The all-time favorite ski resort at Davis High School and within the Kaysville community, Snow Basin, has joined the IKON pass this ski season. Locals and lifetime skiers at Snow Basin are outraged at this recent event, due to the negative effects the IKON pass can have on ski resorts when it comes to prices and overcrowding. But is the IKON pass all that bad?

The IKON pass is a ski pass that can be purchased that allows access to 40 different resorts with a certain number of days allotted at each resort. With the vast amount of options the IKON pass offers, as well as the limited number of days IKON pass holders can ski at Snow Basin, it is hard to say whether or not the IKON pass is the greatest contributor to price raises and overcrowding at Snow Basin resort.

“I wish the IKON pass didn’t exist.” Luke Phillips says.

Phillips has been skiing at Snow Basin for over 20 years, and has strong feelings regarding the IKON pass. Phillips believes the IKON pass is the main contributor to the complaints that have been raised by Snow Basin passholders over the past few years.

However, with the basic IKON pass, passholders only get 7 days at Snow Basin out of the entire ski season. The premium IKON pass is a different story however, with unlimited days at Snow Basin. It is hard to determine how many skiers using the IKON pass at Snow Basin have an unlimited number of days, but according to Phillips, it is too many.

“I think the IKON pass is cool because now my cousins who live in Utah County can come up and ski with us,” says Sommer Blaser, a student at Davis High School.

The IKON pass is not all bad, it gives people the opportunity to try out different resorts all around the area, which it was very difficult to do prior to the IKON pass. People who want to explore different ski resorts and find the best fit for themselves can benefit a lot from the IKON pass. The IKON pass also gives people a chance to ski with their friends and family.

“I had plans to go skiing at Snow Basin last week, but the canyon was already totally stopped at like 9:30 in the morning, so we just turned around. Then they [Snow Basin] posted that they ran out of parking like an hour later.” Ian Kerr, Davis High Student, says regarding his experience with bigger crowds.

Snow Basin running out of parking is particularly unusual, they have two very large parking lots, along with two smaller ones up and down the road. Especially that early in the morning.

However, that day Snow Basin had gotten 8 inches of fresh snow. There were most likely many people planning to go up and ski in the fresh powder. IKON passholders and Snow Basin passholders probably all had the same plans, especially when it was still the holiday break for many people.

Prices getting higher and crowds getting bigger is not entirely the IKON pass’s fault, however, it definitely contributes to the crowds on ideal ski days where many people want to ski prime conditions.