Time to Research Passes

[abc]

I just went with the same passes as last year

Same here.

I didn’t buy a pass last year, will be the same for next year.

Zero minutes.

 

[zyk]

Current renewal is $479. I've logged in 40 days, hoping for 50 by the end of the season. The math works so I will renew, but I am looking for something on the side. Maybe Indy or Epic local midweek (or whatever it's called) so I can travel a bit more.

 

[letitsnow1]

I'm definitely getting another killington pass, unsure about magic. If they don't raise the vermonter rate I'll probably renew because I always enjoy skiing there even when conditions suck. But opening later than every other mountain in the area is getting old.

 

[snoseek]

Every year I say Ill get a gunstock pass as its under 30 miles door to door and every year I dont for whatever reason and regret it big time. To make my budget either Cannon or Epic has to go if I buy Gunstock. I love Cannon as its a reasonable drive and fairly well run. I love Epic for variety and can travel with it but the NH resorts close to me are not run all that great. I need to not wait till fall to make the call.

 

[thebigo]

Boyne passes out, they moved the kids from nitro to silver at roughly the same price. next year looks like 2X Gunstock adult, 2X Gunstock youth, 1 boyne bronze, 2X boyne youth silver. $3567 all in for hopefully 300+ total ski days.

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

Ikon Pass prices should be out tomorrow?

Trying to recall announcement timing from prior years.

I believe it was March 9 last year - which was a Thursday - so we could get an announcement tomorrow

 

[snoseek]

I'm trading epic for jay/ragged next year. Cannon pass as always as well. May buy a couple epic day passes for wildcat as well.

 

[snoseek]

I just bought a Ragged pass, mostly for quick access skiing but also for the jay days that come with it. I fully expect to burn those five days and am ok with the half off tickets after that. Will probably reup my Cannon Pass and call it a day...maybe a couple Epic day passes for Wildcat at some point

 

[ColdRain&Snow]

Next season looks like I’ll be in Vermont a good chunk of the winter. I’m planning to renew ikon base, and hoping they have the $199 killington spring add on again.

I’m also leaning towards getting that epic northeast midweek pass.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Be careful if you're renewing EPIC passes.

They add in a $1 "forestry donation" per pass, but they make absolutely no mention that they've added this fee to your bill. It only appears on the very final page where you click to pay, and you'd have to notice the math on that last screen where you click "pay" isnt quite right like I did.

They you can explode a billings detail if you click on it and only then does is say "Donation $1.00" - huh? Even if you do this, it still doesn't say what the donation is for, and there is literally no way to remove it from the bill from that final payment screen where it appeared.

You have to exit back out, and then click on your cart and navigate back to the sales page a second time, and only then will the below display with the explanation of what this $1.00 fee is & a checkbox option where you can remove this $1.00 per pass fee so you dont have to pay it.

Basically, Vail made it very difficult to even notice that this charge is applied to your bill on the final screen, and then made it doubly difficult for you to figure out how to avoid paying it.

 

[thebigo]

Cannon pass as always as well.

Not quite sure how it happened but appears I am moving to Franconia next winter and skiing Cannon everyday. Definitely have to grab some turns when you are there.

 

[snoseek]

Not quite sure how it happened but appears I am moving to Franconia next winter and skiing Cannon everyday. Definitely have to grab some turns when you are there.

Wow excellent!

 

[drjeff]

Not quite sure how it happened but appears I am moving to Franconia next winter and skiing Cannon everyday. Definitely have to grab some turns when you are there.

The FSC ski club, which I presume is involved in this move, is a BIG TIME club! May your kids and you enjoy!

 

[Zand]

Since I've pretty much let my passes burn a hole in my wallet the last two years, I've decided to at least go back to the drawing board to see if I can do something more cost-worthy for this upcoming year. The last two years have been Indy Base and Full Ikon, and both have been 3 days on Indy and 5 on Ikon (hopefully another one or two left this year). The last two years I would've been able to the same days with Ikon Base, but I keep convincing myself I'm going to Jackson every year and then between money and time it doesn't happen. And then between the miserable mid-winter weather the past couple years and too much work, I just don't get out as much as I want to.

I kind of have a plan for next year that involves spending a bit more money (I know this makes no sense so far) but would probably get me out a bit more. I already purchased Indy again for next year (I should have easily gotten a couple more days on it this year and the price point is too good). I'm thinking about dropping down to Ikon Base which would save $330, but then getting the Epic NE Weekday Pass for $450 so in effect it would be $120 more.

My other option is to get Epic Local for $712 and say goodbye to Ikon altogether. It would be extremely tough to get rid of Killington (and I'd add Sugarbush but I clearly never made an effort to get back there this year so...) but I know I would get more days with Mt Snow and Okemo being the two closest resorts to me and IMO being more fun to ski than Stratton which I just can't get myself to make the effort to do daytrips to. I could still get a couple K-tickets if needed as well and still save a bunch of money while probably skiing more.

Not sure which path to take here, but I just feel like I need to change something,

 

[raisingarizona]

Since I've pretty much let my passes burn a hole in my wallet the last two years, I've decided to at least go back to the drawing board to see if I can do something more cost-worthy for this upcoming year. The last two years have been Indy Base and Full Ikon, and both have been 3 days on Indy and 5 on Ikon (hopefully another one or two left this year). The last two years I would've been able to the same days with Ikon Base, but I keep convincing myself I'm going to Jackson every year and then between money and time it doesn't happen. And then between the miserable mid-winter weather the past couple years and too much work, I just don't get out as much as I want to.

I kind of have a plan for next year that involves spending a bit more money (I know this makes no sense so far) but would probably get me out a bit more. I already purchased Indy again for next year (I should have easily gotten a couple more days on it this year and the price point is too good). I'm thinking about dropping down to Ikon Base which would save $330, but then getting the Epic NE Weekday Pass for $450 so in effect it would be $120 more.

My other option is to get Epic Local for $712 and say goodbye to Ikon altogether. It would be extremely tough to get rid of Killington (and I'd add Sugarbush but I clearly never made an effort to get back there this year so...) but I know I would get more days with Mt Snow and Okemo being the two closest resorts to me and IMO being more fun to ski than Stratton which I just can't get myself to make the effort to do daytrips to. I could still get a couple K-tickets if needed as well and still save a bunch of money while probably skiing more.

Not sure which path to take here, but I just feel like I need to change something,

Quit your job, sell everything and move out west.

 

[snoseek]

Quit your job, sell everything and move out west.

I did this a few times and got it the fuck out of my system. Now i have very little desire to hop on a plane.

 

[raisingarizona]

I did this a few times and got it the fuck out of my system. Now i have very little desire to hop on a plane.

Me too honestly.

 

[Zand]

I guess I only have a couple hours to make my mind up as Ikon renewal discount expires at midnight and prices go up...

Right now I'm leaning towards moving to the dark side for one year and getting Epic Local for next season, and not getting Ikon at all. I could then get a K spring pass to make up for the pitiful Vail spring offerings, which when added to the Epic Local is still less than an Ikon Pass.

Two main reasons for the switch and some other plusses. First main reason is, like I said a few posts ago, Mt Snow and Okemo are both very quick rides and also two places I wouldn't mind having access to during crap weather stretches (maybe this will be a jinx and cause a lot of huge dumps next year, in which case, GREAT!). Second reason is, thinking back to early season, Okemo and Mt Snow seemed to have very good Novembers whereas Stratton DELAYED their opening despite a cold month, Killington struggled to get top to bottom before Thanksgiving, and even Loon opened I believe a full week and a half after Okemo. It was frustrating as hell to be honest.

Other plusses are that I wouldn't hate getting to know Stowe and its sidecountry better. Folks here have gloated about it for years and I've only been there a few times and never really explored. Also, I've never been to Attitash so maybe I can finally check that out for the first time, as well as return to Wildcat for the first time since college. I'm also slightly intrigued by Hunter, and if NY gets in on some kind of storm that skunks Vermont, I wouldn't mind spending a day there to check it out.

From a western standpoint, my uncle (a gambler) has discussed a trip out to Lake Tahoe where he would get free rooms at one of the casinos and I could check out Heavenly and Northstar. Also, my wife's best friend lives in Denver and it would be neat to check out Breck, Keystone, Vail, and Beaver Creek.

Biggest minuses are losing Sugarbush (which I really hate that I didn't get back to this year after a good early season day), mid season at Killington, and also losing Maine (which I never got to this year either). Also, the west trips that I've wanted to take the past 3 seasons (such as Big Sky, Steamboat, and returns to Utah and Jackson) haven't been happening for one reason or another and now it will have to be at least one more year.

Making this change is going to be tough to do but like I said, maybe just for one season. Hopefully a change of scenery will be a bit of a kick in the ass for me to get out more.

 

[Zand]

Quit your job, sell everything and move out west.

Sure wish it was as easy as it sounds!

That said, even if I could move anywhere and not worry about a job, I still wouldn't move out west. Besides skiing, I enjoy too many other things that the east has to offer that you can't really get in the west without driving hundreds of miles. And from a skiing standpoint, obviously it would be amazing to have western skiing to wake up to every day, but (as far as SLC and Denver go) I couldn't deal with that traffic. When we were driving up to Vermont last week to see the eclipse and sat in 4.5 hrs of stop and go traffic to get from Brattleboro to Lyndonville, I said to my wife "people in Colorado sit in this kind of traffic to go skiing...every fucking weekend."

 

[Smellytele]

I guess I only have a couple hours to make my mind up as Ikon renewal discount expires at midnight and prices go up...

Right now I'm leaning towards moving to the dark side for one year and getting Epic Local for next season, and not getting Ikon at all. I could then get a K spring pass to make up for the pitiful Vail spring offerings, which when added to the Epic Local is still less than an Ikon Pass.

Two main reasons for the switch and some other plusses. First main reason is, like I said a few posts ago, Mt Snow and Okemo are both very quick rides and also two places I wouldn't mind having access to during crap weather stretches (maybe this will be a jinx and cause a lot of huge dumps next year, in which case, GREAT!). Second reason is, thinking back to early season, Okemo and Mt Snow seemed to have very good Novembers whereas Stratton DELAYED their opening despite a cold month, Killington struggled to get top to bottom before Thanksgiving, and even Loon opened I believe a full week and a half after Okemo. It was frustrating as hell to be honest.

Other plusses are that I wouldn't hate getting to know Stowe and its sidecountry better. Folks here have gloated about it for years and I've only been there a few times and never really explored. Also, I've never been to Attitash so maybe I can finally check that out for the first time, as well as return to Wildcat for the first time since college. I'm also slightly intrigued by Hunter, and if NY gets in on some kind of storm that skunks Vermont, I wouldn't mind spending a day there to check it out.

From a western standpoint, my uncle (a gambler) has discussed a trip out to Lake Tahoe where he would get free rooms at one of the casinos and I could check out Heavenly and Northstar. Also, my wife's best friend lives in Denver and it would be neat to check out Breck, Keystone, Vail, and Beaver Creek.

Biggest minuses are losing Sugarbush (which I really hate that I didn't get back to this year after a good early season day), mid season at Killington, and also losing Maine (which I never got to this year either). Also, the west trips that I've wanted to take the past 3 seasons (such as Big Sky, Steamboat, and returns to Utah and Jackson) haven't been happening for one reason or another and now it will have to be at least one more year.

Making this change is going to be tough to do but like I said, maybe just for one season. Hopefully a change of scenery will be a bit of a kick in the ass for me to get out more.

As far as the Denver thing - DO NOT BASE YOURSELF OUT OF DENVER TO SKI! You will regret it. Get to the mountains on a non skiing day and stay up there.