November 22, 2024

We undertake two activities every year. First, we ridicule the fact that numerous publications rank ski resorts. Then we analyze the rankings.

First the ridicule. It’s crazy, right? The variables are numerous both on the skier side and the resort side. Some skiers want Dear Valet $50 burgers, and others could care less about amenities and strictly want wild terrain. And fortunately North American resorts can satisfy both extremes and everything in between. Given all that, it is insane to think that certain resorts are “better” than others. In many ways the only evaluations that make sense is to rank narrow aspects of areas – the steepest; the ones with the best food, etc. While such dissection may lead to accuracy, its pretty boring and certainly fails to help readers make vacation plans. Who knows – a 150 ft. vertical drumlin in upstate New York could have the best smash burgers but make vacation plans based on that…

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get to the fun part – the analysis. High end magazines will rank the mega resorts, given that their reader base typically confines its travel to those areas. Off beat publications will lead you to resorts that (for good reason) you have never heard of. Over time we have have become most intrigued by the rankings released by the Ski publication for two reasons: 1) it is supposedly entirely based on reader reviews and 2) it rates resorts on numerous factors – terrain to burgers.

Ski has the good sense to separate North American ratings into West and East. As good as several eastern areas are, it is tough to do a fair comparison to the best of the West. Yes, when ski conditions are great in northern Vermont we are as happy there as anywhere, but the increased paucity of deep powder days in the East has taken its toll.

First, the surprises as to who did well in the rankings. The top 10 in the West were dominated by non-traditional, non-mega resorts – Snowbasin grabbed the #1 spot in the West. Banff, Taos, Alta, Targhee and Telluride packed the top ten in the West taking spots 3 through 7 in that order. Snowbasin shocked us. Don’t get us wrong, we love Snowbasin. It has great terrain, a great lift layout, great day lodges and decent food (surprisingly, no overnight accommodations). But, if you asked 100 serious skiers which resort would be rated tops in the West perhaps one person would pick Snowbasin.

This trend away from fancy resorts was also evident in the East rankings. Our favorite, Mad River Glen of “Ski It If You Can” fame held the top spot (again) followed by Saddleback (2nd), Jay Peak (3rd) and Smuggler’s Notch (5th). Yes, in both the East and the West mega resorts showed up – Aspen was #2 in the West and Sunday River and Killington were 7th and 9th respectively, but we were very heartened to see some lessor known “rough around the edges” places do well.

This trend towards skiers favoring the non-mega locales was clearly evident when one looks at movement up or down the rankings from last year’s results. The following resorts fared much more poorly this year – Park City, Big Sky, Vail (ranked 21st out of 30!) and Steamboat. The common thread in the complaints about these areas was growing pains, crowds and more crowds. Those resorts showing the most improvement in the rankings included Whitefish (19th!), Lake Louise (15th), and Crested Butte (11th). Shockingly, three resorts that didn’t make the top 30 last year and are in the top ten this year are Solitude, Targhee and Banff! Comments about the most improved areas stressed the less commercial, less corporate, low key aspects of the resorts.

We found the results of this survey very gratifying. Aspen and Vail will always attract a zillion skiers as they should given their solid terrain and high end amenities. But we love “the road less travelled by” and Mad River Glen, Snowbasin, Saddleback, Banff and Jay Peak and many others who are highly rated represent that ethos. As one Whitefish advocate said, they represent “What skiing used to be.”

Be Well; Ski Well

*Interestingly, the most consistent complaint throughout the reviews was parking!

 

 

 

 

By Kevin Dennis
conSKIerge co-founder

Kevin Dennis is a life long ski bum with a 34 year legal career on the side. Now retired, he skis 80+ days a year. While he lives in Alta UT in the winters, he has traveled extensively through skiing and has skied almost every major resort in North America (and many you have never heard of). He continues to hit the road often throughout the western United States and Canada and trips over the last several years have included ventures in British Columbia, Montana and Colorado. Whether you want to know about the behemoths like Aspen or Squaw or are interested in the road less travelled (Lost Trail Powder Mountain in Montana or Whitewater in BC anyone?), Kevin has been there, has an opinion and you will most likely have to tell him to shut up after a half hour!