Beaver Creek
Vail's quieter, richer sibling with cookies at the base and the Birds of Prey downhill on the front face.
Our Take
Beaver Creek is Vail's more refined cousin -- less crowded, marginally more expensive, and with complimentary chocolate chip cookies at the base lodge every afternoon because that's just how it is here. The 1,832 acres are impeccably groomed, the village has a covered moving walkway from parking to lifts, and if you ski the Birds of Prey run you'll understand why the World Cup comes here every December: it's a 3,000-foot descent at grades that make intermediate skiers weep. The upper mountain's Rose Bowl and Grouse Mountain areas offer legitimate powder skiing when the storms roll in from the west, but Beaver Creek's real strength is its consistency. The snow is reliably excellent, the lifts are modern, the patrollers are on-point, and the whole resort operates with an efficiency that Epic's flagship properties have trained you to expect -- and occasionally take for granted. Beaver Creek rewards loyalty. Return visitors get better at navigating the terrain puzzle connecting Beaver Creek, Arrowhead, and Bachelor Gulch, and start finding the empty pockets mid-week that the weekend crowd never finds.
Nerd Stats
Skiable Acres
1,832
Vertical Drop
4,040'
Avg Annual Snowfall
325"
Summit Elevation
11,440'
Fun Facts
- The resort was built on former US Forest Service land sold to Vail Associates in the 1970s -- not without significant environmental controversy.
- Birds of Prey is one of only six FIS-certified downhill courses in North America. The racecourse drops 2,644 feet over 2.85 miles.
- Beaver Creek serves fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies at the base every afternoon at 3pm. This is not a marketing stunt. The cookies are real.
- The resort is connected to Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead Mountain -- together with Vail they form a 7-resort Epic complex within 20 miles.