Elevation and Choosing a Ski Area If you're looking for long trips down the mountain on your snowboard, you may find yourself high in the mountains, or "at elevation." The greatest concentration of high-elevation snowboarding and skiing is in Colorado, particularly in the aptly named Summit County. Mountain State Base (ft) A-Basin CO 10,789 Loveland CO 10,600 Copper CO 9,712 Breckenridge CO 9,600 Crested Butte CO 9,375 Keystone CO 9,280 Winter Park CO 9,000 Other mountains, both in and outside Colorado, put you more than a mile above sea level. Mountain State Base (ft) Durango CO 8,793 Telluride CO 8,735 Solitude UT 8,175 Vail CO 8,120 Snowmass CO 8,104 Beaver Creek CO 8,100 Mammoth CA 7,953 Aspen CO 7,945 Snowbird UT 7,760 Big Sky MT 7,500 Heavenly CA 7,200 Moonlight Basin MT 7,000 Steamboat CO 6,900 Park City UT 6,900 The Canyons UT 6,800 Sierra at Tahoe CA 6,640 Jackson Hole WY 6,311 Mt. Bachelor OR 6,300 Squaw Valley CA 6,200 Bridger Bowl MT 6,100 Snowbasin UT 5,850 Sun Valley ID 5,750 Most Americans aren't used to living at such high altitude, as you can see from this list of American cities. City State Elevation (ft) Miami FL 11 Boston MA 20 New York NY 30 Philadelphia PA 40 Portland OR 50 Baltimore MD 100 Los Angeles CA 330 Seattle WA 350 Dallas TX 463 St. Louis MO 465 Chicago IL 596 Cleveland OH 690 Nashville TN 700 Pittsburgh PA 770 Minneapolis MN 820 Kansas city MO 882 Atlanta GA 1,050 Phoenix AZ 1,085 Las Vegas NV 2,000 Boise ID 2,730 Salt Lake City UT 4,266 Albuquerque NM 4,950 Denver CO 5,277 So if you are (statistically) the average American, you may have some trouble adjusting to the higher elevation. If you are especially vulnerable to altitude sickness, pay attention, when you plan your snowboarding trip, to the base elevation of the resort. That's where you will sleep. You might find the following lists useful. They contains all U.S. ski areas with good-length trails (a vertical drop of 2,000 feet or more) but base areas of less than 5,280 feet (one mile). You'll find more choices in the eastern U.S. Mountain State Base (ft) Saddleback ME 2,120 SugarLoaf ME 1,417 Sunday River ME 800 Cannon NH 2000 Loon NH 950 Waterville NH 1,984 Wildcat NH 4,062 Burke VT 1,267 Jay Peak VT 1,815 Killington VT 1,150 Okemo VT 1,194 Smugglers Notch VT 1,030 Stowe VT 1,280 Stratton VT 3,960 Sugarbush VT 1,483 Gore NY 1,500 Whiteface NY 1,220 The list is shorter for the west. Mountain State Base (ft) Alyeska AK 250 Whistler BC 2,214 Mt. Spokane WA 4,200 Crystal WA 4,400 Mission Ridge WA 4,570 Timberline Lodge OR 4,850 Mt. Hood Meadows OR 4,523 Silver ID 4,100 Montana Snowbowl MT 5,000 Whitefish MT 4,500 Turner MT 3,842 You might also consider several resorts in the Salt Lake City area. Though their base elevations are more than a mile high, you can sleep in Salt Lake City (elevation 4,266) and make day trips to the mountains. You can even take a city bus (denoted by *) to the slopes rather than drive. Mountain State Base (ft) Solitude* UT 8,175 Snowbird* UT 7,760 Park City UT 6,900 The Canyons UT 6,800 Snowbasin UT 5,850 (Not on the list: Brighton*, with a vertical drop of 1,745, and two resorts--Alta and Deer Valley--that do not allow snowboarding.) (Data for cities comes from City-data.com. See Geology.Com for some interesting facts, including a list of the highest elevation in each state.) Return to the resorts main page, the page on altitude sickness or the home page. Discussion To talk about ski resorts and other topics related to snowboarding, check out the Grays on Trays discussion board.