The new passes will help to speed up lift lines because workers at Vail Resorts will be able to use handheld scanners to detect and read lift tickets as skiers and riders make their way to the chairlift. In fact, the scanners can actually read the cards through clothing, so riders don't need to scramble to find their passes every time they approach the lift.

Vail chose to use Zebra P330i card printers because of their speed, reliability and flexibility. The P330i produces durable ski passes with clear text and vibrant colors. It also offers sophisticated options such as Ethernet connectivity and magnetic stripe encoding to go along with its RFID capabilities.

Each Vail ski pass will include an RFID chip featuring strong sensitivity and a unique ID serial number, as well as an inlay antenna that enhances security while increases the card's read range.