Like most of you I’m already looking forward to the 2025/26 skiing and snowboarding season. There are changes to multi-resort passes, and new lifts and terrain on the horizon.
Here’s what we know now.
Ikon Pass has added Le Massif de Charlevoix to its growing list. Just north of Quebec City, it is known for the highest vertical drop east of the Canadian Rockies and home to the first Club Med mountain village in North America, which opened a couple of seasons ago.
There are 53 trails and glades, an impressive 254 average annual inches of snowfall and picture perfect views of the St. Lawrence River. Le Massif is Ikon’s 23rd new partner in five years, its 11th Canadian mountain, and 76th ski area overall.
Ikon Pass is on sale now for next season. Prices are up somewhat – but isn’t everything.
Epic Pass also is on sale now for next season, for all Vail Resorts destinations.
Buy next season passes now, at the lowest prices of the year, and also because most multi-resort and specific destination passes give you what’s left of this seasonand more perks as a bonus. Some resorts offer even more. Such as –
Saddleback is giving early buyers unlimited summer chairlift rides and mountain bike access, along with half-price Buddy Tickets.
Ikon and Epic will be raising prices mid-April and again around Memorial Day. Decide now where you want to ski and ride next season and buy the pass to fit.
Mt. Bachelor is not being sold, after all. In a surprise move, owner POWDR has decided to keep the popular Oregon resort “indefinitely” and not sell it to a group of local investors or to Alterra, so it would join the Ikon Pass.
POWDR also owns Snowbird and Woodward in Utah and Copper Mountain and Eldora in Colorado.
Read more in this article from the Central Oregon Daily.
Big Sky will open a new two-stage gondola from the base all the way to the Bowl, connecting with the Lone Peak Tram.
The new gondola replaces the creaky old and slow Explorer chair, which has been in operation since the resort opened in 1973 – that’s more than 50 years – longer than many of us have been skiing or riding.
The new gondola will transform access to the Explorer and northern Swift Current terrain with speedy access to green runs on the lower first-stage and to blues and blacks on the upper stage.
Aspen Snowmass will be busy over the summer, with nearly $80 million of on-mountain improvement projects at Snowmass, including two new high-speed chairlifts and a complete renovation of on-mountain restaurants.
New Elk Camp 6-Pack Lift: The existing Elk Camp quad chair will be replaced by a new state-of-the-art, high-speed lift that services popular terrain that will reduce ski season wait times and will efficiently upload more bikes to the Snowmass Bike Park in the summer months.
New Cirque T-Bar: This new T-Bar lift will replace the existing platter lift, reducing wait times at one of the highest lifts in North America, which accesses some of Snowmass’ best extreme high alpine terrain. This replacement will effectively double the capacity of this lift, from a single-rider to double-rider capacity.
This is the first time in nearly two decades that Snowmass has added two new lifts in one season. These upgrades join other major on-mountain investment projects across Aspen Snowmass’ mountains in recent years, including The Cabin and Coney Express upgrades at Snowmass this past winter, the Hero’s terrain expansion at Aspen Mountain.
Snowbasin finally gets RFID pass scanning – no more taking your pass out of your pocket to be hand-scanned.
Also, the old Becker Lift is being replaced with a new high-speed quad, and beginner terrain will be widened and improved.
Killington is set to replace its aging Superstar lift with a new high-speed quad over the summer, and begin transforming what passes for a base village into a real one.
Plattekill, the family-owned and operated resort in the Catskills, which describes itself as “fiercely independent” and already a downhill bargain, announces it is not raising pass prices next season for purchases before April 30.
That is $779 for adults and $509 for 65+ seniors, and 20% off for military, veterans, fire and police members. https://shop.plattekill.com/seasonpasses
Monarch Mountain, another small and fiercely independent resort, in Colorado, is doubling its size with a 377 acre expansion called No Name Expansion.
The Denver Gazette reports there will be 10-12 new named runs, mostly intermediate and advanced, with a combination of groomed, bump and gladed sections. The new terrain is accessible from the Breezeway and Panorama lifts, plus a new three-person fixed-grip lift.
Valle Nevado 2025 season kicks off on June 20, with exclusive perks for Ikon Pass, Mountain Collective, and Power Pass holders.
The seasonal schedule includes heli-skiing, wellness retreats and wine festivals – Chile is also famous for its wine, including my personal favorite, Carmenere, a rich, flavorful red I discovered on my first trip to Chile many years ago.
Here’s toast – with Carmenere or anything you prefer – to a great season next season.
See you on the slopes!
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.
ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter currently serves as Immediate Past President of the International Motor Press Assn. (IMPA).
ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter also is a member of the North American Travel Journalists Assn. (NATJA) and the North American Snowsports Journalists Assn. (NASJA).
Contact me at evelyn@ecoxplorer.com.
Copyright (C) Evelyn Kanter
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