MAX vs MCP?

Jully said:

While I agree with the general sentiment of your complaint, ABC is right in her critique. There are a few linked areas:
- Salt Lake City (3 areas within a 90 minute drive of the city). Flights are cheap via Delta or Jet Blue.
- Banff (2 areas within 30 minutes of one another and Revelstoke possible if you get a rental car and drive).
- Mammoth/Squaw (ABC turned me onto this earlier in the the thread.

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People always say to me flights to SLC are cheap from Boston. over 400 to me is not cheap. I have always been able to find cheaper flights to Denver. Also looked at Jet Blue and all their flights out arrive late in the evening (after 930) and all return flights seem to be red eyes. Not my idea of fun. Delta does have better options.

kelly001 said:

I'm surprised the Peaks Pass hasn't been mentioned, which I see as a much more direct competitor to the Max Pass than the MCP. For under $500 per person for 7 mountains (granted only 4 in New England), it's a steal. For us it makes more sense than MCP because we have kids that still do seasonal ski programs (13 week program at Crotched). Max pass doesn't work for that reason.

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Over 500 now. All passes went up 200 except the college age pass.

Smellytele said:

People always say to me flights to SLC are cheap from Boston. over 400 to me is not cheap. I have always been able to find cheaper flights to Denver. Also looked at Jet Blue and all their flights out arrive late in the evening (after 930) and all return flights seem to be red eyes. Not my idea of fun. Delta does have better options.

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I flew for $212 round trip in early March booking in February. I refuse to book a ticket to a major airport for over $400 haha.

Cheap flights to Denver is how CO gets you. Lodging, skiing, rental cars are all more expensive than UT.

Edd said:

Cheap flights to Denver is how CO gets you. Lodging, skiing, rental cars are all more expensive than UT.

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I disagree on UT having cheap skiing part. With Epic and RSMP passes, CO has cheaper skiing. And the more days one skis, the cheaper it works out

The rest I quite agree

Edd said:

Cheap flights to Denver is how CO gets you. Lodging, skiing, rental cars are all more expensive than UT.

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I think it depends on which rental company you use. We used a company called Trifty and we rented a mid-sized 4WD SUV (Nissan Rogue) for a week for $360 Friday to Friday which I thought was resonable. I went through Expedia.

abc said:

I disagree on UT having cheap skiing part. With Epic and RSMP passes, CO has cheaper skiing. And the more days one skis, the cheaper it works out

The rest I quite agree

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True since there are more resorts and unlimited skiing. With he Max Pass you can get in 25 days (probably several trips) with out additional lift ticket cost in Colorado and still have the 35-40 days back east, if you can get in that many days in.

MC in Colorado kind of sucks since Aspen and Telluride are so far apart and so far from Denver. MC is best used in Utah IMO due to the 2 day limit before spending extra $'s.

I was referring to general lift ticket prices that Joe Skier and the family would pay. Memory tells me that UT < CO in that regard. Not the ski nut with an Epic or Max clipped to his/her hip.

abc said:

Looking at the mountain list, MCP is more western focus while MAX is more eastern focus. That much is pretty clear.

But there're enough differences beyond just the mountain list to muddy-up the water...

With the addition of the Catskill mountains, MAX is very attractive to me. There're like 15 days within day trip distance of my home base! Of the western choices, Big SKy would be my first choice (though a PITA to get to). Brighton & Solitude are just as nice. And if I have extra time, I'd try Mt Bacholar. With its long season, I can combine it with other activities on the coast.

There's only one problem... I never ski that many days in the east. So the higher upfront cost may not be justified.

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We loved our trip to Big Sky. We'll probably go again next season. Honestly, it really wasn't that much of a PITA to get to. Bozeman to Big Sky is about an hour and it seems like less traffic and less annoying than the I-70 trip from Denver to Summit County.

I also definitely want to get to Mt. Bachelor next season and was bummed we didn't this season. Brighton/Solitude are in the mix as well as possibly Steamboat for going back to Colorado.

Edd said:

As much as I like Wildcat, comparing the terrain options between the passes, Max blows Peaks out of the water with the northeast areas alone. That said, I bought both of these passes for next winter.

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We've got both passes this coming season also - MAX and Peak Pass with plans to make Mt. Snow our go-to "home" mountain, but we'll hopefully use ~15 MAX Pass tickets in the East alone. Then, combined with 2-3 trips out West, the pass is just awesome.

Edd said:

I was referring to general lift ticket prices that Joe Skier and the family would pay. Memory tells me that UT < CO in that regard. Not the ski nut with an Epic or Max clipped to his/her hip.

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I think this is true also.

Edd said:

I was referring to general lift ticket prices that Joe Skier and the family would pay. Memory tells me that UT < CO in that regard. Not the ski nut with an Epic or Max clipped to his/her hip.

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Even without season pass, one can still get a 4-pack from Loveland or some other deals for Copper or A-basin for quite reasonable cost. The expensive skiing is really only limited to window price of the Vail owned mountains.

Now that Vail owns Park City & Canyons, the only reasonably priced skiing in SLC are on the Cottonwoods. It's no less expensive than the non-Vail mountain in CO

Edd said:

As much as I like Wildcat, comparing the terrain options between the passes, Max blows Peaks out of the water with the northeast areas alone. That said, I bought both of these passes for next winter.

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This is very true. My only complaint about the Max pass is that the two options in New Hampshire on the pass, Loon and Sunapee, are the two mountains I have absolutely no interest in dealing with on the weekends. Those also happen to be the only two mountains on the pass within reasonable day trip range for me.

Generally speaking, the New England offerings on the Max kind of suck for a weekend skier if you have a low tolerance for crowds. The lone exception would be Pico, but that's a bit too far of a day trip destination that I'd want to do often. I've become so spoiled by Wildcat that I have little desire to frequently ski busy resorts. I'll make an exception a few times a season for some Northern VT favorites and Sugarloaf, but I don't have a desire to deal with those crowds on a regular basis.

If I were planning a trip out west, I might consider the Max, but probably would go with Mountain Collective. I'm generally quite happy skiing Wildcat most of the time. So, $400 for six days worth of tickets in Utah plus 3 Sugarbush days would probably be a better value for me than paying $650 for the Max where I'd likely not use it a lot in the East. Plus, I like Sugarbush better than any of the mountains on the Max. Sugarloaf I like nearly as much, but the Bush usually has better conditions, weather and you can hang at Mount Ellen to avoid crowds.

we'll hopefully use ~15 MAX Pass tickets in the East alone. Then, combined with 2-3 trips out West, the pass is just awesome.

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Yes, as it stands for 17/18 season. I'm kind of worried it'll disappear next year with the Aspen purchase.

ABC - The only one I see being condenscending here is you. From your first post about "top tier vs drive by" mountains and onward.

It's clear that you make a lot of (wrong) assumptions and mapping onto other people, and that you feel your internal world view is the one and only "correct" one.

Why did you even bother asking for opinions if your mind was already clearly set toward the one pass that let's you say "going to Utah!"

abc said:

I'd like to point out you're on a North American ski & snowboard forum. Its name "Northeast" refers to the northeast of what? Of the US! Not the northeast of Europe or Japan!

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And yet here YOU are talking about Utah .

Violated your very own judgmental rule right there, didn't you?

If I would be as condescending as you, I might say as abc... "Hurrah, don't you even know that Utah is not in the Northeast, sheesh, why I'm gonna just assume you must be from Antartica"

To me, we are discussing what pass plans work for people and why. Passes that - gasp! - might, and do, include some non-US locations. Protect your delicate ears - someone may mention one of those pass destinations. Heavens forbid. Why are they doing that...

abc said:

It may even excuse your equally condescending tone in dropping some European mountain names.

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.. it must be because they intend to say that perhaps some place other than Utah (your "top tier") might be OK or even - gasp- desirable to visit too.

Your quote above says everything I need to know about you right there. You map your world view onto other people.

If someone mentions XYZ mountain and it's in Utah, that's OK, but if it said mountain lives in another part of the world you personally don't approve of, then you're gonna assume it's condescending because it's not your own mountain. Very nice.

It could simply be their hometown mountain, could be where they grew up, etc. But no matter to you - a mere mention of a 'foreign' (to you) mountain and you go off your jingoistic rocker.

abc said:

Sorry, what you actually said was: "Never been to Utah so it simply wasn't on my radar as a first-thought travel destination."

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And being new to this FORUM - not COUNTRY as per your jingoistic and wrong (surprise) Trump-like assumption - I was being more polite than direct.

But why be 'overly' polite to someone who isn't.

There was only one of the passes I investigated that contained Utah locations.

Furthermore, I had collected a list of the almost 80 destinations that the passes I was investigating went to. And ranked them all. Based on my - yes my - desirability factor for where I'd want to spend my time and money.

And the fact of the matter is that - for me - all the three UT entries were at the very bottom of that ranked destination list (for me).

If you want to call me out - in fact I'm calling myself out - it is that in order to give you the 'out' that I wasn't excluding Utah on purpose, I 'excused' my 'oversight' of Utah on a 'typo'. It wasn't. I was being overly polite (cultural difference from you I'm sure).

The fact of the matter is that - for me - Utah would be at the very bottom of MY travel list and thus ski list - being the very last of all the other great North American ski destinations that I would personally visit.

This would be for a host of personal and ethical reasons (that would be its own 'impolite' albeit political thread) for where I personally would want to spend and "reward to" my travel dollars, and to a lesser degree, to where I also think would be the most fun and more closely match what I happen to like in any given ski culture.

Note that these are values that work for and apply TO ME only. Other people have different goals and reasons for where they travel. I am not mapping what places work for me onto what places and values happen to work for them.

From your attitudes you expressed here, you probably fit right in to Utah (whereas many of my diverse friends would not), so I can see why Utah is a personal favorite for you. To each their own.

We all get to travel where we want. We all get to purchase the type of pass that works for us personally.

Glad you found a jingoistic 'home' there.

It is a free country.

I said my piece. I shared my view of how the two passes you asked about work for me (since you had asked). I'm probably done with this thread, feels like there is nothing more productive to be shared or gained here.

Signed a life-long (native) New Englander. So put that in your "freak out at European names" jingoistic pipe and smoke it.

OK! Moving on! If I were planning on multiple trips out west and wanted a home base back east - Epic Pass would be my friend!

dlague said:

OK! Moving on! If I were planning on multiple trips out west and wanted a home base back east - Epic Pass would be my friend!

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With just Stowe back east? I still think Max is superior as it stands now.

Jully said:

With just Stowe back east? I still think Max is superior as it stands now.

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I do agree - was trying to get conversation back on track.

Jully said:

With just Stowe back east? I still think Max is superior as it stands now.

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dlague said:

I do agree - was trying to get conversation back on track.

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I think it depends on the exact scenario. For someone in Burlington for example, Epic/Stowe could easily be the better fit. For someone from Boston, MAX could be better as long as you're ok with 5 days per resort (or you could always buy a pass to a place like Pico and do the MAX add-on).

dlague said:

I do agree - was trying to get conversation back on track.

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Hahaha. I appreciate that as well.

cdskier said:

I think it depends on the exact scenario. For someone in Burlington for example, Epic/Stowe could easily be the better fit. For someone from Boston, MAX could be better as long as you're ok with 5 days per resort (or you could always buy a pass to a place like Pico and do the MAX add-on).

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Very true. Was not thinking of the person in Burlington. For the majority of NE skiers though.

cdskier said:

I think it depends on the exact scenario. For someone in Burlington for example, Epic/Stowe could easily be the better fit. For someone from Boston, MAX could be better as long as you're ok with 5 days per resort (or you could always buy a pass to a place like Pico and do the MAX add-on).

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Good point! Obviously, the Stowe regulars that used to pay the crazy season pass prices will be happy about the lower pass price but will be upset since it opens the doors to others who will find that affordable.

dlague said:

Good point! Obviously, the Stowe regulars that used to pay the crazy season pass prices will be happy about the lower pass price but will be upset since it opens the doors to others who will find that affordable.

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I don't see the logic why anyone will be upset just because others could afford it?

Isn't that the point? Lower price == more people can afford it. How many "Stowe regulars" prefers higher pass price just so others can't afford it?