Sunburst
Sunburst is a ski area located in the state of Wisconsin in USA. The resort is in the town of Madison, WI.
We recently ranked all of Wisconsin's ski resorts, so you can see where Sunburst stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Sunburst 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 Sunburst. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Sunburst's website.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Sunburst around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Sunburst Terrain Overview
Sunburst has a total of 10 ski trails, which are serviced by 9 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. Sunburst is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 35 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 14 hectares, 0.1 square miles, or 0.1 square kilometers.
Sunburst's slopes see on average 144 inches (3.7 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 12 feet every year!
Total Runs
10
Lifts
9
Skiable Acres
35(0 km2)
Annual Snowfall
144"(366 cm)
Sunburst Elevation
Sunburst has a summit elevation of 1,100 feet, or 335 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 866 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 234 feet (71 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
Sunburst has a very low summit elevation. The summit of this park is one of the smaller ones in the country.
Summit Elevation
1,100'(335 m)
Vertical Drop
234'(71 m)
Base Elevation
866'(264 m)
Sunburst Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
42.1out 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
Sunburst has 35 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Sunburst is a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 20% of its trails as easy. However, it also has a fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 80%.
Beginner
20%(7 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
35%(12 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
45%(16 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 Sunburst good for beginners?
Sunburst 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 80% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.
Sunburst Location
Sunburst is located in the state of Wisconsin, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Madison, WI.
Address:
Madison, WI 53718 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
skisunburst.com
GPS Coordinates:
43.18000, -89.30000
Getting to Sunburst
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Sunburst), its coordinates of 43.18000, -89.30000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Madison, WI 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 Sunburst.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport | MKE | Milwaukee, WI | 73 mi |
| O'Hare International Airport | ORD | Chicago, IL | 109 mi |
| Midway International Airport | MDW | Chicago, IL | 124 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 Sunburst.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dane County Regional Truax Field | MSN | Madison, WI | 3 mi |
| Chicago Rockford International Airport | RFD | Chicago/Rockford, IL | 69 mi |
| Dubuque Regional Airport | DBQ | Dubuque, IA | 89 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Sunburst, 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 Sunburst.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devil's Head | Merrimac, WI | 995 ft | 36% | 23 mi |
| Cascade Mountain | Portage, WI | 1,280 ft | 37% | 24 mi |
| Christmas Mountain | Wisconsin Dells, WI | 1,250 ft | 26% | 41 mi |
| The Rock Snowpark | Janesville, WI | 290 ft | 36% | 41 mi |
| Granite Peak | Wausau, WI | 1,924 ft | 39% | 49 mi |
| Highlands of Olympia | Ripon, WI | 1,001 ft | 23% | 49 mi |
| Little Switzerland | Slinger, WI | 1,269 ft | 30% | 49 mi |
| Tyrol Basin | Ripon, WI | 1,160 ft | 37% | 49 mi |
| Trollhaugen | Dresser, WI | 1,200 ft | 33% | 49 mi |
| Wilmot Mountain | Wilmot, WI | 1,030 ft | 37% | 49 mi |
| Alpine Valley | Elkhorn, WI | 1,040 ft | 32% | 54 mi |
| Hidden Valley | Maribel, WI | 1,460 ft | 32% | 57 mi |
| Grand Geneva | Lake Geneva, WI | 1,086 ft | 33% | 61 mi |
| Chestnut Mountain | Hanover, IL | 1,040 ft | 36% | 81 mi |
| Standing Rocks | Stevens Point, WI | 1,220 ft | 31% | 86 mi |
Sunburst Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 1,100 ft |
| Base Elevation | 866 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 234 ft |
| Trails | 10 (20% Beginner, 35% Intermediate, 45% Expert) |
| Lifts | 9 |
| Skiable Acres | 35 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 144 inches |