Above, staring down Outer Limits, Killington VT

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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 one 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 the angle when it is 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 “YES” angle indicated in yellow in the diagram above.  Unfortunately most resort operators find this number to be a lot lower than they’d hoped, so instead they report the angle based on the vertical drop.  That’s rather meaningless, as gravity pulls us down (toward the b side) rather than sideways.  So when you hear resorts claiming a 50º slope, that’s what they’re doing.

Back to the Math

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.

Angle in Degrees of Select Ski Trail Sections Below: 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
Sun Valley, ID	Limelight	29.2°	2607′	1273′	upper & middle section
Sugarloaf USA, ME	Gondy Line	28°	2027′	1001′	extension & upper section
Killington, VT	Outer Limits	27°	2154′	979′	virtually entire length
Sugarbush, VT	Stein’s Run	26°	2088′	944′	entire length
Jay Peak, VT	Can Am	25.7°	2006′	870′	avg of upper & middle section
Loveland, CO	Tiger’s Tail/Holy Cat	25°	2026′	860′	Virtually entire length of Chair 1 liftline
Crested Butte, CO	Upper International	22°	2003′	749′	top to flat section
Plattekill, NY	Freefall	21.7°	2144′	791′	virtually entire length
Steamboat, CO	Middle Rib	21.2°	2087′	756′	steep section
Below: Minimum section length 1000′
Ski Area	Trail Name	Angle (Degrees)	Length of Measurement	Vertical Drop of Measured Length	Notes
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
Crested Butte, CO	Banana Chute	36°	1723′	1096′	avg overall including hike up
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
Crested Butte, CO	Banana Chute	32°	1264′	668′	first section from ski in
Snowbird, UT	Mach Shnell	29°	1404′	671′	from drop off point to bottom
Crested Butte, CO	Peel	28°	1048′	485′	from ski-in
Killington, VT	Double Dipper	28°	1179′	559′	steepest section mid trail
Whiteface, NY	Upper Northway	28°	1035′	483′	main pitch
Sunday River, ME	White Heat	27°	1635′	742′	overall. Steepest section is 35°
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
Mad River Glen, VT	Chute	25.6°	1159′	500′	most of trail
Gore, NY	The Rumor	25°	1335′	566′	entire route. Headwall is 37°
Keystone, CO	Bullet	25°	1182′	502′	drop after dogleg left
Beaver Creek, CO	Birds of Prey	24.4°	1108′	458′	Pete’s Arena
Pico, VT	Upper Giant Killer	24°	1221′	505′	top 2/3 of trail
Keystone, CO	Mine Shaft	23.8°	1719′	694′	steep section from left turn to bottom
Beaver Creek, CO	Cataract	23.7°	1079′	434′	most of trail
Magic Mountain, VT	Red Line	23°	1410′	546′	avg of entire length to cross road
Loon, NH	Twitcher	23°	1341′	507′	section above liftline
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
Steamboat, CO	Cyclone	21.5°	1502′	550′	Most of entire length
Sundown, CT	Gunbarrel	19°	1014′	332′	upper 3/4 of trail
Seven Springs, PA	Avalanche	18.8°	1098′	353′	most of trail
Below: 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
Crested Butte, CO	Rambo	38°	503′	309′	Primary drop from top
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
Steamboat, CO	Christmas Tree Bowl	27°	645′	294′	from center of saddle down headwall
Whiteface, NY	Cloudspin	26°	933′	414′	from a bit below the top
Beaver Creek, CO	Birds of Prey	26°	866′	383′	The Flyway
Monarch, CO	Gunbarrel	26°	713′	314′	from a bit below the top
Windham, NY	Wolverine	25°	738′	316′	top section
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
Below: 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
Sunday River, ME	White Heat	35°	310′	178′	headwall approx 2/3 down
Montage, PA	White Lightning	32°	400′	213′	headwall only
Magic Mountain, VT	Red Line	31°	470′	243′	Bottom pitch before cross road
Belleayre, NY	Upper Yahoo	30°	300′	151′	headwall only
Attitash, NH	Middle Ptarmigan	26°	332′	145′	section between cross trails
Killington, VT	Superstar Headwall	26°	403′	178′	headwall only
Blue Knob, PA	Stembogen Bowl	22.7°	329′	127′	skier’s left into funnel
Seven Springs, PA	North Face Slope	18°	327′	100′	headwall

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.

So what can we conclude from this? Would the 31° of Al’s Run on Taos powder be more or less challenging than the 29° on Killington concrete? Would 100 yards of 53° packed powder on Corbet’s Couloir be hairier than 100 yards of 35° blue ice on Ripcord? This table, as it continues to grow, is neither intended nor qualified to be the final arbiter in a discussion of trail difficulty…it is merely an additional point of reference.

While individual steep sections give the above trails their notoriety, there are other trails that are better known for the overall experience. These are the grand courses of downhill skiing: Trails or routes over one mile in length, universally known by name. Some are steep in sections; a few of those sections are listed above. With these trails it is more important to consider the length and vertical drop of the overall run. The slope angles may not appear impressive, but remember this is the average of the entire course — in some spots it can be twice the number shown.

Average Angle in Degrees of Entire Courses Minimum Length One Mile
Ski Area	Course	Average Angle (Degrees)	Length of Measurement	Vertical Drop of Measured Length	Notes
Aspen, CO	Ruthie’s Run	14.3°	5507′	1366′	length of lift
Beaver Creek, CO	Birds of Prey	16.8°	8606′	2484′	regular mens downhill
Beaver Creek, CO	Birds of Prey	18.4°	7002′	2215′	mens downhill weather start
Beaver Creek, CO	Birds of Prey	19°	6165′	2005′	mens super G
Timberline Lodge, OR	Palmer Snowfield	16.4°	5295′	1497′	summer public lane
Wengen, SWITZ	Lauberhorn	13.3°	14,698′	3373′	regular mens downhill

Top photo CC BY-SA 3.0