Epic vs Deer Valley pass windows: a 2026–27 product map for buyers

Two browser tabs. One open to epicpass.com. One open to Deer Valley’s tickets and passes page. Late October is when buyers locking a lodging address need a calmer question than “Epic or Ikon?”

Which pass matches how many days you’ll ski, which mountain you’ll actually stand on, and which blackout or reservation rules you can live with? This is a 2026–27 pass map — not an opening-weekend village checklist, and not a parking or Skyway morning-ops essay. Private club memberships are a different conversation entirely; clubs are not ski resorts, and club dues don’t belong in lift-pass math.

Park City Mountain — Epic access language, not a village-ops essay. Photo: Leijurv, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Epic ladder in plain English

Park City Mountain sits on the Epic map. The pass family that matters for most second-home conversations:

• Full Epic — unlimited, unrestricted access at owned resorts including Park City.
• Epic Local — lower list price, with peak-date restrictions at premium mountains that include Park City.
• Epic Day Pass — customizable day bundles when a full season pass is more than you need.

Both Mountain Village and Canyons Village doors open onto the same Epic mountain — one sentence of base geography is enough here; morning parking and transit live in a different post.

Prices move. Epic went on sale March 3, 2026 at launch lows; September 7, 2026 was marketed as the end of the “lowest price of the fall.” A mid-September browser snapshot of epicpass.com (after that step) showed adult Full Epic near $1,145 and Local near $849, with younger-adult and child tiers lower; launch adults had been nearer $1,089 / $809. Friend-ticket allotments also shrink for later buyers versus early-bird packages. Official epicpass.com pages did not load cleanly on a later Editor re-check — treat every dollar as an as-of snapshot, not a live checkout quote, and open epicpass.com the morning you buy. Sales have historically continued into late fall / early winter with possible further increases; don’t treat a blog as a hard off-sale date.

Local blackouts that hit Park City

If you’re weighing Epic Local to save money, put the blackout calendar on the fridge first. Coverage of the 2026/27 Local Pass — and the Epic Local page when it last loaded for research — lists these excluded peak dates at Park City (and named peer peaks such as Vail, Beaver Creek, Whistler Blackcomb, Heavenly, Northstar, Kirkwood, and Stowe):

• November 27–28, 2026
• December 26–31, 2026
• January 16, 2027
• February 13–14, 2027

Re-open the live Epic Local Pass page the week you buy — official FAQ text can move, and the same site can error intermittently. Confirm the live blackout list before you commit. If your Park City trips cluster on those holiday and long-weekend dates, Local’s discount may cost you more days than it saves.

Deer Valley terrain — Unlimited, Select, Midweek, Utah Limited, and full Ikon are different doors. Photo: Don Ramey Logan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Deer Valley’s own ladder

Deer Valley’s season-pass ladder went on sale March 12, 2026 at deervalley.com. The compare table that matters for most buyers (reconfirmed on Deer Valley’s live Unlimited compare page):

• Unlimited — adult $4,100 for 26/27. Unlimited access, no blackout dates, no lift reservations, plus First Tracks experiences and Friends & Family ticket perks (exclusions apply). Optional $399 Ikon add-on that does not include Deer Valley ski access.
• Select — adult $3,270. Seven days a week with peak blackouts.
• Midweek — adult $2,145. Monday–Friday with peak blackouts (all Saturdays and Sundays excluded).
• Utah Limited — adult $1,605. Utah residents; Monday–Thursday with peak blackouts; proof of residency required.

Season-pass holders on Unlimited / Select / Midweek / Utah Limited: no lift reservations. That alone changes the morning for many second-home owners.

Select blackouts for 26/27 (confirm live): 12/26/26–1/3/27; 1/16–1/18/27; 2/13–2/15/27; 2/20–2/21/27; 3/6–3/7/27; 3/13–3/14/27; 3/20–3/21/27. Midweek adds all weekends plus holiday clusters (including 12/28/26–1/1/27, 1/18/27, 2/15/27). Utah Limited excludes all Friday–Sunday plus listed holiday and spring blocks. Full detail lives on Deer Valley’s Unlimited Pass compare page.

Several Deer Valley SKUs advertise a refundable option — cancel unused for 100% / single pass use 50% through January 15, 2027 on Unlimited’s published terms. Read the live refund language for the SKU you actually buy.

Full Ikon = limited Deer Valley days + reservations

Full Ikon is a separate multi-resort pass. At Deer Valley it delivers up to 7 days, no blackout dates, with reservations required. Deer Valley’s pass compare table lists Ikon adult at $1,449; spring launch press cited Ikon from $1,349 on March 12, 2026. Prices move — confirm on ikonpass.com compare and Deer Valley’s Ikon page.

Ikon Base and Session are different SKUs with different destination access; Base does not deliver the same Deer Valley day allotment as full Ikon. Cancel a reservation by 11:00 a.m. MDT day-of to avoid penalty, per Deer Valley’s published Ikon guidance. Friends & Family Ikon vouchers for 26/27 were slated to go on sale in fall 2026 — check the live shop if that perk matters to your math.

Season on snow — match days planned to the SKU, then re-check live prices. Photo: Pexels / Pexels License.

Match the pass to the winter you actually book

If you ski Park City Mountain most days of a trip and hate holiday blackouts, Full Epic is the pass conversation. If your PCM trips miss Local’s peak dates, Local can be the quieter value play — after you put those dates next to your calendar. If Deer Valley is home base and you want zero reservation friction, Unlimited and Select sit in a different price band than Midweek or Utah Limited for a reason. If you want multi-resort flexibility and can live with seven reserved Deer Valley days, full Ikon is the door — not a Deer Valley season pass with a different logo.

Park City Mountain’s target opening remains Friday, November 20, 2026, conditions permitting — useful only as context for when first ski days and early blackouts start to matter. Opening-weekend village prep and base morning ops are separate posts.

Live Epic checkout prices after the September step, the exact Epic off-sale date, and current Ikon street prices can all shift before you publish a purchase decision. Confirm epicpass.com, deervalley.com, and ikonpass.com the morning you buy. None of this is a sales pitch for any pass brand — and none of it is a private-club membership conversation.

Final takeaway: Match the SKU to the days and mountain you actually book, put Local and Deer Valley blackouts on the fridge before you pay, and treat every pass price as live checkout — not a blog quote. If you’re choosing an address near Park City Mountain versus Deer Valley and want the pass rules laid next to how you actually use the house, I’m glad to map the SKUs with you — then point you to live checkout. I don’t sell passes.

Talk with Esteban J. Nunez — Park City Realtor.