Indy Pass Back on Sale Aug. 28 With “Dozens” of New Ski Areas, Launches 3-Day All-Inclusive Beginner Pass
Passholders get two days each at 250-plus ski areas; Indy will announce new partners and prices Aug. 28
Here’s what we know: after a 10-day spring sellout, 2025-26 Indy Passes will go back on sale next Thursday, Aug. 28. You’ll have to be on the waitlist to buy that day. Indy will add “dozens” of new ski areas in North America, Europe, and Japan. With these additional resorts, Indy will exceed its 250-resort guarantee. Indy is also launching a $189 Learn-to-Turn Pass with three total days of lifts, rentals, and lessons that will be available all season.
Here's what we don’t know: how much Indy Passes will cost, what any of the new partners are, how long the pass sale will last, if non-waitlisters will get a chance to buy, and which Indy Pass ski areas are participating in the Learn-to-Turn Pass. We will know all of these things next Thursday.
Here’s why what we don’t know doesn’t really matter: I do actually know a lot of what we don’t know, and while I’m not allowed to say any of it explicitly, I can say that the price won’t increase much from spring rates, many of the new partners are substantial, and just about every ski area from last year’s roster will return. Yes including Jay Peak, which is as good as anything on Epic or Ikon east of the Rockies. And passholders will still get two days at Jay and two days each at the other 900 million ski areas on Indy Pass. For like the price of the tank of gas. Well maybe a tank of gas if you drive one of those 19-wheeled pickup trucks and live in Hong Kong where gas is $13 a gallon. But still. A tank of gas. To set a baseline, here were Indy’s spring rates for the general public – next week’s prices will likely be slightly higher than these:
I’m afraid that we’ve normalized the Indy Pass too much. Vail announces half off $300 lift tickets and Snow Partners bundles three ski days for $200 and we’re all like “sick. What a great deal.” But here’s how the adult Indy Pass, with its hundreds of days of skiing, stacks up against three-total-days versions of Epic, Ikon, Boyne and Snow Triple Play (spring rates for Indy versus current rates for all other passes):
Again, even without next week’s mysterious dozens, Indy offers skiers access to more Alpine ski areas (182) than Epic (71) and Ikon (76) combined (147). In the U.S., those numbers are: 128 Indy, 37 Epic, 50 Ikon. And no not all ski areas are created equal. And yes Colorad-Bro I’m aware of Summit County. But I’ve covered all this before, and for skiers who don’t live in Colorado, the Wasatch, or Tahoe, Indy is a pretty incredible full-season ski option (or add-on to Epkon or a local unlimited pass):
I’ll admit that I’m part of the problem. One day I’m like “oh my goodness Deer Valley is charging $329 for one day of skiing what in heavens is a body to do?” And the next day I’m like “if Silas tripped over his Model-T and fell through a timewarp into 2025 he’d look at the Indy Pass and say, ‘by gum I remember when a day of sno-skiin’ used to cost a whole nickel!’” But the whole economy of skiing is just so weird. It’s like this thing you can only do if you inherited the patent to nuclear fusion or if you source your Christmas tree from the county park at 2 a.m. with a borrowed handsaw. And what I keep coming back to is this:
In this spirit, I’m going to do a bunch of comparing and analysis of all the new and legacy pass products over the next week or three. This late-summer window when Indy comes back on sale will probably be your last chance to pick between the best of skiing’s current multi-day, multi-resort products for next winter. And while pass rates are a bit higher than they were in the spring (especially for Ikon), you can still set yourself (and your family), up for a 20- or 30- or 50-day winter without having to build a basement meth lab (though I’m not one to discourage hobbying).
So stand by for all that. In the meantime, here’s Indy’s probable baseline roster for 2025-26. The two indoor snow “centres” in England dropped off after one season. Buck Hill appears to be gone after selling its soul to Ikon (for, I’m told, no per-visit compensation). And I know there’s a lot of confusion around Montage and whether they’re still on Indy. No one has been able to give me a definitive answer, so I’m leaving them on for now. A reminder that I’m no longer tracking the cross-country ski areas. (Chart best viewed in desktop; some numbers overlap below, but if you want to see the crappy old version of the chart with more information, it will always be right here; I split this chart into U.S. and international to help a bit with the number-squeezing):
