2015-2016 Multi-Resort Season Passes Announced
By Bob Wilbanks, NSCN
The Denver Post reported that ski industry analysts estimate that Vail Resorts sells 300,000 variations of the Epic Pass per season while the website, Curbed Ski, put the figure at 400,000 passes sold for $200 million last ski season. Whichever figure is accurate, Vail’s success has prompted other resorts to establish competing multi-resort season pass products. Vail Resort’s Epic Pass offers unlimited access to Vail Resorts 11 U.S. resorts in Colorado, Utah, Lake Tahoe, and Michigan — Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin in Colorado; Park City (including now lift-connected Canyons) in Utah; Heavenly, Northstar, and Kirkwood in Lake Tahoe, plus Mt. Brighton and Afton Alps in Michigan — for a total of more than 32,000 acres of terrain for the 2015-16 winter ski season at $769 for adults and $399 for children. There are also local and regional variations of the pass for those living in Colorado, Utah, Michigan, and Lake Tahoe. Vail’s Turn-in-Your-Ticket program this spring also allowed skiers to apply the cost of a 2014-2015 lift ticket toward the price of an Epic season pass for the 2015-16 ski season. See https://www.snow.com/epic-pass for details. The New Multi-Alpine Experience Pass — or M.A.X. Pass — offers five days at each of 22 resorts in 12 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. All the resorts are owned or managed by Intrawest, Powdr, or Boyne Resorts. The pass offers the possibility of skiing or boarding 110 days with no blackout dates at $699 for adults, $499 for teens, $249 for kids over five years of age and $29 for kids five years or less. Mountains included in the M.A.X. Pass include: Killington, Pico Mountain, and Stratton, in Vermont; Loon Mountain in New Hampshire; Sugarloaf and Sunday River in Maine; Snowshoe, West Virginia; Boyne Highlands and Boyne Mountain in Michigan; Big Sky, Montana; Brighton, Utah; Copper Mountain, Steamboat, and Winter Park, Colorado; Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard, Nevada; Mt. Bachelor, Oregon; Boreal Mountain, California; the Summit at Snoqualmie and Crystal Mountain in Washington; Mont Tremblant, Quebec; Blue Mountain, Ontario; and Cypress Mountain, British Columbia. See https://www. themaxpass.com/ for more information. The Mountain Collective™ Pass ($369 for adults and $99 for kids under 13) includes two days of skiing on 15 mountains totaling more than 40,500 acres of terrain and 225 lifts at eight destinations including Alta-Snowbird, Aspen-Snowmass, Jackson Hole, Mammoth Mountain, Ski Banff-Lake Louise-Sunshine, Sun Valley, Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows and Whistler -Blackcomb). There’s also a 50 percent discount on additional days at each resort with no blackout dates. Purchasers also received one bonus day at the destination of their choice and two free days of skiing at Valle Nevado, Chile, this summer. See their website, www.MountainCollective.com, for additional information. The New England Pass for 2015-2016, when purchased in the 2014-2015 ski season, provided access to Loon Mountain in New Hampshire plus Sunday River and Sugarloaf in Maine between March 16, 2015 and the end of this ski season. It’s available in Bronze (mid-week and non-holidays) for $399, Silver (with 13 blackout dates) for $685, and Gold (with no blackout dates) for $999. See more information about the New England Pass at www.newenglandpass.com.
