Whoa. Snow Valley is my fourth favorite of the four “big” SoCal hills, and while Mt Baldy has all the side country, it doesn’t snow here anymore. But for the price, I might have been talked out of renewing Ikon.
As much as I’d like to get away from Big Bear as my “regular” day ski spot, of course I’m sticking with Ikon. Heading to mammoth in the morning for the last runs of my season.
Still, the wife was talking about doing a trip out to Powderhorn, her old home mountain…hmmm
I think of this pass and Indy as complementary passes, a ~$300 add-on for some variety and for peak times when the little spots may not be as overrun as the Ikon/Epic hills (though some of them are just as busy). But you're right - Ikon owns that market, and has plenty of variety on its own. The access you can get for ~$1k these days is just amazing.
I’ve accepted mega-pass corporatism as perhaps the only way we’ll get a continued level of investment at our local mountains. Seeing Snow Valley or Mountain High go to Vail would beat seeing them go the way of Kratka Ridge, Snow Forest, Green Valley, etc. We need more acreage covered by more snow. Mountain High is sustainable as-is , but I just think that they’d get all the money they ever dreamed of as the SoCal anchor for Epic.
Great article Stuart, as always. I definitely see potential for another Indy style pass out there with some of these existing coalitions and other powder players that got left out of the party (ahem, ORDA). If someone could land the CO5 coalition (Loveland, Monarch, Powderhorn, Cooper, Sunlight) the ORDA beast, and one of the marquee monsters still hiding in its cave (Whitefish per se) they could sweep up a bunch of partners and use something similar to the 85/15 pricing model Indy thought-up to create a second monetized pass product. Competition would probably be good in this space, and these reciprocal visits turning into real dollars can be a huge difference maker. After all, if people are buying Ski Cooper or Loveland passes to supplement their Indy/Epic/MC already then the proof of concept is there. Perhaps the impetus for such a product could come from one of these groups, like the mid-western mountains mentioned in your article, or the Colorado coalition, similar to how a group of mountains formed the Mountain Collective to compete for skier visits.
This is so interesting to me. I've already maxed out my purchasing of passes for next year (3 once november comes around and I can get the Bohemia pass), but adding whitecap as a midwesterner makes me pretty jealous. I think Whitecap is the best of the northern midwest along the likes of Lutsen, Spirit, and Bohemia. If all these northern WI and MI resorts stick around I cant imagine not getting it for the 2023-4 season. I agree that the really ideal scenario would be all of them just creating their own coalition keeping the money local instead, but that will be for them to work out. Really does seem to be a golden age of value in resort passes/tickets that cant last forever. This pass plus Indy would easilly cover the northern midwesterner all season
Whoa. Snow Valley is my fourth favorite of the four “big” SoCal hills, and while Mt Baldy has all the side country, it doesn’t snow here anymore. But for the price, I might have been talked out of renewing Ikon.
As much as I’d like to get away from Big Bear as my “regular” day ski spot, of course I’m sticking with Ikon. Heading to mammoth in the morning for the last runs of my season.
Still, the wife was talking about doing a trip out to Powderhorn, her old home mountain…hmmm
I think of this pass and Indy as complementary passes, a ~$300 add-on for some variety and for peak times when the little spots may not be as overrun as the Ikon/Epic hills (though some of them are just as busy). But you're right - Ikon owns that market, and has plenty of variety on its own. The access you can get for ~$1k these days is just amazing.
I’ve accepted mega-pass corporatism as perhaps the only way we’ll get a continued level of investment at our local mountains. Seeing Snow Valley or Mountain High go to Vail would beat seeing them go the way of Kratka Ridge, Snow Forest, Green Valley, etc. We need more acreage covered by more snow. Mountain High is sustainable as-is , but I just think that they’d get all the money they ever dreamed of as the SoCal anchor for Epic.
Praying for an El Niño next year.
Great article Stuart, as always. I definitely see potential for another Indy style pass out there with some of these existing coalitions and other powder players that got left out of the party (ahem, ORDA). If someone could land the CO5 coalition (Loveland, Monarch, Powderhorn, Cooper, Sunlight) the ORDA beast, and one of the marquee monsters still hiding in its cave (Whitefish per se) they could sweep up a bunch of partners and use something similar to the 85/15 pricing model Indy thought-up to create a second monetized pass product. Competition would probably be good in this space, and these reciprocal visits turning into real dollars can be a huge difference maker. After all, if people are buying Ski Cooper or Loveland passes to supplement their Indy/Epic/MC already then the proof of concept is there. Perhaps the impetus for such a product could come from one of these groups, like the mid-western mountains mentioned in your article, or the Colorado coalition, similar to how a group of mountains formed the Mountain Collective to compete for skier visits.
I think we need just in the first inning here. Maybe the 2nd, but there is a lot of game left to watch, and I think it all benefits skiers.
This is so interesting to me. I've already maxed out my purchasing of passes for next year (3 once november comes around and I can get the Bohemia pass), but adding whitecap as a midwesterner makes me pretty jealous. I think Whitecap is the best of the northern midwest along the likes of Lutsen, Spirit, and Bohemia. If all these northern WI and MI resorts stick around I cant imagine not getting it for the 2023-4 season. I agree that the really ideal scenario would be all of them just creating their own coalition keeping the money local instead, but that will be for them to work out. Really does seem to be a golden age of value in resort passes/tickets that cant last forever. This pass plus Indy would easilly cover the northern midwesterner all season