North American Ski Resort Statistics 2026: 47 Resorts Compared

This is a resort-level reference table for the biggest lift-served ski resorts in the United States and Canada. Fizel Research checked every row against the resort's or operator's own published statistics on October 19, 2026, and recorded acreage, vertical drop, lifts, trails, resort-published snowfall, owner, 2026/27 pass access and any publicly visible adult day-ticket price.

For national visits, participation and ski-area counts, see our companion Ski Industry Statistics 2026 report. This page sticks to individual resorts.

Key findings

• The sample has 35 US and 12 Canadian resorts that publish at least 2,000 skiable acres. Whistler Blackcomb (8,171 acres) and Park City Mountain (7,300) lead; together they account for 9.8% of the sample's 157,454 published acres (Fizel calculation).
• Canadian resorts in the sample are larger at the median: median 3,395 acres, range 2,500 to 8,171 acres (n=12) versus US median 2,829 acres, range 2,000 to 7,300 acres (n=35).
• Published vertical drop: US median 2,875 ft, range 1,800 to 4,440 ft (n=30); Canada median 3,250 ft, range 2,493 to 5,620 ft (n=9). Revelstoke publishes the largest figure in the sample at 5,620 ft (converted from 1,713 m).
• Two operators hold 16 of the 47 resorts. Vail Resorts operates 9 resorts with 24.9% of sample acreage; Alterra Mountain Company operates 7 with 16.7% (Fizel calculations).
• Ikon reaches 24 sample resorts (52.7% of acreage) and Epic 12 (30.0%). 12 resorts sit on more than one network, so shares do not add to 100%.
• Lift-ticket pricing is the weakest field. Only 4 of 47 resorts showed any public adult one-day figure on October 19, 2026, and none of those was a verifiable online quote for the January 16, 2027 snapshot date. No Canadian row had a verifiable price.

All 47 resort records include the complete published figures, price qualifications and row-level sources. Download the dataset as CSV, generated from this same table.

Canada's middle resort in this tier is bigger than the US middle resort, mainly because the Canadian list is short and filled with large interior British Columbia and Alberta resorts. The US list runs deeper toward the 2,000-acre cutoff. That is a property of the sample, not proof that Canadian resorts are generally larger.

Read the pass table as access, not ownership. Ikon and Mountain Collective list several independently owned resorts, while Epic's large-resort reach in this tier is mostly Vail Resorts' own mountains plus Resorts of the Canadian Rockies and Telluride partner access.

Large resorts now sell most day tickets through date-based online stores. On October 19, 2026, none of the 47 resorts showed a public, verifiable adult one-day price for Saturday, January 16, 2027 without starting a checkout. 4 US resorts publish a labelled list, window or 'from' figure; no Canadian resort in the sample did. Those numbers are not comparable with each other, so Fizel does not calculate a median or a price-to-size relationship.

For operators, the gap is itself useful. Guests see a moving price that depends on date and how early they buy, so the clearest thing a resort can publish is how the price is set, what is included, and which fees or taxes come later.

Big terrain brings big ticketing complexity: more lifts to scan, more rental and lesson add-ons, more lodging and food outlets, and a large share of guests arriving on multi-resort passes the resort does not sell directly.

Our ski resort payments guide covers how those revenue streams fit together, and the rental deposits and online bookings guide covers holds and damage charges at the rental counter. Operators can also see how Fizel works with ski resorts, or send a recent processing statement for a line-by-line review of current costs.

• Acreage and snowfall are resort-reported. Resorts measure them differently, some include hike-to or gated terrain, and snowfall may be summit, mid-mountain or base.
• Vertical, lift and trail counts follow each resort's own definitions. Some lift totals include carpets and surface tows; some trail totals include glades.
• Ticket prices are dynamic. The price fields are a dated October 19, 2026 snapshot of published figures, not an average price paid.
• This is a ranked tier of large resorts, not every ski area in either country. Screening started from 86 candidates; a resort above 2,000 acres could have been missed.
• Resort-level visits and revenue are intentionally left out because they are not publicly disclosed.
• Pass access and ownership can change after publication.
• Missing values stay missing. Fizel did not estimate any resort's statistics.

Sources

• National context: NSAA, 2025/26 snowsports visits release (Aug 3, 2026); Canadian Ski Council quick facts
• Pass networks, 2026/27: Epic Pass, Ikon Pass, Mountain Collective, Indy Pass
• Operators: Vail Resorts, Alterra Mountain Company, POWDR, Boyne Resorts, Pacific Group Resorts

Every resort row in the dataset table links its own official sources in the final column. Exchange rates are not used: all prices stay in native currency.