Brains
When evaluating a ski area, it’s important to factor in the number of lifts that the resort has because that number influences the time that you will spend in line, the terrain that you can shred, and the number of other skiers that you will encounter on the mountain. Here is a list of the nine ski areas in North America that have the most lifts.
#9: Mammoth Mountain, CA
25 Lifts
While most of Mammoth’s newer lifts have dedicated names, many of the older lifts in its fleet are simply assigned a number. These numbers generally correlate to the order in which lifts in those places were originally installed and provide an additional nomenclature to reference the mountain.
#8: TIE– Winter Park, CO & Heavenly, CA
28 Lifts
Both of these resorts are staples in their states on the Ikon and Epic Passes, respectively, not only operating on a large footprint but serving a high volume of guests.
#7: Vail, CO
32 Lifts
Out of the 21 chairlifts Vail operates, only 3 of its chairlifts are not high-speed. The biggest ski resort in Colorado has a massive lift infrastructure servicing three zones: the front side, the legendary Back Bowls, and Blue Sky Basin.
#6: Breckenridge, CO
35 Lifts
The most visited ski resort in Colorado thankfully has a lot of lifts, serving 5 separate peaks, 187 trails, and the highest lift-served skiing in North America at almost 13,000’ off the Imperial Superchair.
#5: Deer Valley, UT
35 Lifts
With Deer Valley undergoing a current resort expansion that will see it become the fourth biggest ski resort in the US, this resort will continue to move up near the top of this list in the coming years. 35 lifts is the planned number of lifts Deer Valley will operate in the coming 2025-26 ski season, once Phase 2 of its expansion is complete.
#4: Whistler Blackcomb, BC
37 Lifts
It should come as no surprise that the largest ski resort in North America also has one of the biggest lift infrastructures. The most iconic lift in Whistler’s fleet is easily the Peak-to-Peak Gondola, which connects the mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb at their midpoints.
#3: Big Sky, MT
40 Lifts
While Big Sky may be most well-known for how nice its lifts are, it also has a lot of them. If you were to include the interconnected Yellowstone Club, a private, members-only ski area adjacent to the back side of Big Sky, the two resorts would have a grand total of 62 lifts that would put it at the top of this list.
#2: Park City, UT
41 Lifts
After the merger and acquisition of Park City and Canyons Resort back in 2014, Vail Resorts created one of the biggest ski resorts in North America with a massive lift fleet. With 42 lifts serving 350 trails, Park City can almost be overwhelming for first-time visitors.
#1: Palisades Tahoe, CA
43 Lifts
The biggest ski resort in California consists of two areas: Palisades and Alpine that are interconnected with a $65 million base-to-base gondola that was opened back in 2022. While Palisades Tahoe’s website reports a total of 42 lifts, the base-to-base gondola can function as two separate lifts, either as a continuous loop between Palisades and Alpine or two independent ones.
So. Many. Lifties.