Northern Rockies/Alberta Alberta and Eastern BC 2018/19

[Mike Rogers]

Looking ahead to next year.

Some news!

RCR Passes are on sale:

Adult prices

Fernie: 1060
Kicking Horse: 950
Kimberly: 790
Nakiska: 290 (wow!)

RCR Rockies (all four): 1180

RCR Superpass: All four + Lake Louise WILL be offered this year. The price is not set though. I would expect it to be 400-600 more than the rockies.

RCR is affiliated with EPIC, and passholders get 50% off tickets at resorts owned by EPIC. I don't think Superpass holders will get this discount, but the details are currently being ironed out.


These prices are good for the next 2 months.


Castle
Adult passes are $800.
Castle is part of the Powder Alliance and pass-holders will get the regular reciprocals from other Powder Alliance hills.
This price is good until the end of May.

Revelstoke
Adult Passes are 900. Revelstoke is a member of the Mountain Collective and it is affiliate with IKON.
This price is only good until the end of April. Act quick!

Panorama
Adult is $900. This price is good until May 31. There are deals offered with this pass, but Panorama is independent of the big marketing alliances.

Marmot Basin in Jasper
Adult is 980. Like Panorama, Marmot is independent, but there other benefits. The price is good until June 1 and will give you free skiing until the end of this year (May 6).



No news yet for Lake Louise, Sunshine, or Norquay (or the BIG 3 pass) or the Rocky Mountain Passport (big 3 plus fernie, kimberly, nakiska, and marmot)

 

[blah]

Looking ahead to next year.

Some news!

RCR Passes are on sale:

Adult prices

Fernie: 1060
Kicking Horse: 950
Kimberly: 790
Nakiska: 290 (wow!)

RCR Rockies (all four): 1180

RCR Superpass: All four + Lake Louise WILL be offered this year. The price is not set though. I would expect it to be 400-600 more than the rockies.

RCR is affiliated with EPIC, and passholders get 50% off tickets at resorts owned by EPIC. I don't think Superpass holders will get this discount, but the details are currently being ironed out.


These prices are good for the next 2 months.


Castle
Adult passes are $800.
Castle is part of the Powder Alliance and pass-holders will get the regular reciprocals from other Powder Alliance hills.
This price is good until the end of May.

Revelstoke
Adult Passes are 900. Revelstoke is a member of the Mountain Collective and it is affiliate with IKON.
This price is only good until the end of April. Act quick!

Panorama
Adult is $900. This price is good until May 31. There are deals offered with this pass, but Panorama is independent of the big marketing alliances.

Marmot Basin in Jasper
Adult is 980. Like Panorama, Marmot is independent, but there other benefits. The price is good until June 1 and will give you free skiing until the end of this year (May 6).



No news yet for Lake Louise, Sunshine, or Norquay (or the BIG 3 pass) or the Rocky Mountain Passport (big 3 plus fernie, kimberly, nakiska, and marmot)

The fine print:
https://www.epicpass.com/info/rcr_faqs.aspx

50% off at Epic pass resorts are the Vail-owned ones. Partnership resorts, e.g., Telluride and A-Basin, are not included in the 50% off deal. Still, SUPER good deal for RCR passholders, though.


Mountain Collective has gone up to $429 USD from the early bird $409 USD pricing. Bonus 3rd free day at a destination of your choice is still available.

 

[Tony]

Mountain Collective has gone up to $429 USD from the early bird $409 USD pricing. Bonus 3rd free day at a destination of your choice is still available.

That makes decision to go to Base Ikon easier as it is still $599 for more than a week and gives me unlimited days at Mammoth and Squaw (with holiday blackouts), both of which are easy drives for me. I don't like losing Snowbasin, Sun Valley and Taos (or the holidays at Squaw that I never used) from moving to Ikon, but of those three places, Snowbasin is the only one where I've used my MCP.

@blah I liked your post on skiing Fernie with Bill Handley. @TonyC and I skied with him on Feb. 25 after trying to meet up with him at lunch on Feb. 23 and finding the wrong Bill downstairs in lodge and not realizing it until we were on lift. Both Bill and Linda kicked our a--es nearly all day. Skiing was so good they did not stop for lunch although Linda quit a little early.

 

[blah]

That makes decision to go to Base Ikon easier as it is still $599 for more than a week and gives me unlimited days at Mammoth and Squaw (with holiday blackouts), both of which are easy drives for me. I don't like losing Snowbasin, Sun Valley and Taos (or the holidays at Squaw that I never used) from moving to Ikon, but of those three places, Snowbasin is the only one where I've used my MCP.

@blah I liked your post on skiing Fernie with Bill Handley. @TonyC and I skied with him on Feb. 25 after trying to meet up with him at lunch on Feb. 23 and finding the wrong Bill downstairs in lodge and not realizing it until we were on lift. Both Bill and Linda kicked our a--es nearly all day. Skiing was so good they did not stop for lunch although Linda quit a little early.

Put it this way, I'm sure glad I was able to ski with @Mike Rogers at Kicking Horse and Bill and Lynda at Fernie at the END of the season when I am in relatively decent ski shape than at the beginning of the season. Even still, legs were burning during and after the traditional last run of the day down Skydive at Fernie with Bill. A lot of vertical in that week. Can't wait to do it again.

As for passes, looking forward to pricing on the RCR card for '18-'19. This season, $99 CAD for discount tickets, plus a couple of free days was just about perfect for an out-of-towner like me on a week-long trip.

 

[Itinerant skier]

Marmot is Powder Alliance as well.

 

[Mike Rogers]

The RCR Super Pass details are out.

Early Bird Price is 1520 for Louise, Kicking Horse, Fernie, Kimberly and Nakiska.

I'll be getting this one!

 

[blah]

The RCR Super Pass details are out.

Early Bird Price is 1520 for Louise, Kicking Horse, Fernie, Kimberly and Nakiska.

I'll be getting this one!

With the RCR partnership with Vail resorts next season, it may get you 50% off at Whistler, too, as an added bonus.

 

[albertanskigirl]

Still haven't made a decision as to passes - RCR Superpass is on the table. I'm waiting for the skibig pricing too. Or maybe just the Sunshine Super card/Louise Plus card/RCR card combo...

 

[blah]

Still haven't made a decision as to passes - RCR Superpass is on the table. I'm waiting for the skibig pricing too. Or maybe just the Sunshine Super card/Louise Plus card/RCR card combo...

MCP for the 18-19 season, all done and paid for back during the $409 early bird pricing period. 3rd free day set at Big Sky.
I'll most likely spring for the RCR card as well when it comes out.

 

[albertanskigirl]

Does anyone else feel like it is taking a really long time for Louise and Sunshine to come out with their early bird season pass rates? I looked back at my season pass purchase last year, and I bought it mid-May, and I know the prices were out for a couple of weeks before that... Any rumours about why this is so late this year?

 

[Mike Rogers]

I bought my Louise pass in late June last year. It was early June the year before. I expect an announcement sometime in June, hopefully before the RCR prices go up.

I remember waiting for the announcement last year. It seemed late. I think Louise announced their price a day after Sunshine announced theirs...and it was exactly the same.

 

[Mike Rogers]

It's the end of May, and still no news from Sunshine or Lake Louise.

Norquay's full pass is $600. They have all sorts of crazy deals though. The power of 4 midweek pass (holiday week blackouts) is 516 for 4 people..but you need to find a group of 4. They also have a Norquay 90 pass that is only 230, but has a bunch of blackout dates (most midwinter Saturdays, some Sundays, all holidays).

Flexible, I guess.

The senior pass (65+) is only $93 right now.

 

[Mike Rogers]

I decided to bite the bullet and grab the RCR Super Pass (no refund, so I better not get hurt!). It's a great collection of resorts.

No deals with EPIC for Super Pass Holders.

 

[albertanskigirl]

Still no news about Louise/Sunshine passes - I feel like it's getting pretty late and this is quite unusual. Could there be some sort of new pass product or deal in the works? Is that why there has been such a delay? News of Vail's acquisition yesterday has me searching for rumours...

 

[Jilly]

You're thinking what I'm thinking. Time to have a talk with my Banff peoples...

 

[blah]

I decided to bite the bullet and grab the RCR Super Pass (no refund, so I better not get hurt!). It's a great collection of resorts.

No deals with EPIC for Super Pass Holders.

Weird that Rockies Pass and every other RCR flavor pass has the 50% off privileges with the Vail owned resorts, but the Super pass (the most expensive option from RCR) doesn't.

Still no news about Louise/Sunshine passes - I feel like it's getting pretty late and this is quite unusual. Could there be some sort of new pass product or deal in the works? Is that why there has been such a delay? News of Vail's acquisition yesterday has me searching for rumours...

Either that or Sunshine and Louise are in talks to be bought by Vail.

 

[Mike Rogers]

It's because Lake Louise has the partnership with Alterrra/IKON.

Epic and IKON don't mix! This reason was confirmed by an RCR rep.

Losing the vacation bonus is a bummer, but the local pass was more important to me anyway.

What's really disapointing for the Calgary area skiers, is you don't get Mountain Collective or IKON deals with Lake Louise of Sunshine passes. You only get the perks with a Ski Big 3 pass.

The SKI Big 3 is at $1679 currently. I think that's a bit better than it has been in the past. I always thought it was closer to $2k.

Still, for me, I prefer Kicking Horse and Fernie to Sunshine...even with the drive.
...Norquay beats Nakiska though, in my opinion.

 

[Mike Rogers]

Either that or Sunshine and Louise are in talks to be bought by Vail.

I'm not sure if either Epic or IKON find Banff very attractive. It's nice to have another destination, especially one with a different climate, but the national park restrictions are a pain. Building new lifts, expanding terrain or even upgrading facilities can be a challenge. The Goat's Eye lodge is trailers for gods sake! And there is no chance that real estate development would be approved.

Hosting a potential Olympic downhill might bring some prestige though...

The Locke(lake louise) and Scurfield (sunshine) families are pretty involved in the management of the hills, and it seems to be a passion.

Charlie Locke lost Lake Louise and the rest of RCR when he needed to be bailed out by one of our local billionaires, but he made a comeback and was able to buy back the resort. He's one of the Rockies most famous mountaineers, and I think the resort is part of his legacy. I would be surprised if he sold out.

 

[blah]

Charlie Locke lost Lake Louise and the rest of RCR when he needed to be bailed out by one of our local billionaires, but he made a comeback and was able to buy back the resort. He's one of the Rockies most famous mountaineers, and I think the resort is part of his legacy. I would be surprised if he sold out.

I was surprised when Whistler sold out, too. But then the $1Billion big ones that Vail was waving under the management team's noses would be mighty tempting, too. Ha.

Anyways, just being facetious about Sunshine and Louise in talks with Vail. Good to hear all the reasons why it wouldn't happen. But in the words of El Presidente Trump, "We'll see."

 

[Mike Rogers]

Lake Louise is $998. You can pay it off in 4 installments.: Day of purchase, November 1st , December 1st, February 1st