Comparing All Nationwide Ski Lift Pass Networks by Size
There are 5 major multi-resort multi-day ski passes sold in the US and Canada.
- EPIC: Owned by Vail Resorts, and was the first pass like this created (2008).
- IKON: Owned by Alterra, and was created in 2018 as a direct competitor to Epic.
- INDY: Created in 2019 to help independent ski resorts compete with the larger companies.
- Mountain Collective: Created in 2018 by the Aspen Skiing Company. Shares many of its resorts with the IKON network.
- Powder Alliance: This is a different type of pass network. The benefits come free when you purchase a full season pass at any of their associated resorts.
While there is more to a pass network than it’s associated resort’s combined size, we feel it is an important metric to consider if you are looking for the most value for your dollar. Use this as yet another piece of information (along with price, number of participating resorts, and difficulty level) when deciding which pass to purchase for the year.
How We Determined “The Largest”
Choosing the largest ski resorts is a bit of a tricky proposition. Do you look at just the summit elevation? How about the total acreage, most trails, or steepest vertical drop?
Well, we decided to combine all four of those metrics into one ranking to get the best idea, although we fully admit this is completely subjective.
In the datasets below, we don’t actually show our Bigness Score (Is that even a word? Didn’t think so…). Unlike our Difficulty Score, this one was too subjective to actually attach a hard score to. So we use it to rank each resort, and provide you the relevant details so that you can make your own decision.
Average Acreage, Trails & Elevations per Pass
To determine which ski pass network has the lineup that is (by average) the largest, we averaged all their associated resorts together. The Mountain Collective comes out as having the lineup that averages out as the largest of all nationwide pass systems. IKON comes in second, with the Powder Alliance third, and EPIC fourth. The INDY network brings up the rear with the lineup of resorts that are, when averaged all together, the smallest in size.
| Rank | Pass Network | Summit (ft) | Vertical (ft) | Acres | Trails |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Mountain Collective | 6971 | 2346 | 1819 | 101 |
| #2 | IKON | 6558 | 2189 | 1648 | 94 |
| #3 | Powder Alliance | 6967 | 1766 | 1298 | 52 |
| #4 | Epic | 4782 | 1599 | 1283 | 74 |
| #5 | INDY | 4895 | 1344 | 751 | 50 |
| Average | 3842 | 1081 | 557 | 40 |
It may be jarring to see Epic so far down in this list, but they have a different business model than the others. Their Epic pass encompasses all of their Vail Resort-owned properties, no matter how good each one is. Most (if not all) of the other passes go out and choose which resorts are a part of their network. When you get to pick and choose like that, you can choose to pick on the good ones, which would usually larger and better resorts being added.
Largest Ski Resorts for Each Pass
Here, we picked out the top three largest resorts in each of the five nationwide multi-resort, multi-day lift pass networks.
IKON
The largest ski resort within the IKON Pass network in the US is the combination of all four Aspen resorts, but that appears to be a bit unfair. Big Sky is the largest single resort in the IKON network.
| Rank | Resort | Summit Elev. | Base Elev. | Vertical Drop | Acres | Trails |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Aspen Ski Resorts, CO | 12,510 ft | 8,104 ft | 4,406 ft | 5,652 | 365 |
| #2 | Palisades Tahoe – Palisades Mountain, CA | 9,050 ft | 6,200 ft | 2,850 ft | 3,600 | 174 |
| #3 | Palisades Tahoe – Alpine Meadows, CA | 8,637 ft | 6,835 ft | 1,802 ft | 2,400 | 100 |
Epic
The largest ski resort within the Epic Pass network is Whistler Blackcomb, located in British Columbia Canada. Whistler became a Vail-owned property in 2016 when it was purchased for $1billion. Epic’s most difficult resort, Telluride comes in second, with its eponymous Vail resort coming in third.
| Rank | Resort | Summit Elev. | Base Elev. | Vertical Drop | Acres | Trails |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Whistler Blackcomb, BC | 7,494 ft | 2,214 ft | 5,280 ft | 8,171 | 200 |
| #2 | Telluride, CO | 13,150 ft | 8,725 ft | 4,425 ft | 2,000 | 148 |
| #3 | Vail, CO | 11,570 ft | 8,120 ft | 3,450 ft | 5,317 | 195 |
Mountain Collective
The largest ski resort within the Mountain Collective Pass network is Big Sky, MT, but just like IKON, technically the 4-resort Aspen conglomerate comes out on top.
| Rank | Resort | Summit Elev. | Base Elev. | Vertical Drop | Acres | Trails |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Aspen Ski Resorts, CO | 12,510 ft | 8,104 ft | 4,406 ft | 5,652 | 365 |
| #2 | Big Sky Resort, MT | 11,166 ft | 7,218 ft | 4,350 ft | 5,850 | 300 |
| #3 | Revelstoke, BC | 7,300 ft | 1,680 ft | 5,620 ft | 3,121 | 75 |
INDY
The largest ski resort within the INDY Pass network is Powder Mountain, UT.
| Rank | Resort | Summit Elev. | Base Elev. | Vertical Drop | Acres | Trails |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Powder Mountain, UT | 9,422 ft | 6,900 ft | 2,522 ft | 8,464 | 154 |
| #2 | Castle Mountain, AB | 7,463 ft | 4,630 ft | 2,833 ft | 3,592 | 94 |
| #3 | Red Lodge Mountain, MT | 9,416 ft | 7,016 ft | 2,400 ft | 1,635 | 70 |
Powder Alliance
The largest ski resort within the Powder Alliance Pass network is Timberline, OR, which also happens to be their most difficult US-based ski resort as well.
| Rank | Resort | Summit Elev. | Base Elev. | Vertical Drop | Acres | Trails |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Timberline Lodge, OR | 8,540 ft | 4,000 ft | 4,540 ft | 1,685 | 41 |
| #2 | Loveland Ski Area, CO | 13,010 ft | 10,800 ft | 2,210 ft | 1,800 | 94 |
| #3 | Castle Mountain, AB | 7,463 ft | 4,630 ft | 2,833 ft | 3,592 | 94 |
