Beidahu and Lake Songhua ski areas in China, along with Madarao in Japan, will join Ikon Pass for winter 2026-27. The familiar access terms for each of the three mountains are seven days on full Ikon, five on Ikon Base, and no blackouts on either pass. And of course no access on Ikon Session because it’s a terrible product. Ikon, which added Yunding Snow Park in China to its roster last winter, remains the only U.S.-based multimountain ski pass with a presence in that nation.
Ikon also expands its growing two-day tier – accessible with full Ikon only, with holiday blackouts – to 11 ski areas with the additions of Caberfae Peaks, Michigan and Snowy Range, Wyoming.
With today’s additions, Ikon will deliver access to 103 ski areas for winter 2026-27. Eighty-three of these are also on Ikon Base, and only 53 are on Ikon Session (because it sucks):
In the interest of getting this news live, I’ll save detailed breakdowns of each mountain for a future post. I’ll leave you with these stats: with today’s Ikon additions, piled on top of recent partner surges from Indy and the nascent Snow Pass, U.S.-based multimountain ski passes have added 69 new partners ahead of winter 2026-27: 43 for Indy, 14 for Snow Pass, 12 for Ikon, and zero for Epic or Mountain Collective. Together, those five passes, plus Mountain Capital Partners’ Power Pass, now collectively deliver access to 451 ski areas around the world, including 267 in America, 55 in Canada, and 53 in Japan. Europe accounts for 61 more multimountain pass partners, with the largest concentrations in Austria (20), Switzerland (12), and France (7). Indy Pass, with a 250-resort (alpine-only) roster, claims more than every other pass combined. Vail’s Epic Pass is good at 71 ski areas, Alterra’s Ikon at 103, the Mountain Collective at 32, Snow Pass at 14, and Power Pass at 15.
I’ll get into this announcement a bit more on today’s pod. Look out for full resort write-ups – as well as more regional context on the exploding world of U.S.-based ski passes – as soon as I can dam this Niagara Falls of new partners.
I visited the National Snow Tires center. Your wing is filled with graphic pictures of Chrysler Pacificas rolled over, stuck in the ditch, wrapped around trees, and holding up the red snake in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The centerpiece is a dead tree in the middle of the road, with a recreational skier from Brooklyn, wearing HH gear, hanging from an upper branch with a snow tire draped around his neck. I think they wanted to light it on fire. Otherwise, Ho Hum, more areas I will never ski.