Sun Valley Ski Resort ski area

Sun Valley / Ski area

Most of the 65 trails on Baldy are generously wide and slanted towards intermediate skiers. It’s consistently rated as one of the best ski mountains in the U.S. because of its steep and near-perfect gradient from peak to base—a vertical drop of 3,400 feet (1,036 m) to the edges of the Sawtooth National Forest. All in all there are 2,054 acres (831 ha) of skiable terrain serviced by 19 lifts. There are no flats either, which is good news for boarders. Baldy’s mountain bases are at River Run on the south and Warm Springs on the north and both are over a mile from the Sun Valley Village.

Much nearer, and just a short walk from Sun Valley Lodge, is Dollar Mountain, a treeless, sunny and beginner-friendly mountain. It is only 6,638 feet (2,023 m) high with 10 trails and 628 feet (191 m) of gentle vertical slopes. Its day lodge—Dollar Cabin—houses a cafeteria-style restaurant and a ski school. On the other side of this mountain, Elkhorn Face offers slightly more challenging novice trails spreading out from a steeper-pitched bowl.

The only, but big, problem with the ski area is the distance between the two mountains. The fact that they are not interlinked means that if you’re in a mixed-ability ski group it will be tough trying to meet up and ski together. But if you’re happy to stick to your slopes then you will find calm, sunny skiing protected from north winds by the Sawtooth Range, so you get plenty of sunshine without the biting chills. Snow records in the region are okay—the average is 150–200 inches (380-500 cm) per season. Not as much as most other Rocky Mountain resorts, but any shortfall in snow is augmented by a computer-controlled snowmaking system covering 645 acres (261 ha), around 30 percent of the ski area.