So who is breaking the $100 mark this year?

[steamboat1]

All I know is I can ski Killington/Pico midweek (except Christmas & Presidents weeks) for $450 & for $300 more (Max add on) I can ski 5 days any day (weekends too) at 6 different northeast resorts (8 if you count Mountain Creek & Wa Wa). Don't forget Tremblant either. Not to mention the western options open to me. That's quite a deal I think.

I'd love to get back to Big Sky. Steamboat & Copper are other places I'd like to try.

 

[dlague]

They are both fucking people when you can get a Epic pass even at this point for $829.

That includes 23 European stops as well.

 

[cdskier]

The epic pass is a great deal, but has absolutely nothing to do with the northeast. The price of it could be $10 and it still wouldn't help me one bit. The max pass is also a great deal if you visit several resorts on the list. In the east there are only a few I'd want to visit so even that isn't a great value for me personally. The extra travel and/or lodging expenses would negate any savings on lift tickets for me... The resorts on the max pass are too spread out for the most part (and that very well may be intentional)

 

[steamboat1]

The resorts on the max pass are too spread out for the most part (and that very well may be intentional)

Not really. Driving to or from VT. I pretty much drive right by Stratton. Skiing there would either shorten my drive up or drive home by about an hour. It's about 1hr. from our lodge so I could just hit it anytime if I wanted to too. Same thing with Okemo if I drive up I-91, shortens my drive up or back. Okemo is about 40min. from our lodge. If I wanted to go to Sunapee that would be about 1hr. 45min. from our lodge, very doable to drive over for a day. Do it all the time going to Stowe which is about the same drive time. Loon is about a 2hr. 30min. drive from our lodge, a bit of a drive but still doable if I decided to drive over for a day. I realize these areas are not known for their challenge but at my age I would probably enjoy a few easy cruising days once in awhile. I've also never skied Sunapee or Loon so it would be a new adventure for me. I do like Stratton & besides what some people may say the mountain can offer some pretty good challenge. Okemo I'll just deal with. I've been to Sugarloaf quite a few times & wouldn't mind being able to go up there for a few days again sometime. While I'm in the area I could hit Sunday River which I've been to twice before. Of course I'd have to pay for lodging. I could also make a day trip to Mountain Creek in between my trips to VT. which I make every other week if I felt like skiing just for one day in between. So I'll have to disagree with you about the amount of usage I could get out of the pass. Also an extra $20 bucks in gas money driving around isn't going to kill me.

Pico is about 15min. from our lodge with Killington being 5min. further so it's not like I'm used to staying right on the mountain. The MRV is about 1hr. away. I think our lodge has a pretty good location seeing all the options I have.

 

[Smellytele]

The epic pass is a great deal, but has absolutely nothing to do with the northeast. The price of it could be $10 and it still wouldn't help me one bit. The max pass is also a great deal if you visit several resorts on the list. In the east there are only a few I'd want to visit so even that isn't a great value for me personally. The extra travel and/or lodging expenses would negate any savings on lift tickets for me... The resorts on the max pass are too spread out for the most part (and that very well may be intentional)

What I am saying is that if the big areas out west can do it the eastern areas should be able to do a little better. Yes i know they don't have to make much snow but still. Some are trying like the MT Snow/Crotched/Wildcat and Attitash pass.

 

[WWF-VT]

What I am saying is that if the big areas out west can do it the eastern areas should be able to do a little better. Yes i know they don't have to make much snow but still. Some are trying like the MT Snow/Crotched/Wildcat and Attitash pass.

Epic Pass covers a long list of ski areas owned by Vail Resorts while the majority of Eastern areas are independent. Vail Resorts is focused on selling passes to "high-value destination skiers" which is a different dynamic than the East,

An interesting 2012 article about the economics of big ski resorts:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...ness-the-economics-of-big-ski-resorts/252180/

 

[Smellytele]

Also the Rocky Mountain Super Pass+ for 609.

 

[dlague]

The epic pass is a great deal, but has absolutely nothing to do with the northeast. The price of it could be $10 and it still wouldn't help me one bit. The max pass is also a great deal if you visit several resorts on the list. In the east there are only a few I'd want to visit so even that isn't a great value for me personally. The extra travel and/or lodging expenses would negate any savings on lift tickets for me... The resorts on the max pass are too spread out for the most part (and that very well may be intentional)

You are on point! It is all in one's perspective. The point about the Epic Local Pass is the age old point that everyone in the east makes about how expensive season passes are in the east.

I will give another example of a non bundled case Pats Peak (770 vert and 115 ac) season pass $579, now Loveland (2210 vert and 1900 ac) season pass $389. Both cases no black outs.

That is screwed up!

Now I cannot not complain too much because I had a season pass at Cannon for $273 and $289 the past two years with no black outs.

 

[4aprice]

The epic pass is a great deal, but has absolutely nothing to do with the northeast. The price of it could be $10 and it still wouldn't help me one bit. The max pass is also a great deal if you visit several resorts on the list. In the east there are only a few I'd want to visit so even that isn't a great value for me personally. The extra travel and/or lodging expenses would negate any savings on lift tickets for me... The resorts on the max pass are too spread out for the most part (and that very well may be intentional)

The Max Pass was a no brainer for me the second they added Solitude to the list.

At this point in our lives we are quasi empty nesters, "Weekend Warriors" out of necessity. Our destinations for skiing are NJ/PA (backyard stuff), VT/NH for the east, and vacations are spent in Utah and Colorado where my son is now living. The Max Pass gives us 10 Days in Utah (also only 15 miles tops from the top of BCC from where we stay), 25 Days in Colorado, 20 days in VT and 10 in New Hampshire, We will never use all those. (5 MC days + our CBK pass will keeps us plenty busy too.) For our taste, we like the selection of areas too. If we were to want to switch canyons (LCC instead of BCC), we would have to go to a different pass (Mountain Collective) and that would open up different option here and there (currently MC is better west and not so good east).

For us the convenience of having it all done (and already payed for too) is wonderful. Instead of playing the ticket game, we're playing the airline ticket game this fall. The multi area pass is something I've always wanted to see. Having it work out for us as well as it has is amazing.

Its all about the situation you are in and where you want to go. If I had a house at Sugarbush or Killington I would certainly be concentrating on them. If I was only hanging around the east coast, that Freedom Pass is pretty cool looking.

I'm loving the "Pass Wars".

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[steamboat1]

The Max Pass was a no brainer for me the second they added Solitude to the list.

At this point in our lives we are quasi empty nesters, "Weekend Warriors" out of necessity. Our destinations for skiing are NJ/PA (backyard stuff), VT/NH for the east, and vacations are spent in Utah and Colorado where my son is now living. The Max Pass gives us 10 Days in Utah (also only 15 miles tops from the top of BCC from where we stay), 25 Days in Colorado, 20 days in VT and 10 in New Hampshire, We will never use all those. (5 MC days + our CBK pass will keeps us plenty busy too.) For our taste, we like the selection of areas too. If we were to want to switch canyons (LCC instead of BCC), we would have to go to a different pass (Mountain Collective) and that would open up different option here and there (currently MC is better west and not so good east).

For us the convenience of having it all done (and already payed for too) is wonderful. Instead of playing the ticket game, we're playing the airline ticket game this fall. The multi area pass is something I've always wanted to see. Having it work out for us as well as it has is amazing.

Its all about the situation you are in and where you want to go. If I had a house at Sugarbush or Killington I would certainly be concentrating on them. If I was only hanging around the east coast, that Freedom Pass is pretty cool looking.

I'm loving the "Pass Wars".

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

Good for you. I would assume you bought a Mountain Creek season pass so you can get the Max add on . It's the same price as buying a Max Pass outright. It also means you can ski more than 5 days at MC.

 

[4aprice]

Good for you. I would assume you bought a Mountain Creek season pass so you can get the Max add on . It's the same price as buying a Max Pass outright. It also means you can ski more than 5 days at MC.

Actually no, and yes, I know we are not getting the best value for the pass. Mountain Creek was added on after purchasing the pass. We retain our Camelback Superpass for several reasons. Its useful on holidays when I won't travel to VT/NH to stand in line there. We have friends who live slope side and graciously put us up on a Saturday night so we can have fun around the resort (and CBK can be fun on the weekends with good apres ski) and along with Mountain Creek we (I have more of a chance to do this then the wife) will use it to get at least a couple of weekday afternoons per week. Camelback also has first tracks for Superpass holders for those that can get up early and a lot of times that first hour is really nice. The convenience factor is huge. Its not much different with our boat in that we keep a slip, whose price has risen higher then some other marina's on the lake, for the pure reason that we have parking right in front of the boat. If Camelback would join the Max Pass we would be golden, but not unhappy with the situation we have now.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[cdskier]

Not really. Driving to or from VT. I pretty much drive right by Stratton. Skiing there would either shorten my drive up or drive home by about an hour. It's about 1hr. from our lodge so I could just hit it anytime if I wanted to too. Same thing with Okemo if I drive up I-91, shortens my drive up or back. Okemo is about 40min. from our lodge. If I wanted to go to Sunapee that would be about 1hr. 45min. from our lodge, very doable to drive over for a day. Do it all the time going to Stowe which is about the same drive time. Loon is about a 2hr. 30min. drive from our lodge, a bit of a drive but still doable if I decided to drive over for a day. I realize these areas are not known for their challenge but at my age I would probably enjoy a few easy cruising days once in awhile. I've also never skied Sunapee or Loon so it would be a new adventure for me. I do like Stratton & besides what some people may say the mountain can offer some pretty good challenge. Okemo I'll just deal with. I've been to Sugarloaf quite a few times & wouldn't mind being able to go up there for a few days again sometime. While I'm in the area I could hit Sunday River which I've been to twice before. Of course I'd have to pay for lodging. I could also make a day trip to Mountain Creek in between my trips to VT. which I make every other week if I felt like skiing just for one day in between. So I'll have to disagree with you about the amount of usage I could get out of the pass. Also an extra $20 bucks in gas money driving around isn't going to kill me.

Pico is about 15min. from our lodge with Killington being 5min. further so it's not like I'm used to staying right on the mountain. The MRV is about 1hr. away. I think our lodge has a pretty good location seeing all the options I have.

I wasn't saying you couldn't get good usage, I said for me, it wouldn't be a good value. I did say the Max pass was a great deal for people that plan to visit several of the areas on the list. For me I don't have the time/money to really travel out west, so that takes them out of the equation. In the east, the only resorts on the Max pass that I would want to visit are quite spread out (K/Pico, Sugarloaf, Sunday River). K/Pico is less than an hour from my condo by Sugarbush and the only "day-trippable" option. SR and SL are 3-5 hours from the Mad River Valley area, so they would require overnight stays which goes back to the additional lodging expense I mentioned earlier (plus I'd want to ski more than one day at SR or SL anyway). To me places like Okemo, Mountain Creek, Blue Mountain, etc add no value to the pass since I wouldn't want to go to those places simply to use up my tickets.

The Max pass has absolutely no representation in VT north of K. That's a huge gap and where most of the mountains that would make that type of pass interesting to me are located. Plus everywhere in northern VT is really a day-trip candidate from the MRV area.

As for western prices vs eastern pass prices...it is so hard for most people on here (myself included) to know what truly is behind the pricing and to say whether they are justified or not. Are expenses lower in the west (i.e. due to smaller snowmaking budgets)? Are skier visits higher? Skier visits per resort don't even need to be higher if more people buy the passes but some of those people don't use them a lot. There are so many numbers that would be really interesting to truly see. Epic is a bunch of resorts all owned by one company...I'm sure they count on a lot of ancillary revenue from lodging, etc as a lot of those places are destination resort type of places. That all is a factor. I'm sure there could be a ton of other factors as well that I'm not thinking about...

 

[deadheadskier]

West vs East probably amounts to the West being far more weekly vacationers vs. the day trip or weekend warrior crowd in the East. Denver and SLC are tiny markets compared to NYC and Boston. They make their money out west on hotel stays and F&B.

Loveland and their cheap pass was mentioned, which isn't a destination resort. I bet they would charge much more as a Denver day trip destination, but their hand is forced to go low because of products like the Epic Pass.

I think Peaks low price point is a volume and brand building play. Crappy year last year, so entice more folks to check out what they've got and try to steal market share from Boyne and places like Stratton and Okemo. It might also even steal a bit of Epic Pass customers from the cities who do the math and realize they can save a lot of money in airfare and just stay East.

Ultimately I never really look at what a mountain decides to charge as "screwing" customers. Don't like the price/product? Don't pay it and go elsewhere. Not always easy for real estate owners, but that's the gamble you take buying into an area. No guarantee the value of the skiing product will remain consistent.

 

[steamboat1]

I wasn't saying you couldn't get good usage, I said for me, it wouldn't be a good value. I did say the Max pass was a great deal for people that plan to visit several of the areas on the list. For me I don't have the time/money to really travel out west, so that takes them out of the equation. In the east, the only resorts on the Max pass that I would want to visit are quite spread out (K/Pico, Sugarloaf, Sunday River). K/Pico is less than an hour from my condo by Sugarbush and the only "day-trippable" option. SR and SL are 3-5 hours from the Mad River Valley area, so they would require overnight stays which goes back to the additional lodging expense I mentioned earlier (plus I'd want to ski more than one day at SR or SL anyway). To me places like Okemo, Mountain Creek, Blue Mountain, etc add no value to the pass since I wouldn't want to go to those places simply to use up my tickets.

The Max pass has absolutely no representation in VT north of K. That's a huge gap and where most of the mountains that would make that type of pass interesting to me are located. Plus everywhere in northern VT is really a day-trip candidate from the MRV area

For me being able to ski Stratton 5 days is something I don't mind. Mix in a few days at Okemo, a day or two at the NH places & I'd easily get 10 days on the pass, $32 a day with tax , such a deal. Now through in a weekday or two to Mountain Creek is even more gravy, easy drive from the city. The opportunity to ski Sugarloaf with only lodging costs is more gravy, pretty sure I'll do that. If this season is anything like last season Tremblant is not out of the question either if they get dumped on in the spring like they did last year (haven't been to Tremblant in 30 years). Even a western trip is not out of the question. The pass is a no brainer for me, so many options. I'm sure I'll get a few days in at the Bush & Stowe to with the VT. pass & ski club appreciation days(likely my most expensive days this season). I haven't forgotten $30 Thursdays at Mt. Ellen either. I think my wife is going to miss me this winter, then again maybe she won't. I didn't even mention my season pass to Killington/Pico.

 

[boston_e]

The Max Pass seems as if it is a great product for people without a "home base". Especially from the Boston area you would have 15 easy day trips between Wachusett, Sunapee and Loon. If they were to throw in a couple of other weekend trips, that would be more days on the snow than all but the most avid skiers would get.

At only $650 (current price... May have been cheaper earlier) it is pretty easy to drive your per day cost down into the $40ish range.

 

[steamboat1]

Okemo non holiday $90 weekdays/ $101 weekends.

Holiday rate $103.

Rates are $5 less if you already have their RFID card.