Kids Ski Free Programs by State
What Each One Actually Costs

Five states run programs good enough to plan a season around, and we've verified all five at the source: Colorado, Utah, and Idaho out west, plus Vermont and New Hampshire in the east. Each links to a full breakdown below. First, the numbers side by side — and then the one honest thing about that table that changes how you should read it.

We put it in because everyone else does, and you'd wonder why it was missing. But it's close to meaningless. Nobody skis 76 days across 19 resorts. You're not driving from the Front Range to Powderhorn four times. The number that matters is days at resorts you can actually reach — for most families, two or three mountains.

Recalculate on that basis and the ranking flips. Live in Boise? Idaho's $29 passport gives you nine days across Bogus Basin, Brundage, and Tamarack combined and beats everything on this page. Live in Salt Lake? Utah's $79 gets you three days each at Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, and Solitude, all within an hour — which no Colorado program can touch.

We found no statewide grade-based passport in Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, or California. Those are verified absences, not oversights — and California is the one worth being loud about, because the internet keeps citing a "California Ski & Snowboard Passport" that does not exist. Ski California (the state's resort trade association) runs no youth grade-passport, and the domain usually credited with it is a parked page. California kids' deals are real but per-resort — Mammoth, Palisades Tahoe, and Big Bear each set their own youth pricing — so there's no single program to buy.

For Montana and Wyoming, there's a workaround: Idaho's passport. Three of its participating areas sit across the line — Grand Targhee in Wyoming, and Lost Trail and Lookout Pass on the Montana border — and Idaho's program has no residency requirement, so it's the closest thing available, and a bargain even counting the drive. (Lookout Pass also runs its own "5th Graders Ski Free" program, and the regional Ski NW Rockies 5th-grade passport covers parts of the same corner.)

These states are widely reported to run programs, and we'll add pages as we confirm the terms at the source — Maine, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota, and Washington (Epic SchoolKids also has Washington and Canada versions). Maine is close: its WinterKids Passport covers ages 5–17 across 50 partner locations, and New Hampshire families are pointed there when Ski NH sells out — we just haven't confirmed Maine's current fee at the source. In the meantime, go to your state ski association directly. The associations — not the roundup sites — are the ones who set the terms, and they're the only source we'll print numbers from.

Ski passports join our growing family-entertainment coverage: free fishing days for the warm months, the EA Play math for the cheapest night in, and the Kids Eat Free hub for the meal before or after. The blog index files them all under the Entertainment category.