2026-27 Ikon Pass: Snowmass Rejoins Base; A-Basin Unlimited on Base; Lutsen, Granite Peak, Snowriver Join as Full Partners; Tamarack, Devil’s Head Join as 2-Dayers
Welcome to Pass War II
OK let’s just start with the prices because there’s a lot to process with Ikon’s 2026-27 pass release:
That’s all I have right now - I’ll update child and teen rates, as well as Ikon Session prices and specialty tiers like nurse here as soon as I have them.
Longtime Ikon Pass holders will note the smaller-than-normal renewal discounts. A revamped renewal program reduces the potential full returning Ikon Pass holder discount from its traditional $100 down to $50 (Base falls from $50 to $25), but offers skiers other options that are potentially worth far more:
Up to $25 monthly in “mountain credits,” up to $300 in total, to be used toward on-site purchases of retail, rental, and food and beverage at select Ikon Pass destinations
A credit of up to $100 from Backcountry.com and Premium Membership
One free night award worth up to 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
Up to two free days of gear rentals with Ski Butlers
But let’s get to the skiing. First: new ski areas. Ikon adds three new full partners (seven anytime days on Ikon, five holiday-restricted days on Base) in the Upper Midwest, all owned by Midwest Family Ski Resorts: Granite Peak, Wisconsin; Lutsen, Minnesota; and Snowriver, Michigan (which is actually two separate, side-by-side ski areas).
Ikon also adds two new mountains to its two-day tier: Tamarack, Idaho and Devil’s Head, Wisconsin. Six of the seven mountains that joined this so-called “Bonus” program for its inaugural 2025-26 season return, but Silver Star, British Columbia is absent. “We’re evaluating options on pass membership,” said a representative for Pacific Group Resorts, which purchased Silver Star from Powdr – owner of Ikon staples Copper Mountain and Snowbird – last November. Here’s the preliminary two-day lineup, which is included only on the full Ikon Pass and is subject to holiday blackouts:
Ikon also rolls out two major access changes in Colorado. Arapahoe Basin, which Ikon parent company Alterra purchased in 2024, will go unlimited on the Ikon Base Pass with no blackouts (new and renewing Ikon Base Pass holders will get unlimited A-Basin access beginning April 6). And Snowmass, the largest of the four Aspen mountains that have traditionally been bundled as a single, shared-days “destination” on Ikon, will return to Ikon Base, with holiday blackouts, for the first time since the 2019-20 ski season. Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk, however, will remain only on the full Ikon Pass, where they will continue to share their seven-day allotment with Snowmass.
In sum:
NEW FULL PARTNERS (Lutsen + Granite Peak + Snowriver [Black River Basin + Jackson Creek Summit])
+ NEW 2-DAY PARTNERS (Tamarack + Devil’s Head)
+ ACCESS CHANGES (Snowmass to Base + A-Basin to full Base)
– EXITING 2-DAY PARTNER (Silverstar)
+ ALL EXISTING IKON PARTNERS REMAINING ON THEIR HISTORIC ACCESS TIERS =
A few other footnotes before we address the mega-impacts of that roster reshuffling:
Fewer reservations: The four Aspen mountains will no longer require advanced Ikon Pass reservations, leaving the once-large list of reservations-required Ikon destinations at just five: Jackson Hole, Deer Valley (though this seems unnecessary now that the resort is the size of Kentucky), Summit at Snoqualmie, Alpental, and Loon.
Deferral is out, insurance is in: The defer-an-unused-pass-to-next-winter-option, introduced as a free, Covid-era please-don’t-leave-us plan, exits. Instead, passholders can tack a “risk-free fee” onto their purchase ($269.80 Ikon renewal, $184.80 Ikon Base renewal). If skiers then don’t scan their Ikon Pass by Jan. 15, 2027, they can receive a 100 percent cash refund (one scan in that period reduces the refund to 50 percent). But wow that’s a hefty surcharge.
No more giant envelope of stickers, I guess: You can now opt to re-use your Ikon Pass from year-to-year (meaning the physical RFID card – you still have to pay up each year for the pass to work).
More buddies: The Friends & Family discount ticket allotment increases to 15 for full Ikon Pass holders and 10 for Base Pass holders. Excludes age 12-and-under child Ikon passes.
But exactly five buddies, please: Ikon rolls out something called a “Squad Pack,” a name that sounds so 12 years ago but also feels like a way-too-rushed response to the Epic Pass youth discounts Vail announced earlier this week. A “Squad Pack” means that five people aged 23 to 28 convince one idiot to charge five Ikon Base Passes to their credit card so they can each save $199. This poor benevolent fool will then be responsible for collecting $750 from each of his four Squad Members. Which I don’t know man when my crew was in our twenties we had to ask for separate orders at the Taco Bell drive-through because that was the only way to make sure everyone paid for their shit. But then again maybe one Squad will have two or – God help us – more Points Bros who will fight over who gets to convert those Ikon Passes to one-seventh of a flight to Milwaukee*.
*Yes, I know Points Bro, I obviously don’t know about the Excalibur Equilizr Mastercard, which scores octuple points on purchases made between 2 and 2:14 a.m., so long as you charge a matching sum at an eligible veteran-owned establishment within 48 hours and mail proof of purchase to a P.O. box in Delaware.^
^Yes, I know, I should be careful because the overlap between my readership and Points Bro Nation is probably frighteningly high.**
**But I’ll give you 20,000 Delta miles if you’ll forgive me.^^
^^Just joking I am also Points Bro.
There are some other discounts and perks like five percent off $9 protein bars or something. But since we only care about the skiing let’s get back to that.
First, Ikon finally appears to be taking the Midwest seriously as a ski market, an insight that Vail Resorts had 14 years ago and that Indy had essentially on day one. Lutsen and company are the first full partners to join in the region since Boyne’s two Michigan ski areas in 2018.
Second, the addition of Midwest Family’s three mountains, plus Tamarack to the two-day Ikon tier, mean that all four may exit Indy Pass’ 2026-27 roster. Indy Pass officials confirmed to The Storm that they are “in discussions” with all four ski areas to “potentially accept Indy+ Passholders in 26/27.” As of 11:30 a.m. ET today, the Indy landing pages for Lutsen, Snowriver, and Granite Peak carried a similar note, which was absent on Tamarack’s Indy landing page. I’m working on connecting with officials with Midwest Family and Tamarack for comment here.
Third, the pace at which Alterra continues to build the Ikon roster is just astonishing: the five new 2026-27 partners build on the 20 ski areas that joined ahead of 2025-26, and the 39 that have boosted the pass since 2020. That’s three times the number that Epic has recruited over that same span.
Fourth, the relaxing of Ikon access at A-Basin and Snowmass, while rage-bait for Colorad-Bro, underscores Alterra’s longstanding commitment to tweaking individual mountain access to meter crowds and preserve skier experience.
Ikon and Indy fighting over partners, creative new access tiers, a truly national competition to build the best ski area portfolio: all this adds up to Pass War II, the epic (no pun intended) second act after the initial consolidation of two-thirds of America’s chairlift-served public ski areas onto multimountain passes. And it’s a great time to be a skier, with the richest range of choice in the history of American skiing.
Let’s take a deeper look at the 2026-27 Ikon Pass offerings, and what they mean for passholders and for the broader ski industry: