When you think of spending a good season skiing and snowboarding, you really want to get the best out of it, and if that’s the case you’ve probably considered getting the best deal and thus heard of the IKON Pass, the Epic Pass, or the Indy Pass.
Despite all the info and reviews that you can find on the internet, there are some key factors to consider before choosing what’s the best ski pass you can find out there (i.e. the number of resorts included in the bundle vs the pricing, whether it includes holiday access or not, and the locations of the resort vs where are you located).
That being said, the quick answer, therefore, would be: It depends on your needs. And here are a few examples to understand the whole point of it.
Pricing & other details
Here we have a comparison between three of the most popular Ski Passes available:
| 2023-2024 Ski Passes | Ikon | Epic | Indy Pass |
| Adult Price | $1,159* | $929 | $419* |
| Teen Price | $939 | $383 | N/A |
| Youth Price | $419 | $199 | $219* |
| Total Number of Resorts | 54 | 62 | 110 |
| Unlimited Access Resorts | 15 | 40 | N/A |
| Additional Resorts | 45 | 22 | N/A |
Cross-Examination:
The million-dollar question here is: How much are you willing to pay for your ski experience?
If you want to dodge the crowds and costs of the most popular mountain towns, the Indy Pass offers the best overall value boasting a roster of 100+ resorts for less than $400. But if you want to get a better value and the best views in memorable locations, you might want to consider the Ikon and Epic options, and here’s why:
What do they include?
- Epic Pass holders get 20% off food and non-alcoholic beverages, ski and ride lessons, rentals, and airport transportation from Denver (DEN) and Eagle County-Vail (EGE)
- The Ikon Pass offers discounts on summer activities, once-a-month pre-opening lift access, 25% off buddy passes, and 15% off food, beverage, and retail and lodging deals at select resorts.
- Benefits Location-wise
As we previously stated the Indie pass is the one that offers the best value vs the number of resorts and locations included. Nevertheless, the East Coast is often relegated to fewer options. Here we see a comparison between them:
For the Indie Pass, we have:
Connecticut — Mohawk Mountain; Maine — Big Rock Mountain, Saddleback Mountain; Massachusetts — Berkshire East Mountain Resort; New Hampshire — Black Mountain Ski Area, Cannon Mountain, Pat’s Peak, Waterville Valley Resort; New York — Catamount Mountain Resort, Greek Peak, Snow Ridge, Swain Resort, Titus Mountain, West Mountain; Vermont — Bolton Valley, Jay Peak, Magic Mountain, Saskadena Six Ski Area.
- The Ikon pass grants access to 26 North American ski resorts.
Pass holders will be able to access 12 of them, including Stratton (VT), Snowshoe (WV), Sugarbush (VT), Tremblant (Quebec), Blue (Ontario), Windham* (NY), Sunday River* (ME), Sugarloaf* (ME), Loon* (NH), Pico* (VT), Killington* (VT).
- The Epic Pass:
Last but not least, we have the epic pass with 18 locations in the Northeast area: Stowe (VT), Okemo (VT), Mount Snow (VT), Mount Sunapee (NH), Wildcat (NH), Attitash (NH), Hunter (NY), Liberty (PA), Roundtop (PA), Crotched (NH), Whitetail (PA), Jack Frost (PA), Big Boulder (PA), Mount-Sainte Anne* (Quebec), Stoneham* (Quebec), Laurel (PA), Seven Springs (PA), Hidden Valley (PA).
Final comments
Although the purchase of any of these passes won’t make much sense for everyone (financially speaking), we should acknowledge that this is a mega benefit if we consider the huge amount of value we get from them and the savings if we compare it with a regular ski lift pass bought in the resort of your preference or even if we compare it with a single-day ticket, etc.
We’re pretty sure you might want to consider all of these key factors before making your decision.
