Why We Purchased Brundage Passes for Our 1st Van Life Winter Season
“How did you hear about McCall? Most people don’t know this place exists.”
We own a quarter-share at the Marriott Grand Residence Club Tahoe. You may be more familiar with the word timeshare. When you own a timeshare, you can sometimes purchase an exchange membership. And with your membership, you can trade time at your home resort for a vacation at another participating exchange resort.
We are members of Interval International. They offer a resort guide for browsing all the resorts available for exchange. Flipping through the resort guide, I discovered a property in McCall. I learned McCall had a lake and a ski resort, so I filed it away in the back of my mind under “future vacation ideas”.
We purchased our first Class B RV in June 2017. A 2018 Winnebago Travato. We weren’t full-timing yet, but the 4th of July was approaching, and we wanted to take the Travato on its first road trip. The 4th landed on a Tuesday that year, and we wanted to avoid the crowds at home in Lake Tahoe. We chose McCall for our long weekend. It would also be our first time in Idaho.
On our road trip, we stayed at Rye Patch Reservoir near Imlay, Nevada, and the Snowmobile Parking Campground in Smith’s Ferry, Idaho.
We were lucky to score a last-minute two-night reservation at Ponderosa State Park in McCall, 600 miles from our home in Lake Tahoe.
We explored as much as we could in our short time there.
We fell in love with the area. It was like a mini-Tahoe without crowds. So, we purchased Discover Brundage “First Timer” Passes for their 2018/19 season. Not only could we ride at Brundage, but their partner resorts, referred to as Passport to Powder, offered free days or other exclusive deals*. Resorts at the time included:
Colorado
- Loveland Ski Area
- Monarch Mountain
- Purgatory Mountain Resort
- Silverton Mountain*
- Sunlight Mountain
Utah
- Alta Ski Area*
- Brian Head Resort
- Powder Mountain*
Wyoming
- Grand Targhee Resort*
- Pine Creek Ski Resort
- Snow King Mountain
California/Nevada (Lake Tahoe)
Idaho/Montana
- Lookout Pass
- Red Lodge Mountain
New Mexico
Washington
Arizona
Buying Brundage passes was a considerable gamble because we had never skied or snowboarded at Brundage. All we had to go by were online reviews that said Brundage had great snow and tree skiing. Tree skiing is my favorite! Also, we still lived in Tahoe, and Kyle had a full-time office job. Plus, we hadn’t sold our Tahoe condo yet to start full-time van life.
We didn’t want to lose the money we paid for our Brundage passes. Our purchase motivated us to fulfill our dream of living on the road and riding lesser-known places all winter. We sold our condo in August 2018 and committed to staying at McCall RV Resort for a month starting in the first part of December 2018, extending our stay through the beginning of February 2019.
We traveled to seven other ski resorts included in our Brundage Mountain pass perks before the end of the 2018/19 winter season, including a second visit to Brundage for their closing weekend. Check out our guides!
- Brundage Mountain
- Diamond Peak
- Arizona Snowbowl
- Brian Head Resort
- Pine Creek Ski Resort
- Lookout Pass
- Mission Ridge Ski & Board Resort
- Loveland Ski Area
Also, read why we picked Loveland’s season pass for our 2019/20 season and what season pass we want to buy for 2020/21.
Special thanks to the woman at the McCall Chamber of Commerce who shared her personal favorite local hikes. And allowed me to use their WiFi to work in their parking lot during our July 2018 visit.
