facebook-pixel

New Ikon ski pass provides 14 days of turns for $899 next winter at Deer Valley, Alta/Snowbird

(Tribune file photo | Francisco Kjolseth) Buyers of the new $899 Ikon Pass will get seven days of skiing or snowboarding next winter at Snowbird Ski & Summer resort and its Little Cottonwood Canyon neighbor, Alta; plus seven days at Deer Valley resort. The pass will also offer access to other ski areas in the consortium of 26 resorts where the new ski pass can be used.

The new Ikon Pass is set to compete with Vail Resort’s Epic Pass to become next winter’s season’s ski pass of choice.

For $899, purchasers will get access to 14 days of skiing at the three Utah resorts in the package, Ikon Pass parent companies said Thursday. That includes seven days at Deer Valley Resort and seven days at Alta or Snowbird, or split between them.

The pass also is good for unlimited skiing at 12 other North American resorts, while offers are restricted to a week at the other 11 it covers, including Jackson Hole Resort in Wyoming and the three resorts around Aspen in Colorado.

A more basic Ikon pass, which cannot be used during Christmas week or over the Martin Luther King and Presidents Day weekends, will cost $599 and will be good for 10 days in Utah — five at Deer Valley, with the other five divided between Alta and Snowbird.

Passes go on sale March 6 at www.ikonpass.com.

The Ikon Pass is seen as a challenger to Vail’s popular Epic Pass, which gives buyers access to nearly four dozen resorts around the world, including Park City Mountain.

Epic Pass prices for the 2018-19 season have not been released. But for this current winter, an overall pass cost $859 while a more basic version with similar holiday restrictions sold for $639.

The Ikon Pass was created by 10 different companies led by newly formed Alterra Mountain Co., which bought Deer Valley and 11 other resorts last year. Other big players offering the pass are Powdr, which is based in Park City but has resorts in New England; Aspen Skiing Co. in Colorado; Jackson Hole and Boyne Resorts.

Other resorts covered by the pass are Sugarbush Resort in Vermont, Revelstoke Mountain Resort in British Columbia and three resorts in Alberta — Banff Sunshine, Lake Louise and Mt. Norquay, Alterra Chief Marketing Officer Erik Forsell announced.

“We continue to curate like-minded partners for the Ikon Pass that add more bucket-list destinations for skiers and riders,” Forsell said, citing easy airline access to the Canadian resorts “from anywhere in North America.”

Besides their 14 days of skiing at Snowbird, Alta and Deer Valley, buyers of the full Ikon Pass are eligible for an accompanying child’s pass for $199, and they get 10 “friends and family” vouchers worth 25 percent off the lift-ticket price at the selected resort.

The basic Ikon Pass is good for eight of those vouchers, while the child’s pass costs $149 with the purchase of an adult pass.

Together, the 26 member resorts have 63,000 acres of skiable terrain on 3,304 trails served by 481 lifts, Forsell noted.