There are several ski resorts in the different states of the United States, but after an intensive search through them, we have selected the best ski resorts in USA with a detailed summary of each one of them.
Best Ski resorts in the U.S. – Colorado
Colorado is one of the best states for skiing in the USA and the favourite among professionals, according to surveys carried out by skiing platforms.
A great advantage is that this resort has skiing adapted to families, beginners and experts, therefore opting for a great variety for all the public.
Here are the best ski resorts in the state of Colorado.
Summit County – Rocky Mountains
Breckenridge
This is without doubt one of the favourite ski resorts for all skiers. It boasts five large peaks that provide a great incentive for intermediate skiers and snowboarders alike. The ski slopes are perfect for beginners, intermediate and expert skiers. It offers the famous champagne snow that many people take into account when they go there. The slopes are 153 km long (28 km for beginners, 60 km for intermediate, 65 km for professionals).
The atmosphere in the village is lively and relaxed, and there are plenty of options for spending time in a different way, whether it’s going to restaurants, shopping or just having a drink. Being a large ski resort, there are a variety of places to stay. It still has a “Wild West” feel to it today with several modern buildings, good food and a wide variety of hotels as you can stay in a bed and breakfast or even a five star hotel. All of this is very beneficial as there is something to suit all budgets.
The village is situated at an altitude of 2926 metres and the ramones allow you to reach an altitude of 3914 metres, making it the highest resort in the area. The system of ski lifts and gondola lifts in this resort has been awarded in numerous ski resorts, therefore it can guarantee to all its visitors that it is very good and safe.
The resort is operated by Vail Resorts, but apart from Breckenridge there are also Beaver Creek, Vail and Keystone, all within easy reach of each other in the heart of the Rockies. They are all accessible by an interchangeable ski pass called “The Colorado Ticket”, and the network of public and private transport between the resorts makes them all easily accessible.
Vail
Vail is the largest ski resort in Colorado. It is located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, as is Breckenridge. Although it is the largest in the United States, thanks to its size of 2,141 hectares, there are hardly any crowds on the lifts or at the ticket booths, so you can ski without crowds and in your own space.
The slopes are wide and with fresh snow and have a large terrain for beginners and intermediate skiers (47%) and another large percentage very well divided for professionals in the sport (53%). There are 195 well groomed pistes and 31 ski lifts that are easy to ride. The longest piste is Riva Ridge, having more than 6 kilometres of downhill.
Vail is divided into three zones: Front-Side, the Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin. The town of Vail has a unique personality that stands out from other ski resorts in Colorado because it was built in an Austrian style. It’s a mostly pedestrian town, so it’s best to leave your car behind and enjoy the scenery on foot. It has many restaurants and shops of all types and variety, so it offers a variety of activities both on and off the slopes.
Beaver Creek
Beaver Creek ski resort is elegant, exclusive and utterly luxurious. It’s just 10 miles west of Vail, and while it may not have the same crowds as Vail, its slopes are groomed to the millimetre for a luxurious skiing experience. The resort is currently managed by Vail Resorts.
It is 2,255 metres high and its summit is 3,488 metres. It has 150 km of groomed slopes of which 28 km are green, 66 km are blue and 56 km are black. It has 24 mechanical trailers that allow you to access all the hectares of the area and all its slopes at different levels.
Beaver Creek is an extremely luxurious, private and intimate place, with an alpine-style charm and design in a cosy mountain valley. Its award-winning design and structure is evident in every corner of the resort you pass through. There are hotels and private flats of the highest standard with exquisite cuisine in every place you stay or in every restaurant you visit for a meal. It offers the best customer service in every way.
Keystone
This is one of the best resorts for families in Colorado and with the peculiarity of being able to do night skiing. It has a fairly large play area (Kidtopia) and a host of programmes for families and everyone in the family. It offers an affordable, family-friendly experience and being very close to the airport allows for a shorter commute to the resort.
It has 135 km and a total of 128 slopes, divided into 25 km for beginners, 65 km for intermediate and 45 km for professionals. It is also important to mention that it has 17 ski lifts which will take you to any part of the aforementioned kilometres.
Keystone is made up of three mountains: Dercum Mountain, North Peak and five Bowls. Thanks to them, this ski resort offers night skiing to all its occupants, where several trails are illuminated by very large floodlights and the lift operation can be done late into the night, allowing for a greater range of time and enjoyment. Night skiing can be done from sunset until 21:00 hours.
Keystone also offers many activities and with the peculiarity that in summer you can go mountain biking, hiking, etc. There are several restaurants such as “Los Zagat” with four and five stars, as well as many affordable hotels for families.
Telluride
Telluride is located in the canyon formed by the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado. There is only one route in and out as it is surrounded by mountain walls on three sides. As a unique feature, Telluride offers Helitrox, Colorado’s only heli-ski service.
The resort’s slopes receive over 760 cm of snow each year, it has 2000 acres of skiing at all levels, 300 days of sunshine a year and no lines to get up the mountain, allowing for a completely unique skiing experience. Its slopes are divided into 23% for beginners, 36% for intermediate and 41% for advanced or expert level. It has 2 gondolas, 12 chairlifts and 2 surface lifts.
Telluride is made up of 2 towns, Telluride and Mountain Village, both connected by a free scenic cable car. The town of Telluride showcases Victorian-era mining artefacts and architecture, so if you like to walk around and see it all, you’ll love a visit. Mountain Village is a more modern town with a pedestrian-friendly layout that’s conducive to easy walking throughout the streets.
Aspen – Pitkin County
Aspen Snowmass
Aspen Snowmass is one of the best ski resorts in the United States. It is made up of 4 ski/snowboard areas, all of which are very close to the towns of Aspen and Snowmass Village, making them more convenient and less travel time for people. These four areas are: Aspen Mountain (the oldest), Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass and are visited by people from all over the world every year, as they are very famous and many people want to see them at least once in their lifetime.
The slopes of this resort consist of 4 areas, with an altitude of 3813 metres and a vertical drop of 1343 metres. This ski resort has 329 skiable slopes with a total of 509 kilometres and 42 tows to move to each place. In total, there are 2150 hectares of terrain.
As mentioned above, Aspen Snowmass is located in North America, in Pitkin County, Colorado. Aspen is a very small town with only 7000 inhabitants, but every year, thanks to its famous slopes, it is visited by thousands of tourists and famous faces from all over the world.
Best Ski resorts in the U.S. – Utah
Like Colorado in the United States, Utah offers some of the best ski slopes and always competes with the others. It has its own ski slopes with some very pecular characteristics and we will show you some of them below.
Little Cottonwood Canyon
Snowbird
Snowbird is another of the best ski resorts in the United States, located in Utah. It is world-renowned for its high annual dry powder snowfall and annual snowfall of 12.8 metres in total. It is especially known for its reputation among professional skiers as steep, interesting and challenging. It has one of the longest ski seasons in Utah, snow permitting, typically from mid-November through May, with night skiing also available in between.
Apart from being a winter ski resort, it’s also a popular summer resort because when all the snow melts and temperatures are warmer, it becomes a theme park with a roller coaster, an alpine slide, a ropes course and a climbing wall, as well as spectacular hiking trails.
The slopes of this US ski resort have 2,500 skiable acres, with 6 high-speed quad lifts, four double chairlifts and an aerial tram that gives you access to 169 slopes that are enabled in this resort. The terrain of the slopes is divided into 27% beginner, 38% intermediate and 35% advanced.
All the equipment for skiing, as in most of the other ski resorts, can be rented on the mountain.
Apart from enjoying skiing and doing these sports, in this resort there are 15 restaurants and 5 bars where you can enjoy elegant dinners, informal dinners, drinks, etc, but always seeing beautiful landscapes like all the ones in this ski resort.
As a good curiosity, there are several shops in Snowbird Center and Cliff Lodge that sell items forgotten in the facilities, such as goggles, hats, gloves, sunscreen, lip balms, etc..
In addition, a great benefit for the skier is that there is a multitude of accommodation right on the slopes. It is also very important to know, especially if you go with your family, that children who are not skiing can be looked after while you are on the slopes.
Park City
Park City is a ski resort in the United States where $182.5 million was spent to build the entire resort. It was a very big dive by Vail Resorts. The ski resort also has night skiing, which attracts the attention of all the tourists who visit it every year.
This ski resort has a maximum elevation of 3,049 meters and a minimum elevation of 2,080 meters, with a drop of 969 meters. It has 250 km of skiable slopes in which the terrain is divided into 27 km of blue slopes, 152 km of red slopes and 71 km of black slopes. In total it has 2954.22 acres. It consists of 4 gondolas, 32 chairlifts, 2 cable cars and 3 conveyor belts, so it is very difficult to wait in queues in the transport as there is a lot of variety constantly and all transport you to the places where you want to go.
There are two villages at the base of this resort, one is Park City Mountain and the other is Park City Canyons Village. Both have ski-in/ski-out lodging and a direct connection to the ski slopes via modern lifts, so it is very easy to go skiing. You have hotels and apartments to stay in these two villages so you don’t have the need to go so far to stay when you have the ski slopes right next to you.
Best Ski resorts in the U.S. – New Mexico
Taos
Taos Ski Valley
Taos Ski Valley is a ski resort located on the huge Kachina Peak for enthusiasts, one of the best in the United States, and a town in Taos County. A curiosity about this resort is that it banned snowboarding a long time ago.
The slopes of this US ski resort are very wide, with 1,294 acres divided into 24% for beginners, 25% for intermediate and 51% for advanced. It has 14 lifts, 1 gondola lift, 1 double lift, 4 triple lifts, 4 quad lifts and 4 surface lifts. Its summit is at 12,481 feet and its lowest point is 2,804 metres.
In the old days, finding accommodation to access the ski slope was a challenge, as they were quite remote. Nowadays you can find hotels to stay in and a variety of restaurants within 30 minutes of the ski slopes, which makes it much more convenient and attractive to most of the tourists who visit each year.
Best Ski resorts in the U.S. – Montana
Madison County
Big Sky
Big Sky is the ski resort with the most miles of skiing in Montana and the most popular, with 1551 acres. Also, as a good curiosity we can say that the ski level is among the highest in North America. Many people from all over the world pass through this resort safely to enjoy its tremendous lengths and the thickness of the snow.
The ski resort has a maximum elevation of 3,398 meters and a minimum of 2,072 meters. It has 250 km of slopes to ski, specifically contains 55 km for beginners, 69 km for intermediate level and 126 km for professionals. In the ski resort there are 34 ski lifts divided into 22 chairlifts, 1 cable car, 2 ski lifts, 3 cable cars and 6 mechanical carpets.
Despite being such an extremely large ski resort, it still doesn’t have all the huge facilities that Colorado and Utah ski resorts have, but there are still hotels close to the slopes so you won’t waste time getting around, restaurants to grab a drink, and services other than skiing to keep you entertained.
Best Ski resorts in the U.S.– Wyoming
Teton Village
Jackson Hole
Jackson Hole is a ski slope known worldwide for the verticality of its slopes and the large amount of snow it holds each year. Within this ski resort is the so-called “The Big One”, with an extension of very large, vertical and steep skiable terrain.
The slopes of this resort contain 116 kilometers, with a skiable terrain of 1011.70 acres. The slopes are divided into 16 km (14%) easy level, 50 km (43%) intermediate level and 50 km (43%) difficult or professional level. Its maximum elevation is 3,185 meters and its minimum elevation is 1,924 meters, with a drop of 1,261 meters. It has a capacity of 20480 passengers per hour in the transports that the station houses, and these are: 1 cable car, 2 cable cars, 9 chairlifts and 1 mechanical carpet.
Apart from having these characteristics in its slopes, the town of Jackson Hole is the typical town of the West that appears in the American movies, with everything set in that time and where all that style of life is very well preserved. Most skiers go to visit it, since it is only 15 minutes away from the ski slopes, it is quite close and it is very easy to access. It is a town where you will find different stores and totally set to all that we have just referred to, with a variety of cowboy bars, restaurants, museums, art stores, etc.
Best Ski resorts in the U.S. – California
Olympic Valley
Squaw Valley
As a very good curiosity, in 1960 the Winter Olympics were held at this ski resort, therefore it gave it much more visibility around the world and many more people wanted to go skiing and vacationing there. This resort covers 3,600 acres and is the second largest resort in the Lake Tahoe area, after Heavenly Mountain Resort.
The maximum altitude of this slope is 2,760 meters above sea level. It has more than 170 trails and therefore allows access to people with different levels. Its slopes are divided into 15% for beginners, 35% for intermediate level and 50% for professionals or difficult level. It has 30 chairlifts and a bus that takes you inside the slopes so you don’t have to take your own car.
Apart from its impressive and beautiful slopes, thanks to Lake Tahoe you can enjoy breathtaking views and landscapes that you will never forget with crystal clear water. A point in favor of this resort is that you will find plenty of restaurants for lunch or dinner, accommodation very close to the ski slopes so you do not have to move a lot and many amenities whether you come alone or with family.
Best Ski resorts in the U.S. – Canada
British Columbia
Whistler blackcomb
In this resort, we have as a peculiar characteristic that it is the largest vertical descent of the continent, with 1530 meters. Besides, thanks to its temperatures, there is a long ski season that goes from November to May and being so extremely large, it will never give visitors the feeling of being crowded or overcrowded.
It contains more than 3300 skiable acres and 200 kilometers of slopes of all levels: 40 km of blue runs, 110 km of red runs and 50 km of black runs. Its maximum elevation is 2284 meters and its minimum elevation is 653 meters. There are 31 tows, so it is very easy to transport inside the slopes without the need to get overwhelmed or wait in queues.
The town of Whistler is very beautiful, with spectacular scenery and world renowned for its design. It is located on Route 99 and the nearest city is Vancouver, which can be reached in just two hours by car. As in most of the ski resorts in the United States, there is a wide variety of restaurants, stores and hotels where you can stay and enjoy skiing quietly.
Revelstoke
Revelstoke is another ski resort in the United States also located in Canada. It is home to the longest ski slope in all of North America. The slope is called The last spike and contains a descent of 15,200 meters that reaches the base of the station.
Its slopes are the ones that have the largest skiable domain in North America and also the highest average slope, therefore, it has the lift that saves the highest slope in all the north of the continent, there are 1,730 meters of ascending route and there are only 6 tows that take you up the summits so extremely high. The slopes have 42,000 km2 and as there is a lot of slope, it is important to hydrate a lot, that is why in this station professional skiers predominate. Being such a large ski resort, it is very likely that in many moments of the tour you will find yourself alone, so it is necessary to have a certain level and take care of yourself so that nothing happens to you.
Revelstoke is still a Wild West town with an architecture set in that era and with stores and bars in the same style. Its population is less than 8000 inhabitants and it is at 450 meters of altitude. Thanks to the ski slope, it became a tourist resort, so many tourists go to visit or stay there and then go skiing.
Kicking Horse
Kicking Horse is another ski resort in the United States located in the same place as the previous two, that is, 14 km outside of Golee, British Columbia, Canada. It is another of the few resorts that has Heliski and has a snowpark.
This ski resort in the United States has a maximum elevation of 2450 meters and a minimum elevation of 1190 meters, with a drop of 1260 meters. It has 100 kilometers of slopes and 1133.10 skiable acres. Its slopes are divided into 20% easy slopes, 20% intermediate level slopes and 60% difficult or professional level slopes. It has 1 gondola lift, 3 chairlifts, 1 ski lift and 1 mechanical carpet.
The nearest town is Golee, also near Vancouver where you can eat in various restaurants, visit all the tourist resources and stay in the hotel that suits you best, as there is a wide variety of prices for the economy of each one.
Best Ski resorts in the U.S. – Washington
Mount Baker
Mount Baker is one of the ski resorts in the United States that receives more snow per year, competing with the Japanese and the resorts they have there.
Its maximum elevation is 1,525 meters and its minimum elevation is 1,070 meters, with a drop of 455 meters. It has 100 km of slopes and 404.70 skiable acres. Its slopes are divided into 24 km of easy slopes, 45 km of intermediate level and 31 km of difficult or professional level. In the station there are 8 chairlifts and 2 gondolas.
In turn, the village of Mount Baker, receives tons of snow per year, making it the village with the most snow in the world. The village is called Damüls and 28.96 meters of new snow have been measured there.
To conclude, in this document we have summarized the best ski resorts in the United States and their respective characteristics.
