The best time to pay for Colorado skiing is before the lifts start spinning

As snowmaking guns fire up and resorts start raising prices for early-purchase passes and tickets for the coming season, now is the time to make your winter ski plans. Because … what does a poor planner say? “Skiing is expensive.”

The resort industry is swiftly ditching the old model of walking up and buying a lift ticket when you want to go skiing. Resort operators want to make that akin to walking up to an airport and buying a plane ticket. No one does that anymore, right? If you do, you will pay well over $300  for a single day at most major resorts this coming season. Today’s resort industry is building itself around planning, not powder.

This buy-early model means both these statements are true: Skiing has never been more expensive. And skiing has rarely been more affordable, with season passes for early buyers priced below what they were 30 years ago.

Skiers who buy now get to choose which one of these statements will define their season.  

Let’s start with the pass that offers unlimited access to the most acres in Colorado: the Epic Pass. The $1,047 Epic Pass provides any-day, all-season access to Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Keystone and Vail ski areas plus seven days at Telluride. The Epic Pass also offers unlimited access to the company’s 38 resorts across the country and Canada, Europe and Australia in addition to limited access to partner resorts Canada, Europe and Japan.

The Epic Pass also has a $778 local option with unlimited skiing at Breckenridge, Crested Butte and Keystone. There are also day passes from $56 to $116 and a host of passes that limit access on peak days. The Epic Pass has transformed the business model for ski resorts, asking skiers to buy before the snow falls and reducing resort operator reliance on snowstorms to sell lift tickets. 

The investors behind Alterra Mountain Co. recognized the appeal of Vail Resorts’ model and in 2018 launched a competitor with the Ikon Pass. The $1,449 Ikon Pass offers unlimited access to 17 ski areas – including Copper Mountain, Eldora, Steamboat and Winter Park – and up to seven days at 42 partner resorts with no blackout dates. Alterra is taking a page from Amazon with its Ikon Pass benefits as well, with pass buyers getting myriad discounts on travel, gear, streaming television, fitness programs and, of course, full-body MRI scans. 

The Ikon Pass has lots of variations with a mix of blackout dates and limited days, ranging from a $329 pass for two days at any of 43 ski resorts to $1,269 for the Ikon Base Plus, which delivers unlimited access to 14 ski areas and up to five days at 45 ski destinations. 

Maybe you are more of a roadtripper? Check out the $659 Mountain Collective Pass, which delivers two days at ski areas like Alta and Snowbird, Big Sky, Jackson Hole, Grand Targhee, Sun Valley and Taos. The Mountain Collective also includes two days at Arapahoe Basin and Aspen Snowmass, which, when weighed with unlimited half-off day tickets, could make sense for skiers planning a couple weekends in the Roaring Fork Valley as well a trip down to New Mexico or up north to Utah, Wyoming and Montana. 

Maybe you are more into the smaller, independent ski hills? The Indy Pass launched in 2019 with a $199 pass that accessed a couple dozen mom-and-pop ski areas. Today, the $289-$499 Indy Pass delivers two days each at more than 200 ski areas, including Colorado’s Echo Mountain and Granby Ranch. But the innovative team at the Indy Pass limits sales and the passes as of early October were sold out, so buyers can only sign up for a waiting list right. 

Colorado’s independent resorts are finding traction in the shifting resort landscape, offering much less crowded slopes with season passes priced at about half of the heavyweights. And the cooperative agreements among the nation’s vibrant stable of independent resorts typically offers passholders a few days of free skiing at many smaller ski areas.

Durango-based Mountain Capital Partners has unlimited access to its nine ski areas in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah, including Purgatory, with its $1,149 Power Pass. The expanding resort operator also sells a $799 12-day and $499 4-day Power Pass. All its passes include a host of perks — including seven free days at the company’s newly acquired ski areas in Chile and free days at partner ski areas. 

Silverton Mountain offers a $499 pass for spring unguided skiing that includes $89 stand-by spots during the guided season and two $99 heli-bumps, which ranks as the most affordable heliskiing around. That Silverton Mountain pass includes two days each at Arapahoe Basin, Monarch, Loveland and Powderhorn.

Echo Mountain, the closest hill to Denver, offers a unique midweek pass and night-skiing pass for $99 each. Granby Ranch has a $369 weekday pass as well. Powderhorn on the Grand Mesa above Grand Junction kept its season pass prices the same as last season, with unlimited skiing for $599, up from $429 in the spring. Sunlight Mountain Resort above Glenwood Springs offers a $679 season pass and a family pass for $1,849. Monarch ski area outside Salida has a season pass for $673, with an 85th anniversary deal that offers renewal prices ($609) to anyone who has ever had a Monarch season pass. Lake County-owned Ski Cooper outside Leadville has season passes for $599. 

And then there are the special deals. Arapahoe Basin has $199 to $225 group half-day lessons.  Copper Mountain has free kid’s passes with the purchase of an $833 adult pass. Copper also is continuing its unique Play Forever Thursdays, which provides $99 early-purchase tickets on some Thursdays with proceeds benefiting local charities. 

Purgatory has day lift tickets as low as $9 for people who book a ski day now. 

Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, the country’s oldest operating ski area, has been offering free skiing on Sundays for several seasons. 

Resort trade group Colorado Ski Country has long offered the Kids Ski Passport to Colorado students in grades 3-6 with four days of skiing at 20 ski areas. The trade group recently debuted a $199 Gems Teen Pass for skiers 12-17 and a $325 Gems Parent Pass, both good for two days at 11 Colorado resorts. Ski Country’s venerable Gems Card costs $48 and offers discounts at 11 ski areas.