Industry News
Yesterday, the groundbreaking Ikon Pass was revealed.
This pass will be available this spring for the 2018/19 winter season and will allow access to 23 ski resorts in 9 US states and 3 Canadian provinces.
Ikon Pass = many of the best ski resorts in the USA including:
- Squaw Alpine, CA
- Mammoth, CA
- Jackson Hole, WY
- Alta/Snowbird, UT
- Big Sky, MT
- Killington, VT
- Aspen Snowmass, CO
- more
How Much Will The 2018/19 Ikon Pass Cost?
The Ikon Pass hasn’t disclosed its pricing yet…
They will this spring.
In the meantime, we feel like we can give it an educated guess:
First of all, they most likely want to keep it under $1,000 to make it the most attractive. 4 digits is a lot more than 3.
Secondly, the whole reason they’re creating this pass is to battle Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass that sold for $859 this year and includes unlimited access to their 16 ski resorts.
It seems logical to us that they’d try to approximately match the Epic Pass and sell their unlimited 2018/19 Ikon Pass for around $900-$999.
X-Factors:
One X-factor is that the Ikon Pass offers a lot more than the Epic Pass since it gives you access to 7 more ski resorts than the Epic Pass gives…Â Might they charge more for that extra access?
Another X-factor is that the Ikon Pass will most likely have many different passes within it. Maybe a West Coast Pass, an East Coast Pass, a Rocky Mountains Pass, etc.
What we want to know is how much will the full unlimited everywhere pass go for? Â
Again, we’re hoping that it’ll be less than $1,000.
How much do you think it’ll cost?
Let us know in the comments below.
And tell us why you think it’ll cost what you think it’ll cost.
Ikon Pass By Location:
California:Â Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, Mammoth Mountain, June Mountain, Big Bear Mountain Resort
Colorado:Â Aspen Snowmass, Steamboat, Winter Park Resort, Copper Mountain, Eldora Mountain Resort
Maine:Â Sugarloaf, Sunday River
Montana:Â Big Sky Resort
New Hampshire:Â Loon Mountain Resort
Utah:Â Deer Valley Resort, Alta Ski Area, Snowbird
Vermont:Â Stratton, Killington Resort
West Virginia:Â Snowshoe
Wyoming:Â Jackson Hole Mountain Resort
Ontario, Canada:Â Blue Mountain
Quebec, Canada:Â Tremblant
British Columbia: CMH Heli-Skiing & Summer Adventures – Access to special benefits to be announced soon
Sometime around mid February my girlfriend entered me in a contest to guess the price of the Ikon pass- and I nailed it at $899! You were supposed to get a free pass- but she forgot who ran the contest- anyone have any idea?
My husband & I have been MVP pass holders at Mammoth since the program started. We are now seniors & pay approximately $400. We will not be able to afford a pass on our fixed income that will cost 2 1/2 -3 times the price we have been paying. We’re hoping that there will still be a senior pass for less money because we do not travel outside of California anymore. Please take this into consideration. I’m sure we are not the only ones in this situation. Thank you.
Way to go Alterra you actually own the below resorts but exclude Deer Valley Utah from being unlimited screwing all the Salt Lake Valley area Skiers and Riders (not riders cause DV) . The destinations that make up Alterra Mountain Company are spread throughout five states and three Canadian provinces: Steamboat and Winter Park in Colorado; Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, Mammoth Mountain, June Mountain and Big Bear Mountain Resort in California; Stratton in Vermont; Snowshoe in West Virginia; Tremblant in Quebec; Blue Mountain in Ontario; Deer Valley in Utah; and CMH Heli-Skiing & Summer Adventures in British Columbia.
Unlimited restricted at a low price is what ikon should do per Katz the CEO of Vail resorts and epic pass. They sold 750000 this year and they are having a bad snow year with skier visits down double digits. What a great strategy by Vail. Alterra take note needs to be sub $800 early but and unlimited at ALL resorts.
Update Feb 22, 2018 – as suspected East Coast, Jackson Hole and Utah folks hosed while jackpot for CO and Tahoe. Way to screw most folks that had the $279 Max Pass add on! This new deal sucks! Boycott all the Ikon areas and go Epic!!! 5 or 7 Maximum days at Loon Sunday River and Sugarloaf combined is total JOKE!
correct on earlier comment about the Jackson Hole rip off season pass. almost as bad as Sun valley. Stowe had a rip off season pass until Vail showed up. now $859 for unlimited at all Vail resorts…including Stowe! Too bad that Sunapee and Okemo are out. (or not invited) That will really hurt those two places because half the folks that buy Sunapee/Okemo passes or a Max pass will grab an Ikon instead and simply travel to Loon, Killington, Sunday River or the Loaf. Hoping the Ikon pass is priced below $859. It really should be. But rip off Jackson hole Mountain resort will fight that since their only competition is snow king and Targhee. Ikon better offer unlimited at all resorts or it will be a big dud. Thank Goodness to the struggling workers in Jackson Hole that have been getting hosed by the Kemmerer’s every year. But I suspect Ikon will figure out a way to limit the use at the village. Alta and snowbird on the other hand have big competitors close by, Epic (Park City & Canyons), Solitude, Snowbasin, Powder Mtn and Brighton. Wonder why Brighton isn’t part of Ikon since owned by Boyne?
$699 for 5 (hopefully 6) days at each of the resorts on the pass. No blackouts.
$999 for 9 (hopefully 10) days at each of the resorts on the pass. No blackouts.
$1999 for unlimited skiing at IKON owned resorts. No blackouts.
$2999 for unlimited skiing at ALL resorts on the IKON pass. No blackouts.
I hope ORDA resorts join this pass, like they did last minute on Max Pass last year. Most of these resorts were on MaxPass, that was a collective and I bought mine in April 2017 for $630. It had more resorts in it than this icon pass does. I already miss MaxPass in 2019. It’s been such a good deal for 2017-2018.
I just hope there is a local pass option like the Epic that is on par with what the RMSP+ cost. Unlimited at Eldora, Copper, and Winter Park with Maybe a few days at the other resorts like Aspen and Steamboat. But who know if they drive the prices up like they have been in recent years, I might just finally invest in back country gear and say fuck the resorts all together.
Posting here as a Mammoth passholder, but I’m sure our experience is mirrored by other people at other resorts. We’re geographically, financially and emotionally invested in Mammoth. It’s where we ride. We’ve had passes since they introduced their MVP (really an Intrawest real estate play) back around 2000. This season’s four resort pass was $699. I can’t imagine paying more for access to resorts we’ll never visit. My hope is for a West region pass with unlimited access to our home mountain and possibly Squaw Alpine, with blackout access to the rest of the IKON group. I could justify a slight increase for that, but if a reduced price pass has blackout dates at Mammoth there will be a great wailing and gnashing of teeth among current passholders. I have to believe for retention alone, they need to offer a pass at least as good as what we’ve been enjoying.
Look at Stowe being added to the epic pass. Their season pass was like $2500 so local Stowe people are making out now. If it’s close to the early bird Killington pass price ($899) I’ll be getting one. This is great news for skiers.
I’d love to see them price it slightly below the Epic Pass. They’d really screw Vail Resorts, at least here in Colorado if they did that. There are a ton of Vail locals, as well as people from Denver, that are fed up dealing with Vail Resorts and their never ending BS, so even if they made it $20 cheaper than an Epic Pass, I think they’d get a ton of sales and have people switching to Copper and Winter Park instead of Breck and Vail. Hell, I live in Vail and would consider getting one instead of an Epic Pass, and I can walk to the other company’s mountain from my house.
Oh, god, please no. I’d happily pay $100 more for the Ikon if it meant the Epic would remain the go-to Colorado standard.
We paid $629 this year for our MAX Pass – 5 days each at 44 mountains. It’s a great value, and enough days to be worth traveling to a ski area. It’s hard to imagine that Ikon will be an improvement, and certainly not if it’s closer to eight or nine hundred dollars.
Max Pass will be missed by a lot of icecoasters.
East Coast had a good thing going with the Max Pass. It was an ok price for the options we have access too. A straight up NEW ENGLAND PASS would be AWESOME!!!!
Epic is causing the industry to change. When you have strong competition in any industry, the prices drop, some times lower than 50% of what they use to be. Independent resorts might be able to charge $1,000+ for season passes but for how much longer? Unless you live in one of those towns, your probably not buying a $1,000 season pass. With Epic and Ikon keeping skiers on the included mtns, the Independent resorts will need to find ways to attract skiers to their resorts. If you have 5 days at a list of Independent resorts that is included with your Ikon pass, the resorts have to look at the loss on those lift tickets as a marketing expense. The Skiers will spend money while there on rentals, lodging, meals etc. its not like any of that is cheap on the side of the mountain.
I’m not sure why the previous comments refer to Aspen as a partner, Aspen essentially started ikon when they acquired Intrawest with the KSL Capital.
I think if they charge more than $1,000 sales will be minimal. Expected price tag would be $899.
For that you would probably get access to all of the Ikon Mountains ( Aspen, Steamboat, Winter Park, Deer Valley, etc) but have the Epic Local Pass black out dates. Then also included would be 3-5 days to each of the partner mountains ( Jackson Hole, Big Sky, Alta, etc)
If you live in Denver, the Epic Pass will probably still make sense for you. If you travel to what I like to call “Destination Resorts” then the ikon is going to make more sense.
But Deer Valley also limits the number of passes sold per day.. that may be a factor as well.
I think its going to be more like $2,000-$2,500 and they may have to have something in there to deal with the DV issue of limited skiers per day and no snow boarders as well.
Need snowboards allowed at DV and Alta. We can co exist with skiers. Watch the Johnny tsunami movie and you ski snobs will understand.
I really don’t see the big deal about banning snowboards at those 2 mountains. Deer Valley is on private property if I understand right, so I doubt their policy will change anytime soon. And I’ve actually thought that Alta’s responses to banning snowboards has been one of the funniest marketing replies ever. “We don’t discriminate. We banned snowboards, not snowboarders. They are welcome to ski here.” Back in the day when a bunch of places banned boards, I could see it being an issue, but I find no offense with it now. Perhaps there are some skiers who don’t want to share the mountain with snowboards, and they cater to that market. On the other hand, perhaps they are shooting themselves in the foot by eliminating half of the lift tickets they could potentially sell by not allowing boards. If they think that is the right decision for their resort, I’m ok with that.
(1) $899 for just the Alterra-owned resorts, unlimited.
(2) $999. Unlimited at Alterra owned resorts. 2 free days and 50% off at the partner resorts.
(2) $1999 for unlimited everywhere
All prices in March, going up as the year goes on. This follows the “get everyone on a season pass” model to (1) get revenue early and (2) get people to the mountains.
As an East Coat resident, it’s hard to justify the prices for these passes. I am able to make one trip West each year, and there is no way I would be able to utilize the benefits of any of the multi-resort passes. Epic has worked well. I get four days (usually in Colorado). For someone living in the West/Mid-West, I can certainly see the value.
Well all these prices are pure speculation. Nevertheless, I encourage you to continue to ski at Vail or whatever.
I assume $899, which is astonishing considering the number of 4-pack Colorado tickets I could buy at $159-209 each. We could easily ski 20 days for less than the season pass cost.
I think the Ikon offering will include some type of unlimited pass for under $1k that will apply only to what they are designating as “Alterra” resorts (e.g Steamboat, Deer Valley, Mammoth, Squaw) with free days (number varying by resort) included for the “partner” resorts (e.g. Aspen/Snowmass, Big Sky, Jackson Hole). It would also make sense for regular passes at the “partner” resorts to include free days at both the other partner resorts and the Alterra resorts, with basically some version of the MAXX pass and Mountain Collective added to the regular resort passes in exchange for cross access.
This will all be good for skiers, but I think people who are expecting to get an Epic pass price (sub $1k) that includes unlimited access to Jackson Hole, Big Sky, Aspen and the other Ikon “partners” will be disappointed. Vail Corp. (as far as I know) owns the resorts covered by the Epic pass (except for just added Telluride, which is an interesting development), so it doesn’t have the robbing Peter to pay Paul problem faced by the Ikon group. But I don’t see independently owned Jackson Hole, for example, giving up pass dollars for the benefit of the group. Also, note that some owners/affiliates in the Ikon group have some of their resorts in the “Alterra” bucket and others designated as “partners” (e.g. Boyne and the ownership group behind the Aspen-Steamboat-Mammoth rollup). This indicates to me that while the non-Vail Corp owners are willing to pool some of their assets on an Epic-like basis (because these resorts are getting crucified by the Epic offering?), they are holding back on the others and will only be offering some version of the Maxx/Mountain Collective limited reciprocity arrangement. Still a good deal (otherwise what’s the point), but I see a risk of hype backfire here when expectations are disappointed.
You have to also remember that a lot of ski resorts offer early bird season passes that can save you 300+ on the season pass ticket price, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was $1000+, but could see it being in the 800-900 dollar area
They will likely be more profitable to sell them for cheap so everyone buys one regardless if they really use it very much or not.
Deer Valley is $2000. Don’t expect them to go 1/2 price. Anything in the $1500 range would be great.
Stowe dropped by over half going to Epic! Deer Valley is like skiing at Okemo just groomed gravy train with better snow quality. I suspect unlimited at all resorts must be under $900 for early buy.
Squaw passes used to be $1200 – $1500 (or something like that). Once KSL took over prices dropped, and then Alpine got added, so now a pass for both is a fraction of what it used to be. It will be cheaper.
Bonus! Since Squaw and Alpine are actually two ski areas, and Aspen is four, and the Bird and Alta are separate, you actually get 28 resorts! (You would think they would actually market it that way.)
Highly doubt it will be under $1K for unlimited access to all those resorts. I suspect there will be a lot more tiers and buy-up options than an Epic Pass. I wish they would have engaged a south shore of Tahoe resort like Sierra at Tahoe to give more competition in Tahoe to the Epic Pass which has a better diversity of resorts in Tahoe.
I would hope that there is a version similar to the Collective = 2 days at each for a reasonable price (< $500). It is doubtful the Collective will be in existence much longer if it has to compete with the Ikon pass.
Hopefully Liftopia will be used to sell the Ikon pass.
California Mammoth path is above $1K, since new Pass offers more terrains, it is very unlikely it would be under $1K
I have a CALI4nia pass (mammoth) and did not pay $1k… $800
I paid $700 for my unlimited Cali4ornia pass. It also came loaded with $50 resort credit, so it was more like $650
Jackson Hole season passes retail for $7520. It will likely be a bit more than that.
You might recheck your math. Last time I looked the season pass price at JH it was $1985.
This is a interesting development. I can see Aterra owned resorts part of an unlimited plan but I think the other non owned resorts like Snowbird and Jackson Hole maybe offering a couple of free days and then half priced tickets for additional days like the Mountain Collective offers now.
I am also curious how this will impact the Mountain Collective pass. Why would you buys it when the Ikon Pass includes most of the same areas. Granted, the Ikon doesn’t included some resorts in Canada, the Mtn Pass does but those are a very small piece of the whole pie.
One noticeable resort missing from the Ikon is Sun Valley Idaho.
In my way of thinking, the Ikon is going to kill the Mtn Collective pass
what crack are YOU smoking?…its $1900
no, they are $1,985 now (most resorts are cheaper before the season too). https://www.jacksonhole.com/season-pass.html
I highly doubt IKON will be cheaper or even close to what Epic costs. Or, if it is I’m betting it won’t be unlimited but rather more like the collective pass with X days at each resort. But I would LOVE to be wrong. Perhaps reading between the lines, but I got the impression there may be multiple options that have different usage models.
All rumor at this point. But yeah, Jackson passes are not 7,500.