We have the roster for the fifth (or maybe sixth) national ski pass. The $339.99 Snow Pass will offer two days each at 14 ski areas for winter 2026-27:
The Snow Pass is sponsored by Snow Operating, the outfit that last year launched the Snow Triple Play and is in danger of sliding into Eptacular territory with Snowtastic overbranding*. Snow Triple Play, which offers three days total and a maximum of two days at any given ski area, returns for $179.99 with all 16 of last season’s partners and seven new ones (year highlighted in yellow below), all in eastern North America:
*I am probably just bitter because Snow Partners rejected my suggestion to name the Snow Pass “The Ultimate StudCrusher Supreme SnoSportSkiing SuperPass.”
Snow Pass joins an increasingly crowded multimountain ski pass market dominated by Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass (71 mountains) and Alterra’s Ikon Pass (98), which offer a spectrum of products combining unlimited access with a designated number of days at each ski area. Snow Pass’ two-days-per-mountain allocation mirrors that of the high-end Mountain Collective and the sprawling, 229-mountain Indy Pass, which is sold out for winter 2026-27.
While the Snow Pass’ launch with limited western partners somewhat complicates The Storm’s calculus of what counts as a paid national ski pass, total membership across the Epic, Ikon, Mountain Collective, Indy, Snow Pass, and Power Pass is considerable: 425 active ski areas around the world have joined one or more of these passes. This includes 167 mountains outside of the United States, another 53 in Canada, and 114 outside of North America, with concentrations in Japan (49) and Europe (52). Skiers can access more than half of all active ski areas in America (258 of 495 anticipated active ski areas for winter 2026-27), including a remarkable 67 percent of public ski areas (246 of 369 active, that operate at least one chairlift) on one of these six passes.
I’m on a plane home from family vacation in Ireland, so I’ll leave off with a few quick takes:
Snow Pass’ inclusion of Belleayre, Gore, and Whiteface – three of the best ski areas in New York – immediately establishes the pass as a potent regional draw around the 20 million-person metro New York area. This could really help the pass compete with Indy in an important ski market.
Snow Pass’ strong launch somewhat clouds its tough starting position among a mature U.S. pass market, with just 33 percent of ski areas – and few trophy properties of the sort that could supercharge growth – remaining.
That means the clearest path to Snow Pass growth is likely by looting partners from existing pass rosters. While the inaugural Snow Pass includes crossovers with Mountain Collective (Whiteface), Ikon (Buttermilk), and Power Pass (Monarch), Indy Pass has explicitly forbidden its partners from joining another competing national pass. For example: Snow King, an Indy Pass mountain since 2020, is still listed on the pass’ website as an active partner as of this morning. Snow Pass officials confirmed to The Storm that a Snow King representative had said the mountain “would not be participating” in Indy Pass this winter, and that the Wyoming ski area was therefore cleared for membership. As I was under embargo (meaning I get the information before the general public so I can prepare a write-up), with today’s roster announcements, I couldn’t reach out to Indy officials for comment. I’ll do so shortly.
While the Snow Triple Play is unlikely to excite my core readership, there is a place for it in a ski market that is increasingly offering these sorts of you-have-this-many-days-total-to-use-across-a-bunch-of-mountains-whenever-you-want ticket packs. The best is still Epic Day, but nearly every major ski area on the continent is skiable on some similar product. I don’t have aggregated stats just yet.
When Snow Triple debuted last year, I advocated for a true pass like Indy. We’ve got that. Now, Snow Partners just needs to convince some of these shiny new Triple Play partners – Jiminy Peak, Cranmore, Bromont – to join Snow Pass.
I had a hard time classifying Snow Pass as a true national pass, as the two western ski areas are small and unlikely to draw eastern skiers for a vacation. Nor will the product appeal to anyone outside of the East. But I’m calling this a building-block roster of the sort that Indy so successfully built around since its 2019 launch.
And since I was classifying Snow Pass as national, I upgraded the 15-mountain Power Pass to national pass status, rooted in the following logic: while Mountain Capital Partners’ homegrown pass only offers access to ski areas in the western U.S., it also includes a pretty baller destination in Chile, with the interconnected Valle Nevado and La Parva ski areas. That’s a compelling opposite-winter carrot even for skiers who may not live in MCP’s core Four Corners region. Plus the pass is a killer deal and delivers unlimited access to nine MCP ski areas and a bucket of days in Chile (and a few bonus days at partner resorts). You win, James.
When Snow Partners announced Snow Pass earlier this year, the company also teased a Midwest-specific Triple Play. This product launch will, according to today’s press release, “move to the winter 2027/28 season as several prospective resort partners complete previous pass contractual commitments.” From conversations with several Midwest ski area operators, I have a fair idea of which ski areas these may be and which pass they may be leaving, but I’ll hold off from reporting on that just yet.
I have to scrutinize blackout dates a bit, as they were asymmetrically severe on Snow Triple last year, and how much skiers can actually use the pass has a lot to do with how useful the pass is.
I’ll explore different elements of the bullets above over the coming weeks, as we get a better look at the 2026-27 multimountain ski pass landscape.
Snow Pass and Snow Triple Play will go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 8.
The Triple Play was a nice addition to our Indy Pass last year being in the Northeast. However, the blackout dates are a negative
Did you confuse Butternut with Buttermilk?