10 Best Ski And Snowboard Resorts To Use Your Epic Pass This Winter

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It’s shaping up to be a standout ski and snowboard season. Here the 10 best places to go this winter … [+] if you have an Epic Pass.

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Ski resort owner and operator Vail Resorts (NYSE:MTN) changed skiing forever—for better and worse—when it invented the first major national (now global) season ticket, the Epic Pass. Sales of passes for this winter end on December 2, so if you want one, you need to move fast.

In the 16 years since it debuted, the Epic Pass has grown in stature and breadth, and while it has spurred a handful of competitors, it has firmly remained the number one such multi-mountain season pass in skiing, with about 2.4 million sold last winter, an increase of 4% from the previous winter and another year of steady growth. If you have a multi-mountain pass, chances are good it’s the Epic. That’s why I have compiled this list of the 10 Best Ski And Snowboard Resorts To Use Your Epic Pass This Winter.

Vail Resorts has grown to 42 ski resorts around the world, its last major acquisition being Switzerland’s Crans-Montana Mountain Resort last winter, and in addition to all of its own resorts, the Epic Pass has negotiated free included skiing at 35 major partner mountains worldwide, including dream destinations Italy, France and Japan. For those planning a ski vacation away from home, these partners may be the real power of the pass, and as you will see below, half of the top spots for your pass do not belong to Vail Resorts. Between these, the Epic Pass covers the largest resort in the world, the largest in North America and the largest in the U.S. That says something.

The Epic Pass has gone global, pairing skiing with fondue in great vacation destinations such as … [+] Italy, France and Switzerland.

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Even with inflation, the Epic Pass today still costs less than what many skiers traditionally paid for a season pass to just one mountain when it was launched in 2008. For many, it has significantly driven down the daily cost of skiing, even as single day lift tickets at top resorts have zoomed well north of $200. The Epic Pass can pay for itself in as little as four days per winter, and that is how it changed skiing … Read More