Notes about multi-resort passes for 2026-27: Indy, Epic, Mountain Collective, Ikon

[marzNC]

Anyone ready to buy a national multi-resort pass for next season? All of them tweaked their offerings for 2026-27. While all four include resorts outside N. America, I don't pay that much attention to changes for the other continents.

The 2026-27 multi-resort passes that cover N. America started selling very early this spring. Indy did auto-renewals in late February. Epic started sales with a bang on March 3 by announcing a price reduction for ages 13-30. The Mountain Collective became available on March 3 too. Ikon announced pricing last week, with sales starting March 12, 2026.

I noticed quite a few independent mountains started announcing 1-location season passes in February. In some cases, sales will end in late spring and re-start in late summer or early fall. Early birds willing to commit always get the lowest prices. With low snow depths or warm weather leading to early season closing dates in some regions, makes sense to work on getting the attention of locals sooner rather than later.

Since 2014 I’ve had all of the major multi-resort passes at one time or another. My home region is the southeast, where Indy can mean good fun at several local hills. I’ve had a season pass for my home hill in northern Virginia, Massanutten, for about twenty years. I got Epic Local a few years ago for a trip to Crested Butte, and checked out Vail and Beaver Creek. What I’ve used most often is Ikon and/or Mountain Collective because those passes cover my favorite resorts in the Rockies. My calculations shifted in recent years after that I qualified for senior rates at some resorts.

In general, it’s best if you can decide where you want to ski during an upcoming season first, and then consider what multi-resort pass makes the most sense. Indy, Epic, and Ikon locations do not overlap. Most of the Mountain Collective resorts are also on Ikon, but there are a few exceptions including Sugar Bowl, Grand Targhee, and Whiteface. For people who have the time and interest to travel for multiple ski trips, getting more the one multi-resort pass can make sense.

I’m going to post basic info for the major multi-resort passes. As always, when in doubt check the website for a given pass for details and fine print. It's hard to get everything right.

 

[marzNC]

When Vail Resorts announced the pricing for Epic passes, the big news was a 20% drop in cost young adults ages 13-30 for Full Epic and Epic Local. We have a discussion about that news here. The prices for young adults (18-30) is the same as for teens (13-17). Note that Full Epic is required for access to the only Epic Partner in the USA, Telluride, up to 7 days with 50% off for additional days.

Epic pass sales started March 3. Prices increases are around 4%. Prices typically go up a few times before sales end in early December.

The Epic Day Pass can be worth considering if only planning on skiing at an Epic resort for a few days. Can be a bit confusing because there are multiple options that come into play beyond the number of days (1-7). Do you need to ski during holiday period? Is there a reason to include all VR destination resorts? Do you intend to go to Whistler-Blackcomb? Or is the idea to only head to Epic resorts in the eastern USA?



As announced a few months ago, anyone who bought a day ticket at an Epic resort this season can get up to $175 towards an Epic pass for next season.

Epic pass holders continue to get 20% off for resort food, lodging, gear rental, group lessons, and the Epic Mountain Express airport shuttle in Colorado. Epic Friend Tickets are good for a 50% discount. Early bird purchases include 10 Epic Friend Tickets, with 6 included later on.

 

[marzNC]

Sales of Ikon for 2026-27 start March 12. Renewal credit is down to $50 for Full Ikon and $25 for Ikon Base. The price increases are about 5%. Absorbing the evolution of Ikon perks and options is going to take a while. What hasn't changed is that there are no discounts for seniors of any age. The age categories are 0-4, 5-12, 13-22, 23+.

$1399: Full Ikon for ages 23+
$949: Ikon Base for ages 23+

Ikon is trying a very different approach to make potential buyers worry less about a low snow season, or any other reason that making use of an Ikon pass would be difficult. The goal is to get people to commit sooner instead of waiting until pre-season (Sept-Oct) or even early season (Nov). The option to decide to defer by mid-December to the following season is gone. Instead, for $185 it will be possible to get a full refund if someone doesn’t use their Ikon pass at all before Jan. 15, 2027. Or a 50% cash refund if there is only one scan before Jan. 15. $185 is about 13% for Full Ikon and 20% for Ikon Base.

The Friends and Family discount stays the same at 25%, which only applies to N. American resorts owned by Alterra, except Deer Valley. Full Ikon pass holders get 15 and Ikon Base provides 10.

Snowmass will return to Ikon Base, while the other three Aspen mountains will remain on Full Ikon only (combined 7 days). Taos and Snowbird remain on Ikon Base. Alta, Deer Valley, Snowbasin, Sun Valley, Jackson Hole require Full Ikon.

Arapahoe Basin access will shift to being unlimited with Ikon Base. Essentially the approach taken for other Alterra resorts that means Ikon Base can be a season pass with blackout dates for locals. For ABasin there are still 1-location season passes available that are a few hundred dollars less than Ikon Base.

There are new Ikon resorts in the midwest: Granite Peak, WI; Lutsen, MN, and Snowriver MI. All three are owned by Midwest Family Ski Resorts, which was created by Charles Skinner Jr. and his daughter, Charlotte.

The Bonus Mountain list for 2 days each was expanded to include Tamarack in ID and Devil’s Head in WI. Jiminy Peak and Butternut in MA will continue as Bonus Mountains.

Parents who buy Ikon will get a bigger discount than before for a child’s pass.

There is a new option for young adults ages 23-28. The Squad Pack is a package deal for Ikon Base. The idea is that one person must purchase the pack of 5 Ikon Base passes at $750 each, saving $199 each. After the big purchase, the buyer will get codes to give to 4 friends. Presumably those friends could provide the money before the purchase.

There are quite a few Ikon Partner resorts in the USA that offer a special deal on Ikon Base to premium season pass holders. In those situations, people cannot upgrade to Full Ikon.

There are new perks for Ikon based on partnerships with companies such as Black Tie and Backcountry dot com.

 

[marzNC]

It’s clear that the Mountain Collective (MC) pass is not going away. Given the lower price point compared to Epic and Ikon, it has value for people who plan on taking 2-4 shorter trips as opposed 1-2 trips with 5-7 days of skiing each.

The Mountain Collective (MC) pass essentially didn’t change for 2026-27. Same deal, 2 days a collection of well-known destination resorts, and 50% off for any additional days. Eight 25% discount vouchers to share with friends and family will be available again. Most of the resorts are in N. America, but there are enticing resorts on other continents as well. The prices went up about 5%.

$669 Adult 19+
$529 Teen 13-18
$239 Child 6-12

Early bird purchases get one bonus day at a pre-selected destination. In recent years, it’s been possible to change the destination later on by email or a phone call.

There are a few resorts working with MC that are not on Ikon: Sugar Bowl, Grand Targhee, Whiteface in the USA; Bromont and Marmot Basin in Canada.

The new marketing twist is that an MC holder can get another bonus day (different resort from standard early bird bonus) if they successfully get a friend to buy an MC pass.

At about half the cost of Ikon, a MC pass can be worth considering as an alternative for someone who is more likely to take 2+ shorter trips that won’t include 4+ days of skiing each trip. Pairing Alta and Snowbird, or Jackson Hole and Grand Targhee is one trip could mean covering 4-5 ski days. For people who live in Boston, Sunday River and Sugarloaf in Maine is another possible pairing.

 

[marzNC]

The Indy Pass provides 2 days at each location, plus a 25% discount for a third day. There are some resorts that offer a lodging discount. My friends and I took advantage of the Indy discount last season at Tamarack for ski in/out lodging. Jay Peak offers an Indy discount but must call to get it set up.

Indy+ Pass (no blackout dates) pricing is less than last season, while Base Indy is a bit more. I would guess most Indy pass holders were okay getting a “subscription” by agreeing to auto-renew last year. The renewal emails went out on Feb. 25. Subscribers could opt-out completely or change the type of Indy pass before renewals were processed on March 1.

An unusual feature of Indy is that public sale periods are very brief, usually about a week. The best way to get informed about when that is going to happen is to join the Wait List. Indy is quite serious about limiting the number of pass holders in order to avoid overloading the member ski areas/resorts.

Indy prices as of March 1, 2026:Indy added a few locations for alpine skiing and for XC. Also a few more in Europe. The goal is to reach 300 location by December 2026. They are confident enough that goal will be reached to offer a refund if it doesn’t happen by Dec. 1. Can also request a refund if a favorite location does not renew.

New Indy Resorts for 2026-27, as of late February 2026:

Murray Ski Ridge, BC; Pebble Creek Ski Area, ID; Thrill Hills, ND;

Steamboat Ski Touring Center XC CO; Haymaker Nordic Center XC, CO;
The Loppet XC, MN
Bethel Village Trails XC, ME; Northern Maine Community Trails XC, ME;
Franconia Inn & Outdoor Center XC, NH; Great Glen Trails Outdoor Center XC, NH;

Les 7 Laux, France; Valmorel, France;
Bergbahnen Hohsaas AG, Switzerland;
Stöten i Sälen, Sweden; Levi, Finland; Stranda Ski Resort, Norway;

 

[ChristinaSkipsBumps]

Wow, great summaries! Thank you for putting this together for us!

 

[marzNC]

The Bonus Mountain list for 2 days each was expanded to include Tamarack in ID and Devil’s Head in WI. Jiminy Peak and Butternut in MA will continue as Bonus Mountains.

The Bonus Mountain list only applies to people who get Full Ikon. There are a three resorts in the midwest, three in New England, plus Tamarack and Grouse Mountain. Understandably, there are holiday blackout dates.

 

[marzNC]

Late season access for the 2025-26 season starting either March 12 or April 6 is a perk for new Ikon pass holders at some Alterra resorts.

 

[Amplify]

This is a great summary of a situation that often feels insanely complicated to me (thus I often just give up trying to parse it all out). Thank you for the write-up!

I signed up for the Indy Pass auto-renew and while it felt like it came up startlingly early, I am very happy to be signed up for Indy pass again next year. I ski pretty much exclusively in the northeast at this time, and we still never manage to exhaust all our Indy days here skiing every weekend/school holidays. Last year the math worked out to less than $30 per lift ticket overall and I suspect this year will come out to be around the same – it’s a total no-brainer choice for me. It is the single biggest factor in getting us out for at least 25 days per season. We don’t ski SOLELY on the Indy pass, but we do ski the solid majority of our days on it.

A friend is always trying to get us to ski with his family at Killington but I just can’t justify the money (for either day-rate tickets or Ikon passes) when we end each season with lots of days we wish we had had time to ski at perfectly great Indy slopes. If only stupid life stuff like school and work didn't take up so many of our days!

I am considering adding the ORDA Frequent Skier card next year, to make it easier to spend a day with friends who ski exclusively at Belleyare (which is not my favorite place, so paying face value just hurts so much) or to maybe be the final motivation boost we need to get us up to Gore or Whiteface for a weekend or two. It seems like it would make financial sense at around 3-4 days of skiing, and it would be nice to not have to worry about dates selling out. But still deciding on that one.

 

[Tvan]

@marzNC - thanks for the summaries! The “Ski Pass Calculus” Season is upon us.

We let our Indy Pass lapse for next year and went back to Ikon for next season. We enjoyed exploring on the Indy. We particularly enjoyed Bolton Valley and Dartmouth Skiway. I like the small old time vibe of these two places, and the skiing was achievable for me at my current fitness level.

All that said, we really missed Stratton. We’ve skied there for past two decades and it feels like “home” which influenced our decision to return to the Ikon pass. We also renewed our Middlebury Snow Bowl alpine and nordic combo passes. It’s so close, it would be a shame not to.

 

[diymom]

The Bonus Mountain list only applies to people who get Full Ikon. There are a three resorts in the midwest, three in New England, plus Tamarack and Grouse Mountain. Understandably, there are holiday blackout dates.

With a full Ikon and Indy combo, that could make an almost full week of skiing in Idaho with a total of 4 days at Tamarack (the one slight exception to the Ikon/ Indy not having overlap, but with only 2 days and only on the full Ikon) and 2 at Brundage.

 

[Aerlind]

I did Mountain Collective for this season and will be renewing it next year. The renewal price is $639, and I paid $680 last year (but I think that included pass insurance…I’ve since deleted the email and only know what I paid from my credit card statement. I will likely get pass insurance again because my summer sport isn’t exactly “safe”, horseback riding, so potential injury is always on my mind).

I live in SW Montana, 2-3 hours from Big Sky, Grand Targhee, and Jackson Hole. My bonus day was Big Sky. This season, I also ended up skiing Aspen (1 day) and Sun Valley (2 days, upcoming). So, my total number of days at MC resorts: 11: one was a 50% off day at Targhee, so I paid $80 for that ticket. That works out to $69/ticket anytime I used my MC. Not too shabby. There’s a good chance I’ll get in a couple more 50% off days at Big Sky in April, if the snow holds.

There are some personal reasons I can’t get Indy, and it doesn’t make a ton of sense for me anyway, as the only local resort on it is Lost Trail. Day tickets there are $80 or less at the window, and we don’t go more than 1-2 times a season. The other local resorts we frequent aren’t on any pass system so we buy day tickets or 3-packs.

A last note: watch for early season and sometimes mid-season sales on Ikon Friends and Family passes: they don’t work at all resorts, but I snagged a deal where the F&F pass was good for 50% off: we used it at Alyeska, so my SO on Ikon skied on his pass and I paid for 4 lift tickets for $189 TOTAL. Killer deal right there.

 

[marzNC]

A last note: watch for early season and sometimes mid-season sales on Ikon Friends and Family passes: they don’t work at all resorts, but I snagged a deal where the F&F pass was good for 50% off: we used it at Alyeska, so my SO on Ikon skied on his pass and I paid for 4 lift tickets for $189 TOTAL. Killer deal right there.

To be clear, the 50% off deal was not the standard Ikon F&F for 2025-26. It was a special deal that was probably a reaction to Epic's new Friend Tickets that Katz introduced after he took over as CEO again in 2025.

Ikon F&F for 206-27 provide the same 25% discount as recent years. The discount is applied to the full price of a lift ticket. There are times at some resort when getting advanced multi-day tickets online is a better deal than using Ikon F&F. The advantage of using F&F when on a trip with friends who have Ikon is that there is no advanced commitment required. That can be useful during a late season trip for someone who would just as soon relax doing something else if weather or snow conditions aren't that good on a given day.

 

[marzNC]

With a full Ikon and Indy combo, that could make an almost full week of skiing in Idaho with a total of 4 days at Tamarack (the one slight exception to the Ikon/ Indy not having overlap, but with only 2 days and only on the full Ikon) and 2 at Brundage.

For someone with the time and interest, having Ikon and Indy means a trip to Idaho could also include Sun Valley and Soldier Mountain. Sun Valley was the start of the trip you joined in Boise. Soldier is on Indy.

Have to add that if someone ends up in Boise, it's worth paying for a lift ticket to check out Bogus Basin. It's large resort with multiple peaks that's a long-time successful non-profit.

 

[Aerlind]

To be clear, the 50% off deal was not the standard Ikon F&F for 2025-26. It was a special deal that was probably a reaction to Epic's new Friend Tickets that Katz introduced after he took over as CEO again in 2025.

Ikon F&F for 206-27 provide the same 25% discount as recent years. The discount is applied to the full price of a lift ticket. There are times at some resort when getting advanced multi-day tickets online is a better deal than using Ikon F&F. The advantage of using F&F when on a trip with friends who have Ikon is that there is no advanced commitment required. That can be useful during a late season trip for someone who would just as soon relax doing something else if weather or snow conditions aren't that good on a given day.

Excellent point. What we got for Alyeska was a special early-season deal, I had to buy the tickets by Oct 31. We knew we were going and planned what days to ski, so it worked out. You never know, they may run a similar promotion again! I don’t think it was announced until early October last year. I also remember seeing a similar promotion mid-season here, probably due to low snow levels out west, but none of the resorts it was valid at were anything we had plans to ski so I didn’t look closely. But yes, standard is 25%.

Another note that I discovered: While Mountain COllective does not have blackout dates, their F&F passes do. I ran into that MLK weekend so my poor SO had to pay full price, and we hadn’t checked that ahead of time (which would not have changed our plans anyway).

 

[marzNC]

Just got the email from Ikon encouraging people to renew. Seem to want to encourage parents who ski to consider taking the entire family on a ski vacation or two using Ikon. The discount for a child 5-12 is $100 for Full Ikon and $50 for Ikon Base when purchased with an adult pass. No limit on the number of children. The e-store is happier when at least one adult pass of the same type is purchased at the same time.

A bit surprising that the price for ages 0-4 isn't discounted at all with an Adult Ikon pass.

 

[Bookworm]

I can't figure out the Ikon Session Pass.
If I choose 4 days and I go to Winter Park for 4 days, does that mean I can only go to Winter Park or could I also go to another resort for 4 days?

 

[marzNC]

I can't figure out the Ikon Session Pass.
If I choose 4 days and I go to Winter Park for 4 days, does that mean I can only go to Winter Park or could I also go to another resort for 4 days?

You can use an Ikon Session Pass any 4 days at any Ikon resort that is in the program. It's NOT 4-days each at any included resort. Most of those resorts in the west are owned by Alterra, but there are exceptions such as Taos or Mt. Bachelor.

At $499 for the 4-Day Ikon Session Pass, it's only a decent deal if you know that you'll use it at a major resort. In some cases, advanced online multi-day tickets for a particular resort may be about the same or even a bit less depending on the dates.

Mountain Collective and Indy are the passes that provide a set number of days for each resort on their lists. Meaning someone with enough time and energy to travel all over the place could use one of those passes at 10 different resorts to cover lift access for 20 days of skiing.

The Epic Day Pass (1-7 days) works the same way as an Ikon Day Pass in that it covers the total number for one or more resorts. The difference from an Ikon Session Pass is that there are many options for an Epic Day Pass at different price points depending on holiday blackouts or which list of resorts is of interest.

Ikon Session Pass locations for 2026-27:

 

[jenniferm]

Thanks MeiMei, glad to see you’re on it! PSA—the allegedly no risk pass is in fact 100 percent at your own risk after January 15. Just spoke to IKON sales and confirmed. So if I pay almost $2000 and get hurt on January 16, no refund. Didn’t ask about credit towards the following years pass. Hate to be That Lawyer but this is a deceptive practice, should at least be clearly disclosed. Thinking I might just buy Ikon day passes when I plan a specific trip—it’s just too much money to put at risk otherwise.

 

[santacruz skier]

I think it was @BlizzardBabe who purchases the travel insurance CFAR. Probably doesn’t apply to lift passes though.