Last week, Vail Resorts announced their EpicMix mobile app will provide guests with live lift wait times for 55 lifts at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone starting this winter. Vail Resorts will use their app to track guests through lift lines to provide a crowd-sourced estimate called EpicMix Time. The technology is currently being tested at the company’s Perisher resort in Australia. Vail compares the system to Google’s Waze app, which crowd sources traffic and accident information for Google Maps. The company plans to expand the technology in future years to all its resorts and other places where guests have to wait in line such as restaurants and rental shops.
Other resorts have tried to provide lift waiting times in the past. For years, Whistler-Blackcomb has had lights on its lift status signs that indicate whether a lift line is less than 5 minutes, 5-15 minutes, or more than 15 minutes. I suspect Whistler’s system is powered by lift operators calling a dispatcher which is a less than perfect solution. Vail’s technology will be much more accurate and timely.
This is a great idea, especially for a company with mega-resorts that struggle with crowds at peak times. Like with EpicMix itself, Vail Resorts tends to set the bar for the entire ski industry and the pressure is already on other resorts to provide similar information. I think we will see other app providers like Resorts Tapped partner with non-Vail resorts to come up with something similar. No question guests will be demanding the technology, just like when Vail Resorts introduced RFID ticketing.
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