Vail Resorts - which are most crowded?
 

During President's Day weekend, I was keeping tab on lift wait times on Epic Mix.
I wasn't looking at all the resorts but, of the ones I was looking at, the crowd and lift wait seemed to rank as follows:

Breckenridge > Whistler > Beaver Creek > Vail > Park City > Keystone > Northstar.

My observation is based on just looking at the app several times, but does this seem about right in reality?
I understand that certain few lifts at each resort tend to get clogged up, but nonetheless I'm talking in general terms.
Where does Sun Valley rank? (they're not on Epic Mix)

Thinking about getting season pass this year.
Very much interested in finally trying Breckenridge, but the lines seem too long.
Always assumed Beaver Creek would be uncrowded, but I was surprised to see that half the lifts seemed to have >5min wait.

I am moving this thread to the FT West Forums, which include several threads on ski resorts.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

So many factors to consider. Midweek Skier or weekend? What type of terrain are you looking to ski? In my experience, any Vail resort will be EPIC-aly crowded on the weekends. Your ranking seems reasonable, though I think there tends to be longer lines at Vail and Beaver Creek than at Whistler.

IKON resorts face similar crowding issues. Crystal Mountain, WA has stopped selling walkup lift tickets on the weekends because they are so overcrowded with IKON passholders.

I realize that both EPIC and IKON have some amazing mountains, but if you're looking for short (or nonexistent) lift lines, consider some of the other pass products out there.

We go primarily weekdays, but more likely Mon-Tu or Thu-Fri. Inevitably a couple weekend days here and there also.
We ski 90% blue. All of the above resorts have blues all over other than maybe BC and Northstar.

So you think Breckenridge > Beaver Creek > Vail > Whistler ?
If so, I think I may need to stay away from BC and Vail, in addition to Breckenridge.
I don't want to have to deal with lift lines >5min more than a few times throughout the course of the day, if on a weekday.
Even on weekends, I wouldn't want average lift line to be more than a few minutes. From last Saturday at 11am, average lift line at Beaver Creek, Vail and Keystone were 5.5min, 4.5min and 4min, respectively.