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Eaglecrest board OKs ticket price hikes, 3% credit card fee to help cope with costs
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jun 5
- 4 min read
Increase comes as local leaders say users need to show support for financially struggling ski area; Tier 1 season passes will cost $690, up from $630; adult day tickets $85, up from $75
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Across-the-board fee hikes estimated at about 10% by officials, plus a 3% fee on credit card purchases, was approved by Eaglecrest Ski Area’s board of directors on Thursday night.
The fee hikes are seen by many local officials as a necessary step in making Eaglecrest more economically viable since the ski area has been suffering from increasingly large losses in recent years, and is also facing substantial repair and upgrade costs to its aging infrastructure. Its tentative budget for the coming year, which the Juneau Assembly is expected to vote on Monday, is a bare-bones plan with a projected 44% cut in staff.
"I think we fought a difficult battle to secure the general fund support that we felt that we absolutely had to have in the Assembly, (which) shows strong support for us," Jim Calvin, an Eaglecrest board member, said while the list of proposed increases was discussed. "And I think now we present the opportunity to the skiing public to show their support for Eaglecrest by buying season passes. And I think everyone recognizes that the landscape has changed with our budget, with the city budget."
Also, Calvin said, "I think we owe that to the non-skiing community, to show that we're asking of ourselves a greater contribution to the support of the ski area."
Among the increases approved by the board are:
• Tier 1 adult season passes for early buyers beginning in July will cost $690, up from $630 the past three years. Tier 2 passes, which last year went on sale beginning in September, will cost $900 instead of $802. The ski area last year eliminated Tier 3 prices that took effect in late fall, which during the 2024-25 season topped out at $870.
• Season passes for seniors ages 65-74 will be $590 (up from $510) in Tier 1 and $800 (up from $670) in Tier 2.
• Season passes for children ages 0-6 will be $52 after costing $32 the past four years.
• Adult day passes will cost $85 (up from $75), seniors $75 (up from $62), teens $60 (up from $54) and youths ages 7-12 $42 (up from $36).
• Day Nordic trail fees are $30, up from $23.
• The 3% fee on credit card purchases for "any Eaglecrest product" starting July 1 — approved in a separate vote — is to help offset the fee charged to merchants for such transactions. The fee does not apply to debit card purchases.
Changes approved by the board to the draft presented by Interim General Manager Erin Lupro included retaining a special $45 lift ticket and $35 rental fee for U.S. Coast Guard members (which was eliminated in the draft), increasing locker rental fees by $10 (to $280) and family/other locker rentals by $20, and setting Flex Pass rates at a 30% discount compared to full day pass rates.
The only public testimony during the meeting was offered by Rick Harris, a longtime skier who said Eaglecrest needs to provide assurances to residents in order to sell season passes, given operational problems and limited access to the mountain in recent years. He said many of his friends didn’t buy passes because the Black Bear chairlift that accesses the top of the east side of the mountain has been shut down the past two years.
"You really do need to have a strong communication plan with respect to the services that will be offered and will be available, and if nothing else to say we're going to make the best effort we possibly can to get early opening, and if that includes snowmaking, whatever else we can do to get to that early opening to be able to make it clear what lifts are going to be running," he said.
Eaglecrest officials noted during Thursday’s meeting that, in addition to the existing budget challenges, the costs of fuel and electricity are expected to be considerably higher during the coming year due to external factors. Global fuel prices have soared due to the Iran war, and Alaska Electric Light and Power Co. announced it is raising rates beginning this month.
Calvin also noted that Eaglecrest season passes cost $175 during its first year of operation in 1976, "and if you do the math and look at the Consumer Price Index since then and equalize the dollars that's about $775" in 2026.
"I think that puts an important perspective on where we are," he said. "Though we've been increasing pretty steadily over the last few years we're still a very, very affordable ski area, certainly relative to where we have been in our in our history and I think relative to other ski areas across the country as well, all things considered."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
