Two giant multi-ski resort season passes have gone on sale for winter 2017-18, with this year showing a marked difference between the two players.
Vail Resorts really transformed the market with the launch of their Epic Pass some years ago. They sold the passes giving season-long access to all their resorts plus partner resorts for one very low price if you bought far enough in advance. The price was lower than a 5 day peak season pass at one of their Colorado resorts so buying it was something of a ‘no brainer’.
The Epic Pass, and indeed Vail Resorts, have got bigger and bigger since and this year’s incarnation cover no less than 45 ski areas in North America – including four of the five largest which are mow all Vail Resorts owned – and a further 30 European partners, plus Perisher, Australia’s biggest resort, also owned by Vail. So some 75 ski areas in total and a pass described as “The first truly worldwide lift pass” by the company. They’re known to sell at least half a million Epic passes to skiers and boarders in more than 100 countries and the tickets have many other benefits and functions including social media connections.
A number of years ago key players among the remaining North American resorts not yet bought by Vail decided they better set up an alternative to the Epic Pass, which is known as the Mountain Collective pass.
Although the Epic Pass jump to 75 resorts can’t be matched by the Mountain Collective, it’s coverage is expanding fast too, and it has opted to keep the early booking price very low, now less than half that of the Epic Pass.
The 2017-18 Mountain Collective pass offers up to 32 days of skiing in 16 ski resorts with Snowbasin in Utah and Sugarbush in New Hampshire brings the total ski days available from full partners to 32 days at 16 unique destinations. Existing North American participants are Alta, Aspen Snowmass, Banff Sunshine, Jackson Hole, Lake Louise, Mammoth, Revelstoke, Snowbird, Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, Sun Valley, Taos and Telluride.
The pass also covers skiing on four other continents: Valle Nevado, Chile; Hakuba Valley, Japan; Thredbo, Australia; Coronet Peak – The Remarkables, New Zealand and Chamonix Mont Blanc, France.
An unspecified ‘limited number’ of Mountain Collective passes are on sale for $399 USD (£328) and for an unspecified limited time, pricing for the kids pass (ages 12 and under) is just $1 for the 2017-2018 season when purchased this spring with an Adult Pass.
The full Epic Pass is available at $859 (£707) until April 9th 2017 for adults and provides access to Whistler Blackcomb in Canada, Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado; Park City in Utah; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood at Lake Tahoe and European ski resorts including Verbier and Les 4 Vallées in Switzerland, Les 3 Vallées in France; Arlberg in Austria; and Skirama Dolomiti Adamello Brenta in Italy. How many days of skiing is included in the Epic Pass at each resort varies from resort to resort.