In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz gave some insight into how he and Vail Resorts view high ticket prices, crowding, and dwindling Epic Pass sales. Katz seldom gives interviews, so his conversation with WSJ Correspondent Roberto Ferdman gives a rare glimpse into his thinking on some of the more contentious issues facing skiers today.
Katz completed a 15-year run as CEO in 2021, but returned to the top job in May 2025 after the board ousted Kirsten Lynch, who served as Chief Marketing Officer under Katz for part of his tenure. In 2008, Katz launched the Epic Pass, and revolutionized the sport of skiing, shifting the majority of lift revenues away from day tickets and towards the Epic Pass and other season pass products. Revenue streams partially decoupled from weather and snow conditions allowed Vail Resorts to make significant capital investments, including acquisition of several dozen ski resorts and hundreds of millions of dollars in lift upgrades.
The rise in popularity of the Epic Pass has been accompanied by an explosion in day ticket prices at Vail Resorts and across the rest of the ski industry. Ferdman asked Katz about high ticket prices directly, to which Katz responded:
“I think it’s a fair point. This was an industry wide, ultimately global transformation that happened that our company absolutely led. And part of that was making the season pass the absolute best opportunity that you could have, and then making a lift ticket more expensive. If you’re going to walk up to a ski resort and buy a lift ticket, you’re not giving the ski resort any advanced commitment.”
Higher day ticket prices, which doubled at some Vail Resorts between 2010 and 2019, were designed to drive more skiers towards the Epic Pass, which in turn gave Vail Resorts more revenue stability. After more than 10 years of exponential growth, Epic Pass sales have declined for the last two years, causing a shift in focus back on day tickets. “I would say that we grew Epic Pass sales, if you look over the last four years, by about 50%. I think when you have that kind of explosive growth over a few years, it’s not surprising that we might come down one or two points,” Katz said.
Ferdman asked Katz about overcrowding at Vail Resorts, and Katz connected the overcrowding problem with investments in lift upgrades, saying:
“There is a little bit of a concern that if we make the sport more accessible and more people come, that it will be overcrowded. Our job is to ensure the vitality of this industry 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now. In our minds, the way you deal with crowding is that you invest in the lifts, you invest in infrastructure, you invest in parking. You’re ensuring that you’re providing a better experience for people when they come.”
To be sure, Vail Resorts has turned many of its doubles and triples into detachable quads, and many of its quads into six- and eight-pack chairlifts. However, changes to parking more often than not have been instituting paid parking, not necessarily expanding capacity or providing alternate ways of getting to the mountain.
Katz started to suggest that crowding was actually becoming less prevalent, which Feldman interjected, “so, it’s in their heads?” “No, I think at every single resort, you will have a moment of crowding all the time, and it’s always been that way. When I started skiing back in the ’70s, it was crowded, and you actually waited longer on a lift then, because the lifts were slow,” Katz responded.
Katz mentioned early in the interview the necessity of a large team of mountain workers, which includes, ski patrollers, lift operators and mechanics, food and beverage workers, and others, to operate a ski area each day. But, Katz and Feldman were both silent on labor issues in the ski industry, including a wave of ski patrol and lift mechanic unionization over the last five years. Ski patrol unions have continually expressed frustration with wage stagnation while Epic Pass revenues continue to grow In December 2024, ski patrollers at Park City, owned by Vail Resorts, went on strike for 13 days before finally securing pay raises, training incentives, and enhanced benefits. Though Katz was not CEO during the strike, he returns to the post with a much stronger and more widespread labor movement.
Katz’s first season back as CEO has certainly been a challenging season, with record low snow at its largest resorts. With season pass sales for next season just around the corner, Katz and Vail Resorts will have their work cut out for them convincing the public next season will be worth the investment.
