With many of the most popular ski resorts in the U.S. and Canada already connected to major ski passes, and more Americans crossing the ocean for ski vacations than ever before, Epic and Ikon passes are increasingly focused on expanding into Europe and Japan.
All six mountains added to Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass this year are located in Austria. The addition brings Epic’s total European hotel offering to 34, including the Vail-owned Crans-Montana and Andermatt resorts in Switzerland.
Alterra Mountain Co. has two European ski resorts and nine Asian resorts among the 18 resorts added to Ikon Pass this year. Two European mountains, Italy’s Valle d’Aosta and Austria’s Ischgl, bring Ikon’s Alpine offering to 23. And seven of Asia’s nine new offerings are in Japan, where Ikon now has nine pass partners compared to Epic’s 11.
By looking overseas, Epic and Ikon are going places where the pass market is less saturated than the U.S., said Stuart Winchester, author and host of Storm Skiing Journal and podcast.
“You’re seeing Vail and Altera behaving in the same way as America’s leading technology companies,” he said. “They take proven concepts that work in North America and apply them to less mature markets.”
But with a greater focus on the European and Japanese Alps, Ikon and Epic are responding to the evolving tastes of American skiers and snowboarders who, more than ever before, are looking to transport their snow gear to other continents.
As of November 18, European ski trip bookings on Ski.com, the largest ski vacation package company in the U.S., had increased 30% year over year. Japanese bookings increased 10%, representing a 51% increase year-on-year for the same date in 2024. U.S. bookings are up 7% this year.
Cat Iwanchuk, vice president of business development at Ski.com, said the relative affordability of international ski travel is a major reason for its popularity.
For example, a Ski.com package trip from Boston to Val Gardena in the Italian Dolomites for six nights in March, including flights, transfers, four days of rentals, skis and two guides, was priced at $10,700 in mid-November. This compares to $9,900 for a trip to Deer Valley in Utah, $14,600 to Big Sky in Montana and just $8,400 to Setsu Niseko in Japan. All prices assume travelers have pre-purchased an Ikon Pass.
“What used to be a bucket list trip is no longer a once-in-a-lifetime trip. It’s actually a feasible thing for the Joe Shmoe skier on an average budget,” Iwanchuk said. “It’s actually similar in cost to Colorado, Utah and California.”
Japan remains a more once-in-a-lifetime destination than Europe for most American skiers, but in general, as Epic and Ikon expand their offerings, Ski.com is seeing more customers travel beyond the best-known international ski destinations, Iwanchuk said.
That said, last year Chamonix in France and Zermatt in Switzerland (both iconic mountains) made up half of Ski.com’s European reserves. This year, that number has dropped to 38%. Ski.com is making a lot of reservations for Epic Pass holders, but those numbers are skewed toward Ikon partners because the company handles ski packages booked within the Ikon platform.
“People are becoming more and more confident in entertaining things they’ve never heard of,” Iwanchuk said.
Epic and Ikon aren’t the only American passes becoming increasingly global. Indy Pass, which typically partners with smaller mountains than its larger competitors, also added 19 partners in Asia, Europe and South America this season.
Besides price and adventure, Europe and Japan offer a better experience in some ways than the United States, Winchester said.
For example, skiing is more deeply intertwined with the broader culture of the European Alps than in the United States, and many ski resorts are easily accessible by rail.
Meanwhile, Japan is known for light powder and consistent snowfall in January and February.
But according to Winchester, Vail and Alterra are hoping to attract more international visitors to their mountains by expanding the international reach of their pass products while catering to surging demand from North American skiers in Europe and Japan.
“This is really the only route for international visitors to enter the U.S. market that isn’t prohibitively expensive,” he said, referring to the cost of walk-up lift tickets at destination U.S. ski resorts. This cost is often close to or more than $300 and is several times more expensive than lift tickets in the Alps and Japan.
