Top Stories

From this year's truncated season, on we go to the hopes and slopes of 2020-2021, where one of the most enduring multi-resort programs awaits -- with some streamlining.

As all but a handful of U.S. resorts either suspend operations or shut down for the season, a number of them still permit skiers and riders to climb their slopes and get a few turns.

Amidst the hoopla of Epic and Ikon pass marketing battles, the Mountain Collective -- the original multi-resort pass -- is still alive and thriving for skiers and snowboarders who can be on the move.

The creator of the Ikon Pass will invest more than $200 million this summer to further upgrade some of the 15 resorts it owns for skiers and riders in the 2020-21 season.

Since 1961, the Agassiz chairlift has lifted skiers (and now snowboarders) out of the base at Arizona Snowbowl and up to its 11,500-ft summit. Next season, it will continue to do so -- but in a much faster and more comfortable fashion.

The doors have been flung wide open in the quest for 2020-2021 multi-resort passes as Vail Resorts unveiled its pricing and benefits for the Epic Pass and its ancillaries.

The multi-resort season pass gauntlet has been thrown down: The Ikon Pass goes on sale March 5 with a new four-day boutique "session pass" and additional East resorts coming into the fold.

Loveland Ski Area -- the only resort in the West to include snowcat rides in the day ticket -- plans to fire up pay-per-ride snowcat tours next season to bring skiers and 'boarders deeper into the backcountry.

Just by its name -- Alta Ski Area – you can tell that you’re skiing “old school.” The famed powder mountain is one of the oldest in the country, opening in 1939, and much is the same today -- including an average of 500-plus inches. The Wasatch Range is first to grab Pacific storm snowfall after the Sierra Nevada. The trip across the desert sucks the moisture out, so famous Utah fluffy powder typically arrives atop Little Cottonwood canyon below 10% water content.

Powderhounds who revel in the host of off-piste black-diamonds at British Columbia's Panorama Mountain Resort will be carving up new terrain next season.

If long, rolly-poly blues appeal, then Purgatory Mountain Resort will never disappoint. Spreading across a high ridge on southern edge of the San Juan Mountains, "Purg" averages 250 inches a year on 1,600 acres, and a tad more than 2,000 ft. vert. with nine chairs. Favorable aspects tend north or east -- offering unending views of some of the highest peaks in the Rockies.

You need something to do while the traffic thins out on I-70. Or just didn't get in enough turns on a busy weekend. Or had to work during the daytime hours and are itching to get on a slope.

At Arapahoe Basin, the quickest way to the steeps has always been to hop the Pallavicini chair. The tradition will continue ... but with modern seating next season.

Getting to the steeps in the East Ridge area of Sunlight Mountain has meant a long traverse in and a long traverse out, but a plan under review includes a chairlift to eliminate all that cross-hill travel.

Robert Redford's Sundance Mountain Resort maybe just an hour south of its well-known neighbors in Utah's Wasatch Range -- on a clear day you can see the top of Snowbird -- but it feels like you have traveled decades away. Tucked up a steep, tight canyon east of Provo, the resort opened it in 1969 -- and it doesn't seem like much has changed since then.

So, all you want is deep pow', first tracks and freshies all day. You're not interested in checking the grooming report for morning corduroy. Only snowboards or fat-boy skis on board. And hiking is the best way up. If this is you, then Silverton Mountain and Powder Mountain await your arrival.

A district court in Placer County has dismissed a lawsuit aimed to block construction of a gondola between California sister resorts Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows -- paving the way for the project to be built.

Though less than an hour from the glitz and glamor of South Lake Tahoe, Kirkwood Mountain Resort couldn’t be more different.

What do families want out of a resort? Parking near slopes, ski-in ski-out lodging, efficient signup for lessons, plenty of wide, moderate trails for the whole family, and lots of entertainment.

Sometimes, you just have to get away from all the hustle and bustle of city-suburban life. That place just might be Mount Shasta in northern California.