Last week, it was announced that Snowbasin had been listed as the No. 1 Best Ski Resort in the U.S. and Canada for the second year in a row in USA Today’s Readers’ Choice Awards.

“Snowbasin Resort in Huntsville, Utah, is one of the oldest continually operated ski resorts in North America and home of the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games,” the USA Today description of the resort reads. “Here in the pristine Wasatch Mountains, you’ll find 114 trails and over 3,000 acres of terrain ranging from steep trails, open bowls, and beginner-friendly groomers. The area features three zones — Strawberry, Needles, and John Paul — and an advanced lift system including gondolas, a tram, and express lifts.”

In 2025, Snowbasin placed ahead of Smugglers’ Notch Resort in Jeffersonville, Vermont, and Mount Bohemia in Lac La Belle, Michigan. Only one other Utah resort — Deer Valley Resort. in Park City — made the list, placing sixth.

Snowbasin Resort chief operating officer and general manager Davy Ratchford told the Standard-Examiner Tuesday that taking the top spot in the Reader’s Choice Awards in consecutive years is an extraordinary achievement.

“It means a great deal to myself and to my team,” he said. “The effort that we’re putting forth is working and people all over America are seeing it.”

He said it takes a lot of work to not only achieve such a ranking once, but maintain the standard to be recognized again the next year.

“You can have a one-off great year — maybe there’s great snow or something happens,” he said. “But when you level set and have multiple years in a row of recognition, I think it lends a lot of credence that what’s happening up here in Northern Utah in the Wasatch Mountains behind Ogden is real, and it’s significant, and it is a place that people want to come and experience and ski some of the best terrain in America with some of the best amenities in America with our lodges, our incredible food, our bathrooms — everything that makes this place special. You can have a great year, but repeating is actually pretty hard to do, and we’ve been able to do it.”

Ratchford noted that Snowbasin has been recognized as one of the top three resorts in the country by Ski Magazine for three consecutive years, finishing first in 2025.

He said that the resort is looking to keep up the momentum and contend for a third consecutive year of first-place honors.

“We keep investing in the resort,” he said. “We just built another new lift replacing the Becker Lift and that comes online this season. We keep investing in new technology. We have RFID this year so guests don’t have to take out their passes anymore — they can go through the gates and it scans them automatically. We keep improving on our restaurants and our seating. We’re building a new building in the base area that will be ready in the spring that gives us another 200 seats in the base area. It’s not just we get recognized and sit on our hands — we absolutely keep moving the ball forward because we believe that’s the right thing to do.”

Ratchford said that recognition like this happens for one reason.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the team that comes to work everyday, works on holidays, works on the weekends and delivers an incredible experience to our guests,” he said.

Snowbasin Resort had been scheduled to kick off the season on Friday, but reported last Thursday that the opening of the ski season will be pushed back due to warm temperatures. A new opening date has yet to be announced.

For more information, visit https://snowbasin.com.