The Top 10 Ski Resorts in the US

[Admin]

Throughout the history of FTO we've eschewed the obligatory resort rankings list that seemingly every other ski publication tallies. Why? Well, for one thing it's incredibly subjective (see Crocker's recent musings/ramblings/rantings on skier ignorance as a prime example). For another, so-called reader rankings released by other pubs are rife with ballot box-stuffing corruption by resorts from coast to coast. If you need a third reason, it's because you Liftlines users would shred the list to smithereens. Yeah, you're that good. Give yourselves a hearty pat on the back for screwing with my livelihood.

However, along comes a list today from Forbes. What criteria did they use? Not snowfall, not lifts, not customer service, not accessibility... not even who serves the best ski town appletini to Muffy and Biff in their sequined Bogners and fur lined Moon Boots. Instead they used PAF, or Pure Awesomeness Factor. Forbes has a sense of humor, who knew? And besides, I can't think of a better unit of measurement than PAF.

The Top 10 Ski Resorts in the United States for 2013
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopher ... -for-2013/

Go on, now, tear it to sheds. I know you can. Yeah, you're that good.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II using Tapatalk 2

 

[rfarren]

"AWESOME"ness hmmmm.... The list is crap... Jackson Hole ain't #1 of anything in the world, well maybe one thing, the most over-rated south facing mountain in the rockies. This means that it is pretty much crap during march.

Vail is on the list, Aspen isn't.... Is this a list of all things big and flat?

Stupid lists.

 

[socal]

"AWESOME"ness hmmmm.... The list is crap... Jackson Hole ain't #1 of anything in the world, well maybe one thing, the most over-rated south facing mountain in the rockies. This means that it is pretty much crap during march.

Vail is on the list, Aspen isn't.... Is this a list of all things big and flat?

Stupid lists.

Have you been to Jackson? Sure it faces too far east but it does well on snow and tends to stay cold all winter. Oh yeah, it's got some ok terrain as well. Throw in decent accommodations (<$70 night) in a cool town with great food or the option of staying at an amazing four seasons or snake river lodge and it is an easy argument to make. Not saying I'd have it #1 (hmm, I might) but you need to give the place some credit.

 

[rfarren]

I've been to Jackson, and it was alright. I don't think it makes number 1 on my list. Of course I visited the first week of march, and the place was either mush or hard as hell, and worse on cloudy days. I suppose had there been fresh snow my opinion would've been a bit different. The terrain is very good, but the best stuff I skied was backcountry, and that was in large part because of the better directional aspect. The mountain also doesn't have the elevation to mitigate the aspect problem for March skiing, which I believe is the best time of the year to ski.

In my opinion LCC deserves to be #1. It's easy to get to, very reliable with weather and snow. It borders a city with a ton of awesome dining options, cheap lodgings. Best of all I can ski the day I arrive.

 

[socal]

If it were a pure skiing list I'd agree that LCC is the best combination of terrain and snow, probably the reason I'm there at least 2x per winter, but LCC and SLC really aren't comparable to Jackson. Going to Jackson is like going on vacation, SLC I love but feels like visiting a city, which it is. For a vacation I understand why the average skier who probably skis groomers 70%of the time just doesn't love SLC.

 

[Skrad]

At least they liked Snowbird's architecture.

 

[EMSC]

Hey only all of Utah and half of Colorado made the list (well that's pretty close anyway).

At least he admits tongue in cheek that there is no methodology or other pretend 'objective' criteria. He just likes those 10 and well... so be it.

And sorry rfarren, but Jackson is much better than you are giving it credit for. You must have had some really, spectacularly bad snow conditions or something.

 

[Marc_C]

And sorry rfarren, but Jackson is much better than you are giving it credit for. You must have had some really, spectacularly bad snow conditions or something.

There's nothing quite as refreshing as basing a bias on a single data point.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

And sorry rfarren, but Jackson is much better than you are giving it credit for. You must have had some really, spectacularly bad snow conditions or something.

There's nothing quite as refreshing as basing a bias on a single data point.

He was disappointed in the piano player at the Mangy Moose that night.

 

[SnowbirdDevotee]

That's the same guy who just wrote the book on AlgoreRhythms, I just happened to place it on my Amazon Wish List last evening. Algorithms are doing their best to try to destroy our lives, but I won't hold that against him because he wrote a very good article, however we do have to put LCC at the top of the list as far as pure skiing goes. At least he made it #2.

 

[rfarren]

You must have had some really, spectacularly bad snow conditions or something.

They weren't great, not spectacularly bad, but not great. It certainly wasn't worth the total schlep to get there, nor the fairly expensive costs involved. I think part of the problem were my expectations going into it.

There's nothing quite as refreshing as basing a bias on a single data point.

Pretty much...

 

[Tony Crocker]

That was far from the worst top 10 list of resorts I've seen. I'll just say there are a lot of inconsistencies. Park City only gets consideration for something like this due to its quality as a resort town, and the author correctly lists those attributes first. So how does a place like Wolf Creek get on the same list by the same author?

And sorry rfarren, but Jackson is much better than you are giving it credit for. You must have had some really, spectacularly bad snow conditions or something.

With regard to rfarren's experience at Jackson, my first time there in late March of 1986 had indeed spectacularly bad snow conditions, despite a 110 inch base, so I left after one day and spent the rest of the week in SLC. In fact I credit that trip as the biggest motivating factor in spurring me to research ski mountains more intensively. Jackson is Exhibit A IMHO of the failure of most of the ski press to give prevailing snow conditions the emphasis it deserves in helping vacationers decide when and where to go skiing.

....March skiing, which I believe is the best time of the year to ski.

A false overgeneralization. Looking at Northern Hemiphere skiing overall, if you had to choose one month it would certainly be February. In most of Colorado and high altitude resorts in the Alps it would be March. In Japan, Jackson, much of the Pacific Northwest it would be January. In Alaska and I would argue Mt. Bachelor I'd take April.

Jackson certainly is a worthy contender (and maybe even the plurality choice among expert skiers) for best terrain quality in North America. And its exposure flaw is greatly mitigated by confining destination trips there to the period between Christmas and mid-February. For those within drive distance (and I would include admin & company here) I think Jackson is well worth last minute storm chasing. I've personally rated Jackson anywhere from #6 to #9, and I've also said it would rate #3 behind AltaBird and Whistler/Blackcomb if you rotated the mountain 90 degrees so it faced NE instead of SE.

There's nothing quite as refreshing as basing a bias on a single data point.

My reaction to that first awful data point was that I saw (though could ski very little of) that awesome terrain in 1986 and hoped to get back there under better conditions, which I finally did in 2006 and 2012.

 

[berkshireskier]

http://www.travelandleisure.com/article ... i-towns/12

See somewhat related article.

 

[ChrisC]

I like the list.

However, the author needs to get out of Southwest Colorado and check out the Northwest.

Wolf Creek and Silverton on a top 10 list? I think Taos or Crested Butte are more interesting.

Also, try something like Crystal Mt., Whitefish, Bachelor...