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No, you can’t ski Everest with your Epic Pass

A satirical piece about Vail's Epic Pass ended up on Google News results

John Ingold
The Colorado Sun

On Tuesday, the ski-media company Teton Gravity Research published a piece of satire on its website about a made-up company called “Epic Resorts” and the company’s fictional megapass, called the “Stoke Pass.” 

For an extra $199, the piece said, pass holders could get unlimited ski and snowboard access to the world’s highest summit, complete with climbing equipment, oxygen tanks, a tent at basecamp and help from Sherpas. The story also promised there would be a chairlift (!) built to 26,000 feet, roughly 3,000 vertical feet below Everest’s summit and on the cusp of Everest’s famed (and feared) “Death Zone.”

“Starting in Winter 2019, Epic Resorts will be proud to offer skiers and riders access to one of the most famous alpine environments in the world — however, it’s gonna be f***ing dangerous,” Epic Resorts CEO Rhonda McSally (not a real person) is quoted as saying. (The bolding in the quote is theirs; the bleeping is ours.)



One would think that this is easily spottable as satire. To boot, it was posted in the culture section of TGR’s website, not the news section. And it has tags at the bottom identifying it as satire.

Nonetheless:

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A Google News search for “Epic Pass” includes a satire story about Mount Everest. (Screen capture of Google News on July 24, 2019)
NEW-Google-Epic-Everest-results

Read more via The Colorado Sun.

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