Questions, answered plainly

What does SkiAvo do?

SkiAvo helps skiers and snowboarders decide. The Pass Planner finds the lowest verified cost for your ski days across 5 supported passes and day tickets at 46 resorts. Gear Finder compares skis, snowboards, boots, bindings, helmets, goggles and poles across ski shops by price, shipping, stock and model year. A free directory maps 12,441 ski areas in 82 countries.

How much does SkiAvo cost?

Exploring, pass facts, coverage and season planning ranges are free. Pass Planner is US$2.00 once for a plan, with 7 days to edit it. Gear Finder is US$2.00 once for 7 days. They are separate purchases. Nothing renews. SkiAvo adds no tax or fees, and payment runs through Stripe's hosted checkout.

What if SkiAvo can't price my plan or find my gear?

You are told before you pay. The planner won't let you pay for a plan it can't fully price, and Gear Finder only offers payment when at least two stores have an in-stock match that ships to you. If a paid comparison can't be produced, you are refunded automatically.

Which passes and resorts can it compare?

Today: Epic Pass, Epic Local Pass, Ikon Pass, Ikon Base Pass and Thredbo Season Pass 2027, across 46 resorts. Passes and resorts not listed are not compared. The coverage page lists every gap.

How current are the prices?

Every price is a dated observation from an official page or store, not a guarantee. Dynamic ticket prices stop counting as current after 7 days, published season price lists after 30 days, and pass prices after 14 days. Always confirm the final price, taxes and fees with the seller.

Does AI decide the prices?

No. Deterministic code calculates every total and ranks every offer. Pass days, single-day tickets and multi-day tickets are chosen together under per-resort limits, shared limits, blackouts and consecutive-day rules. The search is checked against brute-force tests on small cases.

Which stores does Gear Finder read?

Today: Ski Barn (US), The Ski Monster (US), Ski Depot / RaceSkis.com (US), Sports Basement (US), Comor - Go Play Outside (CA), aussieskier.com (AU), Snowride Sports (NZ), Gear West (US), SkirackBTV (US), Mountain Sports (US). Each store ships only within its home country until its own policy says otherwise. SkiAvo reads public product pages politely, follows each store's robots.txt, and shows when each price was read. Where a store does not publish shipping rules in a form we can read, shipping is shown as "confirm at checkout" and those offers rank after offers with known totals.

Does SkiAvo earn commission or take paid placements?

No paid placements. No affiliate commission is active today. If affiliate links are ever enabled they will be disclosed next to the link, and commissions never change the order of results.

Is the ski-area directory a list of open resorts?

No. It maps 12,441 areas in 82 countries from an attributed open dataset, including downhill and Nordic areas, historical records and unnamed areas. A map pin does not mean current prices, public access or pass benefits have been verified.

Is SkiAvo affiliated with Epic, Ikon or any resort or store?

No. SkiAvo is independent. Pass and resort names are used to describe the products being compared.

What data does SkiAvo collect?

For plans: resorts, dates, currency, passes you own, and each traveler's birth month and year (pass prices depend on age). Names are optional labels. Analytics are off unless you choose Allow on the banner. See the privacy page for retention and deletion.

What is the refund policy?

If we can't deliver the comparison you paid for, you get your money back automatically. A second payment for the same plan is refunded automatically. For anything else, use Ask for a refund in your plan, or email hello@skiavo.com. Details are on the pricing page.

More: methodology · coverage register · pricing and refunds · how we read store prices