East coast pass options suck.

Edd · Mar 5, 2019

thetrailboss said:
At first it was one pass. And I loved it. Then it was two passes. And I loved it more. Now it is three passes.

As someone who has the equivalent of three passes, I say go for it if that is what you like to do. It gives me good variety and I go where I want to when I want to. I have three and I am not crazy...at least I say I am not crazy :dunce:

What passes did you go with this year?

gregnye · Mar 5, 2019

KustyTheKlown said:
if you cannot string together an excellent eastern season with ikon base + the other more novel products we all discuss here all the time, then you don't deserve a 50 day season.

Not everyone has enough money to afford 2 passes. So it's only one good one or no deal.

And I agree. The pass selection sucks here on the east coast. But honestly I'm kinda ok with it because some of my friends out in Colorado have experienced such crowds at resorts out there that they don't really enjoy the skiing experience anymore which is sad.

And the colorado ski area pass market really has furthered the wealth gap between the rich and the poor. There's the wealthy who have moved out Colorado from California to ski and retire. And then theres my generation who is still relatively new to the workforce post college and moving out there and realizing that its hard to start learning how to ski with day tickets over $100 a day.

So in a way the east coast is better in terms of cheaper skiing at non-corporate resorts. I mean we've even got state-owned resorts in New York and New Hampshire! I know people on this site tend to hate the government but at this point I have more faith in the state of NH to keep skiing affordable then I do Vail.

JimG. · Mar 5, 2019

thetrailboss said:
At first it was one pass. And I loved it. Then it was two passes. And I loved it more. Now it is three passes.

As someone who has the equivalent of three passes, I say go for it if that is what you like to do. It gives me good variety and I go where I want to when I want to. I have three and I am not crazy...at least I say I am not crazy :dunce:

I have 2...Killington and Belleayre/Gore/Whiteface.

K, Belle and Gore all less than 3:15 from my front door. Except for Belle all great terrain. Wish I could justify a Peaks pass also but Wildcat is just too far away (5:30) to make it possible. Don't really care too much about their other properties although it would be nice for Hunter on weekends I don't want to go far. Belle currently fills that need for local skiing.

Not getting on an airplane to ski, so western properties are irrelevant to me.

Pez · Mar 5, 2019

I was at mount snow for the first time this year on Sunday. It did seem a lot busier than it used to a couple years ago especially for early March.

Their Sunday afternoon ticket is still the best bargain around. Cost me 30 bucks for the afternoon.

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KustyTheKlown · Mar 5, 2019

there are plenty of cheap pass options in colorado. like under $400 cheap. the i-70 crowds are the problem, not the cost of skiing.

and you lack any historical perspective. these multi mountain passes are new-ish. years ago there were only single mountain passes, which generally ran >$1000. you now have multiple multi mountain pass options under $1000, and the indies have lowered their individual season pass prices to be competitive with the conglomerates. the inexpensive pass options at places like bolton and magic are absurd. magic has like 15 different configurations of their pass.

Zand · Mar 5, 2019

When this year is said and done I will have 10 days out west at Ikon resorts. The Ikon base pass was $600something. The way I look at it, I'm skiing the western resorts for $60ish a day, so basically I bought a card that got me 50+% off my days in the west and also includes ~30 free days in New England. And the eastern options (except Stratton and Loon) sure don't suck.

icecoast1 · Mar 5, 2019

kelly001 said:
Peak Pass is still a great deal. Early season at Mt Snow and Late Season at Wildcat are awesome and crowds aren't an issue. Crotched mid-season is uncrowded.

Ikon, even the Base pass gives you 30 days in New England. 5 more if you venture to Quebec. Swing for the Regular pass and you get Unlimited Stratton.

Not sure how these are unappealing deals. People have a short memory. Things have improved in recent years with these multi-resorts passes.

I'm sure they're great if you want to travel a lot and have the means to buy lodging at all these places, not everybody has the luxary of being able to do that. These new passes are definitely an improvement for a lot of people, but not everyone. I agree though the peak pass is a good deal, almost too good as Dr Jeff said

slatham · Mar 5, 2019

Zand said:
When this year is said and done I will have 10 days out west at Ikon resorts. The Ikon base pass was $600something. The way I look at it, I'm skiing the western resorts for $60ish a day, so basically I bought a card that got me 50+% off my days in the west and also includes ~30 free days in New England. And the eastern options (except Stratton and Loon) sure don't suck.

I think you did way better than 50% off. Most day tickets out west at major resorts are $150-225!

I too like the Ikon base, especially if a Western trip is the mix. I’d like to ski Stratton (weekday), Killington and Sugarbush, but I doubt I can get to each of them more than 5 times anyhow. Couple that with a pass from Magic at less than $500 and your all set.

prsboogie · Mar 5, 2019

GregoryIsaacs said:
I still dont know how Peaks gets a away with such a cheap product. Simply cant say no to the explorer option

It's pretty simple, do not replace a 30 year old lift or replace lodges in New Hampshire

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SKI-3PO · Mar 5, 2019

kelly001 said:
Ikon, even the Base pass gives you 30 days in New England. 5 more if you venture to Quebec. Swing for the Regular pass and you get Unlimited Stratton.

If the Quebec you’re talking about is Tremblant, it is unlimited on the Base Pass.

boston_e · Mar 5, 2019

KustyTheKlown said:
and you lack any historical perspective. these multi mountain passes are new-ish. years ago there were only single mountain passes, which generally ran >$1000. you now have multiple multi mountain pass options under $1000, and the indies have lowered their individual season pass prices to be competitive with the conglomerates. the inexpensive pass options at places like bolton and magic are absurd. magic has like 15 different configurations of their pass.

This. I don't remember exact figures but if I am remembering correctly, when I was in my late 20's a Killington pass (and then they did come out with the American Ski Company ski the east pass... or some similar name) was something like $1200 for early season purchase and there was no discount for being under 30. It took about 20 days of skiing before the pass started to "pay off".

At some point they started in with the bronze, silver and gold passes and they became pretty cheap...and brought the crowds with them.

thetrailboss · Mar 5, 2019

Edd said:
What passes did you go with this year?

Alta/Snowbird and a Brighton night pass.

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gregnye · Mar 5, 2019

boston_e said:
This. I don't remember exact figures but if I am remembering correctly, when I was in my late 20's a Killington pass (and then they did come out with the American Ski Company ski the east pass... or some similar name) was something like $1200 for early season purchase and there was no discount for being under 30. It took about 20 days of skiing before the pass started to "pay off".

But the day tickets were cheaper! Even in my lifetime I've seen walk-up day tickets in the $60-70 range. And $70 was Loon. Now it's almost $100 a day (or over if it's out west).

This is simply a transition to a subscription-based model. Every company wants to do it now, ever since the success of the cell phone industry. We don't pay for CD's or per song (on iTunes) anymore. Now it's subscription-based Spotify and Netflix or even worse Adobe Creative Cloud (this one really annoys me).

Subscription-based models are preferred because the income comes in every month regardless what happens. Recently ski areas are jumping in on this model and its just annoying. I like flexibility and not commitment. I like being able to pick the ski area with the highest snow total and ski it once. I like cheap day tickets.

lerops · Mar 5, 2019

My only complaint is that they took away Catskills and NY state and are not bringing them back. That was giving NY skiers good closer options as I have a 9 yr old daughter and hard to drive 4+ hrs each way for two days of skiing.

If I were Epic, I’d have done something on that to grab the NY market.

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KustyTheKlown · Mar 5, 2019

Yea, definitely missing the NY spots from max on ikon ... would love to see them grab windham and partner with nys for the others

Zand · Mar 5, 2019

lerops said:
My only complaint is that they took away Catskills and NY state and are not bringing them back. That was giving NY skiers good closer options as I have a 9 yr old daughter and hard to drive 4+ hrs each way for two days of skiing.

If I were Epic, I’d have done something on that to grab the NY market.

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Gotta wonder if there was some kind of disconnect between NY state and Alterra on the kickback $ from each day skied. You'd think they would've tried as hard as they could to get Belleayre, Gore, and Whiteface on Epic as NYC would be a huge market for them.

cdskier · Mar 5, 2019

boston_e said:
This. I don't remember exact figures but if I am remembering correctly, when I was in my late 20's a Killington pass (and then they did come out with the American Ski Company ski the east pass... or some similar name) was something like $1200 for early season purchase and there was no discount for being under 30. It took about 20 days of skiing before the pass started to "pay off".

At some point they started in with the bronze, silver and gold passes and they became pretty cheap...and brought the crowds with them.

New England Ski History has a fairly decent amount of data on full adult season pass prices as well as day ticket prices.

For example for Killington: https://newenglandskihistory.com/Vermont/killington.php
Scroll down near the bottom to the "Year by Year History" section. There are some gaps in the data, but still lots of interesting info in there.

deadheadskier · Mar 5, 2019

I thought Peak had it priced best with the tiered product offering 3-4 years ago pre-Hunter.

IIRC it was about $900 for the full Noreaster pass that included Snow, Attitash, Cat and Crotched.

Then you had the Granite Pass for the NH 3 at like $700

And a Crotched pass at about $300

The introduction of the Ranger pass was still a financial jump for Crotched skiers. They were pissed about it. But you could still ski Holidays on a cheaper pass. Now that has gone away for next season.

Makes zero sense for primarily Crotched skiers to pay Mt Snow rates while also offering a cheap as shit pass price valid at Mt Snow to bring in even more crowds.

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thebigo · Mar 5, 2019

drjeff said:
As a parent, I am just happy that Peak "came to their senses" a few years ago and dropped the cost of their kids pass to the same price point as the drifter pass for the 18-29 crowd..

The older model where the kids pass was $250-$300 more than the drifter pass often felt like a slap in the face to families that ski....

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A slap in the face is exactly how crotched families feel today. Peaks made the decision to raise the price on middle class families in rural
New Hampshire, not the DC crowd, not the Philadelphia crowd, not the nyc crowd - rural new hampshire families that commit a significant percentage of their household income towards passes, kids programs, food, booze, etc

All the while their two other mountains in nh offer undrinkable water and a non functioning summit lift. And on top of it families with kids are forced to buy k spring passes because wildcat stays open for the mass kids on april vacation, then closes midweek for the local kids vacation.

deadheadskier · Mar 5, 2019

KustyTheKlown said:
shame on you for ever holding a stratton only pass in the first place

Phantasy tour black board is thataway bro ---≥>>

Pretty sure Brownstein would call you out on some of the elitist hettier than tho posts you've been posting up lately.

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East coast pass options suck.

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