The 2010 Reader Resort Survey
How do North America's ski resorts stack up in terms of terrain, snowfall, lodging, dining, family activities and all the other factors that make a great vacation spot? Check out our interactive guide to find out. Choose a category at the bottom of the page and see which resorts you, the readers of SKI magazine, rated highest in our 2010 Reader Resort Survey. Infographic courtesy of badfeather.com
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I look at Sun Valley, ID on this chart and wonder: how believable/accurate/useful could this data set possibly be? And who subscribes to Ski, anyway? Posers?
Damion Hankejh
I dunno, seems pretty accurate to me. the place only gets about 150 inches a year, and it's pretty impossible to get to. What don't you agree with?
Im confused by the comment too? Do you like SV or not? Personally it is still my favorite mountain to ski; and I love the fact it is difficult to get too.
The only categories that really matters are: Snow Quality, Terrain Variety, Value. But mostly snow quality. That's where the real winners shine. Alta, Snowbird, you get a lot of quality mountain for your money.
RE: Sun Valley - If you look at some of the specific categories, SV does pretty well: Resort Service (#2 I think behind Deer Valley) and On Mountain Food, Dining, Nightlife, but then obviously gets killed in Terrain Variety, Snow, Challenge, Access, etc. Pretty accurate I'd say.
...although I have definitely had fun skiing there.
Here's why I don't like Sun Valley, besides the fact that it's expensive and with women in furs and high heels parading themselves around the base area with their pocket-sized dogs in hand, with obviously no intention to ski. My main gripe is: Everything at Sun Valley is misleading in some way.
1. Sun Valley is not the mountain you ski on. You ski on either Bald Mt. or Dollar Mt.
2. Sun Valley is not even the name of the town. The town is called Ketchum. Nice town, by the way.
3. Sun Valley is really just the name of a nearby resort, about a mile or two away from the slopes. So, it's not even ski-in ski-out. For ski-in ski-out convenience, you can't beat Schweitzer Mountain, Idaho. Much better and with more varied terrain than Sun Valley.
4. There are no green trails on Bald Mt. (which is the mountain most people think of when they think of Sun Valley). The map shows lots of green trails, but that is a huge exaggeration and totally misleading. None of those are suitable for beginners. They are simply too steep for beginnners. So, calling them green is misleading. The only green runs are on Dollar Mt., and you can't ski there from Bald Mt. So, if you have beginners in your group, they'll have to ski on a separate hill, and you can't even meet for lunch! The color code for trail rating is somewhat flexible, and varies a bit from one ski area to another. But, at Sun Valley they really went overboard, completely skipping a category. All green trails on the map are actually blue. All blue trails are really black. If you are an advanced skier, you might not notice that. But try looking at the mountain through a beginner's eyes, and you won't like what you see.
5. Warm Springs is the coldest, darkest part of the mountain, on the north side, in the shade of the mountain. Just another misleading name!
6. The mountain isn't all that sunny either. The valley is. But not the mountain. The mountain slopes are sunny only in the morning. By the time you've had lunch, most of the slopes will be in the shadow of the mountain, with poor visibility (flat light) even on a nice day.
7. Most of the trails are clear-cuts, bulldozed in a straight line from top to bottom. Whoever "designed" the trails had no imagination to make the trails more interesting. No meandering through the forest, no trees left standing, just a boring, wide clearcut, encouraging speed-skiing, but with little safety for slower skiers, and simply too boring (unless you are an adrenaline junkie hungry for pure speed, with no care for scenery).
8. When you get to the top of Bald Mt., you then have to take a horizontal chairlift along a windy ridge. Either that, or take a long and bumpy run on a steep, ungroomed slope full of moguls. Neither seems like a very attractive option. I understand that this situation has been improved recently, with the introduction of a new gondola.
9. There's not a lot of variety. Each trail is just another clear-cut, just another straight line, just another wide open piste encouraging speeders. If speeding down a straight line is your thing, that's fine. But, I prefer a bit more variety.
In other words, the readers who rated Sun Valley low were actually right on!
Very accurate for Utah. I have skied in Utah all my life and have never been to Park City before last season. It was a waste of my time - snow was bad, runs were short or closed and the staff was rude. I tried to find a good run all day but it just got worse. My favorites for Utah are Alta of course, Brighton and Snowbird.
I like this program each year but think it needs a refresh. Maybe more transparency in the voting. Or specify certain levels in certain categories, like cost of Apres or tickets or something.
Here's the thing, Powder is Powder and no longer does resort reviews that aren't commercial, Ski Press is dead, Skiing changes its ranking formats every 6 minutes, so you are the only game in town. But, not every skier out there is a "price is no object" skier. Nor a family skier. Nor a ripper, or a senior etc....
If I'm exactly in your reader demo, this works, because 4-10 grand for a trip is nothing. But I'm not in your reader demo. And I'm not in Skiing's, although I'm so glad the marmot crap is gone. I'm just an average 44 year old with 2 kids who loves ski trips but needs to consider price, snow, terrain for all levels, some nightlife, getting to the slopes without paying limo prices and such.