Customize: A 20 Resort Pass

In that other thread I was dreaming about my own custom max pass.

So, I'd like to see your Ideal 20 Resort Pass. 

Your pass goes on sale for $500 after Presidents week and includes the rest of the year.  After 4th of July it goes to $700.

I was originally thinking asking for 10 east and 10 outside, but no holds barred.

(I'll drop mine into this post as soon as I can, got to think through Quebec)

You know, after this year, I'm starting to think quality over quantity. In other words, everyone is getting sucked into the concept of so many ski hills on a pass, myself included, when maybe we should approach it by asking, what experience would make me most happy and comfortable for the season. We're all like kids in the candy store when we see the MaxPass list, but maybe we need a Mom to say, are you really going to eat all that?

My pass choice this year was the MaxPass, Mountain Collective, and ABasin season pass. All of that gives me an enormous amount of skiing, both east and west. But, am I really going to use a lot of it? No, especially with the extreme cold and now rain basically destroying January in the East. And then there's the bed problem. Sure, you've got a ton of tickets scattered about, but, then you're hostage to daily lodging deals at ski areas, and I can testify right here that, unless you're fond of dirtbag motels, that can add up. Even then. It's kind of amazing what some junky Killington motel can charge on busy nights. Lovely neighbors sometimes, too.
On the other hand, it certainly opens up your options. This year I was going to concentrate on SLC Cottonwood canyon ski hills, because I have fifteen passes there, and SLC lodging and food is cheap, using AirB&B and eating awesome Mexican. But, at this point, this looks like one of their worst seasons in many years, so, I'm heading north to Big Sky and Targhee and Steamboat, which the pattern has been kinder to. So, there's that. But, I'm lucky, I'm not working, and have the time and freedom to do that. I'm driving also (God, it sucks, driving three days across the Midwest and plains, but, I'll have my car and stuff), which frees me from a flight commitment.

I'm starting to think of Europe next year. Find a good spot, rent an apartment for a month, and no need for a car, if you figure that one out close enough to lifts and food. Cheaper passes, too. Just a risk in a bad snow year.
Best value I ever had, (and, this is all about value, right?) was sharing a condo in Summit County for two months and getting the Epic local pass early. No traveling, comfortable lodging, lots of skiing. That's what I'd like to get back to, but, Summit is way too crowded these days. Maybe Italy. But not twenty mountains. No way I'm ever going to ski twenty mountains. I don't want to ski twenty mountains. I just want a lot of powder on two or three good mountains I know well. Which, again, brings up another fundamental question. Where would you want to be on a powder day? At the bottom of a whole new mountain you know little of, or a mountain you're very familiar with, and know how to get some when the obvious choices are tracked out in a few hours?

Whiteface
Gore
Belleayre and Platekill - for call out of work "morning of" days
Snowbird
Alta
Solitude
Brighton
PowMow
Snowbasin
J-hole
Big Sky
Revvy
Kicking Horse
Whitewater
Fernie
Bachelor
Somewhere else in the PNW....Crystal, Baker, etc
Dolmiti Superski
Superskirama

This is Milo’s list:

1. West Mountain (closest to my house)
2. Gore
3. Whiteface
4. Windham
5. Hunter
6. Killington
7. Stowe
8. Eldora (closest to my son’s house)
9. Winter Park (avoids I-70)
10. Aspen
11. Telluride
12. Jackson Hole
13. Big Sky
14. Fernie
15. Alta
16. Snowbird
17. Solitude
18. Snowbasin
19. Copper
20. Kicking Horse

It’s a combination of convenient places I would go for a few hours if I didn’t need to pay, and places where I'd really like to spend a week.

There's a lot of other places I want to go, including Europe, Japan and South America, but if I'm planning a week, or if Plattekill has a powder day, I can buy lift tickets.

mm

So here's how I came up with my list:

- You want to spread out the geography so that if one region has a mess of a season going on, you aren't restricted
- Where possible, there should be a choice of at least 2 resorts
- I think you want more destination-style resorts
- I'm using 24 total areas as my number.  Call it the "dirty two dozen."

Region (number of ski areas that should participate)

West (13), as broken down:
Whistler (1)
Cascades (2)
Tahoe (2)
Utah (2)
Colorado (3)
N. Mexico (1)
Banff (2)

East (11), as broken down:
N.Y. (3)
Maine (2)
Mass. (1)
Vermont (3)
N.H. (2)

D.B. Cooper wrote

So here's how I came up with my list:

- You want to spread out the geography so that if one region has a mess of a season going on, you aren't restricted
- Where possible, there should be a choice of at least 2 resorts
- I think you want more destination-style resorts.

I had the opposite idea.  I want everything near my house and my son’s house, even West Mountain, and a couple of destinations to get to 20. It’s more about not thinking about the daily cost than saving money.  You wouldn’t ski sketchy conditions for the window rate, but you do if you have a pass.  

mm

I just want one pass to Greek Peak ---- full dik deep POW --- all chairs and terrain open on a consistent basis

After all we're just dreaming in this thread, right?

How about a wish list per mt?  No more than 100 items, then submit to mt mgmt?    Such as Gore: sign by saddle entrance to Wood In when High Peaks chair closed

campgottagopee wrote

full dik deep POW

3" base is hardly enough.

billyymc wrote

campgottagopee wrote

full dik deep POW

3" base is hardly enough.

Did you miss the dreaming part?

1. Gore
2. Whiteface
2. Bromley
4. Magic
5. Mount Snow
6. Killington/Pico
7. Sugarbush
8. Mad River
9. Stowe
10. Jay
11. Burke
12. Mont Tremblant
13. Steamboat
14. Alta
15. Deer Valley
16. Jackson Hole
17. Big Sky
18. Mount Baker (WA)
19. Whistler
20.Whitewater  

Instead of a 20 resort pass, who would you add to the freedom pass to make a plattekill season pass more valuable? Magic and Bolton Valley are already part of it. The Berkshire East / Catamount deal is what made me think of it. I feel like they would fit in with the Freedom pass mountains pretty well. Who else?

Plattekill, Magic, McCauley, Mad, Smuggs.

Killington.

That's 6, I'll get back to you on the rest.

I thought about Mad but it's awfully close to Bolton. Are they different enough that they could live together?

Brownski, I sure hope that Bolton grooms their alpine trails better than their nordic trails.

I think I've got 21 nordic areas below, but hey.

20 resort pass, all Nordic:

Mount van Hoevenberg / Intervale / Gore xc   (all ORDA)
Dewey Mt
Prospect Mt
Trapp Family Lodge
Mt Mansfield nordic
Craftsbury
Sugarloaf
Black Mountain
Jackson (NH)
Windblown
Crosscut Ranch
Methow Valley
Sovereign Lakes
Canmore
Nakkertok
Silver Star
Val Cartier
Gatineau Park
Mt Sainte Anne

Brownski wrote

I thought about Mad but it's awfully close to Bolton. Are they different enough that they could live together?

Wait this is supposed to be a viable economic model, or just fun for me?

Harvey wrote

Brownski wrote

I thought about Mad but it's awfully close to Bolton. Are they different enough that they could live together?

Wait this is supposed to be a viable economic model, or just fun for me?

Well in that case let’s just include everybody except Stratton and Okemo why not... I like Smugs though. I was trying to think of one way up north that fit the bill. They’re a definite

Peter Minde wrote

Brownski, I sure hope that Bolton grooms their alpine trails better than their nordic trails.

That just makes me want to go there more. You just made me realize I’ve never xc’ed on groomed trails- just in various town parks, out in the woods on hiking trails and that kind of stuff. I’m gonna have to try that...