We Polled Skiers on Ski Pass Value: Here’s the Pass They Chose

It’s Sunday, and you know what that means—we’re back with the results of another POWDER Weekly Poll!

This week, we asked, what ski pass offers the best value?

Here’s what 702 skiers had to say.

POWDER Weekly Poll Results

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Poll Highlights

• Total Votes: 702
• Number of Votes on Instagram: 220
• Number of Votes on Website: 482
• Most Popular Option: Epic Pass (297 votes, 42% of voters)
• Least Popular Option: Mountain Collective (54 votes, 8% of voters)
• Other results:
  Ikon Pass: 244 votes, 35% of voters The Indy Pass: 108 votes, 15% of voters

Poll Observations

• Not unsurprisingly, the two best-known ski passes on the market, the Epic Pass and the Ikon Pass, came out on top. There was some variability based on the platform skiers used to vote, though. On Instagram, which had a smaller number of voters, the Ikon Pass took first by a wide margin. On our website, the Epic Pass was the most popular option, and the most chosen option overall on both platforms.
• Geography matters a lot when choosing a ski pass. “Value is very subjective,” read one comment on our website. “It all depends on your home mountain, how much you ski, and where you like to ski when traveling.” The Epic Pass, for instance, offers access to a large number of ski areas across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Other commenters shared a similar sentiment. 
• It makes sense that the Indy Pass and Mountain Collective saw fewer votes. These passes differ significantly from the Ikon and Epic Passes, only offering two days of access at each mountain. That makes them strong candidates for vacationing skiers, rather than skiers looking for a pass they can use every weekend at their home mountain. They were also the cheapest two pass options we chose.
• Summed up in a different way, another skier wrote, “The one I bought. It works for me and I don’t expect anyone to buy the same anything just because I did.”
• Even as Vail Resorts has, at times, drawn the ire of skiers, its Epic Pass has remained less expensive than the competing Ikon Pass over the years. If you’re in an area with ski resorts covered by both passes, that would make the Epic Pass the most affordable option. That’s reflected in how skiers voted.

What We Could’ve Done Better

• Are skiers getting tired of talking about ski passes? Most likely. This was one of the smallest turnouts we’ve seen for a poll. Last week, for instance, we received more than 3,000 votes for a poll about pole straps. 
• Limited by Instagram’s four-option max, this poll didn’t include some major passes. The Power Pass, namely, is relatively cheap and focuses mostly on ski areas in the American Southwest. It also provides access to two Chilean ski resorts. Other, more niche products, like the Boyne Passport, are on the market, too.

About the POWDER Weekly Poll 

We launch our weekly polls at 3 p.m. Eastern Time every Monday. They remain open until 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time the following Friday, with the results dropping on Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. You can participate and see the results right here on our website or by visiting our Instagram page.

While you’re at it, drop us a line or leave an Instagram comment if there’s a poll you’d like to see next. Skiers have plenty of opinions and preferences, and we want to know which ones might land on top of the heap.