Missouri Ski Areas

Snow Creek Resort

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Hidden Valley, Eureka • 20 skiable acres on 300′ vertical Specs: Summit elevation: 775′. 6 Lifts: 1 quad, 2 triples, 3 surface. Terrain Mix: 37-63-0. Uphill capacity: 6000/hr. Longest Run: 1800′. Season: usually December through March. Night Skiing 7 days. Rentals & Lessons. Annual Snowfall: 15″. Snowmaking: 100%. The SKInny: A friend of mine believes that life is ten percent situations, ninety percent attitude. Keep that in mind when you ski in Missouri. As far as skiing goes, the situation is about as bad as it gets, so make sure you have a good attitude. If you can approach this with a positive outlook — or if you don’t know any better — you’ll have a great time at Hidden Valley. A new quad chair has cut liftlines. Conditions are hit or miss, so is the service, but overall you have to give this resort credit for making a go of it in a floodplain. Operated by Peak Resorts, who don’t get enough credit for providing a skiing product where there otherwise wouldn’t be any. Signature Trail: Missi’s Wish.

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Snow Creek, Weston • 25 skiable acres on 300′ vertical Specs: Summit elevation: 1100′. 4 Lifts: 2 triples, 1 double, 1 surface. Terrain Mix: 30-60-10. Uphill capacity: 5000/hr. Longest Run: 1800′. Season: usually December through March. Night Skiing 7 days. Rentals & Lessons. Annual Snowfall: 20″. Snowmaking: 100%. The SKInny: This is the better of the two Missouri ski areas that Peak Resorts operates, we should say a lot better. Very good place to learn, fun for groups, families, etc. Also good for a tune-up…and the alternatives are few and far between. Tickets seem a bit pricey, but again, operating a ski area amidst the wheat fields is quite a gamble. Signature Trail: Sixshooter.

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More…

Hotshots are skiers who can ski anywhere, anytime, in any conditions, and generally enjoy showing off those skills. Wanderers are skiers who like to go exploring, to essentially get “lost” and move from face to face, seldom skiing the same trail twice. Newbies are the girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband who has never skied before, but gamely insists on going along. Obviously, Blues represents intermediate skiers, while Blacks refers to experts.

A note about ski area statistics: Although it’s hard to believe, some ski areas are (gasp!) less than truthful with their numbers. Like the guy who lies about his, uh, shoe size, some ski areas believe that inflated numbers make their resort sound more appealling. When these numbers are obviously questionable, we put a note: (?!) and will attempt to verify the legitimacy of the claim.

A Signature Trail Is mostly subjective. Whether it’s history, reputation, the view, or degree of difficulty…it’s the run you have to do, even if it isn’t necessarily the best the resort has to offer. If a ski area calls a trail by two names (one at the top, and another at the bottom) in an effort to claim more trails, we go by the upper name. If a trail is called “Upper Whatever” and “Lower Whatever,” we simply list it as “Whatever” in this index.

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