The Ikon Pass unveiled pricing for the 2026-2027 ski season, and it will be a whole lot more than the Epic Pass.
A full Ikon starts at $1,329, just $20 more than this season but $260 more than next year’s Epic Pass.
Both mega-passes went easy on price hikers this year. The Ikon Pass is barely 1% more. The Epic Pass is just over 3% more with seriously deep discounts for Gen Zers and never-ever skiers.
The Epic is currently on sale. The Ikon goes on sale March 12.
Just in time for the price announcements, Wall Street Journal dropped an exclusive interview with Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz. Reporter Roberto Ferdman grills him about the ups and downs of mega-passes, and why Vail has been losing skiers in recent years despite making nearly $1 billion off pass sales before the season begins.
In the video, titled “Why Vail Resorts Is Losing Skiers in a Growing Industry,” Katz calls recent struggles a side effect of astronomic growth. Because Epic Pass sales went soaring by 50% in the late 2010s, the executive does not mind small dips over the past two seasons.
“When you have that kind of explosive growth over a few years it’s not surprising,” Katz argues, and later continues to say, “When I look back to last year, we were not selling lift tickets as successfully as other resorts were selling them, and in part that is because it was not our focus and priority.”
WSJ doesn’t shy away from showing viral clips of sprawling lift lines at Vail, as Katz disputes a claim that Vail’s disruption of the ski industry is to blame for epic crowds. Company data shows skiers this past season waited no more than 10 minutes in lift lines 97% of the time.
Wall Street Journal argues that number is an average across all 37 Vail properties in the U.S., which obscures the busiest days at the busiest resorts like Vail and Breckenridge.
Image of Rob Katz via Vail Resorts.