Thanks for watching! Would love to hear what you're all seeing with ski pass and day ticket pricing at your local mountain.

At the end of the day you can make the best of your day skiing on lesser mountains than the monster resorts. It’s what you make of it. Find your joy on a smaller mountain.

I left epic this year and have bought my midweek pass at the NYS areas….Gore, Whiteface, Belleire. I take winter off so I can ski and season passes are the only way I pay. Weekdays vs weekends total game changer, I’ve worked 45 years to get this winter lifestyle!!!

Ski tickets NEED to come back down, I hardly ever leave my local Mountain bc of it.

skiing is no doubt an expensive sport. Although not thrilled with the pricing of these passes, what really kills me is the crowds and the cost of lessons.

I'm a Mountain Collective pass holder and it's allowed me to ski places I never thought I'd be able to ski (Jackson Hole, Snowbird, Alta, Sun Peaks, Marmot Basin, Lake Louise, Sugarloaf) so I don't think the passes are nearly as bad as everyone makes them out to be. And about Jay Peak, I think they have a lot of Canadian customers who are starting to feel the cost of living pinch. In Canada we didn't have a cost correction in 2008 financial meltdown so our real estate is high unaffordable in a lot places. Rents have gone up significantly and mortgage rates are up but most Canadians are on fixed rate 5 year terms and are just starting to feel the effects of the rising mortgage rates. Luxuries like skiing at Jay Peak are the first thing struggling people will cut back on.

As an out of towner, lift ticket prices in the US (and public transport accessibility) are the main reason that it's not viable for me to travel to the US to ski ): Hope to one day experience the mountains that you guys rave about in the US though!

Screw Vail Resorts, I will never feel sympathy for those ultra greedy mega corpos. They're single-handedly a MAJOR reason skiing is a financial mess these days.

The Epic and Ikon are way to expensive for families. We have the Sierra-at-tahoe season pass that I got myself and 2 children for just over $900. I was considering going to epic so we would have access to Kirkwood, Heavenly and Northstar to get some more variety. I check the pass prices and it would be around $1,800 for the 3 of us. We tried out several mountains on day passes before we got season passes. It is pretty much unaffordable to do that now.

Well spoken! Could not agree more with your assessment.

Epic and Ikon (Aspen and Vail corps) are perfect examples of corporate greed. These large corporations must do everything they can to pump up their stock price and very few look at the long term effects, it's all about what can they do now in the short term so the CEO and board members can stay in power. This is why they try to sell so many passes and punish you if all you want is a day ticket at any of their ski areas which is ridiculously high. Unfortunately many independent ski areas follow what the big guys do. When I started skiing in the 70's a lift ticket was $11 and I remember an article that came out in Ski or Skiing magazine in the early 80's announcing the highest lift ticket in the country at Stratton Mountain in VT would be $20 the next season. So in 40 years daily lift ticket prices have shot up over 10x. I want to get my grandkids on skis at my local POS hill in Southern PA and was shocked when I added up the costs for a ski school package. It came out to around $250 for each kid. Even if I teach them myself a lift ticket for each of them will be over $100 plus rentals and this of course includes the 30-45 minute lift lines to get on crawling fixed grip museum pieces thrown in to really make an enjoyable experience for them. I don't even know if they'll like it. I'd rather spend that money at Disney World for them which isn't inexpensive either but I know they'll love it. Skiing/boarding is once again becoming a sport for the rich, especially if you want to take your family for a week to a major ski area. I went on a week long trip with my buddy at mostly Ikon resorts in Utah because he gets a season Ikon pass every year. Fortunately I was able to get buddy passes at most of the ski areas we went to but it was still $1000 more than if we had gone to Canada, our original plan, where ticket prices are lower and the exchange rate is very favorable to the US$. Hoping Western Canada has a better winter for 24/25 than this past winter. Red Mountain, Kicking Horse, Whitewater....can't wait.

Happy I got to Jay Peak when I lived in the East. Great mountain, and we hit a powder day with over a foot of fresh!

Walking up to the ticket window on a weekend during the high season... Deer Valley was $299 a day this past season (Adult). Lots of other mountains were at or near that price under the same circumstances. I skied Deer Valley for 5 days using my Ikon Base Pass Plus for $ 33.83 a day. Bogus Basin has relationships with other mountains in your general area. I noticed Grand Targhee gives you a free day. Hopefully you can head there is coming season. Maybe over there you will have access to demo a bunch of skis you cannot find in the Boise area. The Super 8 motel is actually very nice in Driggs and very affordable on weekdays. Very good rating and reviews.

I'm conflicted about how to feel about Vail. Not all problems at Vail are applicable to smaller/independent ski areas, which experience different issues. On the one hand, there is a clear model of corporate enshittification going on: extracting the most money for the lowest quality of service people will put up with. But I do see upsides. Those who ski 200 days a year are probably getting better day-to-day snow and liftlines due to how insane day lift tickets are at Epic/Ikon resorts, and a lot of other people will be pushed to the smaller, independent ski areas who probably feel like they can focus more on families and new skiers. It sucks that not everyone who skis 30+ days a season has a Vail/Ikon resort nearby, which could make ski trips to other Vail/Ikon resorts worthwhile. Similarly, if you live right next to a Vail/Ikon resort but aren't in a position to get in more than 10 days of skiing, that also sucks if there's nowhere else nearby which is meaningfully better value for lift tickets. There's market stratification without meaningful competition/alternatives because of geography.

Lift tickets have become outrageous. There needs to be an adjustment. I went to Park City in February and spent as much on two day weekend lift tickets as I did on my season pass at Bogus. The cost is pushing people out of the sport. However the big recession is coming and this is the tip of the iceberg.

Have never had an Epic or Ikon Pass - will be trying the Indy Pass this year 🤘🏻

The resorts price the day ticket to make the pass a better deal…assuming one gets in the days. It’s become crazy expensive and publically traded companies are forced by investors / wall street to deliver high profit / growth.

I purchase the iKon Pass because it is less expensive for me to ski 10+ days at my local resorts otherwise. My go to mountain is Mammoth Mountain. I also ski the iKon Big Bear Mountain resorts (Bear Mt and Snow Summit).

I’ve had similar thoughts to you for a while now and it’s nice to hear someone else talk about it too. It does seem like if you live somewhere nearish one of the Vail or Ikon mountains, the pass really is not a bad product. But as someone who now has to fly to ski and can get out on one trip per year (if that), it really is hard to afford it. And it really makes me question if I’ll even introduce my kids to it, as at this point it’s just gotten so expensive that I wonder if it’s even worth it. Some of the day-pack options are great if you know well in advance that you’ll ride X days at Y owned mountain. But admittedly, I am more and more seeking out mountains off the beaten trail that, while not always as good of terrain, are so much cheaper that it’s worth it. Personal opinion too, I tend to think the independent mountains have a bit more personality, which I tend to find fun. I grew up by an independent hill and there was a lot of pride in it. It was really fun. Always enjoy your videos, but this one particularly resonated with me. It seems someone who owns a Bent 100 as his one ski quiver (me) and you can agree on something ;)

Ikon and Epic were great for a while, but now travel costs have skyrocketed. I'd say AirBnB and resturaunts are about 60% higher than they were a couple years ago in ski towns. I might just stick to my local mountains next season. Why is everything more expensive in Europe EXCEPT for ski passes, which are reasonable out there?

Tamarack pass for $400 or Bogus pass + MC is the move. Just gotta get 4 days total at Targhee/Sun Valley/Jackson for it to pay for itself

Luckily i only ski midweek and epic has a midweek value pass that is affordable for me. When i go on trips , i ski midweek as well as buying my day tickets in advance

Problem is more with ikon pass than vail. Vail offers up to 7-day pass, using it for trip to breck for’25. Several ikon resorts are only doable if making a couple weeklong trips same year for season pass

Thanks man for this video. I'm really getting into skiing more as of last year and my home mountain is good and all but even before covid they raised their prices and changed hours so it's really hard to go there when there are way better mountains within an hour from me on the east coast in pa. Elk is like 15 minutes from me so it's hard to not go there but it's the same price for a day pass to go to any other mountain and the season pass is way more expensive than just getting an epic or icon so it's hard to say what's really fair. I feel like price is everywhere are going up and my local mountain just happened to be ahead of the curve so for me it's it's still a better deal to go to other mountains but unfortunately the time it takes to get there is a factor. So I haven't crossed that threshold where it's worth going to other mountains because I would be limited to weekends. I feel like if prices went back to normal globally then I would be all about epic an icon passes because there's no way my local mountain is going back to normal if they raise prices before covid even

❤ the music in most of your videos

It's happened before. One generation gets too old to ski while it's become too expensive for a young family to ski. There are plenty of abandoned ski hills around the country. So it sounds like I agree with you. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years.

Totally agree, I live in the northeast (NJ). I get a season pass to my local mountain (Mountain Creek for only $269!) then I go to the NY state run mountains (primarily Belleayre + Gore & Whiteface) since they are state owned and not outrageously priced (~$80 on a weekend). Then we'll make MAYBE one weekend trip up to VT since day tickets are >$100.

IKON is more expensive ($1400) than EPIC ($1000) by quite a lot, and EPIC does a way better job for Veterans and first responders with their discounts for the whole family. Ultimately I'd prefer to have a Vermont only pass and just combine all of the mountains into one limited area pass. Then you have places like Smuggs that don't even charge $100 for a day ticket, so there's options for people

Bogus produces a lot of new skiers of all ages. Not only is a day ticket reasonably affordable, they have deals where newbies can get 4 group lessons, equipment lease and a pass for about the price of a pass. The place gets busier every year, which lets them open up new terrain, improve lifts, etc. Yes, the area has new residents, but many of them don't ski or board until they get to Boise. Bogus gets them hooked. I don't know why every mountain doesn't do this. This is how they cultivate new generations of lifelong pass holders. If they didn't have programs like this, many locals would perceive skiing as an activity for rich people, and they would never even consider it. Full disclosure: I taught snowboarding there for 4 years.

They could absolutely offer bargain beginner passes, say a discounted 3-day pass that can be used anytime, once per season for $175 or so. Throw in beginner rentals. For regular skiers the structure isn't a problem; I'm semi-retired (yay me!) and never go on blackout days anyway, and mostly avoid weekends since I can ski midweek. So I'm on the Epic Tahoe Value pass ($540). The real suck is the lack of selection; I really like Sierra-at-Tahoe, Alpine Meadows (Palisades pricing, LOL), and Mt Rose, but not enough to pay day ticket prices there - especially if I already have a pass elsewhere. So I spent maybe 25 days at Kirkwood last season, 5 at Heavenly (on Epic), 1 at Sierra (no), 1 at Sugar Bowl (no). So it's more about the "cost of choice" than just the baseline pass. But maybe Tahoe is a little special though in that there are what, maybe 10 ski areas there.

I think aspen owns Snowshoe the cost of a place to stay was so much that we did not make the trip, thats before the lift ticket price. GW/CG has all but destroyed the local MD/PA places for day trips. Would you pay $100 plus to ski 500' of vert slush or ice?

I’ve felt pretty frustrated as I try to invite friends into the sport and watch as they struggle with the insane price of just trying it out. They would probably end up buying a season pass or ikon if they just had the chance to try it first. Newcomers and 1-5 day a year skiers have been absolutely decimated by the pricing structure and traffic issues that ski resorts face, all across the USA

Problem is more with epic pass than vail. Vail offers up to 7-day pass, using it for trip to breck for’25. Several ikon resorts are only doable if making a couple weeklong trips same year for season pass

Snowbasin's midweek pass is only $499 for the 24-25 season, the first time the price has decreased in years.

I did watch SI talk about Vail.. They did mention how that affects the stock prices so you could buy stock at a lower price..

Get a sled, and no longer depending on ski resort!

The pricing has been prohibitively expensive for my family. There is simply no way.

Do you think this is peak for Multi-Resort passes? No price drops in the Tahoe area, but my Ikon renewal was $10 cheaper than last yr. WAY more pass holders than daily ticket buyers, although Squaw-Palisades see more of the later. My fear is if (WHEN?!) the economy finally tanks, what the Private Equity firms that offer the Epic & Ikon passes, will do (or undo) to the mtns we love and cherish. PE firms aren't known to Leave things Intact when the profits start red lining.

Nothing is going on. The bad snow this season caused fewer new customers, resulting in fewer passes for next season. Existing pass holders couldn't ski as much, leading to fewer pass renewals. Next winter is expected to be good because the La Niña climate shift will cause more storms. Vail has significant pricing power. People won't resist powder and will pay up for day tickets or buy a pass (without an early bird discount) right before winter when snowy weather predictions start rolling or we get a good November/early December snow (again, lots of storms predicted). That's just my analysis.

i don't think IKON is in trouble ( we will never know) . EPIC is just a worse product compared to IKON. They are only competitive in summit county colorado . Ski ticket prices won't come down though. Vail explicitly stated that they want to bring daily pass sales down from 35% to 25%. Its their business model, ideally they want 100% of revenue from pass revenue. A weather dependent business is basically uninvestable in the market.

Don't worry, people will still go in the PNW no matter how much they charge. We don't really need more newcomers

Recession brother. Don’t believe chairman Powell. We’re innit. 😢