Skiers and snowboarders visiting a Vail Resorts property next winter will, for the first time, be able to use their mobile phone to access the mountains.
Well, most Vail Resorts properties.
In a release Thursday, March 2, Whistler Blackcomb's parent company announced plans to make "Mobile Pass & Mobile Lift Ticket" technology available to guests through its new My Epic app in fall 2023. The corporation said the new tech will be introduced at its U.S. resorts in time for the 2023-24 winter season, "with availability at Whistler Blackcomb to follow in future seasons."
Vail Resorts' 2023-24 Epic Passes are set to go on sale March 7.
“With Mobile Pass & Mobile Lift Ticket on the new My Epic app, your phone becomes your ticket to the slopes,” explained Vail's chief information officer, Tim April, in the release. “This innovation reflects our commitment to harnessing technology to improve your experience, making it easier to get you on the mountain faster and then help you have the best day exploring.”
The new technology, combined with Vail Resorts' new app, will allow guests to purchase season passes or lift tickets online, then activate and store those purchases on their smartphones. Once skiers and snowboarders arrive at a lift, all they'll need to do is put "their phone in their pocket, and get scanned, hands-free, via Bluetooth technology designed for low-energy usage."
According to the company, this means guests won't need to visit ticket windows or wait to receive a pass or lift ticket in the mail before hitting the slopes. It also serves as a sustainability initiative in line with the company’s Commitment to Zero, by helping reduce the amount of waste generated by plastic cards and Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) chips throughout the season.
That said, Vail Resorts will continue offering the plastic cards to any guests who cannot or are not keen to use their phone as their pass or lift ticket. "The company will also activate the plastic cards of renewing pass holders and mail plastic cards to all new guests for the 2023/24 season, as part of the transition to Mobile Pass & Mobile Lift Ticket," the release added.
At Whistler Blackcomb, guests have been accessing the resort's lift system using reloadable plastic cards and hands-free RFID scanners since that technology was first introduced in 2014.
"Really, it's a touchless validation system," Whistler Blackcomb's then-VP of technology told Pique at the time. "A mechanism for us to validate that saves people having to get their passes out."
Vail Resorts saying goodbye to EpicMix app
Vail's new My Epic app is set to replace its existing app, EpicMix, in the Apple and Google Play app stores this fall.
Aside from storing passes and lift tickets, the new app will include features like interactive trail maps with GPS location tracking; real-time and predictive lift-line wait times; personalized stats and pass information, as well as more general mountain and resort alerts like grooming updates, weather conditions, direct access to Ski Patrol and a barcode to pay for in-resort purchases and apply eligible passholder discounts.
"Current EpicMix users can simply update the app on their mobile device, and they will see their existing personalized stats imported over – no data lost," the company explained in the release.
