IKON Pass changes for 2020/2021

Some changes for the IKON base pass.  Good news is that Sugarbush has been added to the "unlimited" category.  Bad news is that Jackson Hole and Aspen are off the pass unless you pay an additional $150 (then you get 5 days each).

It would be interesting to see how these mega-passes have affected skier visits at the associated resorts.  This is my third year on IKON and the only IKON mob scene I've encountered was at Big Sky last year.  Did SLC last month (Brighton, Snowbird and Deer Valley) and didn't notice much change in the crowd size.  Ditto with Sugarbush and Killington.

Financially I'm $400 in the black (plus another $270 on "friends and family" discounts.  I plan to ski another 6 days on the pass which will put savings well above $1,000.  Starting to think that these passes work for the ski industry because most people way overestimate the number of days they will ski in a year.

onscott wrote

. . .Starting to think that these passes work for the ski industry because most people way overestimate the number of days they will ski in a year.

Bingo!  Plus Epic and Ikon have to be bought well before anyone has any real idea what kind of snowstorms will happen by mid-Jan.  If it's a good snow year, then people will take 1-2 trips to destination resorts and stay long enough to spend other money on resort for food or lodging or rental gear or whatever.  If it's a poor snow year, the pass money is already in the bank for VR and Alterra.  So they can continue longer term planning for capital-intensive projects.

Given the geographic coverage for Epic and Ikon, rather unlikely that every region with destination resorts will have a bad snow season in the same season.  So from the pass buyer's perspective, they should be able to get in one good ski vacation.  Even if it turns out to be at a different resort than their first choice at the time they pick which multi-resort pass to buy for the upcoming season.  For people who live within driving distance of an Epic or Ikon ski area, presumably they expect to at least get in a few days there if they spring for a pass that gives the more than 4 days.

People in the northeast who buy powder skis probably way overestimate how many powder days they'll get per season too. ;-)

onscott wrote

t would be interesting to see how these mega-passes have affected skier visits at the associated resorts.  This is my third year on IKON and the only IKON mob scene I've encountered was at Big Sky last year.  Did SLC last month (Brighton, Snowbird and Deer Valley) and didn't notice much change in the crowd size.  Ditto with Sugarbush and Killington.

For Deer Valley, did you go midweek or on a weekend?

Alta felt busier last April.  But the snow was so good, that was probably the bigger factor than the number of people doing late season trips because they had Ikon.  Had the snow coverage been average, probably wouldn't have made that much difference.

I was at Alta in Feb on a non-holiday Monday.  It was 2-3 days since the last good snowstorm.  But there were people on line for Collins 30 min before opening time.  And it was very cold.  In addition, there were lots of people inside GMD who opted to wait indoors.  I got the feeling that that particular crowd included Ikon holders who weren't very experienced skiing Alta.  The other mid-week days I skied at Alta that week were more what I expected in terms of being relatively uncrowded.

Taos is very happy with Ikon.  It's bringing in younger folks from the Denver area for long weekends.  These are working adults who are willing to stay overnight and spend money at the resort.  They are from the tech sector and are tired of the I-70 traffic and crowded slopes closer to Denver.  Taos still has short lift lines midweek, but Fridays and Saturdays are busier even without new snow.