{"id":793929,"date":"2019-03-17T14:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-17T20:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/while-others-grumble-over-hordes-of-newcomers-telluride-embraces-epic-pass-skiers\/"},"modified":"2019-03-19T07:55:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T13:55:45","slug":"while-others-grumble-over-hordes-of-newcomers-telluride-embraces-epic-pass-skiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/while-others-grumble-over-hordes-of-newcomers-telluride-embraces-epic-pass-skiers\/","title":{"rendered":"While others grumble over hordes of newcomers, Telluride embraces Epic Pass skiers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Skier Nick Kenworthy plunders powder at Telluride Ski Area.<\/strong>
\nCourtesy Brett Schreckengost<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TELLURIDE \u2014 Local skiers are wailing in Big Sky. Sobbing in Jackson Hole. Whining in Aspen.<\/p>\n

The source of the angst: the \u201cIkoneers,\u201d aka the new visitors using the Ikon Pass.<\/p>\n

But while the weeping is likely misguided \u2014 the surge in visitation this season seems to be largely homegrown, with skiing locals in growing resort towns celebrating the return of winter after a dismal 2017-18 season \u2014 at least one town is howling with glee over its inclusion in the Epic Pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased; very pleased with our membership in the Epic Pass,\u201d said Telluride ski area co-owner and chief executive Bill Jensen, the industry veteran who served with both Vail Resorts and Intrawest before taking the reins at the southern Colorado destination ski hill in 2015.<\/p>\n

Jensen enrolled Telluride in the Mountain Collective Pass for 2017-18, which offered two days of skiing at more than a dozen ski resorts. He pivoted in 2018-19, becoming the first destination resort to partner with Vail Resorts\u2019 Epic Pass, in a deal that allowed buyers of the unlimited, full Epic Pass seven days at his ski area.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worked well for both the town and Telluride ski area. Skiers with the Mountain Collective pass skied two days. Skiers with the Epic Pass are skiing more than four days. And the biggest wave of Epic visitors is arriving midweek, taking over empty hotel rooms in a community that regularly fills on weekends. Jensen said he\u2019s seeing about 350 Epic Pass scans every weekday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they are coming midweek and staying in the community for four, five nights and our community lodging and restaurants are feeling that,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cWe really believed that going with the full Epic Pass would bring a destination skier here. And we are seeing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full story from the Colorado Sun.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at ColoradoSun.com.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skier Nick Kenworthy plunders powder at Telluride Ski Area. Courtesy Brett Schreckengost TELLURIDE \u2014 Local skiers are wailing in Big Sky. Sobbing in Jackson Hole. Whining in Aspen. The source of the angst: the \u201cIkoneers,\u201d aka the new visitors using the Ikon Pass. But while the weeping is likely misguided \u2014 the surge in visitation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-793929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 22:36:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}