It’s Washington Week at PeakRankings! Here’s What’s Going Down.
This week, we’re integrating a brand new state into our rankings! Each day from Monday to Friday, we’re releasing a review of a Washington resort we visited this winter.
Our New Rankings Experience Is Now Live!
After months of coding and design work, we’re proud to present our new rankings platform! The new experience offers detailed state-level, regional, and overall comparisons between mountains.
We’ve Refined the Way We Measure Skiable Acres. Some Resorts See Size Score Changes.
Some resorts measure their acreage by total footprint, which doesn’t always comprise entirely skiable terrain. Others measure their acreage by skiable terrain only, but don’t include parts of the resort that are technically in-bounds but not skiable. To remedy this issue, we employed an acreage calculator to determine the true skiable footprint within the bounds of each resort.
Too Many Resorts Have Earned Our Top Rating for Challenge. It’s Time for a Splitter.
Ten resorts—nearly 30% of the resorts we’ve reviewed—currently earn a perfect 10 for challenge in our scoring system. To address the competitiveness here and truly distinguish the most extreme resorts, we’ve effectively split the 10/10 challenge category into two.
We’ve Slightly Adjusted Our Facilities Ratings Towards Practicality, Resulting In a Few Score Changes.
We’ve historically weighted some very small facilities with limited space and inconsistent openings as highly as more practical lodges. With today’s adjustment, we’re aiming to fix this discrepancy.
Ratings Adjustment: Sierra-at-Tahoe, Homewood, and Whiteface Lift Scores
We’ve updated the way we factor hike-to terrain into our lift score criteria. Three resorts see score changes as a result.
Ratings Adjustment: Alta, Snowbird, and Breckenridge Lift Scores
We’ve corrected Alta, Snowbird, and Breckenridge’s lift scores to factor in previously unaccounted for hike-to terrain. In addition, we’ve updated Alta’s size score to exclude acres that are essentially backcountry.
Ratings Adjustment: Colorado High-Alpine Snow Scores
Here at PeakRankings, we aim to provide the most helpful and transparent content we can. That being said, we’re always iterating on our methodology and decided to change the snow scores for two Colorado resorts this week.
Our First Video Content Is Now Live!
As the 2020-21 ski season comes to a start, we’ve launched our first official PeakRankings video content! Our inaugural flicks—now available on YouTube—include a Heavenly video review and a Squaw Valley KT-22 point-of-view trail run.
Score Change: Whistler Blackcomb Removes Horstman T-Bar
Whistler Blackcomb removed their high-alpine Horstman T-Bar, causing the resort’s navigation score to drop. Despite this knock, Whistler remains our highest-rated area.