Skiers and snowboarders notched yet another victory Monday as Telluride ski area joined the Epic Pass for the 2018-19 season, the first limited-access partner to take up with Vail Resorts as it squares off with Alterra Mountain Co. in a season-pass brawl.

Last week, Denver-based Alterra announced its Ikon Pass, an alliance of 23 owned and partner resorts that would vie to unseat the decade-old Epic Pass’ 750,000 annual sales. The two passes could soon account for up to a third of all North American skier visits, and the winners in the snowy skirmish will be skiers.

“For the sport and the ski industry, this is a transformational tipping point in how winter sports participants are going to choose where and when to ski,” said Bill Jensen, a ski industry veteran who heads Telluride Ski & Golf Resort as part owner with California investor Chuck Horning. “I think we are moving into a new era. And it’s good for the sport, good for the industry and good for skiers and snowboarders.”

While the Epic Pass has thrived with its offer of unlimited access to all of its resorts — including some of the continent’s top ski destinations, including Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Park City in Utah and Stowe in Vermont — next season’s Epic Pass provides only seven days at Telluride, with no blackout dates. The deal also offers half-off lift tickets for extra days and reciprocal perks for buyers of the unlimited Telluride season pass, which this season sold for $2,100. The Epic Pass this season sold for $869. The seven-day and four-day Epic Passes, which offer a total of seven or four days at Vail Resorts’ top destinations, will now include Telluride.

When Alterra introduced the Ikon Pass last week, Telluride was conspicuously absent, despite its ballyhooed inclusion in the 2016-17 Mountain Collective pass.

Aspen Skiing Co., which is owned by the Crown family that joined Denver’s KSL Capital Partners to form Alterra, forged the Mountain Collective last year, offering limited days at 16 independent destination resorts. Last week, the Colorado industry buzzed with whispers that Telluride was bowing out of the Mountain Collective for the 2018-19 season, leaving the iconic southwestern Colorado ski area with the Epic as the only option if it wanted to play in the way-past-simmering season pass war.

“Telluride is on the bucket list of skiers and snowboarders around the world and we’re delighted to offer this iconic mountain resort as part of the Epic Pass experience,” Vail Resorts marketing chief Kirsten Lynch said in a statement.

(Also clearly missing from the Ikon Pass news: Idaho’s tony Sun Valley, where Aspen Skiing Co. built its second Limelight Hotel and has pushed hard to acquire the ski area from the billionaire Holding family. It’s a safe bet that both Alterra and Vail Resorts are courting Sun Valley for a pass partnership.)

Even with these two gargantuan operators spending record amounts on ski areas such as Whistler and Deer Valley in Utah, Jensen expects Vail Resorts and Alterra to ramp up alliances rather than make purchases to build a network that amplifies their season passes.

That’s how it went down with Telluride, where there is no desire to sell, even as other resorts sell for more than double the traditional resort pricing based on multiples of earnings.

“Our ownership believes in the future of Telluride and we can be the best or one of the best resorts in North America,” Jensen said. “We have all the attributes to do it.”

That includes inclusion in one of two dominant season passes.

The Epic Pass, Jensen said, has a 10-year track record in Telluride’s four strongest markets, with sales in Texas, New York, Chicago and the Southeast. And offering seven days could harvest longer vacations, delivering a deeper economic boost to the remote box-canyon resort and community.

“For us, it really was the Epic Pass’ demographics in our destination markets,” said Jensen, who served as a top executive for both Intrawest and Vail Resorts before joining Telluride. “I think alliances are going to be just as prominent as acquisitions going forward. These two entities don’t necessarily have to buy a resort to bring it into their group.”

That’s the case with Alterra’s partnerships with Aspen Skiing Co.’s Aspen Snowmass, Snowbird Alta in Utah, Big Sky in Montana and Jackson Hole in Wyoming, all independently owned destinations that offer access — likely limited to fixed number of days — as part of the Ikon Pass.

With more partnerships, it won’t be long before Vail Resorts and Alterra control a sizable chunk of the roughly 75 million annual North American skier visits.

“Between the Ikon and Epic, I wouldn’t be surprised to see those two pass products account for a quarter to a third of all North American skier visits,” Jensen said.