Baqueira/Beret one of the 10 best ski slopes in the world
To classify the Baqueira/Beret slopes as one of the 10 best ski slopes in the world, it is necessary to ask ourselves the following question:
How do you quantify which are the best ski resorts in the world?
It’s a question they’ve spent hours, literally, debating at Snow magazine headquarters. We all know what makes a ski resort great: thousands of slopes, a wide variety of easily accessible off-piste terrain, excellent restaurants, etc.
But what makes a great ski resort one of the best? How do you evaluate, for example, the best ski resorts in Italy versus the best resorts in Canada? Can you really compare a French mega-resort, with family-friendly freeway lanes, to a small two-lift operation in the backwoods of Colorado? What about the towns? Do you prioritize direct access to the ski slopes, direct access to the ski slopes or the aesthetics of the box of chocolates? Is it the après or do you prefer a civilized and quiet meal? To some extent, the answer to all these questions is subjective, and we will not pretend that this list resolves all these debates (in fact, if anything, it is more likely to generate new debates). What it does do, however, is represent the considered views of Snow’s editorial team. Between them, they accumulate hundreds of years of skiing and snowboarding, and visit countless ski resorts on six of the seven continents (none of them have made it to Antarctica … yet).
Having compiled a long, long list of over 100 resorts, from Avoriaz to Zermatt, from Arinsal to Zell am See, they evaluate them by looking at a wide range of factors, including the quality of skiing on and off piste, the variety and ambiance of the town, ease of access, price, etc. Finally, after much deliberation, they reach a decision. For the reasons outlined below, these are the places we think are the best ski resorts in the world this winter.