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Sapphire Valley

Home / Ski Resorts / Sapphire Valley

Sapphire Valley is a ski area located in the state of North Carolina in USA. The resort is in the town of Cashiers, NC.

Season Passes

Sapphire Valley 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 with with Sapphire Valley. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Sapphire Valley's website.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Sapphire Valley around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Sapphire Valley Terrain Overview

Sapphire Valley has a total of 2 ski trails, which are serviced by 3 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. Sapphire Valley is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 8 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 3 hectares, 0.0 square miles, or 0.0 square kilometers.

Sapphire Valley's slopes see on average 24 inches (0.7 meters) of snowfall a year.

Trails
Total Runs
2
Ski Lift
Lifts
3
Skier
Skiable Acres
8(0 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
24"(732 cm)

Sapphire Valley Elevation

Sapphire Valley has a summit elevation of 3,450 feet, or 1,052 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 3,200 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 250 feet (76 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

Sapphire Valley's summit elevation is about average. There are a lot of ski slopes that are quite a bit higher, but also many that are much, much smaller.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
3,450'(1,052 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
250'(76 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
3,200'(975 m)

Sapphire Valley Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
15out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Sapphire Valley is an extremely beginner-friendly ski area. It is in fact one of the easiest ski slopes in all of North America, ranking in the bottom 10% of overall difficulty. This is due to it having 50% of its trails are rated as "beginner", and a vertical drop of only 250 feet.

 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

Sapphire Valley has 8 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Since Sapphire Valley is an extremely beginner-friendly ski area, it has 50% of its trails are rated as "beginner-level". 50% trails are rated as intermediate.
Green Circle
Beginner
50%(4 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.

Blue Square
Intermediate
50%(4 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%.

Black Diamond
Expert
0%(0 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 Sapphire Valley good for beginners?

Sapphire Valley is a very beginner-friendly course. In fact, it is one of the easiest ski slopes in all of North America, ranking in the bottom 10% of overall difficulty. 50% of its trails are rated as "beginner".

Sapphire Valley Location

Sapphire Valley is located in the state of North Carolina, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Cashiers, NC.

Address:
Cashiers, NC 28717 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
sapphirevalley.com

GPS Coordinates:
35.12400, -83.06000

Getting to Sapphire Valley

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Sapphire Valley), its coordinates of 35.12400, -83.06000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Cashiers, 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 Sapphire Valley.

NameCodeCityDistance
Charlotte Douglas International AirportCLTCharlotte, NC120 mi
Hartsfield-Jackson International AirportATLAtlanta, GA129 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 Sapphire Valley.

NameCodeCityDistance
Asheville Regional AirportAVLAsheville, NC36 mi
Greenville Spartanburg International AirportGSPGreer, SC50 mi
McGhee Tyson AirportTYSKnoxville, TN71 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Sapphire Valley, 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 Sapphire Valley.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
CataloocheeMaggie Valley, NC5,400 ft28%35 mi
Ober GatlinburgGalinburg, TN3,300 ft34%49 mi
Wolf RidgeMars Hill, NC4,700 ft31%65 mi
Sugar MountainBanner Elk, NC5,300 ft33%96 mi

Sapphire Valley Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation3,450 ft
Base Elevation3,200 ft
Vertical Drop250 ft
Trails2
(50% Beginner,  50% Intermediate,  0% Expert)
Lifts3
Skiable Acres8
Avg. Annual Snowfall24 inches
Sapphire Valley Mountain Stats
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