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The last decade has seen the maturation of multi-resort, multi-partner pass products. They’ve always existed, but we seem to have found the right model for who runs it, what role the pass plays, and how the pass can benefit each partner. Across those same years resort bike parks and trails have slowly transitioned from something only a couple resorts do to something a significant group of mountains are exploring, if not building out already. Launched just a few days ago, the Loam Pass hopes to ride the wave formed by the convergence of these two trends. I met one of the pass’s founders, Rob Brown, at NSAA West this year. Here’s what he said about this new summer resort product based on the lessons from winter resort operations.

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Gregg: Rob, let’s start with just a little bit of background about you and how you fit into the mountain biking world.

Rob: Yeah for sure, I’ve been a professional enduro racer for the past 5 years riding and just a huge bike geek. I also helped Fezzari Bicycles run their race team the last two years. That’s where I met my co-founder Joey who does a lot of their marketing. He also has a world-cup racing background and between his marketing and my business skills we thought we could pull something together.

Gregg: So, Loam Pass. Give us a quick 30-second overview of what it is and how it works.

Rob: Loam Pass is bringing the ski pass model to the biking world. We offer 2 free-days at each of our partner destinations plus discounts on extra days, dining and rentals. The pass costs $250 which gives 60+ days of riding at 30 destinations across the country. From the destination perspective, we wanted to make it easy to join so there’s no cost. Resorts will yield 75-85% of rack-rate per loam pass visit, which is an awesome yield. I think the thing that makes it unique is it’s really destination-focused, so we included bike parks, shuttles, and resorts at all the iconic locations.

Gregg: Talk about the genesis of this idea for a minute. Where did the inspiration or idea come from and what made you say, “this needs to happen and I can be the one who does it.”

Rob: It’s pretty cliche I guess but Joey and I were riding a local resort last summer and on the lift I pitched him the idea. As someone who grew up on the Wasatch Front, I ski all winter waiting for the trails to dry. I thought, “why are bikers being left out of the fun?” In the summer I end up buying a ton of lift tickets and multiple season passes which is really expensive. Joey loved the idea and there isn’t anything like this out there yet so we decided to jump on it. We did a ton of research and modeling before landing on what we have now but the feedback from the resorts and riders alike has been amazing.

Gregg: If you had to compare yourself to an existing ski pass product, what do you see as the closest to your model both now but also longer term that you’re working toward?

Rob: As we built out the model we really liked the Indy Pass from a price-point perspective, but we also looked at the now defunct MTBParks Pass as well as Mountain Collective Pass for its premium feel and marketing. We tried to take the best parts of each and bake them into Loam Pass. Longer term we want to expand to include anywhere you’d pay to ride your bike and be the premium MTB pass product. We aren’t afraid to try and expand access or change the model in the future to better fit the market.

Gregg: For a resort on these passes, can they assume it’s the same concept or are there key differences in redemption, payments, agreements, etc.?

Rob: Yes, a resort can expect the same program and yield. Except for a few outliers, it’s been pretty interesting to see that the ticket prices and even the volume across shuttles, bike parks, and resorts is extremely similar. The model works out nicely across the groups.

Gregg: Talk about the role you’ll play from a marketing perspective. Will there be a significant marketing push or investment as part of the model this year? Or is the main focus just on getting the pass up and running?

Rob: Great Question. We have secured a chunk of funding which should hopefully see us off into year three. From our perspective we are a marketing company, or marketing partner to the destinations if you like, so we have a bunch of big campaigns lined up this year including some photo contests to help get new assets to resorts, end of year awards, and more. One of the things that we see a lot of in the bike industry, and we’re surprised that ski guys aren’t doing as much, is affiliate marketing. We plan to lean into that pretty heavily with a great group of YouTube’s, athletes and influences. Part of each destination’s contract is having our affiliates come out to visit and having that organic content made available to us.

Gregg: On that three year timeline, where are you now relative to where you thought you’d be in terms of partners on the pass? And for resorts who are wondering what the bigger picture goals are for this pass, what kind of targets do you have for the next few years?

Rob: Like I said we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the feedback from everyone. Our goal was to have 20 destinations and we are launching with 30! There are several more partners we are finalizing details with, so by June I think we could have 40 onboard. When I think of big picture goals, I think about trying to capture more bikers at resorts and bike parks. There’s so much investment going into trail work and it’s not just downhill. Now there’s fun stuff for all types of riders. So we aim to bring those people over into the destinations. You can imagine if the ski industry was like 80% backcountry touring and 20% resorts skiing, I bet the resorts would be trying to convert those guys over too!

Gregg: If a resort with a bike park is reading this and is curious about joining or at least having a conversation, it sounds like getting on for this summer might be a possibility? And if so, what’s the first step?

Rob: For sure, it’s looking like June will be the cut off for this year’s roster. They can reach out on the website anytime or contact me directly (rob.brown@loampass.com).

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.