U.S. News recently listed three of the more than 25 Colorado ski resorts on its “Best Ski Destinations in the U.S.” list. Still, the question remains: Where do the locals go?

Due to the large array of skiing options in Colorado, onthesnow.com has developed five main categories to grade each resort and provide a template for skiers to decide where to go skiing. The categories used to grade the resorts include the price, difficulty of runs, the distance and transportation time, the overall town/resort associated with the mountain, and the diversity of different runs available on the mountain. Each resort is graded per category so that the consumers can decide which resort to go to, based on which criteria is most important to them. Although all of the categories are taken into consideration, top-rated resorts like Vail, Breckenridge and Aspen are also among the most expensive.

Fossil Ridge High School senior Ben Hartman is a skier. “It’s all about the whole package,” he said. “The price is important but so is the quality of runs and the distance away.”

Vail, Breckenridge and Beaver Creek are all tied as the most expensive resort, at $119 per lift ticket. Vail and Aspen are also more expensive than some of the other resorts due to the high cost of living in those towns. “Price is a major factor when I decide where I’m going,” Hartman said, “but at the same time I don’t want it to control where I can and cannot go.”

Although a lot of the highly-rated resorts are expensive, there are resorts that are both well-rated and cheaper than others. Copper Mountain is rated as a 4.2 out of five stars by onthesnow.com, yet the average lift ticket is around $75. Ski resorts such as Copper and Steamboat boast high ratings and are cheaper than resorts like Vail and Breckenridge. “One of the reasons I like Copper so much is because it is cheaper than a lot of other places but it is a fun place to ski too,” FRHS junior Cam Baker said.

Although the prices per tickets may vary, the highly-rated resorts all are priced between $75-120. Due to the overall expensiveness of all the resorts, no matter where the skier chooses to go, according to onthesnow.com, the price is not one of the major categories that determine where a skier chooses to go.

One of the other indicators that are taken into account when deciding where to ski is the quality of the resort. This category includes the town of the resort, the dining and the quality of places to stay. “Part of the reason I like Copper so much is because of the condos and hotels that are right by the mountain,” FRHS junior David DeFrancia said.

Having condos and dining so close to the mountain is a valuable asset that many resorts, including Copper, use to boost their ratings. On the other hand, resorts such as Keystone are rated lower due to the necessity of taking a shuttle to get to and from the mountain. Although the resort is important to a skier, the distance and travel time it takes to get to the resort is an equally important category.

One of the categories rated as the most influential factors for deciding where to go skiing is the time it takes to get there. Depending on where the resident lives, it could take two-six hours to get to the resort. “One of the reasons I never go to Vail or Aspen is because it takes so long to get there,” FRHS senior Alex Ricky said. “After a long day of skiing the last thing I want to do is sit in a car for six hours.”

With the increased popularity in one-day ski trips, the time it takes to get to and from home in one day is a factor that impacts a skier’s decision to go to a certain resort.

According to onthesnow.com, how “family friendly” a resort is and the difficulty of the runs is the second most influential category when a person decides which ski resort to go to. Part of the reason Beaver Creek is rated highly even though the resort is one of the most expensive, is because it is rated as the number one family friendly ski resort in Colorado. “My family definitely likes to go to ski resorts that have a wide variety of runs for the different level of skiers in my family,” Baker said. If a resort is not family friendly or doesn’t have a lot of different runs for different levels of skiers that can be a major turn off for a lot of skiers and snowboarders.

Although factors such as price, the quality of the town, the distance away and the difficulty of the runs are all factored into how a person chooses where to go skiing, the number one category that determines which resort to choose is the overall diversity of the runs available. According to onthesnow.com, the most important factor for many skiers is how many runs there are. This is why resorts like Vail, Aspen, Steamboat, and many others resorts are rated high because they are big mountains with a lot of runs to ski on and other things like terrain parks that are offered on the mountain. For instance, Vail has more than 5,000 acres of ski-able land. The big resorts have room for a terrain park, runs between the trees, long runs and easier runs.  These are all important to DeFrancia. “There are a lot of things that I take into account when I decide where I want to go skiing, but at the end of the day it is important that the mountain is fun and has a lot of runs and things for me to do.”

For more information about the different skiing options in Colorado, visit http://www.familytravelcolorado.com/Ski_Areas.html. Also, for an example of skiing at Copper Mountain, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9eTQTPuuMc.