Mammoth Lakes, CA

For once, the hyperbole actually applies. A summit elevation of 11,053 feet and a hefty 3,100-foot vertical drop are just some Mammoth stats that don't need any embroidering by Bay Area marketing whiz kids. The mountain is served by 28 lifts numbered in the order they were built, giving a nod to ...

Whistler, BC

Welcome to Whistler/Blackcomb, Land of Oz. Like Oz, Whistler is a magical place—especially when the guy behind the curtain lets the sun out. The stats foreshadow the enormity of the possibilities.

Whistler and Blackcomb are separate mountains and were once separate, competing ...

Avon, CO

Vail is the 800-pound gorilla of American skiing. This massive mountain is all things to all skiers and riders—a soothing beginner environment, a nurturing place for small fries to make their first turns, a mountain full of electrifying challenges, and most of all, a huge ski area with ...

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 ...

South Lake Tahoe, CA, CA

Heavenly is unique in that it sprawls across state boundaries. Part of the ski area is in California and part is in Nevada, and for my money, the Nevada part is the better part. The fall line is more sustained, meaning that runs tend to be longer.

For novice skiers, Heavenly can be ...

Teton Village, WY

The Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is, in its own words, "Like nothing you have skied before." This sign, on a T-shirt in nearly every shop in town, hangs above the entrance to the resort's tram dock and goes on to say, "It is huge. With variable terrain from groomed slopes to dangerous cliff ...