Park City, UT

As if wrapped in the latest zany installation of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Deer Valley is a lattice of metaphorical red carpet: trails groomed to perfection, multimillion-dollar lodges peppering the promontories, polite liftees who'd give palace butlers a run for their money, ...

Breckenridge, CO

Breckenridge is a charming Victorian town with lift-served skiing on four interconnected mountains. There’s easy-street skiing and snowboarding on Peak 9, tough stuff on Peak 10, and splendid backcountry-style skiing on Peak 7—155 trails in total, with a vertical rise of over 3,000 ...

Truckee, CA

Look at the trail map, and it might seem as though there is relatively little beginner terrain. But trust me—most of the intermediate runs at Northstar ski more like novice runs, and most of the advanced runs ski like intermediate runs. I've heard north-shore locals deride Northstar, ...

Copper Mountain, CO

If the Gods of Winter were looking for the perfect model for future ski resorts, Copper would be their template. The stats listed below paint part of the picture, but the geographical composition of the mountain itself, which naturally segregates skiers of different levels, really elevates ...

Steamboat Springs, CO

Tucked into Colorado's northwest corner, some three and a half hours from Denver and an hour's drive north of Summit County, Steamboat is a world unto itself. The mountains here are rounded peaks, not the jagged Rocky Mountain slopes you'll find farther south. But the snows still come in ...

Aspen, CO

As a ski area, Snowmass is the giant among the four Aspen options—and one of Colorado's biggest, with the nation's second-greatest vertical. It is huge, sprawling over a complex landscape of peaks, ridges, gullies, and open slopes that offer the greatest range of terrain, from the gentle ...