On March 18th, 2008, Vail Resorts debuted its . For $579, you got unlimited, no-restrictions skiing at six resorts鈥擵ail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin, and California鈥檚 Heavenly. Vail Resorts had offered locals-only, multi-resort season passes to its Colorado resorts before, but nothing like this. The ski industry didn鈥檛 know what hit it. A ski journalist at the time wrote that Rob Katz, Vail Resort鈥檚 CEO, had essentially lost his marbles; it was such an unbelievably good deal that some people thought that Vail Resort鈥檚 had made a mistake, and rushed to purchase an Epic Pass before they realized the error and rescinded the offer.
Fast-forward six years and the full Epic Pass now costs $749 and includes unlimited skiing at 18 resorts, including Park City Mountain Resort, which a few weeks ago, and one resort in Japan and five in Europe. It鈥檚 just one of four Epic Pass options available for the 2014-15 ski season (the cheapest version costs $399 and gets you four days at the Vail-owned resort of your choice plus various other perks). Anyway you slice it, all of the Epic Passes are a good deal. More important, the Epic Pass is now just one of many combination season passes now being offered by various resorts. There are now well over a dozen.聽
Which one is right for you? Below, Gordy Megroz breaks down five of the best deals going. And if you鈥檝e already narrowed it down between the industry鈥檚 two heavyweight options鈥攖he Epic Pass and the Mountain Collective, which gets you two days each at seven of North America鈥檚 best resorts, including Snowbird, Aspen Snowmass, Squaw Valley, and Whistler Blackcomb鈥攃heck out the incredibly detailed and helpful infographic put together by the folks at , our favorite new ski-specific travel site.聽
Epic Pass ($749)
Best For: Coloradans and Californians
Vail Resorts owns or operates five world-class ski areas in Colorado (including Breckenridge and Beaver Creek), three of the best resorts in California (, , and ), plus the Canyons and Park City聽in Utah. The offers unrestricted access to all of them and more (18 resorts total), including five days of free skiing at Verbier, Switzerland; Arlberg, Austria; and Les聽Trois Vall茅es, France鈥攖hree of Europe鈥檚 finest mountains.
Mountain Collective ($389)
Best For: The Stormchaser
Five hundred fourteen inches. Four hundred sixty inches. Those are the annual snowfalls at Alta and Jackson Hole, respectively, just two of the ski areas included in the , which also covers 13 other resorts, among them , , and . The pass gets you two days at each resort, plus up to 35 percent off lodging and 50 percent off additional tickets.
Powder Alliance Pass (from $299)
Best For: The Sampler
The premise of the is brilliant. It works like this: you buy a pass at your home resort (or the mountain you intend to visit the most) and receive three days at each of the Alliance鈥檚 12 other member hills, which include Snowbasin, Utah; Stevens Pass, Washington; and Schweitzer, Idaho.
New England Pass ($1,085)
Best For: The East Coaster
There are a few other combo passes in the Northeast, but the gets you the greatest variety. Sugarloaf has some fantastic expert terrain, including 580 acres of new glades in Burnt Mountain and Brackett Basin. Nearby Sunday River has poured over $1 million into snowmaking this season. And the terrain park at Loon Mountain, New Hampshire, is one of the region鈥檚 best.
Monarch Mountain Season Pass ($430)
Best For: Frequent Fliers
This pass gets you a varying number of days of skiing at seven Colorado mountains and 27 resorts across nine additional states, plus unlimited access to four other resorts in two countries. Among the gems you can explore are , Wyoming (three days); , Colorado, home to cliffy, expert-only hike-to terrain (one day); and sleeper European destinations like Austria鈥檚 , a small resort with lots of family-friendly terrain and incredible views of the Kaiser mountains.
