Silver Mountain

Silver Mountain's summit reaches 6,299 feet, dropping 2,198 vertical feet to a base at 4,101 feet across 80 runs spread over 1,600 acres above Kellogg, Idaho. Terrain splits 40 per cent intermediate, 30 per cent advanced, 20 per cent beginner and 10 per cent expert, with average annual snowfall of roughly 300 inches. The resort carries Indy Pass and Powder Alliance affiliation. Six lifts, including a gondola, one quad chair and two triple chairs, serve the mountain alongside two double chairs.

Silver Mountain's defining feature is its gondola, which climbs 3.1 miles directly from the town of Kellogg to the mountain base, the world's longest single-stage gondola ride at close to twenty minutes each way. This unusual base-to-mountain link was built specifically to revive a Silver Valley economy devastated by the decline of mining and logging. The resort's terrain and lift network sit above the gondola's upper terminal at Mountain House.

The ski area first opened in January 1968 as Jackass Ski Bowl on Wardner Peak, later renamed Silverhorn in 1973 following an ownership change. In the mid-1980s, Kellogg city councilman Wayne Ross conceived the idea of a gondola linking the depressed valley floor town directly to an expanded resort, aiming to stimulate the local economy. In December 1987, the US Congress approved 6.4 million US dollars in matching funds toward construction.

In September 1988, the economically struggling town of Kellogg voted by more than 82 per cent to tax itself two million US dollars over twenty years, and Swiss lift manufacturer Von Roll Tramways agreed to guarantee much of the remaining funding. Ground broke for the gondola and base village on 25 April 1989, and the resort was renamed Silver Mountain that summer. Adult daily tickets run from 79 to 99 US dollars, with season passes from 349 dollars, reflecting the resort's role as both a ski destination and a community revival project.