October 22, 2000

Snowboard Life Readers love Whistler.

Whistler Blackcomb Wins Resort Poll

Whistler Blackcomb has won the first-ever Snowboard Life 2000/2001 Top 25 Resort Poll.

What makes a resort more than a cold place to blow a wad of cash and deal with the headaches of a family vacation? Where are you likely to find powder stashes, insane terrain, and a friendly vibe? We asked Snowboard Life readers to tell us by ranking the resorts they�ve ridden, based on their real life experiences.

Were they treated like royalty and greeted by a freshly shaped superpipe and park, or did they pay 60 bucks a day for lift tickets to nowhere and barely survive a nightlife that wouldn�t blow the socks off an Amish town council? Some of the results are predictable (the same old ruling class), but a few are surprising--places we never would have thought would make the list. So grab your credit card and pick up the phone--if you get on it, you can probably still find a hotel room or condo for the holidays at one of these resorts. We guarantee it�ll put the wonderland back in you winter.

How We Got The Results

For Snowboard Life�s first-ever resort poll, we mailed out approximately 4,000 surveys to our subscribers, and we got a respectable fourteen percent return rate (partly by enticing readers with the chance win free snowboards).

Mammoth Mountain. Top five, yo.

In each survey, readers were asked to evaluate resorts that they�ve actually visited in the last two years, and boy do our readers get around. More than 225 resorts were evaluated across North America. Readers rated the resorts, awarding a point value of one to ten in seventeen different categories ranging from snow quality and nightlife to ride vibe. Each resort�s category scores were added up and averaged by the number of evaluations the resort received. They were then weighted based on each category�s importance as judged by the Snowboard Life readers. Finally, all the weighted category scores were totaled to give an overall score, and the rest is, as they say, history.

About the respondents:

Average of 30 years old.
Three years riding.
Average of 28 days riding per year.
84 percent are male.
64 percent are single.
78 percent have no kids.
24 percent make between $20,000 and $49,000 a year.
37 percent make between $50,000 and $99,000 a year.
23 percent make between $100,000 and $250,000 a year.

Overall Winners

1. Whistler/Blackcomb
2.Vail, Colorado
3. Sunday River, Maine
4. Jackson Hole, Wyoming
5.Winterpark, Colorado
6.Breckenridge, Colorado
7. Mammoth Mountain, California
8.Keystone, Colorado
9.Steamboat, Colorado
10.Northstar-at-Tahoe
11.The Canyons, Utah
12. Snowbird, Utah
13. Crested Butte, Colorado
14. Grand Targhee, Idaho
15. Copper Mountain, Colorado
16.Mt. Bachelor, Oregon
17. Kirkwood, California
18. Beaver Creek, Colorado
19.Solitude, Utah
20. Squaw Valley, California
21.Arapahoe Basin, Colorado
22.Sugarbush, Vermont
23.Stratton Mountain, Vermont
24.Alpine Meadows, California
25. Mt. Snow, Vermont

Please note: The write-ups for the sixth to 25th placing resorts were provided by the 2001 Snowboard Resort Guide presented by Snowboard Life and Transworld Snowboarding magazines.

Resort Category Winners

--Kurt Hoy and John Stouffer