The Most Challenging Ski Areas in the Southwest
When thinking of the Southwest Region of the US, skiing is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Sure… Utah is known to have some of the best skiing in the US, but the rest of the states? Well, you’d be surprised.
Explaining our Criteria
Here at Parks & Trips, we created a proprietary Difficulty Score thats generated by combining a number of metrics for each resort. Primarily, we look at the count of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then gives each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier 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.
Snowbird: The Most Difficult Ski Resort in the Southwest
Taos Ski Valley
Taos Ski Valley is one of the hardest ski areas in the country. It ranks in the top 10% of most-difficult ski resorts in all of North America, mostly due to the fact that it has 70% of its trails rated as expert-level, and a vertical drop of 3,281 feet.
Summit: 12,481′
Vertical: 3,281′
Base: 9,200′
Trails: 110
Lifts: 14
Acres: 1,294
Beginner: 14%
Intermediate: 16%
Expert: 70%
Taos Ski Valley, NM narrowly wins the top spot, just barely over Snowbird. It comes out on top because of its super high summit elevation and insane level of expert-only trails.
While Park City Resort is the most well-known Utah ski resort, Snowbird (also located near Salt Lake City) actually beats it. Snowbird has a higher summit, steeper vertical drop and more difficult trails than Park City (which comes in third in our ranking).
60% of the top ten most challenging ski resorts in the Southwest are located in Utah. New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada have the remaining difficult ski resorts. Texas is the only Southwest state that does not have a ski slope in our top 25.
Top 25 Challenging Southwest Ski Resorts
| Rank | Resort | Summit Elev. | Vertical Drop | Expert Trails | Difficulty ScoreTM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Taos Ski Valley (NM) | 12,481 ft | 3,281 ft | 70% | 82.8% |
| #2 | Snowbird (UT) | 11,000 ft | 3,240 ft | 67% | 82.8% |
| #3 | Park City Mountain (UT) | 10,000 ft | 3,200 ft | 51% | 76.1% |
| #4 | Lee Canyon (NV) | 11,289 ft | 2,779 ft | 45% | 68.9% |
| #5 | Deer Valley (UT) | 9,570 ft | 3,000 ft | 42% | 65.6% |
| #6 | Snowbasin (UT) | 9,350 ft | 2,950 ft | 30% | 62.2% |
| #7 | Arizona Snowbowl (AZ) | 12,000 ft | 2,800 ft | 35% | 62.1% |
| #8 | Powder Mountain (UT) | 9,422 ft | 2,522 ft | 35% | 58.5% |
| #9 | Mount Rose (NV) | 9,700 ft | 1,800 ft | 50% | 58.3% |
| #10 | Sundance (UT) | 8,250 ft | 2,150 ft | 40% | 57.9% |
| #11 | Diamond Peak (NV) | 8,540 ft | 1,840 ft | 36% | 53.7% |
| #12 | Ski Santa Fe (NM) | 12,075 ft | 1,725 ft | 40% | 53.6% |
| #13 | Alta (UT) | 10,550 ft | 2,020 ft | 35% | 53.3% |
| #14 | Eagle Point (UT) | 10,600 ft | 1,500 ft | 45% | 53.3% |
| #15 | Brighton (UT) | 10,500 ft | 1,745 ft | 39% | 53.1% |
| #16 | Solitude (UT) | 10,035 ft | 2,047 ft | 30% | 53.0% |
| #17 | Angel Fire (NM) | 10,677 ft | 2,077 ft | 23% | 50.2% |
| #18 | Ski Apache (NM) | 12,000 ft | 1,900 ft | 20% | 47.5% |
| #19 | Pajarito (NM) | 10,440 ft | 1,440 ft | 30% | 46.8% |
| #20 | Sipapu (NM) | 9,255 ft | 1,055 ft | 40% | 46.8% |
| #21 | Mt. Lemmon (AZ) | 9,150 ft | 950 ft | 42% | 46.6% |
| #22 | Red River (NM) | 10,350 ft | 1,600 ft | 30% | 45.2% |
| #23 | Brian Head Resort (UT) | 10,929 ft | 1,329 ft | 35% | 45.0% |
| #24 | Sunrise Park (AZ) | 11,100 ft | 1,900 ft | 26% | 43.0% |
| #25 | Beaver Mountain (UT) | 8,860 ft | 1,628 ft | 25% | 42.8% |
