Payments would begin in September and can be spread out over three, six, nine, or 12 months. The Epic FlexPay payment plan option is welcome, even if the insistence on jamming “FlexPay” together into one word is definitely not. The Epic, Epic Local, and Northeast Value passes will all deliver unlimited, no-blackout access to all three resorts, which are also included in the Northeast Midweek pass. Vail is treating its three newest ski areas – Seven Springs, Hidden Valley, and Laurel in western Pennsylvania – in the same manner as it has its other five mountains in the state. And even with the bump, Ikon Passes are still considerably more expensive: the $1,079 Ikon Pass is $238 more than the $841 Epic Pass, and the $769 Ikon Base Pass – which comes with considerably more restrictions than the $626 Epic Local Pass - is an extra $143. This new labor plan will run $175 million – per year. The company is pumping $325 million into 21 new lifts this offseason. Still, Vail’s decision to raise pass prices slightly is unsurprising. This widely lauded plan should mitigate similar operational issues next season, sparing the need to pump prices back to 2019-20 levels or ramp up blackout dates at higher-volume ski areas. The company largely addressed these issues last week with a comprehensive plan to raise frontline-employee wages to $20 an hour continent-wide, aggressively build housing on its owned land, boost human-resources support, and move corporate employees back into resort communities via a flexible-work program. This year’s Epic Pass release comes at the tail-end of a sometimes-troubling season for Vail Resorts, during which staffing shortages contributed to idled lifts, inadequate snowmaking, and truncated operating hours at ski areas across the country.
Vail’s re-commitment to the discount Epic Pass strategy, launched last spring, re-asserts its Epic for Everyone narrative, a conviction that frequent skiing, purchased well in advance, should be affordable for nearly anyone who wants it. These are: Fernie, Kimberley, Kicking Horse, Nakiska, Stoneham, Mont-Sainte Anne ^Japan resorts are: Hakuba47 Winter Sports Park, Able Hakuba Goryu, Hakuba Iwatake Snow Field, Jiigatake, Tsugaike, Hakuba Cortina, Hakuba Harpo-One, Hakuba Norikura, Kashimayari, Rusutsu ^^European partners are Skirama Dolomiti, Italy (7 consecutive days, no lodging requirement) Ski Arlberg, Austria (3 consecutive days, lodging requirement) Verbier 4 Vallees Switzerland (5 consecutive days, lodging requirement) Les 3 Vallees, France (7 consecutive days, no lodging requirement) ***2022-23 holiday blackout dates will be Nov. Prices increased from 4.66% (Wilmot) to 16.47% (Epic Local) before passes went off-sale in December 2022. *Indicates early-bird 2021-22 pass price.
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