Utah Has Some Of The Greenest Ski Resorts

The Ski Area Citizens' Coalition, based in California, ranks ski resorts on their environmental performances. The group has just released its 11th annual survey and has Park City Mountain Resort at the top of the list. Several other Utah ski resorts also ranked well. You can see the group's full news release here. Below are excerpts and then the top 10 resorts in the ranking.

Utah’s Park City topped this year’s list, receiving 93% of possible points and getting a solid “A.”

Utah’s Brighton Ski Resort, for example, expanded their facilities within their existing footprint and ended with a better score this year than last, though their overall grade remained the same. Colorado’s Monarch Mountain, by contrast, made this year’s “Bottom Twelve List” by proposing to expand their lift-served terrain by 120 acres into pristine wildlands, dropping their grade from last year’s “B” to a “D” this year.

“With Presidents’ Day one of the busiest ski weekends of the season, we hope people will visit the Ski Area Scorecard website and vote with their skis, choosing an “A” from this year’s list,” said Anna Olsen of the Sierra Nevada Alliance. “I was pleased to see that my favorite local Tahoe resort, Kirkwood, received an ‘A’ and I hope the mountain keeps its impact limited to already-disturbed land in the future.”

Rank TOP TEN: Grade Percentage

1 - Park City Mountain Resort (UT) A 93.0

2 - Stevens Pass Ski Area (WA) A 92.3

3 - China Peak (CA) A 91.7

4 - Sugar Bowl Ski Resort (CA) A 90.0

5 - Deer Valley Resort (UT) A 89.6

6 - Aspen Highlands Ski Resort (CO) A 88.3

7 - Aspen Mountain Ski Resort (CO) A 87.4

8 - Alpine Meadows Ski Area (CA) A 86.5

9 - Grand Targhee Resort (WY) A 85.9

10 - Buttermilk Mountain Ski Resort (CO) A 85.7

The Salt Lake Tribune has this article about the report. Here are excerpts:

All three Park City-area resorts made the top 10 among Western resorts. Park City Mountain Resort captured the No. 1 spot overall with a 93 percent rating out of 100. Deer Valley was fourth and Canyons Resort ninth. Of 10 Beehive State ski areas judged by the environmental group, Solitude Mountain Resort received the lowest grade - a D.

Solitude General Manager David DeSeelhorst dismissed the report’s relevance, contending his resort received low marks in many categories simply because he did not respond to the lengthy survey. A coalition spokeswoman acknowledged that Solitude’s failure to respond hurt its score.