Industry News
Another multi-resort pass option will enter the market next season, targeting budget-conscious casual skiers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Snow Partners will introduce the Snow Triple Play Card (S3P) for the 2025-26 season, aiming to make skiing more accessible for the majority of U.S. skiers and riders who hit the slopes only a handful of times each winter. The S3P, priced at $199, offers three visits to a coalition of six to ten independently owned ski areas in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with partner resorts to be announced later this year, reports Ski Area Management (SAM).
According to the National Ski Areas Association, 73 percent of the nation’s roughly 11 million active skiers and riders participate in skiing or riding between one and five days per season—too few to justify a season pass, yet enough to feel the sting of rising single-day lift ticket prices. Snow Partners CEO Joe Hession told SAM that the S3P is designed to address this market gap, providing a flexible and affordable option for those who want more than a single day but can’t commit to a full pass.
The S3P is modeled after Mountain Creek’s successful Triple Play Card, which has sold up to 60,000 units annually and offers three unrestricted visits to the New Jersey resort. The new card expands this concept to multiple resorts, but with restrictions to manage peak demand: S3P visits are limited to non-holiday periods, and cardholders may use the card for a maximum of two days at any one resort, encouraging exploration of at least two partner areas, explains SAM.
Hugh Reynolds, chief marketing officer at Snow Partners, told SAM that the S3P creates a “critical rung in the product ladder,” helping occasional skiers progress from a few visits a year to becoming season pass holders or multi-pass users. The company’s Big SNOW American Dream, North America’s only indoor ski slope, introduces about 100,000 people to skiing and snowboarding annually, and the hope is that the S3P will help these newcomers sample more resorts as they develop their skills.
Hession emphasizes the importance of supporting independent resorts, stating that the S3P is designed to empower these operators to attract the right guests at the right time, without being tied to larger corporate pass programs. In a ski industry increasingly dominated by major multi-resort passes, the S3P aims to provide a flexible, affordable entry point for new and occasional skiers, while supporting the vitality of independent mountains.
