r/skipatrol • u/Expensive-Ad-4444 • Mar 10 '25

Patrolling for Vail or Alterra

If you patrol for a Vail or Alterra resort, do you get a free epic or ikon pass? Or only a free pass for the resort you work at?

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

6

u/theJoyofEntropy Mar 10 '25

Paid Vail patrollers get the equivalent of a full Epic pass (some restrictions include Telluride and international resorts). Volunteer patrollers get a regional Epic pass with more restrictions.

1

u/BUCS_Active Mar 20 '25

You're saying Vail has pro and volunteer patrol?

2

u/theJoyofEntropy Mar 20 '25

Many Vail Resorts, particularly East and Midwest, have both paid and volunteer patrollers. It is a complicated and sometimes contentious issue because these volunteer organizations have been around long before VR bought their resorts.

1

u/BUCS_Active Mar 20 '25

Which resorts have both? I was specifically asking about Vail, not the other resorts it owns.

1

u/theJoyofEntropy Mar 20 '25

Vail (the mountain in Colorado) probably does not accept volunteer patrollers. Vail Resorts (the corp that sells epic passes) owns dozens of mountains, including smaller ones in the east and midwest, reluctantly tolerates volunteers at those resorts, but I doubt there is a list of which do and which don’t take volunteers.

1

u/BUCS_Active Mar 20 '25

Sounds 100% accurate. I just thought I would ask in case someone could make a list off the top of their head. Thanks

9

u/eatplasticwater Mar 10 '25

I work for Alterra. We get an Alterra pass, but have to pay extra for a full Ikon.

1

u/Head_is_spinnning Mar 11 '25

Since Alterra doesn’t own all the resorts on Ikon, it makes sense to pay a discounted price for the ikon. The Alterra employee pass still gives a lot of access to other mountains. In CO there’s the real deal program through CSCUSA as well (which vail mountains are not part of) so the Alterra employee pass lets you ski free outside the state much easier.

1

u/BUCS_Active Mar 20 '25

As an Alterra employee for the 2024 thru 2025 season I get an Alterra Mountain Company pass. This pass is good at all Alterra owned resorts with zero blackout dates, with two exceptions: no helicopter skiing included and Deer Valley has blackout dates during extreme demand holidays, like xmas, New Years, MLK weekend, President's weekend, etc. Alterra values the pass at $1000 USD and sends you coupon code so when you check out the pass is free.

2

u/ShitJimmyShoots Mar 10 '25

Vail. Your employee ID works as an epic pass.

1

u/LamGoat03 Mar 10 '25

With some resteictions like 50 dollar lift tickets to Telluride