New Ikon Ski Pass to challenge the Epic Pass

[Vincopotamus]

Denver Post article

The $899 Ikon Pass gets you unlimited access to Winter Park, Copper Mountain, Steamboat and Eldora and eight ski areas in California, Vermont, West Virginia and Canada. And, seven days of skiing each at Deer Valley, Wyoming’s Jackson Hole, Big Sky, Revelstoke, Killington and Sugarbush. It also comes with a total of seven days at the four Aspen/Snowmass resorts, Alta/Snowbird, SkiBig3 (Banff Sunshine, Lake Louise and Mt. Norquay), and the trio of Sunday River, Sugarloaf and Loon Mountain in New England.

The Ikon Base Pass is $599 with unlimited access to eight ski areas, including Winter Park, Copper Mountain, Eldora and areas in California, West Virginia and Canada. It comes with five days a piece (with holiday restrictions) at Steamboat, Mammoth, Deer Valley, Jackson Hole, Big Sky, Stratton, Killington, Revelstoke and Sugarbush. And, five total days at Aspen/Snowmass, Alta/Snowbird, SkiBig3 and the New England mountains. The base pass has blackout dates between Christmas and New Year’s Eve and the holiday weekends in January and February.

Wonder how this will shake up the CO ski pass market for next year...? Seems like if you aren't going to travel, the Epic Local might be a better value (barring resort preferences).

[BillMiddlebrook]

Yes, please take more people away from the Vail resorts!

[Bombay2Boulder]

This is a great option. It kinda is bad deal for east coasters who won't be coming to west for a week or so. MAX pass was a better deal for them . Going from Killington, Okemo, Pico and Stratton to just Killington and Stratton for 5 days. Also the base pass deal for college students is only 479 $, expect a LOT of CU students to get this pass , a lot of my college friends are already talking about getting this pass.
This seems a win for Steamboat though. Annual passes are currently 1500 but will drop down to 900 next year. This is great, lesser people in Siberia and Mongolia now!

[12ersRule]

I need to get a place in the Boat. Still pretty expensive. Not as ridiculous as Summit County is though.

Maybe Kremmling has some deals? Hit WP one day, and the Boat the next?

[SkaredShtles]

I need to get a place in the Boat. Still pretty expensive. Not as ridiculous as Summit County is though.

Maybe Kremmling has some deals? Hit WP one day, and the Boat the next?

Rock Springs - hit Jackson, Steamboat, Big Sky (bit of a haul for a day trip), Alta, Snowbird...

And the real estate in Rock Springs? SUPER-CHEAP!!

[LURE]

I would jump on this for Steamboat alone. I've given up on buying any passes to Vail Resorts for three years in a row now.

I need to get a place in the Boat. Still pretty expensive. Not as ridiculous as Summit County is though.

Maybe Kremmling has some deals? Hit WP one day, and the Boat the next?

Man the things I'd do for property in the Boat, or just the general Yampa Valley area. Ski ski ski, hunt hunt hunt.

[benlen]

That $599 deal is very tempting for this Vail local. It's unlikely I'd get up to Steamboat more than 5 times a winter anyway, but having unlimited Copper would be excellent for early season turns, especially considering how shitty Vail's openings have been the last two years.

With Epic and IKON base, I'd have 7 days at Telluride, 5 at Jackson, 5 at Alta/Snowbird. Hell yeah!

[nomad_games]

wish they had other CO areas on the pass, but the revelstoke and jackson hole days make it very attractive to me.

[Matt]

This has my home base (Mary Jane) & all the mountains on my yearly wish list that I have missed the last few years-Jackson, Big Sky, Snowbird--plus it makes Aspen affordable. Bingo.
Taking away the free kid's passes and making buddy tickets more expensive isn't cool, but there are worse things in life.
However, I hope that the GTB keeps pulling most folks to Vail Resorts.
After all, the Epic Pass is still Why You Live Here.

[SkaredShtles]

<snip>
With Epic and IKON base, I'd have 7 days at Telluride, 5 at Jackson, 5 at Alta/Snowbird. Hell yeah!

Would you wear your monocle and tophat whilst skiing at Telluride and Jackson?

[benlen]

<snip>
With Epic and IKON base, I'd have 7 days at Telluride, 5 at Jackson, 5 at Alta/Snowbird. Hell yeah!

Would you wear your monocle and tophat whilst skiing at Telluride and Jackson?

What a great idea!

[kingshimmers]

Also the base pass deal for college students is only 479 $, expect a LOT of CU students to get this pass , a lot of my college friends are already talking about getting this pass.

I imagine more CU students would get this pass anyway, if for no other reason than Eldora being 45 min away.

Taking away the free kid's passes and making buddy tickets more expensive isn't cool, but there are worse things in life.

For kids older that 5 or 6 with the current pricing, the Ikon kids' pass is still better than last year's Epic. The Ikon pass for kids under 12 is $200 ($150 for the Base) while the Epic was ~$450 last year (~350 for Local, I believe).