Epic Pass Military Discount: How Military Families Ski All Season for $230

My daughter and I were catching up on the phone when she brought up skiing. She graduates from college in December, she’s already dreaming up winter vacation ideas, and she knows I took ski lessons last year on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. Then she asked the question I didn’t see coming: could she still get the Epic Pass military discount through her dad? Her father, my ex husband, is a military veteran. I’ve written about ski passes for years, and I still didn’t know the answer off the top of my head. So we stayed on the phone and looked it up together.

Here’s the short answer. The Epic Pass military discount is Vail Resorts’ Epic Military Pass, a full season of unlimited, unrestricted skiing at Vail Resorts’ owned and operated mountains. Active duty, qualifying Guard and Reserve, and retired service members and their registered dependents pay the lowest price, which epicpass.com currently lists as starting at $230, with the next price increase on November 15. Veterans and their dependents qualify too, at a separate veteran price that launched at $620 this spring, with a lower child price for veteran dependents under 18.

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Think of me as your discount fun auntie. I’ll dig through the fine print and find the deal. You bring the hand warmers.

Check current Epic Military Pass prices here · Compare every 2026/27 Epic Pass here

If you’re still deciding between pass types for the whole family, start with my guide to the Epic Pass discount most ski families with teens are missing, then come back here for the military rules.

Epic Military Pass Prices for 2026/27

There are two price tiers, and the whole family lands in the tier of the service member. Active duty, Guard and Reserve on qualifying orders, and retired families share the lowest price. Veteran families have their own tier.

Pass	Who it’s for	Spring 2026 launch price	Price now (As of 11/06/26)
Epic Military Pass, Active or Retired	Service member	$215	$230
Active or Retired Dependent	Spouse or child dependent, any age	$215	$230
Epic Military Pass, Veteran	Veteran	$620	$659
Veteran Dependent, 18+	Spouse or adult child dependent	$620	$659
Veteran Dependent, child	Under 18		$352

To put that in perspective, the regular 2026/27 Epic Pass launched at $1,089 for adults and $869 for ages 13 to 30. In the active and retired tier, a family of four pays about $920 at today’s starting price. That’s less than one regular adult pass.

In the active and retired tier, your teenager pays the same as you do. There’s no separate teen price because the flat rate is already lower than any teen discount Epic offers.

Who Qualifies for the Epic Pass Military Discount

Eligibility runs through the service member’s status. Here’s how Vail Resorts defines each group on its Military FAQ page.

Active Duty

Full time service on Title 10 orders for 30 days or more.

National Guard and Reserve

Members currently serving on Title 32 orders qualify for the active and retired price. The Individual Ready Reserve does not.

Retired Military

Anyone entitled by statute to retired, retirement, or retainer pay. That includes 20 year careers and permanent retirement for physical disability.

Veterans

Anyone who served on active duty and was discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.

Dependents

For active, retired, Guard and Reserve families, that means registered spouse and child dependents. For veterans, it means spouse and child dependents. Parents of service members don’t qualify, and neither do children who are no longer dependents.

One exception surprised me in the best way. Gold Star families are covered, and surviving parents or siblings may qualify as Retired Dependents.

Canadian and Australian Military

Service members and dependents from Canada and Australia can buy the Epic Military Pass, but not the Liberty Pass.

What I Learned Helping My Daughter Check Her Eligibility

This is the part I couldn’t find clearly explained anywhere, and it’s the reason I wanted to write this article. When your kids are grown and their parent is a veteran, the rules get fuzzy fast.

Adult Children of Veterans

Epic’s U.S. FAQ says veteran dependents include spouse and child dependents, and that dependents 18 and older buy the adult dependent pass. Child pricing applies only to veteran dependents under 18. What the U.S. FAQ does not spell out is an age cutoff for a veteran’s child dependent. For active and retired families, Epic says age definitions follow the Department of Defense.

Here’s what we found for our family: my daughter and my sons all qualify through their father. Just like that, the winter trip she’d been eyeing got a lot more affordable.

You’ll Need the Veteran’s Credentials

Here’s the detail that matters for divorced families like mine. Epic says spouses and children of veterans verify using the veteran’s credentials. Dependents of active and retired members who are 16 or older verify with their own, but veteran dependents go through the veteran.

In plain terms, your kids will likely need their veteran parent’s help to verify. If you co-parent across two households, have that conversation before the next price increase, not the night before.

When Your Kid Ages Out

If your young adult no longer qualifies as a dependent, there’s good news this season. New for 2026/27, the regular Epic Pass and Epic Local Pass are 20% off for ages 13 to 30. The Epic Pass launched at $869 for that age group. It’s not military pricing, but it’s real savings. Compare those passes here.

Documents Epic Accepts (and Why Your Military ID Won’t Work)

Every military pass requires verification, and each pass is verified individually, including spouses and dependents. For U.S. verification, Epic accepts:

• DD214 or honorable discharge certificate
• Orders
• VA Service Connect Card or an official VA letter
• LES dated within 90 days
• Army record briefs (ARB, ERB, ORB)
• NGB Form 22, eRAS retiree statement, or DD1300

Military ID cards are not accepted. Epic cites federal law, Title 18 U.S. Code Section 701, which limits copying military IDs.

How to Buy and Verify an Epic Military Pass

1. Gather documents first. Pull the right paperwork for your status before you open checkout.
2. Go to the military pass page. Start here and pick the product that matches each person: Active, Active Dependent, Retired, Retired Dependent, Veteran, or Veteran Dependent.
3. Add one pass per person. Each family member gets their own pass and their own verification.
4. Verify each pass. Teens 16 and older in active and retired families use their own credentials. Kids under 16 use the sponsor’s. Spouses and kids of veterans use the veteran’s.
5. Finish the release and load the pass. [VERIFY: confirm current liability release and My Epic app steps on epicpass.com.]

If a document won’t verify, call Guest Services at (970) 754-0088.

Price Deadlines: Don’t Miss November 15

Epic prices climb in steps from March until sales close. The 2026/27 passes launched March 3, 2026, and the lowest spring price ended May 25. Right now, the military page says prices go up November 15.

After that, the bigger risk is the off sale date. Epic passes usually stop selling in early December. Last season’s passes went off sale December 4, 2025. [VERIFY: 2026/27 off sale date if Vail Resorts has announced it.] Miss it and you’re buying lift tickets day by day.

Lock in an Epic Military Pass before November 15

Auto Renew, FlexPay and Epic Coverage

Auto Renew

Read this part carefully, because it’s easy to get wrong. According to Epic’s FAQ, Auto Renew is available for the Epic Military Pass for Retired and Veteran service members. It is not available for dependents of retired or veteran members, and it is not offered for active duty members or their dependents. If your product doesn’t show the Auto Renew option, set a phone reminder for early March.

Epic FlexPay

Both the Epic Military Pass and the Liberty Pass are eligible for Epic FlexPay, so you can spread the cost out.

Epic Coverage

Epic Coverage comes with every pass. On top of covering illness, injury, job loss and some resort closures, it includes military specific refund triggers: being called to service, deployment, having military leave revoked, or reassignment to a duty station 100 or more miles farther from covered resorts. Refunds depend on how many days you’ve used. It’s not the same thing as trip insurance, so read my guide to travel insurance if you’re booking flights and lodging too.

Epic Military Pass vs. Liberty Pass vs. Gen Z Pricing

Epic Military Pass: The best value for nearly every military family who skis more than a few days at Vail Resorts mountains.

Liberty Pass: Unlimited, unrestricted access at Keystone only. It’s for U.S. Uniformed Forces and their dependents, including veterans, and it isn’t available to Canadian or Australian members. It mostly makes sense for veteran families who ski only at Keystone.

Gen Z Epic Pass (ages 13 to 30): 20% off the regular Epic Pass. In veteran families, an under 18 child dependent price will almost always beat it. For a grown kid who has aged out of dependent status, this is the next best deal.

Not sure which pass fits? Compare all Epic Passes here.

Why Vail Resorts Honors the Military

The military discount goes back to the founding of Vail itself. The Army activated the 10th Mountain Division on July 15, 1943, at Camp Hale, Colorado, where soldiers learned to ski, snowshoe and climb, according to Vail Resorts’ history of the division. The division went on to fight in northern Italy.

One of those ski troopers was Pete Seibert. In March 1957, Earl Eaton, a former Army engineer, led Seibert on a seven hour climb to the top of the mountain that would become Vail, as told by the Colorado Snowsports Museum. Vail Mountain opened on December 15, 1962, with one gondola and two chairlifts.

For the 10th anniversary of the Epic Pass in 2018, Vail Resorts launched the Military Epic Pass at $99 for active and retired families, almost 90% off the regular price. Veterans paid $499. The company also donated $1 to Wounded Warrior Project for every 2018/19 season pass sold, and CEO Rob Katz and his wife, Elana Amsterdam, personally gave $750,000 to Operation Homefront. The pass started at $185 for 2025/26 and $215 for 2026/27.

If you want to see where it all started, my guide to fall family activities in Vail covers the quieter side of the valley. [PLACEHOLDER: Have you visited Camp Hale or the 10th Mountain Division memorials? Add one line of firsthand detail if so.]

Fun Auntie Tips for Military and Veteran Families with Teens

Start the paperwork before the deadline. Pull the DD214, LES or VA letter now. Verification is where most families get stuck.

Talk to the veteran parent early. In a veteran family, the kids verify through the veteran’s credentials. If that’s an ex, plan ahead and keep it friendly.

Set up teen logins in advance. In active and retired families, teens 16 and older verify on their own.

Use Friend Tickets for the non military friend. Passes bought now come with 5 Epic Friend Tickets for up to 50% off lift tickets. Perfect for the friend your teen wants to bring along, or for grandparents, since parents of service members can’t buy the military pass.

Use your 20% off. Epic Mountain Rewards gives pass holders 20% off food, lodging, group lessons, rentals and more. With hungry teens, that adds up.

Think of it as a gift. A season pass is the kind of experience gift my family loves. Here’s how to wrap an experience gift so it still feels like a surprise.

Frequently Asked Questions