Vail Resorts’ and Alterra Mountain Company’s Epic and Ikon passes are now fixtures of North American skiing.
Each costing up to more than $1,000, they allow individual skiers and riders more access to more mountains — often with longer lift lines.
Now, select resorts let you skip the line — if you pay. Park City-based POWDR Corporation introduced the “Fast Tracks” pass add-on at Snowbird, Copper Mountain, Killington and Mt. Bachelor in 2021.
This year, Alterra followed. It introduced the Reserve Pass add-on at Solitude, Winter Park and other resorts in the U.S. and Canada.
Vail Resorts, owner of Park City Mountain, doesn’t have an equivalent option, but an investor asked if one is in the offing during a recent first-quarter earnings call.
CEO Rob Katz says “everything is always a consideration.” He didn’t rule it out while emphasizing Vail already offers premium experiences.
“Some of the things that they're doing, we have in some of our higher-end resorts, obviously, like private clubs and private dining,” Katz said on Vail’s first-quarter earnings call Dec. 10. “Ski school for us is a major driver.”
For Katz, ski school is a skip-the-line pass of sorts.
“We have to look at how [a Reserve Pass] would impact the total ecosystem and other sources of revenue and other business lines that we have,” the Vail exec said.
Alterra also owns Deer Valley Resort. Spokesperson Emily Summers confirmed Deer Valley is not part of the program but didn’t say whether the resort is considering it.
Deer Valley Resort and Vail Resorts’ EpicPromise foundation are financial supporters of KPCW.
