Montana's Big Sky Resort has taken the number one spot in Condé Nast Traveler's 39th annual Readers' Choice Awards for ski resorts, capping off roughly ten years of steady expansion and upgrading at the resort. The win reflects a long transformation: Big Sky has grown into one of the largest ski areas on the continent, and readers clearly think the investment has paid off.
Colorado, unsurprisingly, remains the heavyweight of American skiing. Ten of the top 30 resorts in this year's rankings sit in the Centennial State, a reminder that the I-70 corridor and beyond — places like Aspen, Vail, Telluride and Steamboat territory — still sets the standard for terrain variety, lift infrastructure and that hard-to-beat combination of sunshine and dry powder.
The East Coast got its share of recognition too, with six eastern resorts making the cut. Among them is Mont-Tremblant in Quebec, the colourful Laurentian village resort that pairs a compact, family-friendly ski hill with one of the prettiest pedestrian villages in North American skiing. Stateside classics such as Stowe in Vermont also feature, proof that you don't need Rockies-scale vertical to earn a place on readers' lists.
Alaska is back on the board as well, thanks to recent enhancements at Alyeska Resort near Girdwood. Alyeska has long been beloved for its dramatic Chugach Mountains setting and unusually reliable snow, and the updates appear to have pushed it back into readers' affections — good news for anyone chasing steep lines and empty slopes far from the lift-line crowds.
The full list runs from Taos in New Mexico to Telluride in Colorado, and from Stowe in Vermont to SilverStar in British Columbia's Okanagan, scoring resorts on trails, lodges, lifts and après-ski. The useful takeaway for skiers planning this winter: the awards are reader-voted, so they skew towards resorts that deliver the whole experience — not just terrain, but food, lodging and atmosphere. Whether you're booking a dedicated powder trip or a social, wine-and-hot-tub week, the list is a solid shortlist. Full rankings with scores are available separately for the US and Canada on the source site.
