By David Schissler
(September 2014) Being a resort guy, I love the annual rankings report. Each year I check to see who has risen or fallen, making the places I haven’t been to a priority, and just gauging the overall health of resorts based on their progress. Admittedly, although the ranking are over an impressive number of categories the weighting of each is subjective. I’ll take terrain, surface and lifts (in that order) over on-hill dining, family friendliness or night life. My wife would disagree. Resorts generally rise or fall in the ranking due to investment in new lifts, new terrain, new snowmaking, new lodges and a few other factors. Here’s what 12,000 Ski magazine readers determined for this season.
WEST
2015 Rank
1 Whistler-Blackcomb, B.C.
2 Deer Valley, UT
3 Sun Valley, ID
4 Telluride, CO
5 Vail, CO
6 Snowmass, CO
7 Park City, UT
8 Jackson Hole, WY
9 Breckenridge, CO
10 Steamboat, CO
11 Beaver Creek, CO
12 Aspen Mountain, CO
13 Whitefish, MT
14 Canyons Resort, UT
15 Winter Park , CO
16 Aspen Highlands, CO
17 Big Sky, MT
18 Copper Mountain, CO
19 Crested Butte, CO
20 Heavenly, CA
21 Snowbird, UT
22 Mammoth Mountain, CA
23 Keystone, CO
24 Northstar, CA
25 Squaw Valley, CA
26 Taos Ski Valley, NM
27 Mount Bachelor, OR
28 Alta, UT
29 Solitude, UT
30 Snowbasin, UT
Newcomers: Mount Bachelor, OR
Dropped: Brighton, UT
Biggest gains: Whitefish, MT-8 places
Copper, CO-8 places, Breckenridge, CO-7 places Big Sky, MT-5 places, Whistler, BC-5 places
Biggest drops:
Taos, NM-8 places, Mammoth, CA-8 places Jackson Hole, WY-7 places,
Big Sky, MT-5 places
EAST
1 Tremblant, Quebec
2 Smuggler’s Notch, VT
3 Stowe, VT
4 Killington, VT
5 Holiday Valley, NY
6 Whiteface, NY
7 Sugarloaf, ME
8 Bretton Woods, NH
9 Sunday River, ME
10 Okemo, VT
11 Sugarbush, VT
12 Jay Peak, VT
13 Stratton Mountain, VT
14 Waterville Valley, NH
15 Loon, NH
16 Mount Snow, VT
17 Cannon Mountain, NH
18 Mad River Glen, VT
19 Bromley, VT
20 Saddleback, ME
Newcomers: Mad River Glen, VT
Dropped: Gore, NY, Wildcat Mtn., NH
Biggest gains: Whiteface, NY-4 places, Killington, VT 4- places
Biggest drops: Jay Peak, VT- 9 places,
Sugarloaf, ME-5 places Sugarbush, VT-4 places Saddleback, ME-6 places