As a Midwesterner, I grew up skiing at small local resorts. The short, icy runs were all that I needed to get the adrenaline pumping and fall in love with the sport. After all, I needed something to do during those dreary, cold winter months. In fact, although I skied quite a bit, it wasn't till I was in my 30's that I first trekked out West to the behemoths that were the Rocky Mountain ski resorts. Aside from falling down endlessly in the powder with my skinny East coast skis, it was a whole new, glorious experience. I was hooked.
The most shocking part, aside from the sheer magnitude of the resorts out West, was the cost of a lift ticket. Now that I am a family of 5, a trip out West to ski is an enormous budget cruncher. However, there are ways you can save money if you are diligent and intentional in your planning. One way to do that is to consider an Epic Pass, Vail Resorts' various season passes which allow you to ski all season for much less than the ticket window prices, which can exceed $200/day! The kicker is, now that Vail has expanded its reach by buying ski resorts in the East and Midwest, using an Epic Pass at your local resorts in conjunction with a trip out West or East, makes the price tag more tolerable. With Epic Passes for the 22/23 season at their lowest price before an upcoming increase May 30, 2022, I hope to help you consider whether or not the pass fits into your plans for next season.
In this post
Epic Pass Basics
There are 3 types of Epic Passes. They offer access to various resorts with differing restrictions. Here is a comparison of the 3 Passes.
Here is a map of all the Vail resorts you can use your pass at. You can find a more info here.
Pass Benefits
Additionally, the passes offer these benefits:
All passes offer FlexPay, which allows you to pay over time in up to 12 monthly payments.
Buddy Passes- The Epic and Epic Local offer 2 of these if purchased before May 30. They allow you to bring a friend with you at a flat rate discount off the window price, which varies by resort.
Ski With a friend- These are similar to Buddy Passes but with not as steep a discount; the prices vary throughout the season. The Epic and Epic Local include 6 of these.
Epic Coverage- This insurance is included in all passes. It offers peace of mind; if a covered event causes you to cancel your trip, you may be eligible for a refund on days missed. Be warned, that the language here, including all the restrictions as related to Covid, are complicated enough to stump a Harvard Law professor.
Epic Mountain Rewards- All passes include this, which gives you 20% off food, lodging, rentals, lessons, mountain activities, and more.
Other Factors to Consider
As the ski season comes to a close, prices are announced for passes for the following season. I typically think about my potential plans and plug several scenarios into the spreadsheet I've created to determine if buying Epic (or Ikon, which is a whole other discussion) passes is advantageous for me or other members of my family. Here are some of the factors I weigh when making those decisions.
- How many days do I plan to ski out West, whether on my own or with my family? I estimate the window cost of paying out of pocket. This is not cut and dry due to the fact that most resorts have gone to dynamic lift ticket pricing, raising prices on high demand days. Because resorts don't really have set, published prices, it's hard to compare apples-to-apples what the cost WOULD be in the future if just buying tickets at the resort versus a pass price. You can try to look up historical lift ticket prices to get a feel for what you may spend on a trip out West, but likely you will have to make an educated guess here. Chances are, if you plan to ski at a big resort, skiing just 3-5 days will likely be your breakeven point in buying a season pass, and certainly buying the Epic Day Passes will save you money off window prices.
- Do I have kids that can ski free at some locations? This is a huge way to save if you have young kids. As it pertains to Epic Resorts out West, here are some examples:
Crested Butte- kids 4 and under ski free
Keystone- kids 12 and under ski free when families stay 2 or more nights at the resort, including Hyatt Place Keystone. Kids 4 and under ski free.
Breckenridge- kids 4 and under ski free
Beaver Creek- kids 4 and under ski free
Epic Schoolkids Colorado Pack- This is is a free program for Kindergarten through 5th graders that provides four days of skiing and riding at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Crested Butte. This is a great program available to anyone, however you have to register in person at an Epic Range store in Colorado. But if you happen to be able to do that, it can save you a ton of money for your younger kids. These do have blackout date restrictions (more on that to come).
Utah 4th-5th-6th grade Passport- This $49 pass allows any child in these grades 3 days at each Utah resort including Park City, an Epic Pass resort. This pass also has blackout dates.
- Is my child in ski club at a local Vail Resort? My 15 and 12 year old are in ski club in Ohio, which costs about $220 for the season. By contrast, an Epic Local pass, good at their ski club resort, costs $506 and $325 respectively. So now I could get access out West all season for only $286 and $105 more for these 2 kids, respectively. That's a good deal.
- Will I be skiing locally this season at a Vail Resort? As Vail adds resorts to their portfolio, including Seven Springs in PA this year, maybe you live close to one of these Midwest resorts and could ski there as well as out West, making a season pass advantageous.
- Would Buddy Passes or Day passes make sense? Perhaps, depending on your skiing plans and family dynamic, it makes most sense for you to get a 1-7 day pass, which will still be below window rates. Or maybe one adult gets an Epic Pass while the spouse or kids use the Buddy Passes or day passes. Work the numbers.
- Do blackout dates matter to me? Unfortunately, when planning family ski vacations out West, they typically coincide with school breaks, which also coincide with pass blackout dates. The Epic Local pass has blackout dates at SOME resorts while the Kids Colorado Pack has blackout dates at ALL resorts. Note that all the 1-7 Epic day passes do have a premium option with no holiday blackout dates. This can kill your plans, so you must take it into account. I get around that by either going during non-blackout times, or planning a trip before or after a blackout date and figuring out how best to mix and match passes. For example, if Saturday, January 14, 2023 (MLK weekend) is blacked out, I'd consider a 1 day pass with holiday access for that day and then the Kids Colorado Pack for Sunday and Monday.
All of this is to say, if you have the desire and ability to roughly plan a year out where you may ski next season, this info can give you the baseline to figure out if a season pass is right for you. Because Vail has priced season passes reasonably and window ticket prices so high, they are purposely trying to drive skiers into the season pass (and guaranteed revenue) product. It's how they sold 2.1 million passes for the 21/22 season, an increase of 76% over the previous year. Again, I suggest doing a quick spreadsheet to compare your options. Here are some screenshots of my comparisons the last couple years. Although they appear to be gibberish, they make sense to me in comparing out of pocket window costs verses season pass (both Epic and Ikon) options.
Where to stay on points
One way to lighten the financial burden of a ski vacation is to stay for free on points. Here is a sampling of hotels close to Epic resorts to use points at for the major hotel brands.
Hyatt
Marriott
Hilton
IHG
Conclusion
Although the days are just getting warm and long, it's not too early to be thinking about skiing next winter. Epic Passes are at their cheapest price until May 30, and will go up incrementally throughout the summer. With a little forethought and planning, you can save money while enjoying the challenge, beauty, and serenity that big mountain skiing has to offer.
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