A number of of our resorts have seen both a Mountain Rating change or rankings shift on account of rating changes we launched in the present day. We’ve made these modifications primarily to account for expertise shifts that occurred at dozens of resorts through the 2023-24 season—however in a couple of circumstances, to additionally extra successfully relay the contrasts between every mountain. Under, we’ve compiled the rating and rankings modifications for every mountain.
Rating Changes Primarily based on Expertise Adjustments
Steamboat
Crowd Move Rating Change: 4 to six; Terrain Range Rating Change: 7 to eight; Problem Rating Change: 7 to eight
Steamboat’s formidable sequence of carry and terrain investments resulted in essentially the most basic transformation of the 2023-24 ski season—and it wasn’t even shut. First off, the resort accomplished the second stage of the Wild Blue Gondola, making this carry the longest conventional gondola in North America. Secondly, the resort opened a virtually 500-acre enlargement into Mahogany Ridge and Fish Creek Canyon, bringing a brand new large, expert-oriented terrain zone to the ski space (the resort technically advertises a 776-acre terrain enlargement, however 341 of the permitted acres in Fish Creek Canyon aren’t technically skiable).
These initiatives minimize proper on the coronary heart of Steamboat’s greatest historic points: irritating carry logistics and tough professional terrain entry. The finished Wild Blue Gondola (the primary stage, which extends to a brand new studying space, was accomplished in 2022) lastly supplies a method to rise up and down the resort with out going by way of the Thunderhead Lodge mid-point, doing wonders to scale back traces within the morning and even taking some stress off the Elkhead Specific carry within the afternoon. The Mahogany Ridge and Fish Creek Canyon enlargement areas add a few of the greatest steep skiable terrain within the state, together with some gnarly experts-only traces in Fish Creek Canyon the place the “hike again” is loads simpler than the resort advertises. We’d argue that even regardless of a little bit of side-stepping required to get out of Fish Creek Canyon, it’s simpler to lap than the technically-lift-served however awkwardly-located Christmas Tree Chutes on the prime of the Morningside carry. And the most effective a part of the brand new enlargement? No less than as of the 2023-24 ski season, crowds within the Mahogany Ridge space had been minimal.
It’s been fairly awhile since a ski resort as giant as Steamboat has skilled such a basic transformation over a single season, and it’s one which we count on trade followers to recollect for years.
Keystone
Lifts Rating Change: 5 to six
This Interstate 70 hall resort put in the Bergman Bowl Specific carry, offering carry service to its high-alpine bowl terrain for the primary time ever. Keystone has traditionally been one of many solely main Colorado ski resorts with out carry service to bowl terrain, so the challenge addresses a considerable shortcoming.
The brand new Bergman Bowl terrain zone brings a particular mixture of trails for all skill ranges, together with some uniquely accessible runs for newcomers and intermediates. Entry to current advanced-level bowls and timber is far improved as effectively. Whereas some resorts nonetheless supply bigger high-alpine terrain areas—and 40% of Keystone’s terrain stays hike-to solely—the Bergman Bowl enlargement positively impacts the general expertise for a really big selection of individuals.
Aspen Mountain
Measurement Rating Change: 4 to five; Crowd Move Rating Change: 4 to five; Lifts Rating Change: 6 to 7
The Hero’s enlargement brings 153 acres of latest upper-mountain terrain to Aspen’s town-adjacent ski resort. This challenge has added various new intermediate and professional trails served by a brand-new high-speed quad.
The enlargement brings some actually fascinating terrain inside the resort boundaries of Aspen Mountain, together with some superior glades, moguls, and bowls. However importantly, in contrast to the remainder of Aspen Mountain’s professional terrain areas, the Hero’s space is definitely straightforward to lap. Ajax’s decidedly unusual carry format traditionally meant that lapping any of its professional terrain concerned a visit down the complete vertical descent of the resort—which may get extremely annoying if you happen to needed to spend so much of time on this sort of terrain—nevertheless it’s now attainable to solely lap professional terrain again and again by way of the Hero’s carry.
Hero’s is a surprisingly efficient addition to Aspen Mountain that considerably improves its movement for specialists, supplies a haven from the remainder of the resort’s logistical points, and at the least for now, permits an escape from the crowds.
Sugarloaf
Lifts Rating Change: 4 to five
This previous season, Maine’s Sugarloaf debuted the biggest East Coast terrain enlargement in fairly a while. The 120-acre West Mountain terrain enlargement provides 12 new trails of newbie and intermediate issue, all served by a brand new high-speed quad. The brand new Bucksaw Specific quad holds down speedy carry service to the brand new terrain pod—and within the course of, brings a much-needed further high-speed lift-served space to Sugarloaf. Whereas the brand new trails themselves aren’t uniquely numerous, they’re usually additional spaced aside than the closely-bunched trails elsewhere on the entrance facet, they usually do supply a definite really feel and set of views over the runs in the primary areas of the mountain. Whereas it was onerous to evaluate this season due to the realm’s mid-February opening date, this new terrain pod ought to present wanted crowding reduction to the resort’s two different high-speed quads, the Whiffletree and Sugarloaf SuperQuads.
Large Sky (With Tram Add-On)
Resiliency Rating Change: 7 to eight
Large Sky’s all-new, 75-passenger Lone Peak Tram sits in a very totally different alignment than the outdated 15-passenger “can”. The carry is now immediately accessible from out-of-base lifts and loads simpler to lap from Lone Peak’s south and east-facing bowl terrain. Importantly, the brand new design and alignment have made the tram capable of function extra reliably than in seasons’ previous.
Sadly, Large Sky has held onto some pretty controversial insurance policies in relation to Lone Peak Tram entry. Fairly than being included with the bottom stage of entry, sure move merchandise don’t include the Lone Peak Tram as customary, and as a substitute cost friends per journey on the resort’s highest carry. Therefore, this rating change solely applies to the Large Sky expertise for individuals who both purchase a daily carry ticket or select to pay for the extra-cost add-on for his or her move product once they go to.
Taos
Lifts Rating Change: 4 to five
This previous season, New Mexico’s greatest resort had some massive initiatives within the works. Most notably, the resort changed its Carry 4 fixed-grip quad chair with a high-speed removable, chopping the journey time in half and including a second high-speed carry to the more and more fashionable mountain. In contrast to the expert-oriented Carry 1, which was beforehand Taos’s solely high-speed carry, Carry 4 serves a lot mellower terrain, lastly making it extra fascinating to lap a few of Taos’s greatest newbie and intermediate runs. Taos nonetheless has fairly a couple of slower lifts in its mid- and upper-mountain areas, however the brand new improve makes the resort much more palatable for these whose main intention isn’t to hike and search out professional traces all day.
Sunday River
Lifts Rating Change: 5 to six
Sunday River’s new Barker 6 is a substitute for what was beforehand probably the most problematic chairlifts within the area. Even by itself, the brand new six-pack carry is a welcome addition to this Maine resort’s carry fleet; like with the Jordan 8 carry put in the yr earlier than, the brand new Barker chair comes with heated, contoured seats along with brand-aligned ruby purple bubbles that present isolation from the weather on chilly and windy days. However maybe an excellent greater good thing about the brand new Barker chair is in permitting Sunday River to retire its high-speed quad predecessor; whereas the outdated Barker carry seemed pretty trendy on the floor, it suffered from severe mechanical points—and in its closing years, it wasn’t even capable of run at its meant design velocity.
Whereas we’re nonetheless hoping the resort upgrades a couple of significantly dated lifts in sure different mountain areas in future seasons, it’s onerous to argue that the Barker 6 hasn’t made a big impression on the general expertise at Sunday River—and one which goes far past a typical lifecycle improve.
Schweitzer
Lifts Rating Change: 6 to 7
Whereas it may simply be considered as only a newbie carry, the brand new Creekside Specific brings various notable advantages that each one Schweitzer friends ought to admire. Along with bringing high-speed carry service to Schweitzer’s solely two newbie trails, the brand new carry can be the catchment for friends arriving from the resort’s slopeside parking zone, that means that the capability improve from a double to a quad actually helps scale back traces at the start of the day. As well as, the brand new carry has been prolonged down in a decrease alignment than the outdated Musical Chairs double, with a provision for a brand new, a lot greater parking zone that’s set to open subsequent yr. The skier bridge right down to the Creekside carry is a bit narrower than it may very well be, however total, this improve makes for a way more inviting newbie setup and makes the arrival expertise much less of a problem.
Solar Valley
Crowd Move Rating Change: 7 to eight
This previous season, Central Idaho’s most distinguished ski resort utterly redesigned its Heat Springs base space. The Northern Rockies vacation spot eliminated the 2 lifts out of its Heat Springs base space, Challenger and Greyhawk, and changed them with two brand-new detachables—the Challenger six-pack, and the Flying Squirrel quad. The brand new Challenger carry immediately replaces each the Challenger and Greyhawk lifts, nevertheless it’s 20% sooner than the outdated chairs, making for a a lot speedier journey up the 9,000-foot carry line. The brand new Flying Squirrel high-speed quad runs in a very new alignment, permitting a lot easier and quick entry to factors south of the Heat Springs space than in years’ previous. These updates make it a lot much less of a ache to spend time within the Heat Springs space and have helped unfold crowds extra evenly throughout the 2 lifts there.
Snowbasin
Crowd Move Rating Change: 7 to eight
Whereas Snowbasin’s new DeMoisy six-pack carry doesn’t add high-speed carry service to any new terrain, it resolves what was principally the resort’s solely remaining chokepoint—its Strawberry base. As a substitute of driving the Strawberry Gondola, friends now have a further fascinating carry choice to serve a lot of the identical terrain—and one which doesn’t require skiers and riders to take off their gear. The DeMoisy chair additionally runs alongside a shorter, much less wind-prone carry line than the Strawberry Gondola, due to this fact permitting the resort to maintain the Strawberry space open below gusty situations that pressure the gondola to shut.
Whiteface
Lifts Rating Change: 4 to five
Whereas it doesn’t handle requires much-needed upper-mountain carry enhancements, Whiteface’s new Notch carry does convey various new advantages, mainly for newcomers and people beginning on the Bear Den base. The brand new chair brings high-speed carry service to the Bear Den base for the primary time, and the brand new alignment integrates this mellower terrain pod with the remainder of the resort a lot better than the earlier setup. Because of this, not solely do newcomers have high-speed entry to a a lot bigger number of terrain, however they’re capable of lap a piece of it much more conveniently. The Notch carry isn’t good—it doesn’t prolong up excessive sufficient to attach with the upper-mountain lifts, so friends will nonetheless should ski or journey again right down to the bottom or bear by way of a journey up a sluggish double chair to get to the Summit and Lookout Mountain Chairs. However as a way of bettering the newbie expertise, the challenge will get the job accomplished.
Magic Mountain
Lifts Rating Change: 2 to three; Crowd Move Rating Change: 7 to eight
Magic Mountain’s Black Line Quad might have been essentially the most hotly-anticipated carry set up in current East Coast historical past. This southern Vermont ski space had been working to put in its first four-person carry for over 4 years earlier than it lastly opened to the general public in February 2024. This base-to-summit carry runs parallel to the purple double chair, which had supplied the one entry to the highest of the mountain for the previous 5 years, and it now triples the capability to Magic’s resort summit. Whereas crowding has by no means been an enormous challenge at Magic thanks largely to the resort’s cap on carry ticket gross sales—and the brand new fixed-grip quad isn’t any sooner than the neighboring double—the elevated capability now permits the resort to promote extra tickets every day, which ought to convey in additional income for what’s one of many solely remaining independently-owned ski areas within the southern a part of the state.
Breckenridge
Lifts Rating Change: 6 to 7
Breckenridge has lengthy been probably the most fashionable ski resorts in North America, however a number of carry enhancements over the previous three years have helped make the general expertise higher. This previous season, the resort put in the 5 SuperChair, providing a fourth high-speed carry choice out of its Peak 8 base—and one which immediately serves each some underutilized newbie terrain and a few of Breckenridge’s hottest terrain park areas. Whereas mainly helper in nature for almost all of use circumstances, this improve has helped relieve the Peak 9 newbie terrain zones in addition to the neighboring Colorado SuperChair. Mixed with final yr’s Rip’s Journey substitute and the previous yr’s Freedom SuperChair improve, we really feel that Breckenridge deserves a bump in our rankings.
Deer Valley
Crowd Move Rating Change: 6 to 7
On the floor, Deer Valley might come throughout as probably the most unique ski resorts in North America, with capability restrictions and absurdly excessive carry ticket costs for entry. However for various years, this ski-only mountain struggled to deal with crowds in sure areas resulting from its chokepoint-heavy carry setup—particularly on the finish of the day, when returning to sure resort areas required driving solely a handful of lifts. However over the previous few years, Deer Valley has accomplished a greater job of sustaining these crowds, doubtless thanks largely to leaving the Ikon Base Go, requiring reservations for the remaining Ikon merchandise it’s affiliated with, and persevering with to restrict their (nonetheless atrociously priced) carry ticket gross sales.
Rating Changes Primarily based on Standards Recalibrations
Large Sky
Navigation Rating Change: 3 to 4
Montana’s Large Sky is a big, difficult mountain, and there are some irritating navigational conditions—particularly when attending to and from the beforehand separate Moonlight Basin and Spanish Peaks areas. However whereas these two terrain zones could be fairly complicated to get in or out of, we most likely overindexed these particular conditions on the general navigation rating. Large Sky’s major mountain terrain zones are fairly simple to entry for a resort of its measurement (albeit by not means good), and the resort as a complete is not at all as tough to get round as Park Metropolis, which is the one different ski resort that has traditionally shared a rating of three on this class. Given these circumstances, we consider this replace will extra precisely mirror the resort’s ease of getting round.
Beaver Creek
Terrain Range Rating Change: 8 to 7
Regardless of its lack of true advanced-level bowl areas, Beaver Creek has traditionally supplied a decently well-rounded number of ski terrain, even for the aggressive Colorado market. However upon reviewing Beaver Creek our first time round, we neglected a deficiency in a class that’s often taken with no consideration at high-caliber ski resorts—intermediate groomer terrain. The resort’s moderately-sloped cruising terrain is mainly relegated to the lower-mountain Arrowhead space, with solely restricted choices elsewhere throughout the footprint, and upon reflection, we really feel the resort was beforehand overrated on this class.
Snowbasin
Terrain Range Rating Change: 8 to 7; Problem Rating Change: 8 to 7
Utah’s Snowbasin is one other ski resort that gives a well-rounded footprint, however lacks a couple of fundamentals that put it a step under the place we’d beforehand rated it within the terrain range division. The resort affords a variety of terrain sorts for almost all of skill ranges, however below-treeline groomers are pretty restricted in nature in comparison with different resorts with a rating of 8 on this class. Mixed with Snowbasin’s extraordinarily restricted newbie terrain, we really feel {that a} rating of seven on this class is greatest.
We additionally acknowledge that we doubtless gave Snowbasin a little bit of a leg up in comparison with the way it must be rated within the problem class. The resort does have some surprisingly excessive terrain—particularly off the Allen Peak Tram and a few very quick hikes off the Strawberry Gondola—however these trails are fairly tough to seek out and received’t be skilled by the overwhelming majority of Snowbasin friends. Different competing resorts with a rating of 8 are tougher when it comes to their fairly accessible terrain, and we’re making this rating adjustment accordingly.
Grand Targhee
Crowd Move Rating Change: 8 to 9
Final yr, Grand Targhee’s Colter enlargement introduced basic enhancements to the resort’s lift-served footprint measurement, terrain accessibility, and slope range. However one place the place we most likely didn’t give Targhee sufficient credit score was within the new Colter carry’s skill to unfold out crowds. Grand Targhee hardly ever sees notable waits of any variety besides on the busiest of days, and it definitely deserves to have a crowd movement rating that’s multiple level greater than close by Jackson Gap. Upon reflection, we really feel a rating improve to 9 on this class is justified.
Whistler Blackcomb
Mountain Aesthetic Rating Change: 10 to 9
Whistler Blackcomb is definitely a surprising ski resort, however after a number of years of visiting essentially the most iconic resorts throughout North America and Europe, it’s onerous to justify conserving it within the prime tier of ski resorts for magnificence. Whereas its peaks will definitely go away an awe-inspiring impression on clear days, the resort is simply too cloud and wet-storm-prone to compete with the opposite resorts in our prime tier for this class, all of which a lot supply extra constant visibility.
Banff Sunshine Village
Mountain Aesthetic Rating Change: 10 to 9
In the same vein to Whistler, we had been prompted to dock Banff Sunshine Village’s mountain aesthetic rating following our time spent in Europe this yr. Banff Sunshine is plainly lovely, however upon reflection, this high-alpine-heavy resort doesn’t have that very same true one-of-a-kind character to differentiate itself as a lot as the opposite top-tier resorts within the mountain aesthetic class—together with close by Lake Louise.
Telluride
Mountain Aesthetic Rating Change: 9 to 10
Then again, visiting Europe helped us admire simply how one-of-a-kind one of many different resorts we’ve frequented actually is: Colorado’s Telluride. We’d beforehand docked the resort for the buildup in its Mountain Village space, however looking back, that was pretty choosy, and most friends received’t spend an excessive amount of time on this space. Telluride’s red-rimmed mountains and distinguished peaks make for an unparalleled backdrop that may’t actually be discovered at every other in-bounds ski resort, and upon deep reflection, we’ve determined that the resort is worthy of a promotion to the highest tier on this class.
Rankings Takeaways
Just a few notable rankings shifts have occurred:
Steamboat was the most important beneficiary from these modifications, leaping all the best way up from thirty ninth to twenty fourth in our rankings. The resort has jumped forward of a number of aggressive locations in Colorado, Utah, Tahoe, and Western Canada.
Equally, Aspen Mountain jumps from forty sixth to thirty seventh total. It strikes above Wolf Creek in our Colorado rankings.
There isn’t a change within the rank-order of our prime seven resorts. Whistler Blackcomb in Canada nonetheless stays #1 total regardless of the mountain aesthetic rating lower. Equally, Banff Sunshine Village retains its place as fifth in North America.
Telluride jumps forward of Snowbasin and Beaver Creek in our rankings, shifting as much as eighth place.
Sugarloaf jumps forward of Bretton Woods to assert sixth place on the East Coast. Sunday River jumps as much as eighth within the East, overtaking Stratton, whereas Whiteface jumps as much as tenth, overtaking Saddleback.
For extra info on our methodology, see our scores thresholds for every Mountain Rating class.
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