Vail Resorts is predicting that next winter will be just as epic as this season — and even more so when it comes to pass prices.

The Broomfield-based company announced Tuesday that starting next year it will offer the new Epic Pass, which will provide unrestricted access to all five of its mountains for $579. The pass will be good on all four Vail-area mountains - including Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone - as well as Heavenly Mountain Resort in Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border.

The cost of the Epic Pass is significantly less than the 2007-2008 season $1,849 unrestricted pass price for the five mountains under the Vail Resorts banner, and just $160 more than the Colorado pass, which offers unlimited access at Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin, as well as 10 days at Beaver Creek and Vail.

"We really looked at the success of the Colorado Pass and Summit Pass and saw just how much our Front Range skiers love the ability to buy those products," says Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz. "So we really wanted to offer something similar for our destination market to really get people to think of skiing as a season-long activity."

Katz said that lots of skiers head to Vail around the holidays, and that this new pass will hopefully encourage them to come back to Vail for another trip later in the year.

"The point of the pass isn't to grab new skiers," he says. "We're trying to take our existing loyal customer base and get them to both commit to our resort earlier and to come back multiple times."

The pass must be purchased by Nov. 15, and will be available online. The price of Vail Resorts' Merchant Pass, which is most similar to Aspen/Snowmass' $1,239 premier chamber pass, will be reduced from last year's $869 down to $579 to match the price of the new Epic Pass.

"We felt like we owed it to our local customers to offer them the same benefit that we're offering our destination customers," Katz said.

He added that he doesn't expect any particularly large spikes in the number of people - either locals or destination resort vacationers - that will purchase passes next year, and instead believes that the biggest benefit to the resort will be seen in the number of skiers enrolling in ski school, increased ski rentals and more revenue for the lodging, retail and dining industries of the resort.

As for the Colorado and Summit passes, both will still be offered at prices below the cost of the Epic Pass, and will continue to have several holiday restrictions.

"One of the things we've seen with a lot of the Front Range passes where people live close to the resorts is that those restrictions make sense," Katz said. "Many of those people aren't skiing or even trying to ski during the holidays, so we don't expect that crowding will be any worse than it has been."

Aspen Skiing Co. spokesman Jeff Hanle said that the Epic Pass was an "interesting business plan," adding that SkiCo never looks at Vail Resorts when making marketing or business decisions.

"We've never modeled ourselves after Vail and we never will," he said. "We have two different business models and two different approaches. The town of Aspen doesn't emulate the town of Vail, nor does Aspen Skiing Co. emulate Vail Resorts. We think we offer a great value for what we have here."

When told about Vail Resorts' idea that creating a new Epic Pass will attract more return visits from destination skiers, Hanle replied: "Stays are shorter than they used to be, and vacations are shorter than they used to be. We just don't get as much vacation time these days. Maybe it'll work for them, but it's not something we're interested in doing."

damien@aspendailynews.com [1]