Epic Pass Adds Sölden, 6th New Austrian Ski Area for 2025-26
Vail’s powerhouse product surges back into growth mode with European statement
Not much change from Epic for years, and now all of this, all at once: today, Vail Resorts announced its sixth new Austrian partner in the past five days for the 2025-26 ski season. Big bad Sölden, with its 6,529-foot-vertical drop and the longest ski trail in Austria, jumps on as a five-day partner. Unlike the other five new Austrian partners, Sölden comes with no consecutive-days requirement. Here’s the full EpicEuro roster for 2025-26:
The German language has a word that beautifully captures this notion of doing everything all at once: straussennfruggel*. And now, all of a sudden, Vail’s straussennfruggel is strong. From yesterday:
Sölden is the 12th ski resort in Austria to join a U.S.-based multimountain pass, the 32nd to do so in Europe, the 82nd outside North America, and the 121st outside the United States. It is the 17th mountain to join a U.S.-based multimountain ski pass for the 2025-26 ski season, and the 11th outside the U.S.
Eight of those new joiners have been in Austria, an epicenter of the global ski scene. The rapid rollup of the nation’s large ski areas onto U.S.-based passes suggests the start of a ripple effect that could soon reach critical mass across Europe, the world’s largest ski market and home to more than half of all global skier visits.
Let’s take a deeper look at Sölden, and what Vail’s aggressive invasion of Austria means for Epic Pass holders and the megapass world in general.