Several of our resorts have seen either a Mountain Score change or rankings shift as a result of score adjustments we released today. We’ve made these changes primarily to account for experience shifts that occurred at dozens of resorts during the 2023-24 season—but in a few cases, to also more effectively relay the contrasts between each mountain. Below, we’ve compiled the score and rankings changes for each mountain.
Score Adjustments Based on Experience Changes
Steamboat
Crowd Flow Score Change: 4 to 6; Terrain Diversity Score Change: 7 to 8; Challenge Score Change: 7 to 8
Steamboat’s ambitious series of lift and terrain investments resulted in the most fundamental transformation of the 2023-24 ski season—and it wasn’t even close. First off, the resort completed the second stage of the Wild Blue Gondola, marking this lift longest traditional gondola in North America. Secondly, the resort opened a nearly 500-acre expansion into Mahogany Ridge and Fish Creek Canyon, bringing a new massive, expert-oriented terrain zone to the ski area (the resort technically advertises a 776-acre terrain expansion, but 341 of the permitted acres in Fish Creek Canyon are not technically skiable).
These projects cut right at the heart of Steamboat’s biggest historical issues: frustrating lift logistics and difficult expert terrain access. The completed Wild Blue Gondola (the first stage, which extends to a new learning area, was completed in 2022) finally provides a way to get up and down the resort without going through the Thunderhead Lodge mid-point, doing wonders to reduce lines in the morning and even taking some pressure off the Elkhead Express lift in the afternoon. The Mahogany Ridge and Fish Creek Canyon expansion areas add some of the best steep skiable terrain in the state, including some gnarly experts-only lines in Fish Creek Canyon where the advertised “hike back” is a lot easier than the resort advertises. We’d argue that even despite a bit of side-stepping required to get out of Fish Creek Canyon, it’s easier to lap than the technically-lift-served but awkwardly-located Christmas Tree Chutes at the top of the Morningside lift. And the best part of the new expansion? At least as of the 2023-24 ski season, crowds in the Mahogany Ridge area were minimal.
It’s been quite awhile since a ski resort as large as Steamboat has experienced such a fundamental transformation over a single season, and it’s one that we expect industry followers to remember for years.
Keystone
Lifts Score Change: 5 to 6
This Interstate 70 corridor resort installed the Bergman Bowl Express lift, providing lift service to its high-alpine bowl terrain for the first time ever. Keystone has historically been one of the only major Colorado ski resorts without lift service to bowl terrain, so the project addresses a substantial shortcoming.
The new Bergman Bowl terrain zone brings a distinctive mix of trails for all ability levels, including some uniquely accessible runs for beginners and intermediates. Access to existing advanced-level bowls and trees is much improved as well. While some resorts still offer larger high-alpine terrain areas—and 40% of Keystone’s terrain remains hike-to only—the Bergman Bowl expansion positively impacts the overall experience for a very wide range of people.
Aspen Mountain
Size Score Change: 4 to 5; Crowd Flow Score Change: 4 to 5; Lifts Score Change: 6 to 7
The Hero’s expansion brings 153 acres of new upper-mountain terrain to Aspen’s town-adjacent ski resort. This project has added a number of new intermediate and expert trails served by a brand-new high-speed quad.
The expansion brings some really interesting terrain within the resort boundaries of Aspen Mountain, including some awesome glades, moguls, and bowls. But importantly, unlike the rest of Aspen Mountain’s expert terrain areas, the Hero’s area is actually easy to lap. Ajax’s decidedly strange lift layout historically meant that lapping any of its expert terrain involved a trip down the full vertical descent of the resort—which could get incredibly annoying if you wanted to spend a lot of time on this type of terrain—but it’s now possible to exclusively lap expert terrain over and over again through the Hero’s lift.
Hero’s is a surprisingly effective addition to Aspen Mountain that substantially improves its flow for experts, provides a haven from the rest of the resort’s logistical issues, and at least for now, allows an escape from the crowds.
Sugarloaf
Lifts Score Change: 4 to 5
This past season, Maine’s Sugarloaf debuted the largest East Coast terrain expansion in quite some time. The 120-acre West Mountain terrain expansion adds 12 new trails of beginner and intermediate difficulty, all served by a new high-speed quad. The new Bucksaw Express quad holds down speedy lift service to the new terrain pod—and in the process, brings a much-needed additional high-speed lift-served area to Sugarloaf. While the new trails themselves aren’t uniquely diverse, they’re generally further spaced apart than the closely-bunched trails elsewhere on the front side, and they do offer a distinct feel and set of views over the runs in the main areas of the mountain. While it was hard to assess this season because of the area’s mid-February opening date, this new terrain pod should provide needed crowding relief to the resort’s two other high-speed quads, the Whiffletree and Sugarloaf SuperQuads.
Big Sky (With Tram Add-On)
Resiliency Score Change: 7 to 8
Big Sky’s all-new, 75-passenger Lone Peak Tram sits in a completely different alignment than the old 15-passenger “can”. The lift is now directly accessible from out-of-base lifts and a lot easier to lap from Lone Peak’s south and east-facing bowl terrain. Importantly, the new design and alignment have made the tram able to operate more reliably than in seasons’ past.
Unfortunately, Big Sky has held onto some fairly controversial policies when it comes to Lone Peak Tram access. Rather than being included with the base level of access, certain pass products do not come with the Lone Peak Tram as standard, and instead charge guests per ride on the resort’s highest lift. Hence, this score change only applies to the Big Sky experience for those who either buy a regular lift ticket or choose to pay for the extra-cost add-on for their pass product when they visit.
Taos
Lifts Score Change: 4 to 5
This past season, New Mexico’s biggest resort had some big projects in the works. Most notably, the resort replaced its Lift 4 fixed-grip quad chair with a high-speed detachable, cutting the ride time in half and adding a second high-speed lift to the increasingly popular mountain. Unlike the expert-oriented Lift 1, which was previously Taos’s only high-speed lift, Lift 4 serves much mellower terrain, finally making it more desirable to lap some of Taos’s best beginner and intermediate runs. Taos still has quite a few slower lifts in its mid- and upper-mountain areas, but the new upgrade makes the resort a lot more palatable for those whose primary intention isn’t to hike and seek out expert lines all day.
Sunday River
Lifts Score Change: 5 to 6
Sunday River’s new Barker 6 is a replacement for what was previously one of the most problematic chairlifts in the region. Even on its own, the new six-pack lift is a welcome addition to this Maine resort’s lift fleet; like with the Jordan 8 lift installed the year before, the new Barker chair comes with heated, contoured seats in addition to brand-aligned ruby red bubbles that provide isolation from the elements on cold and windy days. But perhaps an even bigger benefit of the new Barker chair is in allowing Sunday River to retire its high-speed quad predecessor; while the old Barker lift looked fairly modern on the surface, it suffered from serious mechanical issues—and in its final years, it wasn’t even able to run at its intended design speed.
While we’re still hoping the resort upgrades a few particularly dated lifts in certain other mountain areas in future seasons, it’s hard to argue that the Barker 6 hasn’t made a significant impact on the overall experience at Sunday River—and one that goes far beyond a typical lifecycle upgrade.
Schweitzer
Lifts Score Change: 6 to 7
While it could easily be viewed as just a beginner lift, the new Creekside Express brings a number of notable benefits that all Schweitzer guests should appreciate. In addition to bringing high-speed lift service to Schweitzer’s only two beginner trails, the new lift is also the catchment for guests arriving from the resort’s slopeside parking lot, meaning that the capacity upgrade from a double to a quad really helps reduce lines at the beginning of the day. In addition, the new lift has been extended down in a lower alignment than the old Musical Chairs double, with a provision for a new, much bigger parking lot that’s set to open next year. The skier bridge down to the Creekside lift is a bit narrower than it could be, but overall, this upgrade makes for a much more inviting beginner setup and makes the arrival experience less of a hassle.
Sun Valley
Crowd Flow Score Change: 7 to 8
This past season, Central Idaho’s most prominent ski resort completely redesigned its Warm Springs base area. The Northern Rockies destination removed the two lifts out of its Warm Springs base area, Challenger and Greyhawk, and replaced them with two brand-new detachables—the Challenger six-pack, and the Flying Squirrel quad. The new Challenger lift directly replaces both the Challenger and Greyhawk lifts, but it’s 20% faster than the old chairs, making for a much speedier ride up the 9,000-foot lift line. The new Flying Squirrel high-speed quad runs in a completely new alignment, allowing much simpler and fast access to points south of the Warm Springs area than in years’ past. These updates make it much less of a pain to spend time in the Warm Springs area and have helped spread crowds more evenly across the two lifts there.
Snowbasin
Crowd Flow Score Change: 7 to 8
While Snowbasin’s lift doesn’t add high-speed lift service to any new terrain, but resolves what was basically the resort’s only remaining chokepoint—its Strawberry base. Instead of riding the Strawberry Gondola, guests now have an additional desirable lift option to serve much of the same terrain—and one that doesn’t require skiers and riders to take off their gear. The DeMoisy chair also runs along a shorter, less wind-prone lift line than the Strawberry Gondola, therefore allowing the resort to keep the Strawberry area open under gusty conditions that force the gondola to close.
Whiteface
Lifts Score Change: 4 to 5
While it doesn’t address calls for much-needed upper-mountain lift enhancements, Whiteface’s new Notch lift does bring a number of new benefits, chiefly for beginners and those starting at the Bear Den base. The new chair brings high-speed lift service to the Bear Den base for the first time, and the new alignment integrates this mellower terrain pod with the rest of the resort much better than the previous setup. As a result, not only do beginners have high-speed access to a much larger selection of terrain, but they’re able to lap a chunk of it a lot more conveniently. The Notch lift isn’t perfect—it doesn’t extend up high enough to connect with the upper-mountain lifts, so guests will still have to ski or ride back down to the base or bear through a ride up a slow double chair to get to the Summit and Lookout Mountain Chairs. But as a means of improving the beginner experience, the project gets the job done.
Magic Mountain
Lifts Score Change: 2 to 3; Crowd Flow Score Change: 7 to 8
Magic Mountain’s Black Line Quad may have been the most hotly-anticipated lift installation in recent East Coast history. This southern Vermont ski area had been working to install its first four-person for over four years before it finally opened to the public in February 2024. This base-to-summit lift runs parallel to the red double chair, which had provided the only access to the top of the mountain for the past five years, and it now triples the capacity to Magic’s resort summit. While crowding has never been a huge issue at Magic thanks in large part to the resort’s cap on lift ticket sales—and the new fixed-grip quad isn’t any faster than the neighboring double—the increased capacity now allows the resort to sell more tickets each day, which should bring in more revenue for what’s one of the only remaining independently-owned ski areas in the southern part of the state.
Breckenridge
Lifts Score Change: 6 to 7
Breckenridge has long been one of the most popular ski resorts in North America, but several lift enhancements over the past three years have helped make the overall experience better. This past season, the resort installed the Five SuperChair, offering a fourth high-speed lift option out of its Peak 8 base—and one that directly serves both some underutilized beginner terrain and some of Breckenridge’s most popular terrain park areas. While chiefly helper in nature for the majority of use cases, this upgrade has helped relieve the Peak 9 beginner terrain zones as well as the neighboring Colorado SuperChair. Combined with last year’s Rip’s Ride replacement and the preceding year’s Freedom SuperChair upgrade, we feel that Breckenridge deserves a bump in our rankings.
Deer Valley
Crowd Flow Score Change: 6 to 7
On the surface, Deer Valley may come across as one of the most exclusive ski resorts in North America, with capacity restrictions and absurdly high lift ticket prices for access. But for a number of years, this ski-only mountain struggled to handle crowds in certain areas due to its chokepoint-heavy lift setup—especially at the end of the day, when returning to certain resort areas required riding only a handful of lifts. But over the past few years, Deer Valley has done a better job of maintaining these crowds, likely thanks in large part to leaving the Ikon Base Pass, requiring reservations for the remaining Ikon products it’s affiliated with, and continuing to limit their (still atrociously priced) lift ticket sales.
Score Adjustments Based on Criteria Recalibrations
Big Sky
Navigation Score Change: 3 to 4
Montana’s Big Sky is a large, complicated mountain, and there are some frustrating navigational situations—especially when getting to and from the previously separate Moonlight Basin and Spanish Peaks areas. But while these two terrain zones can be quite confusing to get in or out of, we probably overindexed these specific situations on the overall navigation score. Big Sky’s main mountain terrain zones are reasonably straightforward to access for a resort of its size (albeit by not means perfect), and the resort as a whole is by no means as difficult to get around as Park City, which is the only other ski resort that has historically shared a score of 3 in this category. Given these circumstances, we believe this update will more accurately reflect the resort’s ease of getting around.
Beaver Creek
Terrain Diversity Score Change: 8 to 7
Despite its lack of true advanced-level bowl areas, Beaver Creek has historically offered a decently well-rounded variety of ski terrain, even for the competitive Colorado market. But upon reviewing Beaver Creek our first time around, we overlooked a deficiency in a category that’s usually taken for granted at high-caliber ski resorts—intermediate groomer terrain. The resort’s moderately-sloped cruising terrain is chiefly relegated to the lower-mountain Arrowhead area, with only limited options elsewhere across the footprint, and upon reflection, we feel the resort was previously overrated in this category.
Snowbasin
Terrain Diversity Score Change: 8 to 7; Challenge Score Change: 8 to 7
Utah’s Snowbasin is another ski resort that offers a well-rounded footprint, but lacks a few basics that put it a step below where we’d previously rated it in the terrain diversity department. The resort offers a range of terrain types for the majority of ability levels, but below-treeline groomers are fairly limited in nature compared to other resorts with a score of 8 in this category. Combined with Snowbasin’s extremely limited beginner terrain, we feel that a score of 7 in this category is best.
We also recognize that we likely gave Snowbasin a bit of a leg up compared to how it should be rated in the challenge category. The resort does have some surprisingly extreme terrain—especially off the Allen Peak Tram and some very short hikes off the Strawberry Gondola—but these trails are quite difficult to find and won’t be experienced by the vast majority of Snowbasin guests. Other competing resorts with a score of 8 are more difficult in terms of their reasonably accessible terrain, and we’re making this score adjustment accordingly.
Grand Targhee
Crowd Flow Score Change: 8 to 9
Last year, Grand Targhee’s Colter expansion brought fundamental improvements to the resort’s lift-served footprint size, terrain accessibility, and slope diversity. But one place where we probably didn’t give Targhee enough credit was in the new Colter lift’s ability to spread out crowds. Grand Targhee rarely sees notable waits of any kind except on the busiest of days, and it certainly deserves to have a crowd flow score that’s more than one point higher than nearby Jackson Hole. Upon reflection, we feel a score increase to 9 in this category is justified.
Whistler Blackcomb
Mountain Aesthetic Score Change: 10 to 9
Whistler Blackcomb is certainly a stunning ski resort, but after several years of visiting the most iconic resorts across North America and Europe, it’s hard to justify keeping it in the top tier of ski resorts for beauty. While its peaks will certainly leave an awe-inspiring impression on clear days, the resort is just too cloud and wet-storm-prone to compete with the other resorts in our top tier for this category, all of which much offer more consistent visibility.
Banff Sunshine Village
Mountain Aesthetic Score Change: 10 to 9
In a similar vein to Whistler, we were prompted to dock Banff Sunshine Village’s mountain aesthetic score following our time spent in Europe this year. Banff Sunshine is plainly beautiful, but upon reflection, this high-alpine-heavy resort doesn’t have that same true one-of-a-kind character to distinguish itself as much as the other top-tier resorts in the mountain aesthetic category—including nearby Lake Louise.
Telluride
Mountain Aesthetic Score Change: 9 to 10
On the other hand, visiting Europe helped us appreciate just how one-of-a-kind one of the other resorts we’ve frequented really is: Colorado’s Telluride. We’d previously docked the resort for the buildup in its Mountain Village area, but in retrospect, that was fairly picky, and most guests won’t spend too much time in this area. Telluride’s red-rimmed mountains and prominent peaks make for an unparalleled backdrop that can’t really be found at any other in-bounds ski resort, and upon deep reflection, we’ve decided that the resort is worthy of a promotion to the top tier in this category.
Rankings Takeaways
A few notable rankings shifts have occurred:
Steamboat was the biggest beneficiary from these changes, jumping all the way up from 39th to 24th in our rankings. The resort has jumped ahead of several competitive destinations in Colorado, Utah, Tahoe, and Western Canada.
Similarly, Aspen Mountain jumps from 46th to 37th overall. It moves above Wolf Creek in our Colorado rankings.
There is no change in the rank-order of our top seven resorts. Whistler Blackcomb in Canada still remains #1 overall despite the mountain aesthetic score decrease. Similarly, Banff Sunshine Village retains its position as 5th in North America.
Telluride jumps ahead of Snowbasin and Beaver Creek in our rankings, moving up to 8th place.
Sugarloaf jumps ahead of Bretton Woods to claim 6th place on the East Coast. Sunday River jumps up to 8th in the East, overtaking Stratton, while Whiteface jumps up to 10th, overtaking Saddleback.
For more information on our methodology, see our ratings thresholds for each Mountain Score category.