Why We Purchased Loveland Passes for Our 2nd Van Life Winter Season
Our first winter season of van life, we purchased a 2018/19 Discover Brundage ‘First Timer’ Season Pass. After spending two months locally in McCall, Idaho, we toured the country west of the Rockies. We visited seven other resorts that offered free days to Brundage season pass holders and discovered amazing sights in between. 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
After the season’s closing weekend at Brundage, we weren’t ready for our ski season to end. Spring is a smart time to start shopping for next season’s pass when prices are lowest. We could get another Brundage pass with most of the same partner resort perks, but decided to do some shopping.
Popular industry passes include the Epic Pass and Ikon pass. If you plan on traveling to several mountains in a single season, they offer excellent value.
As former Tahoe locals, we had been purchasing the Epic Pass since Vail began offering it after purchasing Heavenly Ski Resort. For a few years, we took an annual trip to Breckenridge, so we could ski and snowboard at all the Epic resorts in Colorado. We also spent a week in Park City, Utah. Over the years, Vail added new resorts to their Tahoe portfolio, including Kirkwood and Northstar-at-Tahoe, a benefit to locals who wanted to pick a different resort depending on the day.
Sadly, as ski and snowboard enthusiasts have noticed, resorts on Epic have become too crowded. Their mountains are A LOT of fun! But there is a safety issue when you witness friends and family pummeled by fellow riders. Or your leg is twisted in an unnatural direction due to lift line chaos. I accidentally pushed a snowboarder off a crowded cat track into a pile of rocks after he wiped out and slid in front of me. Terrifying! The vibe is stressful. Some days, there is no room on the bus…at 7:30 am! Or no parking either…at 7:30 am! Once you do arrive, you stand in lines like this:
Local towns are impacted as well. Pizza delivery can take over two hours, or restaurants may tell you take-out is discontinued for the evening because it’s too busy. Picking up our dogs after returning from vacation led to a six-hour drive that took us over the edge. It pushed us to leave Tahoe and start van life. Though our latest lifestyle is a new chapter in our lives with no regrets.
We ski and snowboard for solitude. Not to race other pass and ticket holders for powder, and get our skis and snowboards trampled in line.
So as we were deciding on a pass for the 2019/20 season, unfortunately, Epic and Ikon were not considerations. Several of my bucket list mountains are on those passes like Whistler, Telluride, Steamboat, and Winter Park. Perhaps one day, more resorts will limit the daily number of skiers and riders on the mountain to provide the best overall experience, like Powder Mountain.
We also debated on Mountain Collective for 2019/20, but several of the resorts on their pass are included in Epic or Ikon.
Taking Epic, Ikon, and Mountain Collective off the plate left us considering a Powder Alliance resort, or a ski area with several partner resort perks. We wanted to ride as many mountains as we could squeeze into a season without paying for full-price lift tickets.
To take advantage of the three free days (with restrictions) at each participating Powder Alliance resort, you don’t buy a Powder Alliance pass. You purchase a season pass at a participating mountain, which is typically a resort close to your home. We are full-time van lifers, so we have the flexibility to choose any home mountain.
I researched season pass prices for every ski resort participating in Powder Alliance, and Loveland Ski Area offered the best value. Not only were they part of Powder Alliance, but they also partnered with several other mountains to provide additional days of skiing and riding. Below are the North American resorts that were included in Loveland’s 2019/20 Season Pass:
Powder Alliance 2019/20
3 free days each (with restrictions)
Angel Fire Resort
Bogus Basin
Bridger Bowl
Castle Mountain Resort
China Peak
Mission Ridge
Mountain High
Mt. Hood Skibowl
Schweitzer Mountain Resort
Sierra-at-Tahoe
Ski Marmot Basin
Sugar Bowl Resort
Timberline
White Pass
Whitewater Ski Resort
Other Partner Resorts 2019/20
3 free days each (with restrictions)
Arizona Snowbowl
Brundage Mountain
Homewood Mountain Resort
Monarch Mountain*
Pajarito Mountain
Powder Mountain
Powderhorn Mountain Resort
Purgatory Resort
Red Lodge Mountain
SilverStar Mountain Resort
Sipapu Ski & Summer Resort
Ski Cooper
Ski Granby Ranch
Ski Hesperus
Snow King Resort
Sunlight Mountain Resort
Whitefish Mountain Resort
*Monarch Mountain was also part of Powder Alliance, but you got 3 days, not 6.
NOTE: These lists do not include resorts outside of North America and other Loveland pass holder perks.
We paid $419 each for our 2019/20 Loveland Season Passes. It granted us unlimited and unrestricted days at Loveland, plus 96 FREE DAYS (with restrictions) at Powder Alliance and other Loveland partner resorts in North America. No other ski resort was offering a deal like it unless I missed it in my research.
Our second season of winter van life, we again found the solitude we were seeking as we did in the first. We visited 18 ski resorts using our Loveland pass, with a couple of failed attempts that included Loveland itself. Our diesel heater blew up in our Winnebago Revel as we were within 100 miles of Loveland in February 2020. We ended up on a big detour to Oregon to have it fixed. As we were making our way back to Loveland, then COVID-19 ended everyone’s season. Fortunately, we were there for Loveland’s closing weekend in May 2019. We traveled over 1,000 miles following Brundage’s closing weekend to pick up our passes, so we’d be ready for the 2019/20 season.
Thank you to Loveland for offering a discount to renewing pass holders for the 2020/21 season due to COVID-19! It is a nice gesture, but also unnecessary. We just want our favorite ski resorts to remain open for many more powder days!
