Best of the Rest: Non-Ikon/Epic/MCP Pass Discussion for 2018-2019

[agreen]

What happened to the MAX pass? Did it get swallowed up?

 

[Itinerant skier]

What happened to the MAX pass? Did it get swallowed up?

Yeah. While MAX had resorts from numerous owners and operators (Boyne/ORDA/Intrawest/RCR, etc), it was organized and run by Intrawest. With Intrawest now gone, the former MAX resorts are now scattered to the four winds. Some are on IKON/EPIC/MCP, a few may end up on the passes in this thread, and many are on no pass at all.

 

[agreen]

I wonder if we could start a list of best resorts not on any pass. It would be a pretty short list. I think it still fits the theme of the thread "Best of the Rest".

1. Red mtn resort

 

[Sibhusky]

I wonder if we could start a list of best resorts not on any pass. It would be a pretty short list. I think it still fits the theme of the thread "Best of the Rest".

1. Red mtn resort

2. Whitefish

 

[jmeb]

2. Whitefish

Depends on what we mean by "not on any pass". Whitefish has reciprocal bonus days with other resorts. Which I'm very much hoping to use this upcoming season.

 

[fatbob]

I wonder if we could start a list of best resorts not on any pass. It would be a pretty short list. I think it still fits the theme of the thread "Best of the Rest".

1. Red mtn resort

/endlist

Red fits on best of everything list - maybe add Baker to it as well

 

[David Chaus]

Red Mt is on the Louise Plus Card, as is Schweitzer. Schweitzer is part of the Powder Alliance, as are Whitewater, Silver Star, Bridger, Stevens and others. With the Powder Alliance you don’t have to buy anything extra or add-on, it’s really just a multi-resort reciprocation agreement. They don’t even use a separate card, you simply present your home area season pass. So, yes, it depends upon what you consider a “pass.”

The “unaffiliated” winner is Sun Peaks. It is pretty sizeable and comparable to most major resorts in vertical, terrain, infrastructure and amenities, and as far as I know, not part of any formalized multi resort pass or discount card. They are fairly generous about giving a discount to pass holders of a long list of other resorts.

FWIW I love Red Mt. Like Jackson, without the tram, the crowds or the prices.

 

[Sibhusky]

Depends on what we mean by "not on any pass". Whitefish has reciprocal bonus days with other resorts. Which I'm very much hoping to use this upcoming season.

I think it's more they are getting others to come here, because there's certainly nothing that interests me on them. It's more like, if you're on the way to X (some other place), consider hitting this place (Red Lodge, Homewood (had to look that place up), Diamond Peak (same), Loveland (okay maybe, but more likely to be headed to some other resort) ) while you're at it. NO ONE is going to be buying the Whitefish pass because of those resorts. They are not on any road trip together and the closest is more than six hours away, the others days. It does nothing to make you buy our pass instead of, say, Schweitzer. If you were buying our pass, you were coming here anyway.

Really, the hidden pass is the reciprocity between Montana resorts. As far as I know you still get a full day ticket at the price of a half day by showing your season pass from another Montana resort. Years ago, they'd do that for ANY season pass here. But there's been management and ownership changes since then.

 

[jmeb]

I think it's more they are getting others to come here, ....

Yep. And at least for idiots with a ski van like me, it's gonna work. Drive up to Red Lodge, then day off to Whitefish, then day off to Schweitzer, then day off back to Bridger.

 

[tball]

Wolf Creek is fascinating. It's completely surrounded on three fronts of the pass wars by Epic, Ikon and the Power Pass.

They don't seem to care. They keep charging top dollar for a season pass that has no reciprocal days.

I'm curious to hear thoughts from @Jeff N at some point.

 

[Itinerant skier]

Some of these off pass mountains stand to benefit slightly from the passes. Sun Peaks makes for a perfectly logical inclusion on a Powder Alliance road trip. Marmot-Sun Peaks-Silver Star-Whitewater-Castle. I know a few MAX passers who added Revy to their RCR trip. The geography just worked.

 

[cantunamunch]

If you were buying our pass, you were coming here anyway.

Hypothetical scenario: Whitefish-based skier gets beginner-to-intermediate significant other who likes to tourist-ski, aka scenery-ski. Of the Tahoe areas, Homewood and Diamond Peak are Mellow Terrain Scenery Central (while mostly dodging the California-side of Heavenly crowds).

I can sort of squint and see the SO not really getting much use out of the Whitefish part of such a pass product.

 

[Sibhusky]

Wait, the SO is also Whitefish-based? How do you figure they wouldn't get use out of the Whitefish part of the pass? When there is no fog, the views are stunning. And there's always snow ghosts. Plus it's not like we're known for GNAR. It's cruiser central. Not following.

Hypothetical scenario: Whitefish-based skier gets beginner-to-intermediate significant other who likes to tourist-ski, aka scenery-ski. Of the Tahoe areas, Homewood and Diamond Peak are Mellow Terrain Scenery Central (while mostly dodging the California-side of Heavenly crowds).


I can sort of squint and see the SO not really getting much use out of the Whitefish part of such a pass product.

 

[cantunamunch]

Wait, the SO is also Whitefish-based? How do you figure they wouldn't get use out of the Whitefish part of the pass? When there is no fog, the views are stunning. And there's always snow ghosts. Plus it's not like we're known for GNAR. It's cruiser central. Not following.

The squint described above would probably involve one or more of a) bad northern snow year b) at-home-so-easy-to-NOT-go syndrome c) fair weather only skiing.

 

[Sibhusky]

Well, I'll give you the fair weather thing. They are saying we had snow 80 of the 123 days we were open this year. Add in days with just fog and I was pretty sick of the visibility problems. Getting too old for this stuff. I'd like to be able to see down the Ant Hill at least one day a week. Why do you think I like single digit days? No fog.

 

[cantunamunch]

Well, I'll give you the fair weather thing. They are saying we had snow 80 of the 123 days we were open this year. Add in days with just fog and I was pretty sick of the visibility problems. Getting too old for this stuff. I'd like to be able to see down the Ant Hill at least one day a week. Why do you think I like single digit days? No fog.

I had some very specific people in mind when I was writing my response; all of them would incur all of the criteria, i.e. hating bad snow, hating low visibility, and simply not being bothered to seize the day when conditions are at peak.

 

[David Chaus]

Well, I'll give you the fair weather thing. They are saying we had snow 80 of the 123 days we were open this year. Add in days with just fog and I was pretty sick of the visibility problems. Getting too old for this stuff. I'd like to be able to see down the Ant Hill at least one day a week. Why do you think I like single digit days? No fog.

Maybe you need to move to Sun Valley.

 

[Sibhusky]

Hmm. Season pass $1899 vs. $560...

Housing market
Sun Valley

• $867,500 Median listing price

Whitefish

• $489,900 Median listing price

Yeah, tough choice.

Maybe you need to move to Sun Valley.

 

[Bill Miles]

Maybe you need to move to Sun Valley.

i just happened to be riding up a Sun Valley chair today with a couple from Montana and I said that maybe I needed to move to Whitefish so I could ski for free. Before I could mention the reputation for fog and clouds, which I wouldn't like, they warned me about the clouds and fog.

 

[Sibhusky]

I had some very specific people in mind when I was writing my response; all of them would incur all of the criteria, i.e. hating bad snow, hating low visibility, and simply not being bothered to seize the day when conditions are at peak.

What is this bad snow of which you speak? Record year, closed with 164" base.