Snowbird, UT

Snowbird's Aerial Tram plows into the early morning mist, packed to the hilt with lucky skiers, mountain rescue crews, and liftees, all expectantly awaiting just one thing: first tracks down the slopes of one of North America's top-rated resorts.

And even though the scenery remains ...

Avon, CO

Colorado's most luxurious resort continues growing around its new village center. Luxurious lodgings in an elegant and monumental mountain style, fine dining (Wolfgang Puck’s eatery is a staple), and subdued nightlife are the resort's hallmarks, but Vail-based skiers commute to ski the ...

Park City, UT

One of alpine’s enduring mysteries? How The Canyons ski resort remains one of Park City’s best-kept secrets despite its mammoth size. The resort stretches across nine peaks with 4,000 skiable acres, 182 trails, five bowls, six natural half pipes, and ample backcountry access, but ...

Olympic Valley, CA

Squaw is the American birthplace of extreme skiing. About 25 ago, Squaw locals began skiing impossible lines from the Palisades, essentially a cliff with snow stuck to it. In the early 1980s, Scot Schmidt, arguably the father of extreme skiing, arrived in Squaw to pull 100-foot cliff ...

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 ...

Winter Park, CO

Winter Park, the closest ski resort to Denver, has long had the reputation as Colorado’s favorite ski area. It's understandable that lucky locals who have the best skiing on earth on their doorstep appreciate a ski area with grandiose and varied terrain, constant upgrades to lifts and day ...

Big Sky, MT

If you want skiing that's uncluttered, scenic, and laid-back, then Big Sky's your place. A big turnout in this 3,832-acre resort is around 4,000 people a day. The lines here are ridiculously short, if they exist at all, and Big Sky has consistently worked to keep lift capacity higher than the ...

Beaupre, QU

It's somewhere around the mid-run sugar shack stop for tire d'erable—a maple taffy made from hot, locally tapped syrup poured onto a trough of snow to cool and rolled, lollipop-style, onto a stick—that it dawns on you: Skiing in Quebec isn't just a colder, Frenchier version of ...

Solitude, UT

Solitude is located near the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon, just one mile down the road from Brighton. The resort offers a great mix of terrain for skiers and snowboarders of all abilities. It has long been a favorite of Salt Lake City locals due to its abundance of powder and variety of terrain. ...

Bolton, VT

Though it sounds impossible, Vermonters have been able to keep the 5,000-acre stretch of pristine wilderness that includes Bolton Valley largely to themselves. The resort is the kind of place that hosts local high school ski-team practices, league races composed of corporate types from ...