So, a few weeks ago I threw down a challenge: try to name 100 ski resorts off the top of your head. No Google-ing. No friends. Now, there is a little rule in the world web marketing that says that for every extra input field you add to a form, you can expect the number of people who fill it out to go down. So when I put up a form with over 100 fields, you can guess my level of optimism.

When all was said and done, however, 56 had attempted the feat and 19 had succeeded. With close to 3,000 resort names at my disposal, I decided to compile them all and do a little ranking of resorts based on how many times it was named, a sort of TOMA (Top of Mind Awareness) analysis. Now, let me throw out a few reminders before you get your panties in a bunch about the non-scientific way this went down:

• I haven’t combined the names of resorts made up of multiple mountains if they were named separately. For instance. If someone named “Blackcomb”, that would be listed separately from “Whistler/Blackcomb”. Likewise for Aspen/Snowmass and others.
• Almost 40 of the responses came from zip codes that started with an “8” or a “9” (basically anything from Colorado to the coast) so Eastern resorts may not be well represented for that reason.
• I’ve compiled these names the way they were written. Aside from a few spelling corrections (Belleayre was spelled 5 different ways including Bellayre, Belleyre, Belleaire, Belleyere – luckily, one of them was correct), I’ve left on resorts that have changed their name (both Whitefish and Big Mountain are listed) or are known by other names (both Durango and Purgatory are both listed). However I did combine things like “A-Basin” and “Arapahoe Basin”.
• The sample size is 56 people so this is in no way a super-accurate representation of any one brand, but it is still interesting to look at. I’d be interested to see this done on a large scale and get a few thousand respondents from across the country.

So, without further ado, here’s the list with the number (out of 56) of times each resort was named:

40 – Aspen/Snowmass
24 – Breckenridge
24 – Vail
23 – Jackson Hole
23 – Killington
23 – Mammoth
23 – Snowbird
23 – Squaw Valley
22 – Alta
22 – Arapahoe Basin
22 – Copper Mountain
22 – Heavenly
21 – Keystone
21 – Steamboat Springs
20 – Beaver Creek
20 – Big Sky
20 – Canyons
20 – Kirkwood
20 – Northstar at Tahoe
20 – Park City Mountain Resort
19 – Brighton
19 – Crystal Mountain
19 – Deer Valley
18 – Crested Butte
18 – Mt Hood Meadows
18 – Telluride
17 – Alpine
17 – Big Bear
17 – Eldora
17 – Loveland
17 – Mt Bachelor
17 – Snowmass
17 – Sun Valley
17 – Taos Ski Valley
17 – Whistler/Blackcomb
17 – Winter Park
16 – Buttermilk
16 – Solitude
16 – Stowe
15 – Mount Snow
15 – Mt Baker
15 – Silverton Mountain
15 – Snowbasin
14 – Grand Targhee
14 – Sierra at Tahoe
14 – Stratton
14 – Sunday River
14 – Timberline
13 – Boyne Mountain
13 – Donner
13 – Hunter Mtn
13 – Mountain Creek
13 – Okemo
13 – Sugarbush
13 – Whiteface Mountain
12 – Alyeska
12 – Durango
12 – Echo
12 – Jay Peak
12 – Mountain High
12 – Powder Mountain
12 – Sugar Bowl
11 – Bogus basin
11 – Brian Head
11 – Monarch Mountain
11 – Mt Rose
11 – Pico Mountain
11 – Seven Springs
11 – Ski Cooper
11 – Sugarloaf
11 – Whitefish
11 – Wolf Creek
10 – Bridger Bowl
10 – Mad River Glen
10 – Mont Tremblant
10 – Moonlight Basin
10 – Snow Summit
10 – Snowshoe
9 – Boreal
9 – Homewood
9 – Kicking Horse
9 – Loon Mountain
9 – Powderhorn
9 – Schweitzer
9 – Stevens Pass
9 – Sunlight Mountain
9 – Windham
8 – Angel Fire
8 – Cannon Mountain
8 – June Mountain
8 – Revelstoke
8 – Waterville Valley
8 – Wintergreen
7 – Attitash
7 – Bear Valley
7 – Bromley
7 – Camelback
7 – Diamond Peak
7 – Greek Peak
7 – Mt Shasta
7 – Snow King
7 – Sol Vista Basin
7 – Sugar Mountain
7 – Sundance Resort
7 – Wildcat
6 – Big Boulder
6 – Blackcomb
6 – Buck Hill
6 – China Peak
6 – Gore Mountain
6 – Holiday Valley
6 – Jiminy Peak
6 – Las Vegas
6 – Mt Sunapee
6 – Shawnee Peak
6 – Smuggler’s Notch
6 – Snoqualmie Summit
6 – Sunshine Village
5 – 49 degrees
5 – Appalachian Mountain
5 – Arizona Snowbowl
5 – Belleayre
5 – Blue Mountain
5 – Brundage
5 – Butternut
5 – Elk Mountain
5 – Fernie
5 – Hidden Valley
5 – Jack Frost
5 – Magic Mountain
5 – Mt Baldy
5 – Purgatory
5 – Red Lodge Mountain
5 – Snow Valley
5 – Suicide Six
5 – Wachussett
4 – Alpental
4 – Big White
4 – Black Mountain
4 – Bolton Valley
4 – Burke Mountain
4 – Cooper Spur
4 – Cranmore
4 – Dodge Ridge
4 – Howelsons Hill
4 – Kingvale
4 – Lake Louise
4 – Mission Ridge
4 – Mont Saint Saveur
4 – Mt Ashland
4 – Nashobia
4 – Santa Fe Ski Basin
4 – Showdown
4 – Ski Apache
4 – Soda Springs
4 – West Mountain
4 – Winterplace
3 – Alpine Valley
3 – Ascutney
3 – Beech Mountain
3 – Big Powderhorn
3 – Bretton Woods
3 – Bristol Mountain
3 – Cataloochee
3 – Cattamount
3 – Discovery Mountain
3 – Granlibakken
3 – Grouse Mountain
3 – Hoodoo
3 – Liberty
3 – Lost Trail
3 – Lutsen
3 – Mad River Mountain
3 – Mt Spokane
3 – Mt Waterman
3 – Nubs Nob
3 – Ober Gatlinburg
3 – Red Mountain
3 – Red River
3 – Saddleback
3 – Silver Mountain
3 – Snowqualmie
3 – Summit at Snowqualmie
3 – Tamarack
3 – Yellowstone Club
2 – Banff
2 – Beaver Mountain
2 – Beech
2 – Berkshire East
2 – Blacktail
2 – Boston Mills
2 – Brandywine
2 – Cascade Mountain
2 – Cloudmont
2 – Cochrans
2 – Crotched Mountain
2 – Cypress Mountain
2 – Dartmouth Skiway
2 – Devil’s Head
2 – Giant’s Ridge
2 – Gunstock
2 – Highlands
2 – Hunt Hollow
2 – Indianhead
2 – Lookout Pass
2 – Marquette Mountain
2 – Marshall
2 – Mary Jane
2 – Massanutten
2 – Maverick Mountain
2 – Middlebury Snow Bowl
2 – Mont Saint-Anne
2 – Montage
2 – Mt Peter
2 – Paoli Peaks
2 – Pat’s Peak
2 – Perfect North
2 – Plattekille
2 – Silverstar
2 – Sipapu
2 – Sky Tavern
2 – Song Mountain
2 – Spirit Mountain
2 – Sun Peak
2 – Swain Mountain
2 – Teton Pass
2 – Titus Mountain
2 – Toggenburg
2 – Turner Mountain
2 – Whitetail
2 – Wilmont Mtn
2 – Wold Mountain
1 – Afton Alps
1 – Ajax
1 – Anthony lakes
1 – Badger Pass
1 – Bald Mountain
1 – Bear Creek
1 – Bear Mountain (SD)
1 – Beech
1 – Big Mountain
1 – Big Red
1 – Blackjack
1 – Blue Hills
1 – Bradford
1 – Caberfae Peak
1 – Calgary Olympic Park
1 – Cannan valley
1 – Cannon valley
1 – Cannonsburg
1 – Castle mountain
1 – Chester bowl
1 – Chestnut
1 – Deer Mountain
1 – Eclipse
1 – Elk Meadows
1 – Gorgoza
1 – Granite Peak
1 – Great Bear
1 – Great Divide
1 – Gull Lake
1 – Holiday Mountain
1 – Hurricane Ridge
1 – Hyland Hills
1 – Kelly Canyon
1 – Ketchem
1 – Kimberley
1 – King Pine
1 – Kissing Bridge
1 – Labradore
1 – Loch Loman
1 – Loop Loop
1 – Maple Ski Ridge
1 – Medicine Bow
1 – Mont Dulac
1 – Montana Snowbowl
1 – Mt Abrahms
1 – Mt Ashwabay
1 – Mt Brighton
1 – Mt Dix
1 – Mt Itasca
1 – Mt Kato
1 – Mt Lemon
1 – Mt Norquay
1 – Mt Ripley
1 – Mt Seymour
1 – Mt Tom
1 – Nakiska
1 – Norquay
1 – North East Slopes
1 – North Tahoe XC
1 – Obertauern
1 – Otsego Ski Club
1 – Owl’s Head
1 – Pajarito
1 – Panorama
1 – Pawnee Peak
1 – Peak n Peak
1 – Pebble Creek
1 – Porcupine State Park
1 – Powder Ridge
1 – Retallack
1 – Rib Mountain
1 – Royal Gorge
1 – Ruby Hill
1 – Seamore
1 – Ski Brule
1 – Ski Liberty
1 – Ski Roundtop
1 – Snow Fire
1 – Snow Ridge
1 – Snow Trails
1 – Snowy Range
1 – Soldier Mountain
1 – Southington
1 – Tenney
1 – Terry Peak
1 – Tupper Lake
1 – Tussey Mountain
1 – Tyrol Basin
1 – Welch Village
1 – Whaleback
1 – White Pass
1 – Whitecap
1 – Whitewater
1 – Wild Mountain
1 – Willamette Pass
1 – Wisp
1 – Wolf Laurel
1 – Wolf Ridge

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.