SAM Magazine—Dawson City, Yukon, June 20, 2024—Liftblog.com creator Peter Landsman completed his mission to visit every ski area in North America last night when he stopped in at Moose Mountain in Canada’s Yukon territory to grab a picture of the municipal hill’s T-bar. Landsman has been documenting lifts in North America for more than two decades, snapping photos and recording stats for his database on liftblog.com.

Landsman—a Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (Wyo.) lift supervisor, frequent SAM contributor, and follower of all things lifts—completed his effort to visit all 500 ski areas in the U.S. in 2022 before turning north to Canada’s 250-plus ski areas. While last night’s visit marks the end of that tour, with new lifts (and even new ski areas) coming online regularly, Landsman won’t be hanging up his travel bag just yet. 

To celebrate the occasion, SAM spoke with Landsman about his experience traveling the continent to visit ski areas large and small, and what’s next. 

You started liftblog.com when you were just a kid (in 2015, not long out of college). When did you set a goal to check out every ski area and their respective lifts in the U.S.—and then later, all of North America? What inspired this huge undertaking? 

This quest started much smaller. As a teenager in the Pacific Northwest, I wanted to visit the five mountains in the Washington Cascades. I ended up in New England for college and made a goal to hit every mountain in Maine and New Hampshire. Then I moved back west to work at Jackson Hole and drove to every mountain in Wyoming my first winter there. After that, I realized it might be possible to do the whole U.S. and eventually Canada. Covid actually helped me travel more affordably by plane to ski all over the country.

You run liftblog.com, you freelance for SAM, and of course, you hold down the fort at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR). You’re a busy guy. I know it took many years (more than two decades), but still, how did you find the time to visit all 750-odd ski areas in North America?

Most Jackson Hole mountain operations employees work four days a week, which is awesome. JHMR also has a great PTO program for employees who work year-round. Some of my coworkers graciously traded shifts with me when I needed to string days-off together for a specific trip. That said, I got used to driving at night and taking red eye flights. I’ve been known to sleep in ski resort parking lots and wake up for first chair.

What’s a surprise—pleasant or otherwise—that you discovered in this process?

Skiing is enjoyed almost everywhere on our continent. Not necessarily big mountain skiing, but downhill skiing of some kind. There are many different business models, but all of them include snow and lifts. For example, in Quebec, not a particularly mountainous province of Canada, there are 75 ski areas. Wherever there’s the possibility of alpine skiing, people make it happen through hard work.

Now that you’ve seen them all, what are some of your favorite lifts in North America?

Without a doubt Peak 2 Peak at Whistler Blackcomb (B.C.). No other lift in North America combines the detachable aspect of a gondola with the rope system of a tram. It goes 1,400 feet in the air. For more normal lifts, I would say Bridger Gondola at Jackson Hole. It was the first lift I ever operated and is a beast of a people mover. In the East, I would nominate the Slide Brook Express at Sugarbush (Vt.). They say it is the world’s longest high-speed quad, but I believe it may be the world’s longest chairlift in general.

What are you going to do with all your free time now that you’ve ticked the last lift off your list?

More than 50 new lifts are being installed as we speak, and I hope to visit most of them next winter. I also plan to check out some ski areas that have been closed and are reopening. Norway Mountain in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has already said they will operate next winter for the first time in over a decade. That said, I should also probably spend a bit more time enjoying Jackson Hole because I live in a beautiful place.

Report by Katie Brinton