How to avoid the busiest ski resorts.
How to avoid the busiest ski resorts.

Nobody wants to get stuck waiting in lines all day when they’re trying to shred the slopes as much as possible. To avoid a lot of sitting around you need to avoid the busiest resorts, and doing that means considering the right factors and making the right decisions before heading up to the mountains. Peak Rankings provided a few ways you can plan ahead for crowds when you’re booking a ski trip.

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Disregarding a resort’s MegaPath status or distance from a metropolitan area, there’s another factor that can significantly influence a resort’s crowds, and that’s its competitiveness over other nearby mountains. If a resort is way bigger, snowier or more unique in some capacity than all the others in the vicinity, it will naturally attract more people regardless of the other circumstances. For example, a 1500 acre ski resort in New Zealand will attract a lot more visitors than one in the American West, simply because there are so few nearby, similarly sized alternatives. And if a region is getting a storm, you know the most dedicated powder hounds will be checking their open snow subscriptions and heading specifically to the resort with the highest snow totals. #peakrankings #werankpeaks #skieurope #skivacation #mountains #winter #skitrip #travel #landscape #snowboarding #wintertrip #skiusa #skiingisfun #powder

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So if you’re trying to avoid crowds, here are a few things you should look out for. First of all, a resort that stands out among the other nearby resorts will often attract more visitors, whether that’s because it’s a bigger resort, has more snow, or has better terrain. Additionally after snowstorms, most people will be heading to the area that got the most snow, so maybe pick a mountain that got a little bit less.

Resorts with less slope-side accommodations also tend to be less crowded, as more people have to actually drive to the mountain rather then just waking up and hitting the trail. Ski areas on megapasses also tend to attract more visitors. If you make the right decisions you can lap the lifts all day without waiting for more than a few minutes.

Nolan Deck is a writer for Unofficial Networks, covering skiing and outdoor adventure. After growing up and skiing in Maine, he moved to the Denver area for college where he continues to live and work...