Suddenly, Free Buddy Tickets Are Everywhere

Pass Notes: April 2024

Welcome to Pass Notes, a newsletter exclusively for paid subscribers to The Storm Skiing Journal & Podcast. The 2024-25 Pass Tracker 5001 is up to date:

Rise of the buddy tickets

We’re hitting peak Buddy Season, during which Vail and Alterra try to make skiers believe that 25 to 50 percent off of a $299 window-rate lift ticket is some kind of mega-bargain. But even a 39 percent discount only reduces a peak-day Vail Mountain lift ticket to $181. If my buddy wasn’t savvy enough to buy an Epic Pass 10 months before he planned to ski, then he’s probably not going to be super fired up to spend his annual electricity budget on seven hours of skiing.

So “Buddy Tickets,” as offered by the big players, are pretty lame, a cruddy garnish on an outstanding product, a benefit-in-name-only that is more likely to make your friends resent you than thank you. “Wow Bro, thanks for dragging me to this stupid overpriced ski resort when we could have both skied at the local bump down the road for like $50 apiece. Glad you got your per-day pass price down to 75 cents.”

But suddenly, this spring, real buddy tickets are everywhere. And by that I mean that dozens of independent ski areas are offering their 2024-25 season passholders between one and several free lift tickets to whomever they bring skiing with them next winter. A few examples: