New reviews and updates

Over the summer we added our first guest submitted review for Mt. Bohemia in Michigan.  Since we will likely never get there, we asked reader Michael Doyle if he would be interested in writing something up. He created a great review for us.  He has decades of experience skiing the midwest and has skied 54 of the Top 100 list.

We also updated all of the stats, some trail maps, and then the rankings themselves based on more recent experiences and updated stats.  The Deer Valley review was affected the most due to their recent massive expansion.

Mt. Perisher 6 terrain – September 2026

Australia and New Zealand 2026

We had such a great time last year in New Zealand that we decided to do it again, but since we were going to be flying 12+ hours we added in Australia this time. AiRung had never been there, and the last time I went in August 2018 the snow was great and the skiing at Thredbo was very comparable to what we have in North America.

We researched climate history in Australia and decided late August was the perfect time to go, so we timed the trip around that. That would be late February in North America which is a week or 2 before our peak conditions usually. Early September is the most consistent new snowfall period in New Zealand and we would be heading to Queenstown by then.

Whittakers – some of the best chocolate we ever had. Make sure to get some if you ever go to New Zealand.

What happened

Skiing in August is a rare treat when it’s in the 90’s at home in California, but we definitely didn’t have good luck on this trip! Australia just experienced their worst year ever for snowfall and warm temps. There were 2 huge rain events that melted most of the snow just before we got there. Sound familiar? This is exactly what happened in the western US last winter. We skied a day at Perisher and a day at Thredbo. Both were on their last legs already, mostly melted out. I know how great Thredbo can be from the 2018 trip when everything was open and the snow quality was great, so this was really unfortunate.

Mid mountain at Thredbo, August 2026

Although there was plenty of snow in New Zealand, the wind shut us down and a recent rain/refreeze event made off-piste skiing limited. For 2 of the 3 days we could ski, half the mountain was on wind hold. Visibility was poor on the other day. Getting up there with chain controls meant booking the bus in advance which reduced our options.

I had planned on Heli-skiing with Harris Mountain like I did 18 years ago which was one of the best ski days of my life. They didn’t operate a single day we were there and didn’t operate for more than a week before we arrived and a week after we left. This was a very persistent weather pattern.

We plan to put up mini reviews of Thredbo, Perisher, Treble Cone, and Cardrona soon.  I’ve skied all of those twice except Cardrona.  We were really impressed with Cardrona and that would probably be one of our top choices for New Zealand skiing if we ever go back.

Trail to the SOHO Express at Cardrona, September 2026

The best, most memorable parts of this trip were the days in Sydney and one of the down-days in Queenstown when we took a lake tour on the TSS Earnslaw.  Sydney is probably the nicest city we’ve ever visited.  There is so much to do there that we could easily spend a week.  If we ever go back to Australia this would be our main destination.

Sunset in Sydney – August 2026

The TSS Earnslaw was a huge surprise.  It’s the only working steamship in the Southern Hemisphere apparently.  It’s not just made to look like a steamship — it actually runs on some guy shoveling coal into furnaces belowdecks.  You can go into the engine room and watch how the whole process works and see the steam engine operating.  The views out on the lake were amazing.  It’s a beautiful place.

Lake Wakatipu view from the TSS Earnslaw, September 2026

Plans

For the 26/27 ski season in North America we plan to visit Jackson Hole and Grand Targhee before Christmas as usual, possibly followed by some of the resorts on the 100+ list up in the northern Rockies if there is good early season snowfall.  We also have a trip to 3 Valleys in France in late January.  This is the largest ski area in the world so we felt like we had to go there.  Hopefully we have better luck than we did in Australia and New Zealand!

In February we hope to hit the 3 Aspen resorts on our Mountain Collective passes. On that same trip we will try to get over to Telluride and Taos.   This year is supposed to be the biggest El Nino in history which could mean great things for Tahoe, but almost guarantees some difficult weather conditions and rain, which may limit actually being able to get up to the resorts on good days.  We will be keeping our plans flexible.  With full Epic and Mountain Collective passes we have a lot of options.

Some nice snow at Treble Cone – September 2026