Two indoor snow centres in England have made the unusual move of joining a giant global season long pass.
The snow centres at Hemel Hempstead and its sister facility at the Trafford Centre near Manchester are amongst more than 50 conventional ski areas that have joined the global Indy Pass which now includes more than 230 ski centres worldwide.
The Indy Pass offers two days of skiing at each of the hundreds of resorts participating in it. There's a limited amount of passes available each year and the passes are on sale for limited periods with those wishing to by a pass often asked to join a waiting list.
"Indy Pass now has over 230 resorts on three continents, and you can expect our remarkable growth to continue," said Indy Pass director, Erik Mogensen. "Our mission and values command our support of independent ski areas and will continue to drive every decision we make, including not overselling the pass."
Regular ski areas joining the pass this winter range from Spain's largest resort Baqueria Beret; to US Midwest resort Bruce Mound in Wisconsin to the 12 centres around Innsbruck in Austria and several resorts in Japan including Ninox Snow Park, Washigatake Ski Resort and Yuzawa Nakazato Snow Resort.
Passes are far cheaper and coverage much more extensive than most of the other multi-resort season passes, although others offer unlimited access at some centres and at least a week at most others rather than only two days.
The full Indy+ Pass which has no blackout dates is $539 Adult / $299 Kids and the more restricted Indy Base Pass $419 Adult / $239 Kids (12-and-under)