A shopper visiting an Ann Arbor T-shirt store is likely to encounter a slogan that, depending upon their temperament, self-regard, and knowledge of the hyper-specific world of American university rankings, they may find hilarious, offensive, or puzzling: Harvard – The Michigan of The East.
This shirt tells us quite a bit about America. We cannot resist regional comparisons. We refuse deference to hierarchies while acknowledging they exist. Bragging is OK so long as it’s encoded in camp. There are no Michigan – The Harvard of The Midwest T-shirts. That would be too presumptuous. But it would not fall as flat as a Cambridge – The Michigan of England T-shirt, which would expose the cultural specificity of comedy as much as the surprising insularity of our gigantic, globalized nation.
In American skiing, the equivalent T-shirt may read Alta, The Jay Peak of The West. In a Vermont souvenir store, this would communicate regional pride while disarming the Greatest Bros on Earth: yeah, we know this isn’t Utah, but do you know that we know this isn’t Utah?
If that still doesn’t make sense, then neither will this: the Snow Pass, a two-days-each-at-14-ski-areas pass that’s new for the 2026-27 ski season, is The Mountain Collective of New York City Metro. Or at least, it’s The Mountain Collective for New York City Metro Skiers Who Actually Ski in The East. Meaning: Snow Partners’ $359.99 pass offers just enough access, at just enough of the mountains that skiers are likely to want to ski, to be a good-enough, wrap-your-season-around-it, the-only-pass-you-realistically-need product for a good portion of skiers in the 20-million-person NYC megaplex.
Before I break down the Snow Pass roster according to each mountain’s usefulness to a Tri-State skier, I’ll caution the reader on some of the product’s fine-print structural limitations:
6 of the 11 partners in the U.S. East are blacked out on holidays
2 of these six – Belleayre and Holimont – are blacked out all weekends
Snow Pass does not offer a no-blackout option
Snow Pass is the same price for everyone – no youth or child discounts
The actual Mountain Collective offers two no-blackout days each at a handful of ski areas in the East, including shared-with-Snow-Pass Whiteface (the others are Sunday River and Sugarloaf in Maine, plus Bromont and Le Massif du Charlevoix in Quebec)
Snow Pass is not the same as the $184.99 Snow Triple Play, which offers an overlapping but distinct roster and a total of three days (and maximum of two days at any ski area) across its 23-resort menu:
For the more #Hardcore skiers, Snow Pass is also an excellent supplementary local to the larger national passes, and Snow Pass holders are eligible for $100 off of a Mountain Collective pass (currently $729). I believe Mountain Collective passholders can still knock 15 percent off the price of a Snow Pass (making the pass $305.99) or Snow Triple Play pass ($157.24), though officials from Snow Partners and Mountain Collective have not yet confirmed that this discount is in place for 2026-27 Snow passes. And while Indy Pass is no longer on sale, its far-larger roster geographically overlaps with that of Snow Pass, arming dual passholders with two days each at 18 ski areas in New York (13 on Indy, 5 on Snow Pass), and 34 in New England (30 Indy, 4 Snow).
All right, let’s tunnel a bit deeper into the inaugural Snow Pass roster to understand why it so nicely serves NYC, or anyone living along the Interstate 87 or I-95 corridors from Philly up to the Canadian border:
Let’s orient ourselves with Snow Partners’ map of Snow Pass and Snow Triple Play mountains (I’ll break down the 2026-27 additions to Triple Play in a future post):
Rather than sort these ski areas geographically, I’m going to order them by general usefulness to a skier in NYC Metro, which is the 20.1 million people who live in one of these counties:
1. Gore Mountain, New York
Skiing here is most like: Wandering forever through a Legend of Zelda overworld, in which you’re never quite certain where you are, but if you keep going long enough you’ll end up at a magic machine that will transport you to the next level
The best things: Almost never any liftlines outside of the gondola, even on the busiest days; largest ski area in New York; best glades in New York when there’s snow
The worst things: God dropped Gore about 50 miles too far east, because if this guy was positioned for the Tug Hill blasters off of Lake Ontario, wowsers… Also there is nowhere to stay on the mountain
Brobots beware: The steeps are steep but short, and long fall-line runs are hard to piece together for a mountain with so much vert
Best for: Variety-seekers who like being a little lost and aren’t looking for long fall-line runs
Overall usefulness to NYC skiers*: 5 (baseline) +2 for terrain variety +2 for modern lifts + 1 for multiple base areas +2 for super-aggressive snowmaking +1 for operating into May whenever possible –1 for the largest parking lot ever constructed by man and a hit-or-miss shuttle system –2 for noplace to stay on the mountain which sucks a fattie if you’re trying to do a weekend with kids and still have to drive to the bump every morning –1 for I once had my poles stolen here twice in one day +1 for that was probably a fluke –1 for not more aggressively opening glades on weekdays = 9
*These numbers ARE NOT rankings of the mountain, but rankings of how useful they are for the skiers most likely to purchase a Snow Pass, which I believe is largely skiers living in the aforementioned Metro New York City area, also known as the Tri-State Area, also known as The Land of No Highway Shoulders, also known as the Northern Homebase of Weaves-Rapidly-Through-Traffic-While-Conscientiously-Using-His-Blinker Bro (their southern homebase is of course Florida).
Pro tip: Park at North Creek
Also on Snow Triple Play?: Yes
More on this mountain from The Storm archives:
2. Mountain Creek, New Jersey
Skiing here is most like: Exactly what you think it would be like to ski in New Jersey