ASPEN, Colo.—The Aspen Skiing Co. has changed its mind. Earlier this winter, in response to complaints about holders of the Ikon Pass causing crowding, the company had declined to reveal numbers.
But in an op-ed published in local papers, chief executive Mike Kaplan reported that the Ikon Pass made up only nine per cent of skier visits this season. However, its use is more prevalent on weekends, 15 per cent, than on weekdays.
The Alterra Mountain Co.'s Ikon Pass offers unlimited skiing at Steamboat, Squaw Valley, and others of its resorts. At Aspen's four ski areas, Jackson Hole, and select other resorts not owned by Alterra there are fewer ski days offered.
One take-away, though, is that Aspen is having its busiest ski season in more than 20 years. Heavy snowstorms are the story, 762 centimetres at Aspen midway through March. "What is there to complain about."
The second takeaway described by the Aspen Daily News is that the true driver of the busyness on the slopes is a 40 per cent increase in use of season passes by locals as compared to last year. True, last year was a dud for snowfall at Aspen, but even compared with the much better snow year of 2016-2017 the use of the local ski passes this winter is up by double digits.
As for those big, big winters in the late 1990s when Aspen set skier-day records, much has changed since then in terms of mountain capacity. Kaplan noted several expansion areas as well as the addition of high-speed lifts.
