Ikon Pass

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Originally Posted by GPP33

This is the million $ question. Will enough people vacate Epic and make Ikon a shit show while VR are deserted or will enough stay Epic and allow Ikon to be be an escape? Ikon has me excited for something different (though I don’t love the local unlimited options) but the fear of sub par terrain choices combined with massive crowds has be thinking twice. At least there’s good options for road trips....

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Yeah I am tempted by ikon pass for the aspen option.

However the only local unlimited Ikon option that really appeals to me is copper. Eldora is a windy shithole. Winter park has too weird of a layout for my tastes and nothing there can really compete with the high alpine at Breck, the May skiing at ABasin, and beaver creek. I would stay on the Epic for those 3 things alone but vail and keystone are nice to have too.

I will stay epic and buy an aspen 4 pack if I want to go to aspen.

Ikon over RMSP+ means $500 more in passes for me, the wife, and kids with less skiing where I want to be local to the FR. Ugh.

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Originally Posted by ski-wpk

Ikon over RMSP+ means $500 more in passes for me, the wife, and kids with less skiing where I want to be local to the FR. Ugh.

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PM Bunny.

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Originally Posted by WTF is dat

As an Epic Pass holder I am stoked about this new pass!

Hopefully big numbers of people will switch to the IKON pass and I can enjoy reduced crowds at beaver creek.

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Originally Posted by wolfelot

As a Denver skier there are pluses and minuses. Pluses are some awesome places that are drivable. However, I think Copper and WP will be more crowded for day trips. With a 2-year-old and another coming in April getting to the new resorts for a multi day trip won’t be easy.

I hope Vail comes out with something awesome so people stay there.

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Originally Posted by The SnowShow

The EB Berthoud backups next year will start at 1st Creek all weekend.

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Originally Posted by WTF is dat

Yeah I am tempted by ikon pass for the aspen option.

However the only local unlimited Ikon option that really appeals to me is copper. Eldora is a windy shithole. Winter park has too weird of a layout for my tastes and nothing there can really compete with the high alpine at Breck, the May skiing at ABasin, and beaver creek. I would stay on the Epic for those 3 things alone but vail and keystone are nice to have too.

I will stay epic and buy an aspen 4 pack if I want to go to aspen.

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A basin is an anchor mountain for me. Late season without a basin would just not be right. Though Aspen could make me look past that.....agreed about not getting the alpine at Breck, nothing touches it for extended steeps. I haven’t skied the terrain at copper that used to be hike to with cat assist. Probably been 14 or 15 years since I skied there.

I for one welcome the Ikon overlords. Make vail rich again.

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Originally Posted by Vets

I found this while digging through their FAQs:

CAN I USE MY 2018-2019 IKON PASS TO SKI OR RIDE AT PARTICIPATING DESTINATIONS DURING SPRING 2018?
Yes. You can use your 2018-2019 Ikon Pass or Ikon Base Pass starting March 6, 2018 at Big Bear Mountain Resort, June Mountain, Blue Mountain and Snowshoe; and starting on April 9, 2018 at Winter Park Resort, Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain.

This makes it sound even better to me.

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Considering that Kirkwood has announced April 8 as Closing day,...

Both passes are at a lower price than I expected, for their perks. This will absolutely up the Denver-Aspen weekenders, but they won't necessarily have a lot of appropriate lodging options:

*wheels begin turning in my head on how to monetize the increased flow of weekend traffic*

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Originally Posted by ski-wpk

Ikon over RMSP+ means $500 more in passes for me, the wife, and kids with less skiing where I want to be local to the FR. Ugh.

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I get the $ thing (although RMSP+ would've gone up this year, and early season it was $539 last year) cause kids don't ski free.

But how is it less skiing? All the same resorts unlimited. And instead of 6 Steamboat + 3 CB days == 9 days on RMSP+, you get 5 Steamboat and 5 Aspen days == 10 days on the Ikon.

For a travel pass, this looks a lot better than I expected. $200 more than the Mountain Collective but a lot more days, plus the unlimited days at some places. The main negative vs the MC is Snowbasin, but more days at Alta or Snowbird offsets that.

I wonder if the idea is to make the pass look great on paper, knowing that very very few people will actually use a bunch of the days at farther away areas. They'll sell a bunch to people planning a vacation trip for a week, and the vacationers will get their money worth in that week.

In the East this is going to load up the weekend chump change skier visits at Sugarbush, Killington ,some of the Maine Resorts possibly.
Just what they need, more weekend traffic, Saturday especially.

I hope this helps Copper and WP bear the brunt of weekend skiers more. No relief for I70 though. First Steamboat weekend pow day should be interesting. This is basically just the RMSP+ with more hype and better travel destinations. But how many ski trips out of state does the average Front ranger take? Especially with unlimited days at multiple resorts.

To the masses, Aspen days are much more appealing than Crested Butte.
Most people don't leave the state, maybe a single trip to SLC if the cards align. It's a big state with a ton of quality options, why rush to leave?

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Originally Posted by shredgnar

I hope this helps Copper and WP bear the brunt of weekend skiers more. No relief for I70 though. First Steamboat weekend pow day should be interesting. This is basically just the RMSP+ with more hype and better travel destinations. But how many ski trips out of state does the average Front ranger take? Especially with unlimited days at multiple resorts.

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Exactly that, it's not that big a change for most people. But it seems like a big one. So your "hope" is my fear (because I'm already a RMSP/WP skier and you're Epic).

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Originally Posted by hatchgreenchile

To the masses, Aspen days are much more appealing than Crested Butte.
Most people don't leave the state, maybe a single trip to SLC if the cards align. It's a big state with a ton of quality options, why rush to leave?

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Because the snow here usually sucks? Just a guess...

East coaster/Tremblant skier here; I usually get the Sublime pass (it's pretty much a season pass, minus the busiest days), and the Ikon base looks like a good deal for me as it's an unlimited Tremblant pass, but includes some more mountains as well we will visit. I'm hoping the RFID will work at those gates, but I'm guessing it won't as the RFID gates are a 'privilege' with the $1400 season pass.

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Originally Posted by ski-wpk

Ikon over RMSP+ means $500 more in passes for me, the wife, and kids with less skiing where I want to be local to the FR. Ugh.

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Easy solution to this: don't ski next year.

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Originally Posted by skaredshtles

Because the snow here usually sucks? Just a guess...

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Yep, something like that.

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Originally Posted by Danno

Exactly that, it's not that big a change for most people. But it seems like a big one. So your "hope" is my fear (because I'm already a RMSP/WP skier and you're Epic).

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I'm not even an Epic pass holder. Basin only with a MC this year, but will probably drop the MC next year and just buy lift tix where the snow falls. Still waiting to see where CB falls in all of this.

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Originally Posted by powdrhound

Considering that Kirkwood has announced April 8 as Closing day,...

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Maybe good motivation for Epic to extend the '18 season at Kwood? one can dream...

Seems like a perfect pass for someone like me stuck in Iowa. I'd take the blackout days as those weekends are already packed. $599 allows me to make a Thanksgiving trip to Copper; an early January trip to Steamboat and a Feb trip to Jackson/Big Sky or Alta/Bird. Kids are now out of the house and I can work remotely, so swinging the trips and just looking ahead for flights and hotels would make it possible to 3x my skiing.

I think I am the market they are after, not the locals. My normal 1 week guys trip to any major resort is still close to $100 a day for tickets. We go 4 days, so they can suck me in for an additional week someplace for food/drink/lodging.

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Originally Posted by Iowagriz

Seems like a perfect pass for someone like me stuck in Iowa. I'd take the blackout days as those weekends are already packed. $599 allows me to make a Thanksgiving trip to Copper; an early January trip to Steamboat and a Feb trip to Jackson/Big Sky or Alta/Bird. Kids are now out of the house and I can work remotely, so swinging the trips and just looking ahead for flights and hotels would make it possible to 3x my skiing.

I think I am the market they are after, not the locals. My normal 1 week guys trip to any major resort is still close to $100 a day for tickets. We go 4 days, so they can suck me in for an additional week someplace for food/drink/lodging.

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I agree that you are the market. Front range skiers is close to a zero sum game. Sure, you may get a few new pass buyers, and you may steal a few from Vail, but the real money is in selling lots of $600 passes to people like you.

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Originally Posted by Danno

the real money is in selling lots of $600 passes to people like you.

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And them buying lodging because of it, that's a big money-maker.

Of course. And $20 cheeseburgers too.

Anyone know what the wholesale rate is on lift tickets to Vail, WP, etc? Because a $600 season pass to someone in Iowa probably will net them at least that, I'm guessing.

Wow, just noticed it's only $149 for kids under 12 if you order by April 9th... that's pretty nuts, actually. Pays for itself on the second day, more or less.

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Originally Posted by El Chupacabra

For a travel pass, this looks a lot better than I expected. $200 more than the Mountain Collective but a lot more days, plus the unlimited days at some places. The main negative vs the MC is Snowbasin, but more days at Alta or Snowbird offsets that.

I wonder if the idea is to make the pass look great on paper, knowing that very very few people will actually use a bunch of the days at farther away areas. They'll sell a bunch to people planning a vacation trip for a week, and the vacationers will get their money worth in that week.

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This was what I was just thinking. What I really wonder is, how many vacation skiers, i.e. the people that go one one ski trip a year will actually buy a pass? I suspect most of the pass buyers will be season pass buyers like the majority of us, but will just replace our usual mountain pass for a Ikon pass. I buy a Mammoth pass each year, and have either added a MCP or up upgrade. This pass works very well for me,, and allows me to add a trip to a far away mountain once or twice besides the usual 20-30 days I will ski Mammoth. I don't think Ikon will make money on people like us, except if we buy $20 cheeseburgers, which I don't (but do buy $7 beers.)

I payed $400 for my mountain collective and $154 for my April Big Sky pass, so Ikon would be $50 for few more days at some places, fewer at Big Sky. Likely wouldn't be at a resort during black out days, so no impact.

Is it an actual physical pass that works at all resorts? Or will I have to go to ticket counter/pass office at each resort? That was my only complaint about MC.

The thing about blackout dates is, they can actually be great days to ski if you aren't blacked out, at least around here. Xmas day is dead, and this year it was an uncrowded powder day with a bunch of rope drops. Best Christmas ever.

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Originally Posted by hutash

(but do buy $7 beers.)

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Well you will get 10% off your beer with the Ikon pass.

I had thought the ploy for very expensive day ticket price was to push season passes and lodging-ticket packages. Ikon seems to undercut both of those, so not sure what is in it for resorts. Other than trying to create a monopoly.

So is the Mountain Collective pass dead in the water?

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Originally Posted by simple

So is the Mountain Collective pass dead in the water?

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nope

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Originally Posted by shredgnar

nope

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Why not? Most of the mountains are now in Ikon pass.

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Originally Posted by 406

I payed $400 for my mountain collective and $154 for my April Big Sky pass, so Ikon would be $50 for few more days at some places, fewer at Big Sky. Likely wouldn't be at a resort during black out days, so no impact.

Is it an actual physical pass that works at all resorts? Or will I have to go to ticket counter/pass office at each resort? That was my only complaint about MC.

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If memory serves, that's a technology issue (ie, they all don't use the same scanning software). Actually, I know most of that to be true because Taos still uses sirius and hand scanners.

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Originally Posted by simple

Why not? Most of the mountains are now in Ikon pass.

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No idea

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Originally Posted by shredgnar

No idea

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Because some of us don't want those base mountains but still would buy the MC pass. Glad they didn't kill it off.

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Originally Posted by simple

Why not? Most of the mountains are now in Ikon pass.

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Most of the mountains that are in both Ikon and MC are not owned by Alterra so (AFAIK) would still be free to enter into partnerships with groups other than Ikon. I don't know what MC will look like next year but I'm betting that the non-Alterra resorts will still be part of MC, and the Alterra ones are probably out.

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Originally Posted by hutash

This was what I was just thinking. What I really wonder is, how many vacation skiers, i.e. the people that go one one ski trip a year will actually buy a pass? I suspect most of the pass buyers will be season pass buyers like the majority of us, but will just replace our usual mountain pass for a Ikon pass. I buy a Mammoth pass each year, and have either added a MCP or up upgrade. This pass works very well for me,, and allows me to add a trip to a far away mountain once or twice besides the usual 20-30 days I will ski Mammoth. I don't think Ikon will make money on people like us, except if we buy $20 cheeseburgers, which I don't (but do buy $7 beers.)

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I will probably buy the cheaper one and I'm one of those that takes one ski trip per year. I live out in Hawaii so getting anything longer than that is hard with my other commitments. But, I figure with the military discount the Ikon pass is offering that I can get 5 days at Mammoth for only a bit more than the Costco 5 pack of tickets to Mammoth. And this will come with extra days should I find myself close to any other resorts the rest of winter. Plus the add on for kids under 12 is really reasonable and actually cheaper than buying more bulk tickets from Costco. I don't ski on blackout dates so I'm ok with the restrictions. Seems like the pass could work for some vacation type skiers.

Pass is surely geared to the Los Angeles crowd.
Or so it seems. $899 Ikon vs Mammoth/June/Bear $999

With lots of direct flights from LAX

My take - https://mtnweekly.com/mountain-lifes...in-los-angeles

Will be interested to see what Vail coughs up in the next couple weeks.

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Originally Posted by adrenalated

Most of the mountains that are in both Ikon and MC are not owned by Alterra so (AFAIK) would still be free to enter into partnerships with groups other than Ikon. I don't know what MC will look like next year but I'm betting that the non-Alterra resorts will still be part of MC, and the Alterra ones are probably out.

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Here's hoping CB is on the MC next year. That's about the only way I'd still get it.

Al from the Basin mentioned that Abasin is contracted to be on the Epic next year, but made no mention of staying on it. It kinda seemed to be hinting at them maybe dropping Epic in the future which would be pretty fucking awesome.

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Originally Posted by shredgnar

The thing about blackout dates is, they can actually be great days to ski if you aren't blacked out, at least around here. Xmas day is dead, and this year it was an uncrowded powder day with a bunch of rope drops. Best Christmas ever.

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But Christmas Day isn’t a blackout day, the day after Christmas is when blackouts begin