SAM Magazine—Eagle Mountain, Utah, March 1, 2024—A new mountain biking pass offering more than 60 days of riding at 30-plus destinations hits the market today at prices starting at $249.

The Loam Pass—named for the type of hard and smooth riding surface favored by mountain bikers—rolls out March 1, promising “access to premium resorts, epic bike parks, and shuttle services across the country.”

Similar to skiing’s Indy Pass, Loam Pass holders get two days of riding at each participating destination.

The pass launched with a mix of resorts, shuttle services, and bike parks across the continental U.S., including Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont, Moab Bike Fiend Shuttles in Utah, Massanutten Resort in Virginia, and the Howler Bike Park in Branson, Mo.

The $249 price tag was billed as an introductory offer, with prices slated to rise as more destinations are added.

"Mountain biking has never been bigger, yet the number of riders visiting resorts and bike parks doesn't reflect this growth,” said Rob Brown, co-founder of Loam Pass. “We saw an opportunity to change that by making these destinations more affordable and easily accessible to the average rider. Loam Pass can pay for itself in just one trip.”

Brown, who co-founded Loam Pass with fellow mountain biker Joey Foresta, sat down with SAM for a recent Q&A about Loam Pass:

SAM: How does the Loam Pass partnership with resorts work?

Brown: Similar to other pooled models out there, a certain percentage of pass sales is placed in a destination pool, and payout is based on volume of visits. We’ve worked our model to run with low overhead so that each destination gets about 85 percent of their rack rate per Loam Pass visit.

SAM: Did you look at skiing’s Indy Pass as a model for this?

Brown: We did! As someone who grew up along the Wasatch Front, skiing becomes the sport of choice when I can’t bike in the winter, so I've purchased most of the multi-resort ski passes out there. The idea behind the pass was, ‘I buy these for skiing, so why are mountain bikers being left out?’ We took a good look at each of the different pass programs to see which would fit best for bikers.

From a price point perspective, bikers aren't known for being big spenders, despite buying $10,000 bikes. And, also, bikers tend to travel and explore, like skiers but maybe even to a greater extent, so we wanted to push a lot of our marketing towards a travel pass. And [Loam’s model] has the added benefit of not cannibalizing destination’s season passes. All in all, it just made the most sense. We may branch out later with some other options, but we really like the rider feedback so far.

SAM: Do you have some targets for the number of bike parks you’d like to have, and how many riders you’d like to sign up?

Brown: For launch, we have 30 [destinations] signed up, but we would love to have 40 destinations on the roster in 2024. There are several spots we are finalizing details with. As far as pass holders, we have some big goals, but being our first year, you just never know how it's going to sell. Historically speaking, the data shows bikers at resorts are about one-tenth the number of skiers, but even then, we would be stoked to get some of that.

SAM: What’s the target market for the pass?

Brown: A good portion of the marketing will be leaning into travel and exploration with the pass. That includes of course van-lifers and racers, which we’ve got some cool partnerships in the works for, but more broadly families and riders who visit resorts occasionally. Just the standard core versus noncore rider, [respectively], and we’ve got some really solid campaigns to try and capture both.

SAM: How are you pitching the pass to resorts?

Brown: The biggest perk to the resorts is new ridership at their destination. Our goal is to get new people into the gravity side of riding.

Resorts haven’t been too concerned about cannibalizing their own passes due to the two-day model, although that question does come up. More than anything, they are looking to grow ridership, and if the pass brings a rider in, maybe the resort can capture those riders in future years, as well. If someone wants to ride a few more days at a destination, they need to purchase a day ticket or purchase the resort’s season pass. We are the tool to introduce new riders to their trails.

SAM: Multi-area ski passes have faced some criticism for crowding at resorts. Any similar concerns with mountain bike parks?

Brown: We don’t have that concern yet. Most resorts and bike parks have plenty of capacity to take on more visitation in the summer and still not be busy. You can imagine if the ski industry was 80 percent backcountry touring and only 20 percent alpine resort based, you can bet the resorts would be trying to bring over some of those backcountry folks. That's how it looks for biking.

The majority don’t go to a resort, but that’s where a lot of investment is going into trails and infrastructure. There’s a lot of fun to be had, so we aim to convert those noncore riders. I think there’s a lot of room to grow before complaints start.

SAM: The MTBParks Pass, another mountain biking pass, was around for several years but ended up folding. Any lessons learned from that for you?

Brown: We actually asked a lot of our partners what they liked and didn’t like about that pass and tried to implement the good in Loam Pass. For instance, resorts loved the end-of-year awards and accolades, so we plan to have a big campaign with “Rider’s Choice,” “Best New,” and other awards to hand out.

In my opinion, MTBParks pass was a very cool product for its time, but it was more akin to the discount lift ticket sites pre-Epic/Ikon pass. It was a free day pass at some places, and some discounts at others. I think Covid finally did them in, but there are more riders now than ever, so we hope to learn from them and make a much better pass product.

Report by Bob Curley

• Previous
  Epic Pass Raises Prices, Adds Crans-Montana for 2024-25
• Next
  Tornado-Damaged Lift at Snow Ridge Needs Further Repairs Following Deropement