The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Full season pass drops from $1,049 to $599
Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) announced its early season pass prices for the 2013-2014 winter season this week, and to the astonishment of many, the news came with a $450 reduction in the cost for a regular adult season pass.
The new Peak Pass, which last year was sold as a Gold Pass, will retail for $599, down from $1,049 last year. Like the Gold Pass, the Peak Pass offers unlimited skiing and riding at the resort, with no blackout dates. For an additional $150, pass holders can upgrade to a Peak Pass+ and gain unlimited access to the Adventure Park and 2014 summer lift rides.
“As far as I know, this is the first time in recent history that CBMR has reduced the price of a regular season pass,” said Erica Reiter, public relations and communications manager for CBMR.
Along with the price drop for an adult pass comes an increase in cost for a child ($149 to $199), young adult ($185 to $299) and senior ($289 to $399) passes. A college pass will sell for $469. All prices are valid for the period between May 1 and September 27. In addition to changing pass prices CBMR has eliminated several of its Mountain Card and limited use products, including the EZ Pass, the X-Card, the 12-Day Pass and Business Passes.
“This is an overall restructuring of our pass-pricing model,” said Reiter. “In order to make the price decrease of a regular pass work, we had to eliminate some of the previously available options. It’s our hope that the price is such that guests will purchase the Peak Pass and have access to unlimited skiing.”
At $599, the Peak Pass is now competitively priced with the Epic Pass—a $689 pass popular on the Front Range that offers unlimited access to Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly, Northstar, Kirkwood, Afton Alps, Mt. Brighton and Arapahoe.
“With this change we’re working to cater to all our guests,” said Reiter. “We hope the local community will be really excited to ski at their home mountain, and we believe that for out-of-area guests the price may encourage more frequent visits. The idea is to build buzz at home, on the Front Range and in new markets.”
The pricing restructure is built around the idea that a lower pass cost will equal a higher volume of skier visits, and while CBMR has not released an estimate of the number of passes it needs to sell to make up for the price reduction, Reiter said the resort does have high hopes that their gamble will pay off.
“Every year we have pass pricing meetings, and this year we looked at each other and decided it was time to try something new,” she said. “This is us pulling the trigger on that decision.”
In the community the price decrease came largely as a surprise. Throughout town the announcement was met with text messages and Facebook postings expressing shock, and for the most part, pleasure. It seems that for many people who had previously sworn off the mountain as too expensive and derided CBMR for ignoring locals, the announcement went counter to the resort’s culture.
“We know this is a big announcement,” said Reiter. “But we’ve been looking at the big picture and we believe this is the right direction for CBMR.”
Added CBMR’s vice president of sales and marketing, Scott Clarkson, “The new Peak Pass is designed to give each guest more skiing. At $599 and with no lift lines or traffic to get here, this has got to be the best value in Colorado skiing.”
Monarch Mountain also announced its early season pass prices this week. Skiing with the butterfly will cost adults ages 16 to 61 $399, or $369 if they had a pass in the 2012-2013 season. A full pass at Monarch includes a day of free skiing at Copper, Winter Park, and Steamboat. For a full list of pass prices at Monarch, visit the mountain’s website at http://www.skimonarch.com.
