Mt. Rose-Courtesy of Andy Mink
With the advent of the Epic and Ikon multiresort passes, along with the Mountain Collective Pass and competitive pricing of local mountains' passes, we are seeing the dreaded Christmas holiday traffic become more like midseason crowds. We see the multiresort passes becoming the industry norm, but what is more interesting is the breakdown of the unlimited full passes versus the regular passes that have blackout days over the holiday periods. I was unable to get official numbers for the breakdown, but the unconfirmed number that keeps coming is that only about 25% of the Ikon passes bought this season were the unlimited full version. We could not get any intel from the Vail side, but I would expect the numbers to be similar. What does that mean? Well, the only people who were out on the slopes during the 12/26-12/31 week were full passholders and skiers who bought day passes, while the rest of the passholders were home doing other things or maybe skiing in the backcountry.
Heavenly Resort
Why are we seeing this much of a discrepancy in percentages from the passes that have minimal blackout days and the unlimited passes? These differences vary from resort to resort, but in most cases are in the $100 to $200 range, less than the cost of a single day ticket at these resorts. IMHO, the why comes down to skiortophobia, aka the fear of skiing over the holidays. We have all heard the horror stories of having to park three ski areas away and take four shuttle buses (one you have to take twice) to the resort, 3-hr rental lines, 6-hr lift lines, and lesson groups with 20 beginners per instructor. Yes, these are slight exaggerations, but you get the idea. People used to hate skiing over the holidays, but now crowds are indeed less holiday-like. So for next season, the smart money will be to buy the full unlimited pass and ski over Christmas because everyone is skiing over the holidays because it’s not too crowded.