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Outer Limits
Pallavicini
Gondy Line
Shay's Revenge
Exhibition
Corbet's Couloir
Comparative
Steepness
of
Select
U.S.
Ski
Trails
The math and reasoning is sort of explained below. If you want to skip that stuff and just get to the facts, scroll down the page...
The claims are ubiquitous: "Steepest in the east!" or "Longest and steepest in the midwest" or "Longest sustained pitch in Colorado" and of course the always popular, "If you can ski here you can ski anywhere."
Ski areas are notorious for making claims. They exaggerate almost as much as skiers. In fact, the ski area spokesman's propensity to enhance and embellish the treachery of a steep trail is second only to those of us who ski them. We lobby for our favorites, dismiss those at lesser mountains, and generally have no clue about the facts. As for the ski resorts, they often speak in terms of "percent of grade" or some other obscure measure that is only understood by engineers. You can ask an engineer to explain it, but chances are you'll nod off during their ensuing discourse.
How then, to honestly compare and categorize steepness, and dumb it down so the rest of us can understand it?
The angle of the slope, expressed in degrees, is probably the best method for a moderately educated person. Most of us know that if a cliff goes straight up, it's a 90° angle. That's too steep to ski. Cut that down quite a bit, say, to the angle of a modern staircase, which is about 38°. Still too steep for most people to ski. If you cut even that in half -- less than 20° -- you'd say that's a very low angle staircase. But put on a pair of skis, and even most advanced skiers will pause at the top of a 19° slope to pick their route.
Regardless of whether or not you can ski it, chances are that you can understand the steepness of a slope if someone tells you what the angle is when expressed in degrees. The question then becomes, how to determine the "degrees" of a ski slope?
Thanks to NASA, the US Geological Survey, the Google, and a dead guy named Pythagoras, we can come pretty darn close to accurately measuring the angle of any given ski slope. Because elevation data is now available at the click of a mouse, we can measure the altitude at the top and bottom of a slope and be accurate to within a few feet. The difference between the numbers is the vertical drop, and we can start to sketch out a right triangle. If we use the measuring tool on a map program to find the actual distance between those same points -- specifically, "ground distance," like pulling a tape measure down the hill -- we now have the hypotenuse of our right triangle:
What we're trying to find, of course, is the angle indicated in yellow in the diagram above. Armed with the length of the slope (the hypotenuse) and the length of at least one other side (the vertical drop) of this theoretical right triangle, we thank that old Greek dude for providing us with the math. I sat next to a cute redhead in geometry class, so I really can't be much help here. It's something about the square of the other sides equals the square of the hypotenuse, then you divide the "b" side by the hypotenuse, invert something, take the sine of that, and you get the angle. Yeah yeah, whatever. Ask an engineer.
This won't solve all of our arguments, however, because the reality is that most hills are shaped like this:
In which case, you cannot measure the length of the ground slope because it is no longer a triangle. You could measure the theoretical hypotenuse, or measure side "b", but then you'd have an "average" angle. The average on a consistent slope like Outer Limits at Killington is meaningful, but the average on a slope like Shay's Revenge at Snowshoe -- with a long lead in and run out -- gives no indication of how steep the headwall is. So what we've done on a slope like that is measure just the crux of the trail, kind of like the red line in the diagram immediately above.
In this manner we've selected the most fearsome section of each trail. In some cases, that's a very short headwall. In others, it's virtually top-to-bottom for 1,000 feet of white knuckle skiing. To put these in perspective, we've segregated the trails by the length of the steepness. In other words, the half mile on Sugarloaf's Gondy Line at 30° shouldn't take a backseat to 100 yards on Mount Snow's Ripcord at 35°. So we compare apples to apples.
The key is:
- How steep is the steepest part?
- How long is the steepest part?
Armed with this information, we now have a semi-legitimate basis for comparison.
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST. It's just a comparison of some popular trails that we're able to make pretty good measurements on. That's all it is.
ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: We update these from time to time when more accurate data becomes available. In other words, when Google Earth gets updated data.
Angle in Degrees of Select Ski Trail Sections
Minimum section length 2000'
Ski Area
Trail Name
Angle
(Degrees)
Length of
Measurement
Vertical Drop of
Measured Length
Notes
Arapahoe Basin, CO
Pallavicini
32°
2152'
1113'
virtually entire length
Taos, NM
Al's Run
31.4°
2841'
1481'
virtually entire length
Stowe, VT
Lookout
29.6°
2148'
1062'
entire upper section
Sugarloaf USA, ME
Gondy Line
29.6°
2027'
1001'
Snowfield & entire upper section
Killington, VT
Outer Limits
29.5°
2241.5'
1105'
virtually entire length
Sun Valley, ID
Limelight
29.2°
2607'
1273'
upper & middle section
Jay Peak, VT
Can Am
25.7°
2006'
870'
avg of upper & middle section
Plattekill, NY
Freefall
21.7°
2144'
791'
virtually entire length
Minimum section length 1000'
Ski Area
Trail Name
Angle
(Degrees)
Length of
Measurement
Vertical Drop of
Measured Length
Notes
Crested Butte, CO
Banana Chute
39.5°
1723'
1096'
avg overall; 1st 1k is 40.9°
Squaw Valley, CA
KT-22
38.3°
1367'
847'
75 Chute
Alta, UT
Alf's High Rustler
36.5°
1606'
955'
top to cat track
Smugglers Notch, VT
Black Hole
35°
1013'
586'
virtually entire length
Cannon, NH
DJ's Tramline
34.1°
1035'
581'
below Middle Cannon
Hunter Mt, NY
Westway
34°
1307'
738'
2/3 of length
Sun Valley, ID
Exhibition
32.5°
1279'
688'
from dogleg left turn to bottom
Whiteface, NY
The Slides
32°
1441'
758'
Slide 1
Killington, VT
Double Dipper
31°
1207'
625'
from drop off point to bottom
Snowbird, UT
Mach Shnell
29°
1404'
671'
from drop off point to bottom
Whiteface, NY
Upper Northway
28°
1035'
483'
main pitch
Sunday River, ME
White Heat
27°
1635'
742'
snowfield section
Jay Peak, VT
Haynes
27°
1319'
602'
upper section
Whiteface, NY
Mountain Run
26°
1384'
620'
the steep part
Whiteface, NY
Upper Skyward
26°
1708'
737'
Approx. 1/2 of trail
Beaver Creek, CO
Ripsaw
26°
1169'
519'
most of trail
Gore, NY
The Rumor
25°
1335'
566'
entire route
Beaver Creek, CO
Birds of Prey
24.4°
1108'
458'
Pete's Arena
Beaver Creek, CO
Cataract
23.7°
1079'
434'
most of trail
Snowshoe, WV
Shay's Revenge
23°
1172'
455'
headwall
Copper, CO
Sawtooth
22.5°
1535'
588'
lower half
Beaver Creek, CO
Birds of Prey
20.4°
1213'
423'
Golden Eagle & Abyss
Sundown, CT
Gunbarrel
19°
1014'
332'
upper 3/4 of trail
Seven Springs, PA
Avalanche
18.8°
1098'
353'
most of trail
Minimum section length 500'
Ski Area
Trail Name
Angle
(Degrees)
Length of
Measurement
Vertical Drop of
Measured Length
Notes
Squaw Valley, CA
KT-22
43°
790'
540'
Johnny Moseley's Run
Squaw Valley, CA
KT-22
42°
709'
475'
GS Bowl
Arapahoe Basin, CO
Pallavicini
40°
706'
453'
Pally Face
Stowe, VT
Upper Starr
38.7°
512'
320'
headwall from top
Alta, UT
Alf's High Rustler
38°
795'
491'
Upper half
Jay Peak, VT
Can Am
32°
740'
390'
top section only
Cannon, NH
Avalanche
31°
545'
281'
Banshee Cut to Banshee section
Sugarloaf USA, ME
Gondy Line Extension
31°
537'
275'
snowfield section
Breckenridge, CO
Mach One
30.8°
686'
351'
from drop approx 150' down trail
Whiteface, NY
Upper Skyward
30°
806'
406'
topmost section
Blue Knob, PA
Extrovert
29.9°
909'
453'
top to dogleg right
Mountain Creek, NJ
Pipeline
28.6°
607'
291'
headwall to old Fitz' Folly trail
Vail, CO
Riva Ridge
28.4°
517'
246'
Tourist Trap headwall
Gore, NY
The Rumor
28°
615'
284'
top half
Whiteface, NY
Cloudspin
26°
933'
414'
from a bit below the top
Beaver Creek, CO
Birds of Prey
26°
866'
383'
The Flyway
Wengen, SWITZ
Lauberhorn
22.6°
828'
318'
Hanneggschuss
Seven Springs, PA
Goosebumps
20.7°
634'
224'
most of slope
Massanutten, VA
Mak Attack
19.4°
628'
209'
drop off to Showtime connection
Minimum section length 300'
Ski Area
Trail Name
Angle
(Degrees)
Length of
Measurement
Vertical Drop of
Measured Length
Notes
Jackson Hole, WY
Corbet's Couloir
53°
350'
280'
average of drop + chute
Jay Peak, VT
Green Beret
38°
361'
223'
headwall
Jay Peak, VT
Face Chutes
37°
352'
212'
with trees
Arapahoe Basin, CO
Pallavicini
36°
465'
275'
Pally Main Street
Jay Peak, VT
Tuckerman's Chute
36°
400'
240'
with trees
Mount Snow, VT
Ripcord
35°
437'
235'
headwall only
Montage, PA
White Lightning
32°
400'
213'
headwall only
Belleayre, NY
Upper Yahoo
30°
300'
151'
headwall only
Attitash, NH
Middle Ptarmigan
26°
332'
145'
section between cross trails
Blue Knob, PA
Stembogen Bowl
22.7°
329'
127'
skier's left into funnel
Seven Springs, PA
North Face Slope
18°
327'
100'
headwall
So what can we conclude from this? Would the 31° of Al's Run on Taos