Snowmass Mountain is the biggest of the four mountains, and the one deemed the most family-friendly. However, Snowmass has a little bit for everyone.

Snowmass has arguably the best ski school of the four mountains, and one of the best ski schools in the country. Children and adults are divided up by both age and ability for all or half-day group lessons, and private lessons are also available.

Snowmass has also been adding to its extreme and advanced terrain in recent years. The Cirque is an old standby for open and tree skiing, with some small cliffs if you want them. More tree skiing and an additional cliff band have been opened in recent years.

The best part about Snowmass is its vastness. It has the longest vertical drop in the U.S. and covers four different peaks, all connected by chairlifts.

Most places to stay are ski-in, ski-out, making this mountain even more convenient. Snowmass also has its own town at the base, meaning everything you need, great casual restaurants, grocery stores, ski shops, etc., are all right there. If you never wanted to go into Aspen, you wouldn't need to.

The Numbers:
Vertical drop: 4,406 feet
Base elevation: 8,104 feet
Top elevation: 12,510 feet
Number of trails: 88
Number of lifts: 22
Skiable acres: 3,128
Beginner terrain: 6 percent
Intermediate terrain: 50 percent
Advanced terrain: 12 percent
Expert terrain: 32 percent

I skied Snowmass one day and had a great time. It was probably my favorite skiing ever. The mountain conditions were wonderful, everyone was really friendly, and I had a great time. I was the only one who wanted to ski that day from our group, but as soon as I got on the mountain, I started making friends and found people to ski with all day long. Over 50% of the mountain is intermediate skiing, my favorite.

Snowmass has 3128 acres of skiing, with 6% easy, 50% more difficult, 12% most difficult, and 32% expert. The summit is 12,510 feet and the base is 8,104 feet. There are 88 trails and the longest run is 5.3 miles. There are 22 lifts and never seemed to be a crowd. There are also many shops and restaurants in the area. I rented my skis and boots right by the slopes, too.

The runs were all nice, wide, and nicely groomed. They were also all downhill, so you didn’t have to pole thought flat areas like at some places. I would love to ski Snowmass again in the future. Rooms can be a little costly in this area, though.

The Big Burn Lift trees were like pillows of untracked snow... I didn't see another rider in them all day long. I wouldn't recommend Powderhorn Trail to any snowboarder--the catwalk out is terrible! Every time I look at onthesnow.com, I see that another FOOT of snow has fallen--I could've been "stuck" in Aspen for the rest of the week!

Snowmass mountain was my favorite of the three mountains we skied while in Colorado (the other two being Ajax and Breckenridge). It suited my intermediate/advanced level perfectly, and more importantly, it had snowed 5 inches the night before, so the conditions were, to put it mildly, incredible. Locals were saying that these were just about as perfect as conditions could get. Lucky us!

The first thing you realize when looking at a map of - or driving up to - Snowmass mountain is how HUGE it is! It's truly overwhelming. You don't really know where to start, but we asked some folks and found that there are two main preferred areas: one is called Big Burn, the other, Alpine Springs. We did Big Burn in the morning, and loved every minute of it.

Unfortunately, there's no gondola and it takes three separate lifts to get you to the summit. But once there, you could spend a full day just exploring Big Burn, which is filled with long, wide, well-groomed and beautiful slopes, and fun twisty trails that snake through the trees. If you're a mogul fan (which I am not!) you'll also have plenty to choose from here. My favorite run was called Sneaky's, which takes you past breathtaking scenery - massive peaks in the near distance and millions of snowy pine trees blanketing the hills.

The lodges at Snowmass didn't seem to be as high-end as the Sundeck Lodge on Ajax Mountain, rather more like your typical ski lodge: cozy and cute, with basic amenities and food. Fine with us. There are also lots of restaurants on the mountain including a pizza joint at the top of Big Burn.

We headed to Alpine Highlands in the afternoon, via a verrry long, snaking trail crossing the paths of dozens of slopes. I'm glad we made it, though, because we squeezed in a few last runs on some nice trails includung Naked Lady and Coffee Pot. The lifts close at 3:30, too bad, since we'd have loved to fit in an extra run or two!