Score Changes: Multiple Resorts Struggle to Handle Increased Crowds
Multiple resorts, including Vermont’s Okemo (pictured above), see a PeakRankings Mountain Score change as a result of considerable crowding problems.
Background
It’s no secret that the 2021-22 season was one of the busiest in ski season history. Vail Resorts announced a 12.5% increase in skier visits this past winter, and while unpublished publicly, several other resorts likely saw growth numbers that weren’t far behind. Many of these resorts experienced serious strains on their lift infrastructure, with lengthier waits becoming the norm. In some cases, capacity upgrades weren’t enough to combat the uptick in crowds.
With the Epic and Ikon Pass suites maintaining similar price and access structures to last year’s passes, we’re willing to bet many crowding problems are here to stay for the long term. As a result, we are dropping PeakRankings Mountain Scores in the Crowd Flow category for several resorts. We are also making two ad hoc increases based off reasoning that will be explained below.
Industry observers and resort frequenters may notice that the cuts we made were not as severe as they could have been; there is an argument to be made that extremely poor experiences in terrain, lift, and restaurant operations should justify further Crowd Flow, Resiliency, and Facilities penalties for several resorts. However, we’re preparing these rankings to provide the best guidance we can for next season’s experiences—rather than a retroactive exposition on this past season—and we suspect that wage increases will fix many of the staffing issues that were rampant last winter.
Some of the information that informed these adjustments came from tips advised by you, our readers. Thank you for your engagement! Please feel free to email admin@peakrankings.com with any additional information that should inform our resort assessments.
Crowd Flow Score Decreases
Okemo
Crowd Flow Score Change: 6 to 5
Capacity upgrades at Jackson Gore and Green Ridge were not enough to counter a remarkable increase in crowding at Okemo this winter. Parking lots filled up on regular weekends for the first time in recent memory. Getting out of the Jackson Gore base, which has no lift redundancies to the Coleman Brook and Quantum Six express chair duo, regularly took over half an hour on weekends, and could take over an hour on the busiest days. The Sunburst Six, which was intended to be relieved by the new Evergreen Summit Express, regularly saw 30-45 minute waits, with resort staff moving certain sections of the line faster than others. While not as bad crowd-wise, the Evergreen Summit Express itself was a regular site for 15-20 minute lines. Other resort areas, such as Solitude and Glades Peak, were largely spared the increase in crowds.
Northstar
Crowd Flow Score Change: 7 to 5
Crowds at the Big Springs Gondola were insane on weekends and holidays, with lines extending through a sizable portion of the base village in the AM hours. Queues were even worse at Comstock, the resort’s main upper-mountain frontside lift. Despite lift redundancies in most key areas, there were 20+ minute lift lines at every major lift on the busiest days. The crowd mismanagement has been so remarkable we’re knocking Northstar’s score down by two points.
Jackson Hole
Crowd Flow Score Change: 8 to 7
Increased resort demand resulted in lines at the Thunder and Sublette lifts, which are low capacity for quads, building up considerably. Tram lines remained notably lengthy, especially in the mornings and on powder days, with lines spanning a few hours on the busiest days. Other mountain areas still handled crowds very well this past winter.
Whistler Blackcomb
Crowd Flow Score Change: 8 to 7
Our highest-ranked resort fared considerably better than other Vail-owned mountains, presumably in part due to its monstrous size and on-mountain capacity. However, Whistler Blackcomb still saw its share of 20-minute lift lines this winter. Blackcomb was bad, with 7th heaven being the worst chokepoint, and Glacier not far behind. Whistler was still decent crowd-wise, but Peak and Harmony were prone to backups. Powder days were always the busiest, even on weekdays.
Heavenly
Crowd Flow Score Change: 6 to 5
Heavenly’s crowd management efficacy was really hurt by Sierra-at-Tahoe being out of commission, driving much of the South Lake Tahoe crowd to this state-line resort. On weekends and holidays, the resort faced completely outrageous lines at the bases, especially at the Gondola and California Lodge. Line management got better once up the mountain, but key upper resort areas still faced 15+ minute waits on weekends. The Sky Express—the only lift providing access from the California to the Nevada side—could get very backed up at end of day.
Stowe
Crowd Flow Score Change: 4 to 3
This past winter, Stowe’s lines were excessive, even compared to previous seasons. While excessive crowding has historically been a major problem on the Mansfield-side ForeRunner and Gondola lifts, lines were even bad this year on the Spruce Peak side, which had previously been spared lengthy lines.
Park City
Crowd Flow Score Change: 6 to 5
The U.S.’s biggest resort saw a considerable degradation in crowd management this past winter, facing insanely long lines in all but the hardest-to-reach resort areas. Lines were truly horrendous at Tombstone, Silverlode, and the Quicksilver Gondola.
The lines at Park City for 2021-22 were so unacceptable that we could have potentially decreased the score by two, or even three, points. But with a clear path to resolving staffing issues next season by increasing wages, we felt a one-point drop would be more appropriate. However, we will promptly course correct if Park City’s snowmaking, restaurant, and line direction operations fail to quickly show signs of improvement next season.
Vail
Crowd Flow Score Change: 7 to 6
This past winter, Colorado’s largest resort—and the namesake for North America’s largest ski resort conglomerate—saw higher crowds than in all previous seasons. Previous chokepoints, such as Gondola One and the Sun Up Express, got worse. December break, January/February weekends, and Presidents’ Day weekend were times to avoid; however, crowds remained quite manageable during other times.
Solitude
Crowd Flow Score Change: 6 to 5
Lines were bad after the resort joined the Ikon Pass, and they got even worse for the 2021-22 season. With a growing Salt Lake City region and Solitude remaining the only unlimited Ikon option in the state, the increase in traffic was inevitable. Parking lots were regularly full this past season despite the resort charging for all parking.
If there’s one silver lining, it’s this: the limited parking capacity means that in future seasons, the resort’s crowds probably won’t get any worse than they already are.
Crowd Flow Score Increases
Timberline Lodge
Crowd Flow Score Change: 4 to 5
Rather than a reflection of an actual crowding change, this shift is just more of a recalibration on our part to gear Timberline’s score more towards the winter experience. Lines can be really crazy during the late spring and early summer when only the upper-mountain lifts are open, but despite some major chokepoints, they are generally more manageable than at neighboring Mount Hood Meadows during the core winter season.
Homewood
Crowd Flow Score Change: 8 to 9
This struggling California resort, right next to the Lake Tahoe shoreline, saw even less traffic than usual this season. Lines were essentially non-existent, even during peak days. The key facet holding the resort back from a perfect score was a lack of redundancies for any of its lifts.
Notable Mountains with No Crowd Flow Score Changes
Breckenridge
Crowd Flow Score Remains at 5
The new Freedom SuperChair really relieved Peak 7, preventing Breck from seeing a score drop. However, lines at Colorado/Rocky Mountain SuperChair combo were incredibly long during peak times. Beginners got the shortest end of the stick, with Quicksilver SuperChair and Chair 5 regularly seeing 45+ minute waits on weekends.
Other Epic and Ikon Resorts
Includes Killington, Palisades Tahoe, Kirkwood, Beaver Creek, etc.
Crowding shifts did not materialize equally across resorts this past season, and several resorts—even those on Epic or Ikon—saw little or no traffic changes at all compared to previous typical seasons (we’re excepting the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season due to the unprecedented capacity restrictions). Multiple sources confirmed to us that the mountains that did not see score changes today maintained relatively normal crowding operations during the 2021-22 season. In certain cases, especially in Vermont and Tahoe, the lack of crowding upticks at Ikon resorts sat in stark contrast to monumental traffic shifts at neighboring Epic ones.
These category updates come in the wake of several other PeakRankings Mountain Score adjustments that will be released in the coming days. See our detailed criteria for each Crowd Flow score threshold here.
