Best spring ski resorts 2027 (April and May)

Breckenridge is the highest skiing town in the United States, with a base village above 2 900 m and a lift, the Imperial Express, that drops you at 3 914 m. The Victorian Main Street looks much the same as it did when gold ran out in the 1880s, and the bar scene is louder and younger than anywhere else in Summit County.

Alta is the powder mecca of North America: a skier-only mountain founded by the US Forest Service in 1938, hidden at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, buried under 14 meters of snow a year. The lodges are deliberately old-school, the locals divide themselves between Wildcat and Sunnyside, and snowboards have never been welcome.

Perched among the highest skiable terrain in North America, Arapahoe Basin tops out at almost 3,980 metres and runs one of the longest seasons on the continent, often turning lifts into June. This is raw, high-alpine skiing built around the legendary East Wall and Montezuma Bowl rather than fancy real estate. A-Basin keeps a stripped-back, day-use soul that locals fiercely protect. If you want steep lines, thin mountain air and a true Colorado powder culture, few places deliver like the Basin.

Snowbird sits at the head of Little Cottonwood Canyon, where more than 14 meters of snow fall each winter on a wall of granite. The Aerial Tram lifts a hundred skiers to Hidden Peak in seven minutes, the Cliff Lodge stands in raw concrete at the base, and there is no village beyond the resort itself.

Where the Eastern Sierra desert collides with a dormant volcano, Mammoth rises in solitary splendour above the Long Valley Caldera. Five storeys of snow a year, runs that stay open through July, and a 3369 m summit that turns the Owens Valley into a sun-bleached map below.

At 2,300 m, no village in Europe sits higher, and few hold their snow this dependably. Val Thorens is the roof of Les 3 Vallées, the world's largest linked ski area, and the lifts keep turning from late November to early May.

Vail is the Epic Pass flagship and the kind of mountain that quietly explains why Colorado became Colorado. A Bavarian-style village at the foot, immaculate Front Side groomers above, and behind the ridge, seven legendary Back Bowls of open powder that have hooked skiers for sixty years.

Copper Mountain is a naturally divided mountain in Colorado's Summit County, where the terrain falls into place from left to right, easy on the west, harder to the east. Set high in the Rockies with a base above 2,960 metres and a summit near 3,753 metres, it holds snow well across a long season. A compact slopeside village sits right at the foot of the lifts.

Grand Targhee sits on the quiet west side of the Tetons and catches some of the most reliable snowfall in North America, around 500 inches a season. The skiing is wide-open powder under huge views of the Grand Teton, with terrain that rarely feels crowded. This is a get-away-from-it-all mountain, reached through the sleepy farm town of Driggs, Idaho, far from any resort buzz. Come here to ski deep snow in peace, not to be seen.

The Matterhorn has an Italian side too, and Cervinia owns it. With the highest village base in Italy and a cross-border link to Zermatt, you can ski 22 km from Plateau Rosà to the valley floor in one go.

Keystone is the closest to Denver of Summit County's big resorts, spread across three peaks above the River Run base village. It is squarely aimed at families, and it runs the largest night-skiing operation in Colorado, with lit trails turning evenings into extra time on the snow.

Taos Ski Valley is the surprise no one tells you about until you go. High New Mexico desert at 2805 metres, dry Southwest powder that falls light and stays light, and a base village of adobe and pine built by a Swiss-French refugee in 1955. Above it rises some of the steepest patrolled terrain in North America.