Well said
I went to SLC for 6 years in a row in the early 2010's. I used to be able to get tickets at the hotel or ski shop for $60. Now the best you can do at Snowbird is $142 for a midweek day. And no, I don't want to buy one of their "cheap" season passes and never will. I want to ski different areas and not just those on the pass. Every time I was there I skied a different area every day. Never had a problem with traffic in the Canyons and never had to pay to park on top of the ticket price.
For LCC/BCC my take is that the growing population of SLC was a bigger factor starting before the Ikon pass existed.
Do you think the Ikon pass made it any better? What percentage would you guess each contributed to the crowding?
I saw the percentage for LCC the first year Ikon existed. It was a deep powder season. Ikon accounted for about 5% of the visits. Season pass usage was up significantly. Close to 50% as I remember. Presumably most of those people were local, not travelers from out of state using Ikon. Although there were clearly locals who got Ikon that season instead of an Alta or Snowbird season pass. In short, take out the extra ski days by locals and there would've been less complaining about Ikon ruining the powder.
I have never understood this point. If you are going to ski a few days an an Epic or Ikon or Indy Pass mountain and it works out to be less than (or even close to) the cost of the pass why not get the pass? You can still ski other mountains. Heck, some places (i.e., Jay Peak) will give you a discount if you show them your pass.
