First deadline for Revelstoke Mountain Resort early bird ski passes approaches

Revelstoke Mountain Resort’s first tier of its new early-bird season pass sale will finish on Monday, August 8, at midnight.

Passes are currently on sale for $829 and tier two will go up $40 to $869.

Early bird tickets will go up incrementally until October 1, when the full price ticket of about $1200 goes into effect.

RMR’s sell-out risk-o-meter for this current price tier is on high but while the tickets are meant to be capped at a certain limit, RMR’s marketing manager Nico Leenders said as many tickets can be sold at this price point until the midnight deadline.

“To give everyone in Revelstoke a fair chance, we’re announcing today that prices are going up,” he said.

This new RMR season pass sellout risk meter has raised ire from some, but the resort is defending the move, saying similar systems are in place at other resorts, and that it helps ease a last-minute rush. Photo: RMR website screenshot

The new system has raised the ire of some in the Revelstoke community, who argue its a money grab and hurts those who don’t have the money on hand, but Leenders said RMR won’t be making more from it.

“We don’t predict we will sell any more passes in the end and the prices aren’t going up dramatically with each tier, it is really just about creating incentive to spread out the sale over the course of months, not days,” he said.

Leenders said they opted for this new format to scale back the last-minute scramble on sales in October.

“It’s a relatively new practice for us,” he said. “It’s a very popular thing in the U.S. A lot of American ski resorts do this. Traditionally we saw 90 per cent of our sales occur in the last week of the sale, which was a very, very challenging thing for us to manage on this side. It creates a less than ideal experience for our guests.”

“It effectively spreads the sales out over the course of the summer. We want to reward people who are willing to make an early investment.”