The Storm Is Tracking Every 2023-24 Ski Season Pass in U.S. America With This Chart
It’s time to give yourself a more interesting ski season
Epic, Ikon, Indy, and Mountain Collective pass prices are live for the 2023-24 ski season. But there’s no reason to restrict your options to those four products. I’m a big believer in the power of the local bump to supercharge your ski season. Sure, if you live in New York City, you can buy an Ikon Pass and ski 15 days per season out West and in New England. But why not also pick up a $290 early-bird Mountain Creek pass and double that number? Run out to Jersey for 8 a.m. to noon turns on a Sunday when you wouldn’t otherwise be skiing? You can repeat that template all over the country. Live in Philly? How about a $345 pass for quick-lappers at Spring Mountain. Seattle? Summit at Snoqualmie offers a steeply discounted twilight pass (prices not yet live for 2023-24). Repetition makes better, and happier, skiers.
Dozens of ski areas have also built their own de facto megapasses through reciprocal lift ticket agreements. These are often steeply discounted – Mount Bohemia, a wild edge-of-the-world kingdom of double-black diamonds in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, sells a $99 season pass that includes free days at approximately two dozen ski areas – many of them big western powder dumps. Ski Cooper’s season pass gives you three days each at more than 60 partner ski areas, and sold for just $329 last year (the mountain has not yet released 2023-24 prices). Bogus Basin, Idaho is one of just two ski areas that is a member of both the Powder Alliance and Freedom Pass coalitions, and its $699 True Bogus season pass includes three days each at a dozen more ski areas. You do not have to be a local to purchase these passes – in many cases, they mail them (I summarized a couple dozen of the best last year).
No, you won’t find Jackson Hole or Telluride on these passes, but if you’re trying to beat the megapass megacrowds, maybe it’s time to try some different mountains. Here, to help you discover what lies beyond the Epkon vortex, is the updated Pass Tracker 5001, for the 2023-24 ski season. Dozens of independent ski areas have already laid out next season’s offerings. You can view last season’s early-bird and final prices, which in most cases will be a good indication of how the ski area will handle its 2023-24 passes (you can click on the “2022-23” and “2021-22” tabs to view additional historic prices). And yes, I also included all Indy, Epic, Mountain Collective, and Ikon passes and partners. This document only tracks adult unlimited passes, but I’ve also linked out to each ski area’s season pass page so you can browse all of their options:
This time of year, I’ll update this tracker every week or so. The closer we get to next ski season, the less I’ll focus on it. Yes, I know it’s an ugly document. Yes, I’ll make something better someday. But all of this information is in one place, and this is the only place it’s in.
To make this monster a little easier to manage, I eliminated a couple of tracking categories this year. Payment plan went away because if you need it, you’ll find it. And the refund/deferral category was largely a byproduct of Covid, when the sudden shutdowns of 2020 inspired many operators to guarantee some sort of credit or refund should the next season end in another tidal wave. But it didn’t, and neither did the next one, and so most ski areas have either pivoted to an add-on insurance option or returned to some version of “tough shit.”
I’ll be delivering a lot more ski season pass coverage, particularly over the next couple of months. Sign up for the email newsletter to get those dispatches as soon as they’re live:
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The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 24/100 in 2023, and number 410 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com.
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