Most skied resorts

EMSC

Well-known member
We've had a number of threads and post over the years of things like list of ski areas you been to or season recaps for the year.

I was curious though on how many days I've had at the "home" ski areas that I've had over the years and just how many total days I've had at some other 'favorite' ski areas in total. Just curious if others on these boards know how many days you've had at your most common areas (top 5 or 10 most visited). Doesn't even have to be actual favorite best skiing places, just the most common places that you end up going.

I know Tony has much data on his website, but still looked like I couldn't tell how many total days at Mammoth for example. Though I only did a quick glance at a couple of his pages.

The home mountain totals below include ski days at those areas that occurred either before or after it was my home ski area
Home Mtn areas in my life so far:
1.9%
31​
The Pinnacle (defunct by late 70's)
23.7%
386​
Greek Peak
7.1%
116​
Heavenly
4.2%
69​
Holimont
26.9%
437​
Eldora
Some Popular Others:
3.1%
51​
Breck
3.1%
50​
Copper
3.1%
51​
A-Basin
1.7%
28​
Loveland
2.0%
32​
Winter Park
1.2%
19​
Vail
0.8%
13​
Beaver Creek
edit: to add % of lifetime ski days as of Summer 2022.
 
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Good topic, caused me to do a little reflection.

I don't keep detailed statistics on my skiing. I know I've skied every year since first beginning to ski at Christmastime 1967 when I was age 14. I just did a back of the napkin calculation and I may have a total of about 1750-1900 ski days in those 55 seasons. In the first five years I skied only five or 10 days per winter. In 1972 my parents bought a ski cabin near Blue Knob ski area in western PA and I held a season pass and skied there quite a bit for the next 15 years. Very roughly, I may have about 400 total ski days at Blue Knob. It has some of the most challenging terrain in the mid-Atlantic including some fun glades, but only about 1,070' vertical and is very challenged for natural snow.

Blue Knob, PA, approx 1973, one of my teenage ski buddies is on the left, I'm on the right with Fischer skis 195cm, Cubco bindings, Trappeur(?) leather boots with metal buckles.
jim tiff blue knob 1972.jpeg


For the years between 1987 and 2015 I was a "free agent" without a season pass to any one ski area. I skied widely throughout North America and a bit in Europe, but probably only averaged about 20-25 days per season. My son moved to Utah in 2015 and that's when I increasingly targeted the Wasatch Mtns for the bulk of my skiing. I fully retired in early 2019 and have spent each winter since then based for several months in Utah with a season pass at Snowbird. I believe I have about 150-160 total ski days at Snowbird.

With one of my daughters at Eldora, CO, 2003
900x900px-LL-1a15dcc0_colleenjimeldora.jpg


Taking a side door into Great Scott at Snowbird, UT, believe this was Feb 2021, note mask required for lift lines.
jim using jaws to enter great scott.jpeg


Within each season I keep track of how many ski days I log, usually on a hard copy calendar. But typically I forget the number once the next season begins. For a long time my ski season with the most ski days occurred when I was a senior in college, 1976. But in my retired years I am logging more days and I set a personal record in the 2021-22 season with 61 ski days, about 35-40 of those were at Snowbird. I have a list somewhere of all the different ski areas I have skied in my life. The last time I took a count, about a year ago, I had skied something like 95 or 96 ski areas. At this point given my focus on Utah it's getting less frequent that I add to that list. The one new-to-me ski area I visited in the 2021-22 season was Mammoth Mountain and I enjoyed it very much.

Mammoth, April 2022
jim-top-chair-23-15-apr-jpg.31957


The two ski areas I have skied the most in my life, Blue Knob and Snowbird, are two of my favorites. In my case, familiarity breeds love:eusa-angel:
1513866084_uaowvidrv.jpg
 
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I live about 1000 miles from the nearest ski hill so I’m very much a tourist skier unfortunately. Like @jimk I don’t keep accurate records.
Most frequent hill would be my nearest hill to home Thredbo NSW. Second most frequent would be Alta at about 12 days. Alta is approximately 7680 miles from my home in Brisbane.
I’m now thinking of my dollar cost per ski day. Crikey!
 
I've kept an accurate record of ski days since my inaugural season, 2000-01; however, as someone who identifies as a "crowd-averse, variety-junkie destination skier," my profile doesn't lend itself well to this exercise.

Over 503 ski days, the place I've been the most is 58 days at Belleayre in the Catskills, where I had a season pass for the second half of the 00s; however, I haven't gone there much over the past seven seasons since it was absorbed into New York State's Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA). Out west, my biggest number is 24 days at Solitude, which was a great way to avoid the Cottonwood hordes until Alterra acquired it.
 
1​
Mammoth
9466.4​
431​
27.0%​
2​
Snowbird
2747.3​
134.5​
7.9%​
3​
Mt. Baldy
1538.5​
82​
4.4%​
4​
Alta
1106.1​
62.5​
3.2%​
5​
Snow Summit
1001.4​
52.5​
2.9%​
6​
Mt. Bachelor
801.7​
32​
2.3%​
7​
Whistler/Blackcomb
672.1​
29​
1.9%​
8​
Mountain High
620.9​
34​
1.8%​
9​
Mustang Powder Snowcat
511.8​
31​
1.5%​
10​
Aspen Areas
486.0​
26​
1.4%​
11​
Squaw Valley
427.6​
22​
1.2%​
12​
Jackson Hole
410.3​
19​
1.2%​
13​
Heavenly Valley
408.4​
20​
1.2%​
14​
Vail
399.7​
16.5​
1.1%​
15​
Castle Mt.
372.4​
17​
1.1%​
16​
Fernie
347.5​
15​
1.0%​
17​
Bear Mt.
342.7​
19​
1.0%​
I can sort all of my skiing, but for this purpose I thought the areas that represent at least 1% of my lifetime vertical seemed a reasonable cutoff.

The bold areas are SoCal, though Mammoth has been my real home area since 1979. Since I joined the Iron Blosam group in 1996 LCC has become the secondary home ski area.

I've suspected that for the general skiing population that 27% would be on the low side for proportion of skiing at one's home area. There are many SoCal skiers with far over 50% at Mammoth. My son Adam is currently at 51%.

But FTO has an unusual group. In addition to the travel junkies, we have people like EMSC and ChrisC who have lived in multiple ski regions. I wonder what our prior admin's Alta proportion is now?

The vertical and day count totals are on my website, but on regional pages, all referenced here. Click on a region, Central California for example, scroll to far right and you see the total vertical and total days per area.
 
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I generally don't document things too well...more like looking at a map and seeing where I want to go.

Here are some estimates:

Greek Peak- 80
Dartmouth Skiway - 80
Big Birch / Thunder Ridge - 50
Tuxedo Ridge - 20
Okemo - 25
Killington - 40
Stowe - 20
Hunter - 20
Jiminy Peak - 20
Butternut - 20
Waterville Valley - 20

And some West Coast:
Telluride - 100
Squaw Valley - 40
Northstar - 30
Snoqualmie/Alpental - 25
Crystal Mt - 20
Jackson Hole - 20
Whistler/Blackcomb - 30

Most of my East Coast days would be whoever would take me. Lots of days on buses. Lots of smelliness.

Today I ski less but am quite joyful about it. I think SLC, Denver, Seattle, and maybe Boston are the best skier cities.

Tech career has allowed me to do some heli-skiing and some work in Europe.

Right now I try to ski Telluride late in the season when friends/family have free time, my partner seems to like to go to Aspen or Jackson Hole (me - Telluride is freee?! or my mortgage) and I Like to try to see some business school friends in Europe.

My bucket list still includes Val Gardena/Arabba/Cortina, some Austrian resorts, and possibly South America again (las Lenas/Bariloche).
 
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Boston is a fairly painful daytrip haul from the best of the East. Montreal is clearly the best metro area in the East for skiing.

Reno, Vancouver, Calgary and Spokane are also on the western short list.

At the risk of igniting an old :snowfight: Chris’ current home base of SF is clearly superior to Boston IMHO. Boston to northern Vermont is a comparable drive as SF to Tahoe.
 
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Oh no!
Boston is a fairly painful daytrip haul from the best of the East. Montreal is clearly the best metro area in the East for skiing.

Reno, Vancouver, Calgary and Spokane are also on the western short list.

At the risk of igniting an old :snowfight: Chris’ current home base of SF is clearly superior to Boston IMHO. Boston to northern Vermont is a comparable drive as SF to Tahoe.

No one talks bad about Tom Brady, The Patriots, The Red Sox, Boston or anything else Massachusetts. I might still be a Mass-hole. Likely I have lived more time in California, but I'm New England,

Boston has great skiing just up the road!!! Maybe not powder, but good skiing.

You get a snow day - 12 inches in downtown Boston - it's a party!:

Wachusett!!! night skiing! 45 min away​
Sunapee is - a nice little mountain​
Blue Hills - fun snow day!​
Gunstock, Waterville, Loon​
I learned to ski on icy trails and bumps

Visited my brother at 3:15 hrs Boston-to-Stowe.....But 3 hours was tops...had friends with a house at Mt. Snow....maybe 2.5 hrs
 
Now I’m dealing with my 120+ year old Lab/Mix from Katrina/New Orleans.

He’s 18 years old!!
 

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True dog years are 15 for first year, 9 for second year and 4, 5 or 6 for later years depending on breed but mainly that big dogs age faster. Labs supposedly average 12 years. With a 5 multiplier Samantha’s 14 years 8 months was 87 human years.

18 is very impressive for a Lab = 104 human years. Our former admin would be impressed. He’s on his third Chocolate Lab since moving to Utah in 2005.

With cats that later year multiplier is no more than 4. 20 year old cats are not that rare.
 
I generally don't document things too well...more like looking at a map and seeing where I want to go.

Here are some estimates:

Greek Peak- 80
Dartmouth Skiway - 80
Big Birch / Thunder Ridge - 50
Tuxedo Ridge - 20
Okemo - 25
Killington - 40
Stowe - 20
Hunter - 20
Jiminy Peak - 20
Butternut - 20
Waterville Valley - 20

And some West Coast:
Telluride - 100
Squaw Valley - 40
Northstar - 30
Snoqualmie/Alpental - 25
Crystal Mt - 20
Jackson Hole - 20
Whistler/Blackcomb - 30

Most of my East Coast days would be whoever would take me. Lots of days on buses. Lots of smelliness.

Today I ski less but am quite joyful about it. I think SLC, Denver, Seattle, and maybe Boston are the best skier cities.

Tech career has allowed me to do some heli-skiing and some work in Europe.

Right now I try to ski Telluride late in the season when friends/family have free time, my partner seems to like to go to Aspen or Jackson Hole (me - Telluride is freee?! or my mortgage) and I Like to try to see some business school friends in Europe.

My bucket list still includes Val Gardena/Arabba/Cortina, some Austrian resorts, and possibly South America again (las Lenas/Bariloche).
That’s an interesting list. You lived in Truckee or Reno or close by at some point? How did Northstar get so much love? No Mt Rose?
 
A lot of my list came down to economics. And just living all over the USA. I grew up in New York/Northeast/Boston. Then went west to Seattle and San Francisco. I've been in Florida a little due to my parents' health and COVID freedom/outside.

I skied in a lot in the Hudson Valley, NY places - mostly group/ski team rates. No one really wants to ski at Big Birch.

Okemo did a 50% discount for college students. Maybe $20-25. Not the best mountain but had nice glades and some of the best snowmaking.
Stowe is somewhat similar - my brother had a cheap pass and met him there.
Killington had a Mobile gas company $39 ticket with American Ski Company.

Alpental/Snoqualmie was 20 minutes from Issaquah, WA. Let's just say you could ski free at night - no one checked.
Also, Canada was always relatively cheap for Whistler.

Northstar was a $199-$249 student season pass in the early 2000s. Group ski house. SF road trips. I have skied primarily over the North Shore of Tahoe (Sugar, Alpine, Northstar, Mt. Rose, Pallisades/Squaw). I would do some part-time consulting work in business school for a few Tahoe areas.

Jackson - my semi-brother lives there. Married to the town attorney. Always a fun time.

Telluride - lots of options. Free passes from Telski employees, half-price from others and some 'golden' transferable season passes. Often reimbursed in apres-ski.

I have done the Mountain Collective for a few years - mostly for Telluride, Japan/Niseko, Vallee Nevado and Jackson.

I now ski at Telluride (love Bear Creek, Gold Hill Chutes, thinned Glades, steep groomers), some Tahoe, and some special place.
 
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True dog years are 15 for first year, 9 for second year and 4, 5 or 6 for later years depending on breed but mainly that big dogs age faster. Labs supposedly average 12 years. With a 5 multiplier Samantha’s 14 years 8 months was 87 human years.

18 is very impressive for a Lab = 104 human years. Our former admin would be impressed. He’s on his third Chocolate Lab since moving to Utah in 2005.

With cats that later year multiplier is no more than 4. 20 year old cats are not that rare.

My dog just keeps going. Toby. Not sure what to do - thought it was a great idea to adopt the abandoned dogs of New Orleans. Didn't know he would live forever.

He will chomp your fingers off when giving him a treat. Scary. A shark. But he was a street fighter in a sad city at the time. Surprised he allowed himself to get rounded up.

He's got a year left....he pees, towels down... kinda crated...and he looks for me if I ever go on a business trip - when stairs are not good for him. He also waits at the door until I come home - days.
 
Through 1996 I had perhaps a more normal profile among American skiers.
1​
Mammoth
35.9%​
2​
Mt. Baldy
7.6%​
3​
Snow Summit
5.2%​
4​
Snowbird
4.5%​
5​
Mountain High
3.9%​
6​
Heavenly Valley
3.6%​
7​
Squaw Valley
2.9%​
8​
Mt. Bachelor
2.7%​
9​
Aspen Areas
2.5%​
10​
Vail
2.5%​
11​
Kirkwood
2.5%​
12​
Bear Mt.
2.4%​
13​
Alta
2.1%​
14​
Mt. Waterman
2.1%​

At that point 71% of my skiing had been in California and adding in Utah and Colorado gets it to 90%.

1997 marked my first trip to interior B.C. and I also got 5 days in Australia/NZ that summer. Now the above percentages are 46% and 67%.
 
Interesting topic... I don't have detailed logs but my estimates are below. I've skied about 120 ski areas so I mix it up and have dozens of ski areas I have been to a dozen times but I set the cut off at 15 for the below list. I figure I have around 500 total ski days over 35 years of skiing with the vast majority being destination trips.

Another funny discovery is that my favorite ski region is interior Canada but my days are spread out across a lot of different areas.

Beaver creek, CO 140 (extended family in region)
Vail, CO 50
Wilmott, WI 40 (local area at the time)
Aspen areas 30
Boyne mt, MI 25 (local area at the time)
Boyne highlands, MI 15 (local area at the time)

Keystone 25
Altabird 20
Steamboat 15
 
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