Alta, UT

Alta is the land of free-heel skiing, wool pants, hiking for untracked powder, Wasatch wahoos, and old-fashioned fixed lifts. Alta is old-school skiing at its best—and that also means NO SNOWBOARDING. Quality, not quantity, is what counts here. The best lines are all a hike from the top of ...

Dillon, CO

"Arapahoe Basin ... Where the spirit of freedom and big-mountain challenges create life-altering experiences."

Arapahoe Basin’s old-school motto may push the ski-bum mentality to near-religious extremes, but after you burn your quads in this epic, 900-acre resort you will likely ...

Aspen, CO

Aspen Highlands, though part of the larger Aspen Resorts network (along with Aspen Mountain, Snowmass, and Buttermilk), is somewhat removed from the glam and glitterati found in this Mecca of winterized chic. Quite simply, Aspen Highlands is all about skiing, and because of that it’s the ...

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 ...

Lake Louise, AB

Of the Banff-Lake Louise area's three ski resorts, Lake Louise is the biggest, weighing in at a whopping 4,200 acres. It posts some other impressive stats, too, including a summit elevation of 8,650 feet, a longest run of five miles, ten lifts to take you to all corners, plus two mid-mountain ...

Wilmington, NY

Twice the site of the Winter Olympics, Lake Placid offers a wonderfully quirky combination of small-town Americana and international competition center. Whiteface boasts the East's largest vertical drop, but also harbors a reputation for being cold and icy. It can be that, but there's something ...

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 ...

Stowe, VT

The self-proclaimed Beast of the East exceeds mere regional boasting. Stowe sports four of the toughest slopes in New England; its high-speed lifts to each peak keep the lines moving; its slopes range from sharp-angle blacks to gentle cruisers; and its glade runs alone make this place worthy of ...

Carrabassett Valley, ME

Sugarloaf is Maine's second-highest peak next to Mount Katahdin (5,267 feet) and rises from 1,417 to 4,237 feet, giving skiers and riders 2,820 feet of continuous vertical to play with. Sugarloaf has the only above tree-line skiing and riding in the East, "The Snowfields," and sits immovable ...

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 ...