Planning for 2024/25 Ski/Snowboard Season

This past ski/snowboard season was a winner, with late season storms and record visits.

As happens every summer, the resorts we love are busy upgrading trails, adding new snowmaking, new lifts and pass deals, and ski clubs already are signing up members for organized trips.

Here’s what to know now about the 2024/25 season, so you can put these resorts on your bucket list – or not.

Ikon, Epic Pass Prices Increase in September

The most recent price increases for the Ikon Pass, Epic Pass and Mountain Collective Pass were the end of May, and there will be another price increase in September or October.

Epic Pass prices increase on Labor Day

Don’t wait until the deadline, since the websites and toll-free numbers will be jammed with procrastinators like you.

If you have already purchased a pass, don’t fret – they are usually sent out around mid-September.

Epic Pass prices for 2024/25, including the Military Veteran Pass and Northeast Value Pass
Ikon Pass prices for 2024/25 season
Mountain Collective pass prices for 2024/25 season.

Opening Dates for US/Canada Resorts

New Lifts & Amenities at Top Resorts

best new chairlifts and gondolas for skiing and riding_evelynkanter — Image: Jackson Hole

Jackson Hole

The iconic Wyoming resort is replacing the four-person Sublette lift with a faster and more powerful detachable quad chairlift, which will be up and running in time for the 2024–25 winter season.

The new lift cuts uphill time from eight minutes to four, while climbing approximately 1,600 vertical feet at 1,000 feet per minute. That means you can get to Laramie Bowl – my personal favorite run at Jackson Hole – in half the time, and wear out your legs and lungs twice as fast.

The original Sublette lift was built in 1987. The original chairs were auctioned off to support a local charity.

This past season, JHMR was open 143 open days and clocked 447 inches of total snowfall, helped by a series of heavy late winter and early spring storms that blanketed the West.

Big Sky

The Montana resort celebrated its 50^th Anniversary last season with the introduction of a new, larger Lone Peak Tram, and making more changes for season 51.

The new Madison 8 lift will replace the Six Shooter 6 on the Moonlight Basin side of the resort. It will nearly double uphill capacity out of the Madison Base, reducing ride time by an estimated 30%.

The Madison 8 is another eight-seater, which Big Sky introduced to the world with its Ramcharger lift on the main mountain. The new lift is named for the nearby Madison River, and planned to be operational by December 2024.

Big Sky also is changing ticket pricing to the new Lone Peak Tram, although the changes affect only a small number of guests.

Starting this season, those who buy lift tickets directly from the resort no longer will have to pay extra to access the new 75-passenger Tram. But that deal applies only to elite Gold and Double Black pass holders. Everybody else still will have to pay $10-$50 per ride, depending on conditions.

That means all Ikon, Mountain Collective, and non-Gold and Double Black pass holders will continue to be charged per ride on the Lone Peak Tram, with pricing unlikely to change much from this past season. It’s a very efficient payment system, as I found out last season – just swipe your credit card for access to the tram line.

My favorite run at Big Sky is Lizette, which just happens to be my mother’s name, so I know she’s always looking after me when I ski it.

Mammoth

Mammoth is replacing its very first chairlift – known both as Chair 1 and Broadway Express – from a quad into a high-speed detachable six-pack. It’s part of a larger upgrade to the base area that includes a base new lodge and amenities.

This was a t-bar when the resort opened in 1953, upgraded to a two-seater two years later, and then to a four-seater in 1995.

The new six-pack will be able to whisk 3,200 people up the mountain each hour, reducing wait times at the base at peak times (pardon the pun) to under four minutes.

If you want to buy one of the chairs being retired, contact Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation. Prices start at $299.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 25+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.