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The best 100 ski resorts in North America

This is our list of what we think are the best 100 ski resorts in the United States and Canada.  We identified a minimum set of criteria that each resort must meet to start the process.

Looking for paradise on skis

Looking for paradise on skis

Criteria

  • At least 1400′ vertical.  We measure vertical drop as the largest continuously skiable vertical drop via ski lift.  If you have to climb it doesn’t count.  If you can’t ski from the highest point to the lowest without taking a lift, it doesn’t count.
  • At least 250 acres of terrain.  This tends to matter more for North-eastern areas because resorts in the Northeast have narrower trails and heavy trees, cutting down on acreage.
  • We favor areas that get more than 250″ of snowfall but the lower limit is 120″ for Canada and far northern states.  Once you get under 100″ of natural snowfall you are basically skiing entirely on groomed runs that have snowmaking.  If it’s under 175″ of snowfall, it has to be really far north or it’s not going to be consistently good, so southwestern states have a higher minimum.
  • At least 2 ski “pods”, or areas served by distinct lifts.  No “one-lift covers the whole mountain” places unless it is really unique (La Grave, France comes to mind with a 6000′ vertical rise lift).
  • Has to have some challenging terrain.  Skiing is an adventure and for us we need some steep stuff to get the blood pumping.  Trail ratings are not consistent across different resorts, so a lot of research was done by reading reviews and watching Youtube videos of people skiing down the most challenging runs at each candidate resort.  Resorts like Okemo and Stratton were taken off the list for this reason.  If an intermediate skier can ski the double-black terrain it’s not on the list.

Narrowing it down…

After qualifying resorts based on stats, we poured over trail maps and resort reviews to cut the list down to a more manageable 100 resorts.  There are over 600 resorts in North America, so that was not easy.  Most of the places we chose were somewhat known to us already from reading articles in the ski mags or talking to people on the mountain.  In the end, this list is what we think are the best, but not everyone will agree.

Why is my favorite resort not on the list?

There are a few resorts that by stats would seem to qualify, but which we eliminated due to various factors including accessibility, aging facilities, strange mountain layout, poor management, or previous experience that wasn’t good.

Why do the stats on our reviews not match published resort numbers?

Our reviews hope to capture the truth about skiing at a resort, so only the main lifts are counted and the vertical drop represents the continuously skiable vertical (when available).  Magic carpets and other lifts designated as learning zones aren’t interesting to the average skier and thus are not counted here.  Vertical can be deceptive when you just take the difference between the high and low elevations but it’s impossible to ski between those two points.

Here’s a map showing all 100.

West Coast – 22

Rockies & Interior BC – 64

Northeast – 14

The project has been expanded beyond 100

Once we finished skiing the 100 resorts on this list together, we decided to add another 34 resorts that we’d really like to try.  We have been doing this for so long we can’t just stop when the 100 were complete!  23 of the additional resorts planned could potentially replace the resorts at the bottom of the rankings on this list.  Visit this page to see what we are working on now: The 100+ resorts.

Also, here are a few random resorts not in North America and random unremarkable smaller ski areas we skied over the years:  Other places we’ve skied 

 

Zachary Paul

Wednesday 15th of April 2026

Wondering why Saddleback is not here?

Garrett

Monday 13th of July 2026

@Ron Thompson, love the list, could mount spokane also qualify on the 100+ list?

Ron Thompson

Saturday 18th of April 2026

Hi Zachary, Saddleback is on the https://skinorthamerica100.com/the-100-plus-resorts/ list and it's our top choice for the next resort to ski in the Northeast. It will very likely replace some other resort on the list.

Zac Hussey

Monday 5th of January 2026

I love Mad River Glen, but is nowhere near other east mountains like saddleback, waterville or even mont sutton. Most of its terrain is served by a single person chairlift.

Caleb

Saturday 29th of November 2025

Have you gone to Alyeska? I hear it has tons of snow and awesome terrain and views. And it doesn't get crowds.

Ron Thompson

Sunday 30th of November 2025

We plan to, but it's hard to get to and we haven't had time yet. It's on our 100+ list and would be our top pick for a resort that will definitely end up on the Best 100 list once we get to ski it.

Kevin Reilly

Saturday 3rd of February 2024

Hi Ron. Just wanted to give you an update on your review of Brundage ski area (my local mountain). First off the high speed ski lift you called “Big Blue” is actually called “Bluebird Express.” Secondly, you mentioned in your review that the Centennial fixed-grip was slow and should be replaced. You correctly nailed it! I’m happy to report that Brundage has replaced that lift with a high speed lift now called the Centennial Express and is up & running for the 23/24 ski season. As I stated once before, your reviews on your site are outstanding and I throughly enjoy visiting your site often just to see the photos and your thoughts on each ski area. One last comment: I have often wondered what ski resorts are the biggest and put together my own list using these 2 factors that all ski areas use - vertical & size or acres. Thus when you combine the two, vertical + acres = actual size. In one of your reports concerning Whiteface you mentioned that it skied much bigger than it’s actual size or acres and that’s because it has over 3,200 vertical feet making it look & feel bigger than the just the acres or size. I think it’s fair to use both measurements and add the two to give skiers the true representation of the ski area and I’m surprised this hasn’t been used by the ski industry over the years. If your interested I could send you my list via email. Thanks, Kevin

Ron Thompson

Thursday 8th of February 2024

Hi Kevin -- Thanks for letting me know about the corrections needed for the Brundage review. I fixed the issues and updated the trail map which now shows Centennial as a high-speed quad. It's hard to keep up with the changes that happen over 100 ski resorts and that one slipped through.

Drop me an email with your list: skinorthamerica100@gmail.com. Whistler/Blackcomb is going to come out on top with both a huge vertical and huge acreage but I'm curious to see how our impressions match your formula. I took the approach of providing rankings of vertical and size separately so people could look at whichever is more important to them, but your idea definitely makes a lot of sense.

I'm glad you enjoy the site, and thanks again!

Thomas

Monday 31st of July 2023

I haven't skied it, but if/when you make it up to Alaska, you should check out Eaglecrest. It looks like a really cool hidden gem. Also one question - why is Mission Ridge not on the list?

Thanks

Ron Thompson

Saturday 26th of August 2023

Hi Thomas, Mission Ridge was ALMOST on the list. I can't really come up with a good reason why it didn't make it but it looks like an interesting resort. We plan to ski it after we finish the last 2 and it will get reviewed and linked to the site. There are probably at least 10 resorts that should have been included, but then it would be skinorthamerica110 which is awkward!