About 11 million Americans downhill ski each year. Serving this industry can be a difficult proposition, particularly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unpredictability of the weather. Additionally, ski resorts in America are only open a fraction of the year. Several ski resorts have gone bankrupt in the past several years.
As would be expected, most ski resorts are in northern states, where the weather turns cold in the winters and often stays that way for months.
To discover which state has the most ski resorts, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data from the National Ski Areas Association. Supplemental data on each state’s largest resort was gathered from Mountain Vertical.
New York claims the number one spot, with 49 winter resorts. It has the right geography and climate and is one of the most populous states. It also has three major mountain ranges (the Adirondacks, the Catskills and a portion of the Appalachians) that get plenty of snow most winters.
Perhaps surprisingly, Michigan is number two, with 39 resorts, and Wisconsin ties with Colorado for third, with 31 each. Neither Michigan nor Wisconsin are known for their mountains, although they do have hills and get very cold winters. Cross-country skiing is popular in both places.
California and New Hampshire are tied for fifth place, with 27 resorts each. Both states are strongly associated with skiing, and the fact that they have fewer ski resorts than four other states might be due in part to the fact that some of the ski areas they do have (such as California’s Mammoth and Lake Tahoe) are very big.