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Indy Pass today launched the Indy Allied Resorts Program with a half dozen New England ski areas. Indy Pass holders will be able to purchase discounted lift tickets at the six ski areas, and full season passholders at these mountains are eligible to purchase the $189 Indy AddOn Pass.

The six inaugural partners are Burke and Middlebury Snow Bowl in Vermont; Dartmouth Skiway, Whaleback, and McIntyre in New Hampshire; and Bousquet in Massachusetts. Indy expects more partners to join prior to the 2022-23 ski season, and will not limit the size of the coalition.

The discount structure is simple and uniform: 25 percent off lift tickets on weekends and holidays from Dec. 24 through March 12, and 50 percent off all other days. There is no limit on the number of discounted lift tickets that an Indy Pass holder can redeem. Here’s what the Indy universe will look like for Indy Passholders in New England next season:

Season passholders at these ski areas will be treated exactly as season passholders at full Indy Pass partners, and will be eligible to purchase the Indy AddOn ($189 adult/$89 kids) or Indy+ AddOn ($289/$139) passes, instantly transforming any season pass into a continent-spanning passport equal in reach and scale to an Epic or Ikon pass. Despite the specialized name, the Indy AddOn Pass is an Indy Pass and functions in exactly the same manner, providing two full days each at all 83 downhill and nine cross-country ski areas, as well as discounted lift tickets at the other Allied partners.

This program, which Indy Pass founder Doug Fish first teased more than a year ago on The Storm Skiing Podcast (I will release an updated conversation with Fish this week), unleashes the network power of the Indy Pass for any independent ski area on the continent that is not already aligned with the Epic, Ikon, or Mountain Collective passes. Any North American mountain that is not already a part of one of those three coalitions may apply for the program by emailing info@indyskipass.com.

“The Indy Pass coalition is striving to be as inclusive as possible so that all independent resorts can benefit from this alliance,” said Indy Pass founder Doug Fish. “Because we've reached ‘peak density’ in some regions, the Allied Resort program allows us to expand without affecting the economics of our model.”

Here’s what that quote means: since Indy Pass pays each partner each time a passholder cashes in a ticket, the coalition cannot add unlimited ski areas. Doing so would risk dropping the per-visit payout too low, alienating the pass’ partners, who have grown accustomed to per-visit payouts close to their walk-up ticket rates. Indy already has a dozen partners in small, populous, ski-mad New England, limiting the number of additional two-day partners the pass can add. The Allied Resorts tier allows the coalition to expand indefinitely, as passholder visits do not trigger any kind of payout from Indy – the discount is between the resort and the skier.

This does not mean that Indy is done adding full partners, in New England or anywhere else. We will see more full, cash-in-your-two-days partners prior to next ski season. Some of the so-called Allied Resorts may even eventually get promoted to the “free” tier. But this program allows Indy to scale its network up rapidly, providing more value to passholders and bringing independent operations with limited marketing budgets into a nationally significant pass coalition.

The introduction of the Allied Resorts program is the latest in a series of unexpected but savvy moves by the nimble, self-aware Indy Pass, which debuted fewer than three years ago but has already significantly rebalanced the scales between the Epkon mega-bruisers and the formerly lonesome indies uncertain how to compete for skiers who are increasingly accustomed to a local ski season pass doubling as a multi-mountain passport.

Let’s take a deeper look at the Allied partner roster, as well as some implications for Indy Pass holders, ski areas, and skiing in general:

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The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast

Indy Pass Introduces “Allied Resorts” Program…

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