Will $ Fast Passes Become Standard?

ChrisC

ChrisC

Well-known member
www.skimag.com

Is This New Express Lane Service the Solution to Long Lift Lines?

A Fast Tracks pass will allow skiers to skip long lines via an express lane at four ski resorts this season.
www.skimag.com www.skimag.com

How many ski mountains have 'fast pass' lines for pay? I have seen them at Northstar and Flims-Laax, but I guess they are going to become a thing.

Seems really expensive - $49/day. You really would only need them on weekends/holidays, and on a few core lifts. But a little crazy.

With $200 lift tickets and a $49 fast pass... two people could almost have lift tickets and a guide in Europe.

Although they could be useful on a weekend powder day at Jackson Hole....
 
This particular innovation is courtesy of POWDR Corp, and I had already heard about it because the Mt. Bachelor locals are protesting about it. At Bachelor, it seems a good answer to a question few people would ask, as I can't recall ever waiting more than 5 minutes for a lift there. Bachelor is home to a disproportionate number of my highest vertical days, including #1 and three of the top seven.

The other 3 areas mentioned, Copper. Killington and Snowbird, might see more utilization of Fast Passes. After Ian Cumming's death, is Snowbird officially a POWDR Corp resort now?

Mammoth for several years now has had Black Passes, which cost $10K per season and permit cutting all lines. I'm not sure I've ever noticed someone using that.
 
I can only imagine this could be worthwhile 9am-2pm .... Weekends ....Post-Christmas to early March.

In short, maybe 15 days max? And limited hours 9-2?

Did they really do their market research? They needed people out in parking lots surveying thousands of guests. Doubt it. I was at Bachelor in 2019 and did not see anyone.

This looks like an ill-informed decision....that I truly doubt they did research to support it. Wonder what the Chief Marketing Officer thinks - zero - because no work was done.

Get out in the parking lots and lift lines (if you can find any)....and talk.

Again, it's weekend powder days at Alta, Snowbird, Jackson........that would be desirable to cut lines. Tram.
 
Crystal Mountain is now offering a line-skipping pass. From the article below:

"Opponents argue that the move undermines the inclusive spirit of skiing and snowboarding, transforming what should be a shared outdoor experience into one that is divided by financial means. By allowing those who pay an additional $1,500 to access priority lift lines on weekends and holidays, the resort is creating an unfair, class-based system on the slopes."

My solution would be to avoid a ski area like that on days where it'd be necessary to take advantage of such a product.

snowbrains.com

Petition Started to Stop New $1,500 Line Skipping Pass at Crystal Mountain, WA - SnowBrains

New this season, Crystal Mountain, Washington, has introduced the Reserve Pass, a pass designed to help skiers and riders maximize their time
snowbrains.com snowbrains.com
 
Has been available at Snowshoe in WV for years. Perhaps started by Intrawest. They sell so few it doesn't make a difference. At least one Snowshoe condo owner who lives in the DC area gets one regularly. The Primo pass add-on not only provides a special access lane for busy lifts, also provides First Tracks on weekends. First Tracks is by reservation only so the number is limited each day it's available. Primo pass holders also get VIP parking.

For a few decades, Wintergreen in VA wouldn't even sell a season pass that included Saturdays to anyone who didn't own a condo at the resort. Back then, the HOA owned the slopes. Property owners had a separate line at the two high-speed quads. One served the section with only black trails. The other was the main lift for the longer greens and access to the black section. Wintergreen is an upside-down resort. Last time I skied Wintergreen during a weekend was almost 20 years ago, so not sure what happens now.
 
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MarzNC said:
They sell so few it doesn't make a difference.
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Ditto for Snowbird's Fast Tracks pass. Also, I have a suspicion that of the few that use this pass at Snowbird, many are getting it comped for one reason or another. Like many commoners, I don't like the concept. The hideous form of this they use at Disney World and other amusement parks sounds dreadful and practically mandatory for a decent experience now!
 
jimk said:
Ditto for Snowbird's Fast Tracks pass.
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Snowbird is the $49? per day variety, not the 4+ digit season Primo/Black Pass type. I have vague recollection of seeing it in use at Peruvian. I do not recall seeing a line for it in Mineral Basin, where surely purchasers would want it.
 
Lowest price for Snowbird Fast Tracks is $59 for 2025-26. Goes up as high as $89. Tram not included, only the high-speed chairlifts. Looks like dynamic pricing will come into play once the season starts.

Screenshot 2025-10-18 at 2.05.59 PM.png


Prices for Fast Tracks as of mid-October:
Screenshot 2025-10-18 at 2.06.55 PM.png
 
Meh; The poor, dirt-bag ski bums will still get dramatically more and better ski laps in per hour than the chumps paying for fast passes ever will anyway.
 
The only worthwhile fast pass might be Jackson Hole.

I don’t find the red tram iconic - just inefficient. It should have been a lower capacity S3 lift.

I think the biggest problem plaguing ski areas is parking. Generally High-Speed lifts handle most issues.

If EMSC remembers, I thought Greek Peak had long lines in the 80s. Just curious about his opinion. Hunter Mt was bad. Killington was not good.

I also have seen horrendous lines at Revelstoke in 2010s. Build another lift.

Whistler can be bad as well, but generally worth it.
 
ChrisC said:
I don’t find the red tram iconic - just inefficient.
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It's always hard to tell for some terrain pods when it is a capacity problem or capacity blessing. eg how many people do you want hitting Corbets in a day? Hobacks skied out in 10 minutes with lots of moguls? Then again, 99% don't even consider going down the signature terrain. I always want lots of capacity, but hey, keep 99% of skiers on the main bowl and couple of groomers, please.

ChrisC said:
If EMSC remembers, I thought Greek Peak had long lines in the 80s.
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Greek Peak often had horrible lines from the late 70's through the mid-80's. Ridiculous numbers of busses out of NYC, Philly and WDC. 40-60 busses a weekend helped create full hour lift lines mid-day. Not going to get a lot of race training in at one run per hour on some days. Had to get fast laps in early and/or late in the day to get any repetition.

Hunter was similar on certain lifts out of the base but not all lifts and only mid-season (x-mas thru end of Feb). Killington was all about not spending time on the lifts in the main Snowshed/Killington peak area. Head to Bear Mtn or something.

ChrisC said:
I also have seen horrendous lines at Revelstoke in 2010s. Build another lift.
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I haven't yet, and always cross my fingers for good but not too good of conditions that might bring out every local within 100 miles.
 
ChrisC said:
www.skimag.com

Is This New Express Lane Service the Solution to Long Lift Lines?

A Fast Tracks pass will allow skiers to skip long lines via an express lane at four ski resorts this season.
www.skimag.com www.skimag.com

How many ski mountains have 'fast pass' lines for pay? I have seen them at Northstar and Flims-Laax, but I guess they are going to become a thing.

Seems really expensive - $49/day. You really would only need them on weekends/holidays, and on a few core lifts. But a little crazy.

With $200 lift tickets and a $49 fast pass... two people could almost have lift tickets and a guide in Europe.

Although they could be useful on a weekend powder day at Jackson Hole....
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Reminds me of the star belly sneetches.

Certainly not the solution to long lift lines, for everyone without one. How many do they sell?

Maybe just make lift tickets $1000. That should help.
 
EMSC said:
Greek Peak often had horrible lines from the late 70's through the mid-80's.
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All of the worst chronic lift lines I have seen predate the high speed lift era:
1) Germania at Alta, Christmas Week 1986-87, average 45 minutes, peak 75 minutes.
2) Goldmine (now Bear Mt. at Big Bear) Dec. 30, 1978, 30-40 minutes all day, skied bell-to-bell all of 9,100 vertical
3) Mammoth 1978-79 season, chair 2 up to 45 minutes, gondola consistent 30 minutes. Chair 2 was relieved by building chair 18 parallel in summer 1979. The gondola was relieved some when chair 23 was built summer 1982.

First thing in the morning getting out of a base area is another category. A Saturday powder morning in Revelstoke was a lowlight in that regard. I was being hosted but the media rep did not have line cutting privileges. She told me not to meet her until 10:30 when that line had cleared out.
 
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Tony Crocker said:
All of the worst chronic lift lines I have seen predate the high speed lift era:
1) Germania at Alta, Christmas Week 1986-87, average 45 minutes, peak 75 minutes.
2) Goldmine (now Bear Mt. at Big Bear) Dec. 30, 1978, 30-40 minutes all day, skied bell-to-bell all of 9,100 vertical
3) Mammoth 1978-79 season, chair 2 up to 45 minutes, gondola consistent 30 minutes. Chair 2 was relieved by building chair 18 parallel in summer 1979. The gondola was relieved some when chair 23 was built summer 1982.
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I agree
Hunter’s main double would have lines in excess of 1 hr on weekends.
Ktons double the same.
 
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I also have memories from the 1970s of very long lift lines while skiing small ski areas in Pennsylvania. I mean like one hour lift lines. I ski Snowbird approximately 30+ days per year in the last 5+ years. Lift lines are not really a terrible problem there. On prime days there may be 10-15 minute lines at the key lifts out of the base area at 9am, Gadzoom, Peruvian and the tram. Meanwhile the rest of the mtn is good. And by 1030am all the mtn is good except Mineral. The Mineral chair liftline typically gets good about 230pm and later.
 
I think you need constant ski lift lines of 20-60 minutes to upsell skiers on line-cutting privileges or Express Pass.

The only semi-equivalent industry I see is the Orlando theme parks (Disney, Universal). I have often gone to Disney or Universal 1-2x per year for conferences to either give a talk or case study, or to meet customers/partners, etc. Most Universal Hotels always came with free Express Passes and 50% off theme park tickets for conference attendees. So I would check out whatever was new, and do everything interesting in 2-4 hours, even when lines were 30-120 minutes throughout the day (12+ Hours) during Spring Breaks, Fall, etc.

However, Ski resorts have such high-capacity lifts that lines are no longer a huge issue. The core lifts with the biggest verticals are not that bad, except for the weekend/holiday mid-morning rush through the afternoons (maybe 15-20 on a few?). You can always find a non-core lift. And North American resorts somewhat overstaff the lift queue management. They want greeters; look up your hometown, maintain/police express lines, and set them up every day. Are they really going to staff all lifts? No, just a few. Most lifts have almost no lines by 2 pm. And Powder Days cannot be obviously predicted, but the locals who create the lines often disappear by 12 noonish.

Theme Parks have longer lines for more hours, so customers are willing to pay.

Currently, parking is a much bigger issue at ski areas than lift lines, and people sometimes have to pay for it.


Northstar sells/sold Express Passes, and the express lines existed on a few front-side lifts from 10 am to 130 pm.

Flims Laax sells Express Passes. I don't think I saw a single skier using one during mid-week March.

Jackson offers all types of camps/private lessons, so in effect, it has a very expensive 'Express Pass' primarily for Tram Access, Gondola, or weekend powder days. Same with Big Sky and its tram—it's called a surcharge.

Some resorts that might be candidates for weekend/holiday Express Passes are: Whistler, Summit County, CO/UT, Vail, Heavenly. Not sure what is even busy, but over the last 10-15 years, I've never had any bad lines at Tremblant, St. Anne, Whiteface, or Gore. Maybe Loon, Okemo, Stowe?
 
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I think our group on this board can more effectively ski around the bottlenecks. The worst lift-lines at the larger resorts you list is generally their prime intermediate terrain or for other reasons such as Tremblant on the cold days, the gondola gets long lines, but not the chairs.
 
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