What We Know About Next Season
Thanks to late season storms, some downhill destinations will be skiing and riding into August, while others have closed and already starting construction on new lifts. Here’s what we know now about the 2024/25 season, including pass price changes, so you can put these resorts on your bucket list – or not.
Prices Going Up for Going Downhill
Don’t wait. The price of sext season’s Epic Pass goes up on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27. In addition to paying more, you’ll lose two Buddy Passes for friends and family along with skip-the-lift-ticket-line for any passes you buy or redeem for day-of skiing. The same price increase deadline applies for regional Epic passes, including the Northeast Value Pass and the Epic Military Veteran Pass.
You have until September or October to buy an Ikon Pass before prices go up again. But do it now, before you forget, because the closer you get to the price increase deadline, the more the website is overwhelmed with procrastinators.
Jackson Hole
The iconic Wyoming resort is replacing the Sublette lift over the summer 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.
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 50th 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 expected to be operational by December 2024.
Big Sky also says it is changing ticket pricing to the new Lone Peak Tram, although the changes affect only a small number of guests.
Starting next winter, 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.
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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.
Mammoth Upgrade at 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 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.
We’ll have more news about next season as soon as it is available.
See you on the slopes!
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The high cost of skiing is going to kill this sport. It’s just plain greed driving these price hikes and it is also driving people from the sport or even taking it up in the first place. Enjoy it while you can afford it.
The cost of the increase is no doubt justified especially at Resorts such as the biggest skiing ⛷️ in America Big Sky Resort with all of the NEW Additions To Their Ropeway System. It is No Different than All the Rest of the World Prices Going Up such as Eggs Or Milk Prices Or Even The Price Of A Car . It’s Part of Life. So Get Used To It.