#1 Deer Valley

Can’t anybody else out there groom trails with such precision you could roll a quarter between the corduroy ridges, from the top of Sterling lift all the way down to the Silver Lake Lodge? Can’t anybody else offer up a salad bar of exotic chanterelle mushrooms, finely chopped walnuts, fresh bread and savory slabs of Gruyère beautifully arranged in concentric circles? Can’t anyone else marshal—and competently train—an army of ambassadors, greeters, staffers and just about everyone on the payroll to consistently solve any problem that pops up, from minor to vacation-changing?

Clearly the answer is no; nobody can.

Deer Valley, with its pastry chef’s attention to detail—to say nothing of its pastry chef’s attention to pastry—cares about every aspect of the skier experience. From the moment you pull up and a helpful resort employee saves you from the drudgery of lugging your kids (and all of their gear) off to ski school by helping you unload the car, to the final moments of the day when you can check your skis in for the night at the on-mountain ski valet—at no charge.

These are just a few of the reasons Deer Valley tops the charts in Service, not to mention On-Mountain Food, Lodging and Dining.

To be sure, every Silver Lake Lodge has its cloud. Despite recent additions to the mountain’s expert terrain—the Lady Morgan Express with its steep pitches and wide open bowls and an extension of the Sultan Lift that services the Triangle Trees, to name a few—the resort ranks low in terrain categories, and is “not challenging enough” according to a good number of readers. To be honest, at least in this local’s opinion, those polled must have eaten one too many of the fresh, warm, manhole–cover sized chocolate chip cookies and never made it over to Daley Chutes. There they would have found 40-degree pitches that would challenge even the most experienced skier.

Not surprisingly, most readers still loudly applaud Deer Valley’s skier–only policy (“No snowboarders!” many rejoice). And whether they skied the groomers all day or tested themselves in the trees and the back bowls, everyone agrees—time and time again—a day spent in the greatest snow on earth, under the warming Utah sunshine, with a coda of a—yeah, expensive—beer is just about impossible to beat.