The Indy Pass went on sale to the general public on Friday and, for Colorado residents, now offers a new perk that skiers will find attractive.

The pass will offer two days of access to Powderhorn Mountain Resort in Mesa County starting in the 2024-25 season, making the Indy Pass now available at five Colorado ski areas.

The Powderhorn addition marks a growing sector for the Indy Pass. The independent ski area-focused pass has been aggressive in signing Colorado ski areas since adding its first Colorado ski area, Sunlight Mountain in Glenwood Springs, in 2022.

But despite the addition of the new ski areas, the pass has not increased in price in that time, standing in contrast to its competitors Epic and IKON, which have increased substantially over the last two seasons.

In the runup to the 2022-23 season, as the Indy Pass was announcing its first Colorado ski area, the Epic Pass launched at $841, while the Ikon Pass launched at $1,079. Today, a 2024-25 Epic Pass costs $982, its highest launch price yet, while a 2024-25 IKON Pass is $1,249.

Meanwhile, the Indy Pass has held steady at $350 for adults ($279 for renewing pass members).

“We refuse to make arbitrary and extractive pricing decisions,” Indy Pass owner Erik Mogensen, of Entabeni Systems, told the Vail Daily on Friday. “Keeping the pass the same price for the last three years is something that the Indy Pass is very proud of.”

The Indy Pass is now based in Grand County following a 2023 ownership transfer to Entabeni.

“We are proud to be based in Colorado as a company, and offer access to independent resorts across the state where the skiing experience remains humble, welcoming, and down to earth,” Mogensen said. “With the Indy pass giving affordable access to Echo Mountain, Granby Ranch, Howelsen Hill, Sunlight Mountain Resort, and now Powderhorn Mountain Resort, we are seeing many Coloradans making the choice to ditch the mega pass chaos and buy an Indy Pass.”

Powderhorn Mountain Resort was one of seven new ski areas to join the Indy Pass on Friday. In joining the Indy Pass, Mogensen said Powderhorn will drop its affiliation with Ski Cooper’s reciprocal season pass, which did not offer a revenue-sharing arrangement for its resort partners.

Mogensen said the Indy Pass’ revenue sharing capabilities are what sets it apart from other small ski area passes. The Indy Pass offers two days of access to more than 200 ski areas across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan, and the pass also offers what it calls an “add-on” option ($269) for those who already have a season pass to one of its partner ski areas.

The Indy Pass add-on functions similarly to a reciprocal pass like Ski Cooper’s pass or the Powder Alliance, which offers three free days at partner resorts. But unlike reciprocal passes, the Indy Pass pays out 85% of its revenue back to its partner ski areas based on redemptions.

The Indy Pass can track those redemptions due to the sophistication of its software, administered by Entabeni Systems which was, prior to its acquisition of the Indy Pass, primarily a tech company focused on ski areas.

Brundage Mountain in Idaho, like Powderhorn, participated in a reciprocal pass program before joining the Indy Pass.

Brundage General Manager Ken Rider said the problem he had with the reciprocal pass program was there was no way to track how many people were visiting.

“You’re getting these visitors that are coming, and hopefully they’re buying a beer and a hamburger,” he said. “But there’s no way to track it.”

Rider said he had the idea to do a revenue share-type program with a few other resorts but wasn’t able to work it out.

“We tried to put something together, but it was the resorts managing it … collectively, we didn’t have the bandwidth or the power to really make that thing work,” he said.

When Doug Fish, the Indy Pass’ original founder, launched his new idea, he knew the back-end software would be the key to making it work.

“The technology behind the Indy Pass is what makes it work so beautifully because it’s easy for consumers and it’s easy for resort to administer it, and that’s to the credit of Entabeni,” Fish said.

This story is from Vail Daily.