Whats your choice of the best Multi-mountain Ski passes across America for Traveling.

[ThatGuy]

Its easy to say Park City sucks when 4 of the best resorts in North America are 5 miles as the crow flies away. It’s basically K/SR on steroids with much better snow quality. Also most of its lifts are still in the 1500’-1800’ vert range which is about average for a lot of Western mountains. 9990 is 1800’ and McConkeys/Jupiter are both a little over 1000’ so its not like theres no good terrain to lap. If you go from 9990 to the bottom of Tombstone you’re getting close to 3k vert with lots of terrain options. Also Super Condor is 1800’ of good terrain as well. Plus lots of ways to avoid crowds. I think Snowbasins Strawberry Gondi and Snowbirds Tram are the only lifts with significantly more vert. Obviously its not the Cottonwoods but it definitely doesn’t suck and the town of PC has more character than SLC for non skiers.

 

[abc]

The layout is kind of reminiscent of Killington or Sunday River on steroids, but there is nothing wrong with those two,

I’m not a fan of Sunday River either.

That said, when I do go there, I enjoyed it. Just can’t handle too much of it. All same’y, same’y.

Killington is probably the closest similarity. Has some good part. But If you want to “experience“ the “size” of it, you’ve got to do a hell of a lot of boring traverse! And despite of a decent total verticals, it’s all broken up. You can’t really ski the total vert from top of bottom without having to ride a bunch of chairs or do a lot of cat tracks…

It would be sacrilege to call K’mart “sucks”. Given its size and pockets of good terrain. Nevertheless, the “hugeness” of K is a marketing blurt that falls totally flat to many of us. So yes, some of us do call K’mart “sucks”.

Back to Park City, I enjoy Deer Valley a whole lot more than PC. So IKON for me. (My friends are borders, so DV is off limit to them. They’re “suck” at PC, Sorry, I mean “stuck” at PC)

 

[BenedictGomez]

I've occasionally skied Park City as far back as the '80s....The combined resort is really huge. You can spend a season exploring it all.

It was a tough choice, but that was what ultimately made the decision. You'd probably need 25 ski days to really get to know the place. Deer Valley is actually the closest to me, and it's fun, but just not as good as Park City, so the extra bit of driving will be worth it. I toyed with the idea of Sundance too, as I really like that place, it's pretty close, and there's zero traffic or crowding issues, but at the end of the day it seemed silly given how much smaller it is.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I think it's kind of crazy to say Park City sucks.

Since I joined this website it's always been my canned response to say that any eastern skier that says any western mountain "sucks" is crazy. More succinctly, "illogical" is probably the better term. Copper Mountain, Loveland, Park City, Powder Mountain, Keystone, and-on-and-on, my entire ski life I'd have given my left arm to be able to ski all season long at any of these mountains that "suck"; lol.

 

[abc]

Since I joined this website it's always been my canned response to say that any eastern skier that says any western mountain "sucks" is crazy. More succinctly, "illogical" is probably the better term. Copper Mountain, Loveland, Park City, Powder Mountain, Keystone, and-on-and-on, my entire ski life I'd have given my left arm to be able to ski all season long at any of these mountains that "suck"; lol.

I wouldn’t call Park City “sucks”. Far enough from that word.

But Keystone comes really close to that. It’s not the mountain. It’s the way Vail run it. It’s far too busy, far too scraped off, far too dangerous with dubious escape. Consider what’s next to it that anyone can easily go to instead, it kind of “sucks”. Still, when I was at Summit the last 2 winter, I actually ski there quite a bit. It’s the easiest to get to: park close to the village, no bus required, a short walk and quick reveres when done. All of that add up to be a good “lunch run” on days I was working remotely. A lot of the times, it was 1-1.5hr of skiing, with less than 1/2 hr getting there, parking, changing on top. Can’t do that in any of the other resorts. (ABasin is easy too, except it’s a longer drive and parking is a crapshoot. Still, when I have more than a couple hours, I went to ABasin. But on days I didn’t even have 2 hrs, it’s Keystone or no skiing)

While all of these western mountains are better than the best of what we have here. But once you’re out west, why settle for the bottom when you can have other places MUCH better? It’s silly to say it’s “better than the east”, cause you’re not in the east any more!

 

[Tonyr]

There are parts of @abc 's post that I agree with. But still I think it's kind of crazy to say Park City sucks. Too harsh. Probably the most damning thing I can say about Park City is the horizontal thing ABC referred to. The mountain is not very Alpine looking. The layout is kind of reminiscent of Killington or Sunday River on steroids, but there is nothing wrong with those two, just maybe Park City is a bit visually disappointing if you flew from NJ and are wanting to see jagged rocky spires.


My favorite advanced terrain at Park City, from left to right on the trail map, include the bumps of McConkey’s, the chutes of Jupiter, the trees of Peak 5, the bowls of Ninety-Nine 90, the glades of Tombstone, and the off piste from Super Condor. Most days you’ll find moderate to minuscule lines at all of these lifts. The new Quicksilver gondola very effectively connects the old PCMR and Canyons ski areas and serves its own secluded expanse of off-piste terrain called Pinecone Ridge.

Jim I'm a big fan of Park City as well especially when the conditions are good. All of those advanced areas you mentioned are great and PC has tons of great on the map and sidecountry tree skiing all over the place. During a storm we head straight over to the Motherload and Thanes lifts and jump into all the sidecountry stuff there. It goes virtually untouched for days.

I feel PC gets crapped on because it's way too large and hard to navigate but once you get your barrings, the mountain is alot of fun. Alta Snowbird is my favorite place to ski overall but I'll take the tree skiing at Park City (if you know where your going) in good conditions anyway day over the trees at Alta Snowbird.

 

[Tonyr]

We did a van life trip (without the van) back when the world shut down. I bought the Epic Pass and the Mountain Collective Pass which I thought was the best value while giving us the most amount of choices between Ikon and Epic.

From those passes we took two long trips. On the first trip we skied...

Keystone
ABasin
Beaver Creek
Vail
Aspen
Telluride
Crested Butte

Then on the second long trip we hit...

Park City
Big Sky
Grand Targhee
Jackson Hole
Snowbird
Alta
Snowbasin

The resort access between the two passes has changed a little bit, you'd have to swap Telluride for Sun Valley now but if you bought the Epic Local pass plus the Mountain Collective you can hit those 14 places above plus Breckenridge for $1300 give or take in ski pass costs. To me that combination is the best value out there if your trying to ski a bunch of resorts in one season.

 

[4aprice]

Park City layout is bizarre, but 1 powder trip up Jupiter Bowl and it does not suck.

 

[Hawk]

It's a no brainer for me living North of Boston and owning at Subarbush. I Ski Sugarbush full time and have 7 days Killngton, Sunday River, Sugarloaf and Loon on various other days. That fills my schedule. I also have at least one or may two trips a year out west or Europe. I have done Cham x2, Zermatt, Ski Dolimiti and now Kitzbuhel on the pass with no addtional ski cost. I have done trips to Utah x15+, Big Sky x3, Jackson, various Colorado, Palasades x5 all on the pass.
Epic??? I dont think so. The value for me was tremedous.

 

[Tonyr]

It's a no brainer for me living North of Boston and owning at Subarbush. I Ski Sugarbush full time and have 7 days Killngton, Sunday River, Sugarloaf and Loon on various other days. That fills my schedule. I also have at least one or may two trips a year out west or Europe. I have done Cham x2, Zermatt, Ski Dolimiti and now Kitzbuhel on the pass with no addtional ski cost. I have done trips to Utah x15+, Big Sky x3, Jackson, various Colorado, Palasades x5 all on the pass.
Epic??? I dont think so. The value for me was tremedous.

Yes in your case Ikon is an absolute no brainer. Home mountain's most of the time, dictate the best pass. Every other location visited that season is gravey.