aviation consulting firm, told the newspaper.

Ski shops are banking that the high baggage fees will put their rental equipment in high demand this season.

Winter Park spent $250,000 on new rental gear and Monarch Ski and Snowboard Resort tripled its inventory while others are enticing skiers by offering to deliver ski and snowboard rentals to hotels and condos, the Post reported.

"It has become a better option to rent at the resort than fly with your own," Tapio Niskanen, national sales manager for rentskis.com, a division of Denver-based Specialty Sports, told the Post.