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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

Skykomish, WA

Simply put, Stevens Pass has some of the best powder in the Pacific Northwest. A 450-inch annual snowfall alone makes that claim more than mere conjecture, but factor in a 78-mile proximity to Seattle and its centralized position on the crest of the Cascade Range between Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie and ...

Norden, CA

The basic Sugar Bowl recipe: Take everything you've got at Squaw, simmer until reduced by about a half, and add snow. I know that Squaw reports more snow in an average winter, but somehow the snow seems deeper and more plentiful at Sugar Bowl. After all, it's just a couple of miles from where ...

Snoqualmie Pass, WA

Seattle skiers know it as the Summit at Snoqualmie dichotomy. One day you can be whipping down their signature run, Upper International, on a fresh layer of powder, the next day fighting the ice, rain, and fog on a cruiser like Golden Nugget that's supposedly groomed, thus earning the nickname, ...

Sundance, UT

Sundance Ski Resort is Robert Redford's little piece of paradise. That may be a bold statement considering the spectacular topography of the state of Utah, but after having visited once, most people would be hard-pressed to suggest a mountain landscape that is more beautiful. An added bonus to ...

Taos Ski Valley, NM

Taos, of course, is the stuff of legends. In skier lore, it ranks with Aspen, Sun Valley, and Squaw Valley among North America's must-ski places. So, when I'm standing at the bottom of Al's Run, the legendary trail at the legendary resort, and reading the sign that starts out by saying "Don't ...

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 ...

Timberline Lodge, OR

Mt. Hood's Timberline was the first ski area on the continent to offer lift-served summer skiing, and more than 50,000 skiers a season now take advantage of this novelty. There's nothing in the ski world to match a ride up the Magic Mile Super Express over the Palmer Snowfield. Palmer is ...