The MAX Pass offered skiers 5 days of unrestricted access to 44 ski areas ranging from local, family-oriented areas to large, destination resorts spread out evenly across the East and West.

The MAX Pass was available through Intrawest and included 5 of its resorts. My understanding is that the Boston area had the highest concentration of MAX Pass holders, and that Mt. Sunapee and Okemo ranked in the top 5 ski areas for total MAX Pass visits.

Last April, Intrawest was bought by KSL Capital Partners, a private equity firm investing in leisure properties, and Henry Crown, the owner of Aspen Skiing Company. They formed a new company called the Alterra Mountain Corporation (www.alterramtnco.com), self-described as “a curator of 12 premier mountain destinations”, including Mammoth, Squaw, and Deer Valley. Alterra replaced the MAX Pass with the IKON Pass, starting next season.

The differences between MAX and IKON are significant:

1. 44 diverse ski areas offered under MAX reduced to 26 large, destination ski areas, which are now skewed to the West. 12 of the 26 resorts are owned by Alterra.
2. Unrestricted ski days reduced depending on IKON level and specific resort.
3. Elimination of the season pass-holder discount. Max Passes were only $199 for those that paid for season passes at participating ski areas.

Now, as a MAX Pass holder I am personally disappointed that this is a less diverse product with fewer choices. There are only 8 IKON areas in the East where a lot of Max Pass holders live and ski, and those are reduced to “destination” resorts.

With all of Alterra’s acquisition and start-up activity over the past year, the company appears to be using IKON as a way to push its owned properties.

With a little feedback from current customers, Alterra may still make some changes to return greater ski area diversity to IKON so it can be enjoyed by a broader base of skiers.