Beech Mountain
Beech Mountain is a ski area located in the state of North Carolina in USA. The resort is in the town of Banner Elk, NC.
Season Passes
Beech Mountain is not a part of any nationwide lift ticket system. Passes such as Epic, IKON, or Mountain Collective allow pass holders to ski at multiple mountians with a single purchase. Unfortunately, none of those passes work with Beech Mountain. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Beech Mountain's website.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Beech Mountain around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Beech Mountain Terrain Overview
Beech Mountain has a total of 17 ski trails, which are serviced by 8 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. Beech Mountain is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 95 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 38 hectares, 0.1 square miles, or 0.4 square kilometers.
Beech Mountain's slopes see on average 31 inches (0.8 meters) of snowfall a year.
Total Runs
17
Lifts
8
Skiable Acres
95(0 km2)
Annual Snowfall
31"(79 cm)
Beech Mountain Elevation
Beech Mountain has a summit elevation of 5,505 feet, or 1,678 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 4,675 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 830 feet (253 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
Beech Mountain's summit elevation is higher than average. There are a lot of ski slopes that are much higher than this one (some stretch to 12,000 feet!), but it is not small by any stretch of the imagination.
Summit Elevation
5,505'(1,678 m)
Vertical Drop
830'(253 m)
Base Elevation
4,675'(1,425 m)
Beech Mountain Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
39.3out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Beech Mountain has 95 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Beech Mountain is a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 30% of its trails as easy. However, it also has a fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 70%.
Beginner
30%(29 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
40%(38 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
30%(29 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Beech Mountain good for beginners?
Beech Mountain can be beginner-friendly, depending on the runs you take. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 70% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.
Beech Mountain Location
Beech Mountain is located in the state of North Carolina, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Banner Elk, NC.
Address:
Banner Elk, NC 28604 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
beechmountainresort.com
GPS Coordinates:
36.22000, -81.88000
Getting to Beech Mountain
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Beech Mountain), its coordinates of 36.22000, -81.88000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Banner Elk, NC to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Beech Mountain.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte Douglas International Airport | CLT | Charlotte, NC | 87 mi |
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Beech Mountain.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA Airport | TRI | Bristol/Johnson/Kingsport, TN | 34 mi |
| Asheville Regional Airport | AVL | Asheville, NC | 66 mi |
| Mercer County Airport | BLF | Bluefield, WV | 83 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Beech Mountain, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Beech Mountain.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar Mountain | Banner Elk, NC | 5,300 ft | 34% | 7 mi |
| Appalachian | Blowing Rock, NC | 4,000 ft | 35% | 12 mi |
| Wolf Ridge | Mars Hill, NC | 4,700 ft | 29% | 39 mi |
| Cataloochee | Maggie Valley, NC | 5,400 ft | 29% | 79 mi |
Beech Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 5,505 ft |
| Base Elevation | 4,675 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 830 ft |
| Trails | 17 (30% Beginner, 40% Intermediate, 30% Expert) |
| Lifts | 8 |
| Skiable Acres | 95 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 31 inches |