Vail Resorts has the made the bold decision to keep their Epic Pass price significantly below their largest competitor- the Ikon Pass.
The full-fledged Epic Pass is currently on sale at $841, and the Ikon Pass is going for $1,079. Which one do you think the average skier will buy? The answer is pretty obvious if the decision is being made solely based on cost.
Epic passholders are probably rejoicing at another season of affordable skiing, but locals who call any of Vail Resorts’ properties home are infuriated.
We can assume a few things based on Vail’s decision to not return to pre-pandemic price.
For one, they’re not concerned with the over-crowding of their ski resorts. Vail was blasted all season for selling too many passes, and it looks like they’re going to do it again next year.
Long lift lines in Breckenridge-
Second, Vail is betting that their recent decision to raise the minimum wage for all employees to $20/hr will be enough to fix problems.
They’re hoping that they’ll be able to attract more employees, and solve their guest experience headaches like long wait times in the process.
I still give Vail kudos for raising employee pay, but continuing to sell a boatload of Epic Passes will surely cause disaster again next season.
It absolutely kills me to say that they need to raise the cost of their pass, because I think skiing should be affordable for all, but selling too many passes is not the way to make skiing accessible.
Lift lines are “epic” at @skiJFBB , and not in a good way. 90 seconds to get down the mountain, more than an hour stuck in line to get back up. #understaffed pic.twitter.com/oUFleIT3Uh
— Cecily Tynan (@CecilyTynan) January 17, 2022
This madness has to catch up with Vail at some point. There can only be so many families in North America willing to spend thousands of dollars to travel to Colorado for a ski trip and deal with Epic Lift Lines…
*Ring ring* Vail Resorts? Yeah, hello. This is the people speaking. Stop the bullshit, please?