Savvy skiers and riders are grabbing next season’s passes even as the snow lies so deep in the high country that a number of areas have extended this season. Following are the ever greater deals for next year, including passes with bonus days at other resorts around the country or even internationally. Passes also offer food, retail and lodging discounts, as well as special friends-and-family prices.
For brevity’s sake, we are just listing the adult season pass prices. Some are good for the remainder of this season too. Click on the websites for all other age/price categories, including teen/young adult pricing. Consider pass insurance for a modest additional cost….in case.
* Vail Resorts’ pass programs require $49 down now and balance payable in fall. Epic Pass, $859 (unlimited days at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin, CO; Whistler/Blackcomb, BC; Park City, UT; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood, CA; Stowe, VT; Afton Alps, MN, and Mt. Brighton. MI, plus days at 30 international resorts. Switzerland. Epic Local Pass, $629 (unlimited days at Breckenridge, Keystone, A-Basin and 3 Midwestern area, plus 10 days at Vail, Beaver Creek and/or Whistler/Blackcomb with holiday black-outs). Summit Value Pass, $529 (unlimited days at Keystone and A-Basin, Breckenridge with some black-out days). Commit by April 9 and get 6 Ski-With-A-Friend and 6 Buddy Tickets, all discounted, automatically loaded onto your pass. Optional pass insurance is an additional $25. Epic is complicated, so call 800-842-8062 with questions.
* Rocky Mountain Super Pass, $529 through April 11. Unlimited days at Winter Park, Copper Mountain and Eldora, plus 6 days at Steamboat, 3 days at Crested Butte and 3 days at Alyeska, AK, and 10 Discounted Friends & Family Tickets at Winter Park, 10 at Copper and 4 at Steamboat. Plus, one child to age 12 skis FREE with every adult pass purchase. International pass privileges include 7 days each at Mt. Ruapehu (New Zealand), Cardrona Alpine Resort (New Zealand), Tomamu (Japan), Alts Bandai (Japan), Nekoma (Japan), and Hlidarfjall (Iceland). Don’t laugh. You can grab a cheap winter roundtrip to Reykjavik on Icelandair; the others require a bit more doing. Put $49 down by April 11, and pay $75 per month through November. Click here to purchase. That page also contains other pass and multi-day ticket options to Winter Park and Copper, as well as the Route 40 Pass for Winter Park and Steamboat.
* Loveland. On sale starting April 10, $429 for new season pass; $409 for renewal and $309 for midweek only. Good for remainder of this season and all of next. Not available for the rest of 2016-17 but available all next season are 3 bonus days each at Monarch Mountain, Crested Butte, Purgatory, Powderhorn and Powder Mountain, UT.
* Monarch Mountain has dropped the “One Planet – One Pass” name and replaced it with the Wings Pass ($499). Unlimited days at Monarch plus 3 days each at Winter Park, Copper Mountain, Steamboat, Purgatory and Hesperus with no blackout dates. Also, half-price days at Sunlight and Powderhorn. Additionally, 3 days each at New Mexico’s Sipapu, Red River, Angel Fire, Ski Apache and Pajarito and Arizona Snow Bowl. Alas, no Taos. Monarch may not be the most convenient resort for those living near or north of I-70, but it is a good option for anyone to the south, for it avoids that often congested freeway.
* Peripatetic skiers and riders with wanderlust should look into The Mountain Collective, a pass program that offers two days each at 16 top-tier resorts around the globe for $399 and kids to age 12 for $1 (yes, one dollar). Aspen/Snowmass and Telluride represent Colorado. Resorts in adjacent states are Alta, Snowbird and Snowbasin, Utah (the former, the country’s legendary powder capital with no snowboarders permitted, and the latter, a 2002 Olympic venue), Taos Ski Valley, NM, and Jackson Hole, WY. These are very doable road trips (make sure you have good winter tires) and by themselves more than justify the purchase of this pass. Elsewhere in the U.S., Mammoth and Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows, CA; Sun Valley, ID; Jackson Hole, WY and Sugarbush, VT. Canadian resorts are Lake Louise and Banff Sunshine, both in Alberta, and Revelstoke, BC. South of the equator, Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, both on New Zealand’s South Island, and Thredbo, Australia, enable pass-holders to ski around the calendar. Click here to purchase, but don’t dawdle. There’s a limit to how many are offered, and they are reportedly getting close to sell-out.