Want to ski with your kids next season? For free? Snow is still on the brain for many Coloradoans, and it’s still coming down in the high country. Spring is also the best time to purchase your — and your kids — ski passes for next season.
Rocky Mountain Super Pass
Through June 1, Winter Park Resort is attempting to attract more families by offering four pass options where kids 12 and under can ski for free next season. Purchase an adult Rocky Mountain Super Pass+, Rocky Mountain Super Pass, Winter Park Pass, or Route 40 Pass for 2016/17 — and get a free Kids Pass with no blackout dates.
Previous prices for a kid’s pass ranged from $229 for a Winter Park Pass to $329 for a Rocky Mountain Super Pass+. The RMSP+ will get you the same number of days at Copper Mountain, Eldora, Steamboat and Crested Butte with the Kids Ski Free pass as with an adult pass, which is really one of the best deals out there, with the least amount of lines and traffic. Winter Park Resort is Colorado’s longest continually operated ski resort. It features 3,000 acres of terrain spread out over seven unique territories. Winter Park boasts an average 325 inches of annual snowfall and is also home to the renowned National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD).
Mountain Collective
If you want to ski at more mountains, for fewer days, consider the Mountain Collective pass. You’ll get two days each at Aspen, Jackson Hole, Taos, Squaw, Stowe, Whistler, Mammoth, Alta and more. Add on your 12-or-under kid for just $99.
Epic Pass
For Epic Pass lovers, The Epic SchoolKids Colorado Pack is a free program for K through 5th graders that provides four days of skiing at each of VR’s Colorado resorts: Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Keystone. It also includes one free first-timer ski or ride lesson with equipment rental. The 2016-2017 Epic Pass, while not as cheap as it used to be, is on sale now and offers access to 13 resorts in the U.S. and abroad including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado; Park City in Utah; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood at Lake Tahoe; Perisher in Australia; Afton Alps in Minnesota, Mt. Brighton in Michigan and Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin.
Copper Mountain
Buy your 2016/17 Copper pass before June 1 and kids 6-12 get a free Kids Ski Free season pass. Neither pass will have blackout dates and these seasons passes do have other benefits as well — see the website for full details. And of course Copper is already kid-friendly, with great instructors, easily accessible facilities, well planned beginner slopes and free parking.
The prices on these passes go up as the clock ticks toward next season so act quickly if you can.