Sunlight Ski Resort
Sunlight Ski Resort is a ski area located in the state of Colorado in USA. The resort is in the town of Glenwood Springs, CO.
We recently ranked all of Colorado's ski resorts, so you can see where Sunlight stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Sunlight is a part of the INDY Ski Pass system. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all of the slopes that are also a part of the group.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Sunlight around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Sunlight Mountain Resort Terrain Overview
Sunlight has a total of 67 ski trails, which are serviced by 3 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. With 470 acres, Sunlight Ski Resort has a moderate amount of skiiable terrain available for skiers. This area is equivalent to 190 hectares, 0.7 square miles, or 1.9 square kilometers.
Sunlight's slopes see on average 250 inches (7.6 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 20 feet every year!
Total Runs
67
Lifts
3
Skiable Acres
470(2 km2)
Annual Snowfall
250"(7,620 cm)
Sunlight Ski Resort Elevation
Sunlight Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 9,895 feet, or 3,016 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 7,885 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 2,010 feet (613 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
The summit of 9,895 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.
Summit Elevation
9,895'(3,016 m)
Vertical Drop
2,010'(613 m)
Base Elevation
7,885'(2,403 m)
Sunlight Ski Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
50.6out 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
Sunlight has 470 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Sunlight is mostly a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 20% of its trails as easy. However, it also has its fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 80%.
Beginner
20%(94 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
55%(259 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
25%(118 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 Sunlight Ski Resort good for beginners?
Sunlight 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.
Sunlight Ski Resort Location
Sunlight Ski Resort is located in the state of Colorado, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Glenwood Springs, CO.
Address:
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
sunlightmtn.com
GPS Coordinates:
39.40000, -107.34000
Getting to Sunlight Mountain Resort
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Sunlight Ski Resort), its coordinates of 39.40000, -107.34000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Glenwood Springs, CO 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 Sunlight Ski Resort.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denver International Airport | DEN | Denver, CO | 145 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 Sunlight.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aspen-Pitkin Co/Sardy Field | ASE | Aspen, CO | 28 mi |
| Eagle County Regional Airport | EGE | Eagle, CO | 28 mi |
| Grand Junction Regional Airport | GJT | Grand Junction, CO | 66 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Sunlight Ski Resort, 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 Sunlight Ski Resort.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aspen Snowmass | Snowmass Village, CO | 12,510 ft | 86% | 26 mi |
| Aspen Highlands Ski Resort | Aspen, CO | 11,675 ft | 93% | 30 mi |
| Aspen Mountain Ski Resort | Aspen, CO | 11,212 ft | 79% | 32 mi |
| Crested Butte | Crested Butte, CO | 12,162 ft | 74% | 41 mi |
| Beaver Creek | Beaver Creek, CO | 11,440 ft | 62% | 46 mi |
| Vail | Vail, CO | 11,570 ft | 77% | 55 mi |
| Ski Cooper | Leadville, CO | 11,700 ft | 42% | 56 mi |
| Copper Mountain | Frisco, CO | 12,313 ft | 66% | 63 mi |
| Breckenridge | Breckenridge, CO | 12,998 ft | 82% | 70 mi |
| Keystone | Dillon, CO | 12,408 ft | 69% | 75 mi |
| Powderhorn Ski Resort | Powderhorn, CO | 9,850 ft | 58% | 78 mi |
| Loveland Ski Area | Dillon, CO | 13,010 ft | 63% | 79 mi |
| Howelsen Hill Ski Area | Seamboat Springs, CO | 7,136 ft | 44% | 79 mi |
| Monarch | Salida, CO | 11,952 ft | 51% | 80 mi |
| Ski Granby Ranch | Granby, CO | 9,202 ft | 30% | 90 mi |
| Winter Park Resort | Winter Park, CO | 12,060 ft | 72% | 91 mi |
| Steamboat | Clark, CO | 10,568 ft | 77% | 99 mi |
Sunlight Ski Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 9,895 ft |
| Base Elevation | 7,885 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 2,010 ft |
| Trails | 67 (20% Beginner, 55% Intermediate, 25% Expert) |
| Lifts | 3 |
| Skiable Acres | 470 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 250 inches |