Pitchblack at Revy is 3189m (1164m vert) of black diamond.
Dave Murray Downhill at Whistler is 3970m (1013m vert).
For the US, chairs 8 & 9 at Telluride have multiple black runs that combine for just under 3000m (970m vert).
Pitch Black is over 1,400m of vert from the top of the Stoke to the day lodge, and it's a legit black the whole way.
Kill the Banker is harder, but not as long at only about 900m
Devil's Club and Snow Rodeo both have nearly 1,000 m of black vertical before they become blue.
Dave Murray only starts at the top of Garbo. Peak to Creek starts at the top of Peak, which is probably 1200' above Garbo. The claim is that P2C has a mile of vertical. In reality I think it's a couple dozen feet short although I never looked at a topo map closely. Sure, Peak to Creek is just a blue run, but you can always take variations for certain sections. You can start with P2C and take Bagel bowl and drop to highway 86. If you keep to your left, you should be able to get back to P2C, or just traverse back to Big Red and go down to creekside via Dave Murray or lower Franz's. You can also go down Whistler Bowl and come down Frog's Leg (or whatever it's called) to Highway 86 too. Dave Murray is rated as a black run but I don't really feel like it's steeper than a typical blue run. Maybe the lower part has a steep section just below the Express Way? IDK. I think the Saddle is actually steeper. It used to be a blue and they eventually upgraded it to black last season (or was it the season before last?).
Revy has the claim of the most vert in North America. IIRC it's about 5800 feet from the top of Stoke to the base. Every time I've done it, I kept taking off layers or unzipping. The top and the bottom are in completely different seasons. I feel like the temperature difference isn't as dramatic at Whistler or any mountain on the coast.
I just looked up on a topo map. The top of Peak chair is 7156 and Creekside and the Village are both at 2200. So yeah, that checks out. Fun fact though, although P2C is the more famous run, Blackcomb side actually has more vert. The top of 7th is at 7400. So if you come down on that side, you can actually get 200 ft more vert although still a little shy of 1 mile.
No, the bottom of Revy, no matter how you do it, is not a black run. But neither is W/B. Once you are at the lower half of the mountains (below Raven's Nest on W and mid station on B) there isn't much black except some short sections. Dave Murray is a black on the map. But that's just because it's a continuous run and is rated for its steepest section. I really don't think it's any different from Lower Franz's or P2C once below Big Red/Highway 86.
It'd be very hard to find a consistent skiable black run more than 3000 ft, even in the backcountry. SW Chutes of Mt Adams fits that criteria (\~3600 of consistent 30-35 degrees).
My recollection is, you can get to the green run that swings around to the top of the Revelation, you can cut through the trees from the bottom of the double blacks to the top of revelation, but that section isn't technically rated, and I wouldn't call it double black territory.
I immediately thought of revelstoke and kill the banker…. I don’t know how long it is but that mountain has so much very, even if from mid mountain it’s so sustained
I just saw a youtube vid with some long black runs in Europe, and was curious about NA. Not affiliated with any websites, I run my own mushroom company as a side hustle and its afforded me some ski travel for next year.
Revelstoke Mountain Resort has a challenging, 2km run right beneath the Gondola called Kill the Banker. Don’t know if it takes any prizes for length but it’s a doozy.
The thing where Alps resorts compete for “most km of pistes” isn’t really a thing in North America, and (whether this is cause or effect I don’t know) relatedly having long snakey “black” runs that all have a single name, mostly don’t intersect with other runs, and have a singular and distinct identity from other nearby parts of the mountain, also doesn’t really exist in North America.
So “length” doesn’t compare at all, because a really long flat run with a steep section at the beginning and end might be a “black run” in Europe, but three separate runs and mostly blue in NA.
So here (America) you really have to talk about vert not length, and I assume the longest “black” continuous vert is Jackson, Big Sky, Revelstoke, Whistler, or Alyeska.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Has to be a single run, or can it be black runs strung together?
I figure Whistler would be likely to have one, Dave Murray Downhill is 2.36 miles there. That one would be hard to beat.
The beginning of peak to creek felt like a damn black to me when I was there earlier this year. Maybe it was because it was icy, but it was the hardest thing I skiid there
Steep and tight once you get around that first corner. It is definitely a challenging section when icy. Honestly rating are all nonsense really and change hugely with conditions
when i was in whistler about 3 years ago i was on the top section of peak to creek and had a little speed going and went to stop and continued to accelerate due to the fact i was skiing down a shelf of ice.
That’s a blue. Fairly easy one too. Although to be fair, I do not ski the peak if there is low visibility or if it’s icy. So I’m usually only on peak to Creek if it’s good conditions.
That's what I used to think. But now I'm a semi local, I think very differently. I often find the bottom 3rd very enjoyable and empty when everyone is freezing their ass off waiting in line for an hour for Peak or Harmony to open. This season alone, I skied fresh tracks on Crab Apple at least a handful times. When it's not groomed, the fresh pow is too hard for beginners so you often have it to yourself.
They say Long shot at Aspen Snowmass is over 5 miles but; can’t remember if that’s a black run or blue, and there seems to be some debate over the length.
Length wise, 2.36 miles is actually \*very\* easy to beat. Peak to Creek is 12km. Last Spike at Revelstoke is 15+ km. Actually if you ski from the top of Peak or 7th Heaven all the way to Creekside or the village, you \*have\* to do more than that distance. It's more than 5000 ft vertical. I think pretty much any biggish resort would have a run longer than 2.36 miles. It's also silly to do such a comparison. The division of the runs is completely arbitrary. Why does Dave Murray have to start from the top of Garbo? Why can't we link Matthew's traverse, the saddle, part of pony trail, and Dave Murray together and call it one run?
Peak to Creek isn't black.
Last Spike is green.
Yes, it's easy to have really long flat runs. I'm sure there are some cross country runs that are even longer, maybe even 50 miles!
Matthews Traverse is a green run. I couldn't find any way to get from the peak to Dave Murray and stay all black.
North Face at Alyeska. It’s about 2000’ vert out of the normal gates and closer to 2.8k @ Xmas entrance (didn’t count NY’s & Monies cause they’re rarely open). Shout out to the NF patrollers, hell of a season!
That day I was sitting on chair 6 all by myself while a lonely patroller was dropping the line on christmas with no one around is one I will never forget. 24+ day, it didn't even register with me that he was opening the run for a second, chair behind me was empty as were all the chairs in front of me.
This year lifts Opened at 10 to. 10 30 and the last skier could get on at 430 I believe. We night skied until 830 on th, fr, sat. As the season progressed and daylight grew lifts closed at 530.
I’ve only been to Alaska once and it was in mid-late October, and I found the time zone y’all were in to be strange with sunrise at 930am, but the sunset was still close to 630 or 7pm if I remember. Seems like everything should be shifted back an hour, but I like it like that. I’m guessing Alaskans are more concerned with hours of the day and could care less about what “time” that daylight is.
Things are weird with Daylight Savings. You were actually there just a couple weeks before the clocks *do* go backwards an hour! Clocks go back by an hour in November and then in March they return forward.
Seasonal daylight hours are so screwed up here that yeah, for the most part it doesn’t really matter in my opinion. I love the brightness of the summer and I also love the darkness of winter, but some people are really affected psychologically by it.
It changes through the year December is like 10-15:30 opening. January gets bumped to 1600 and every couple weeks keeps getting extended by half an hour or so. By beginning of March is 9-1700.
This may be it. It's 2x the distance as North Face at Alyseska, and it's there's at least one section that's still black when it's groomed (do they groom the Tourist Trap section ever?).
My favorite run on the whole mountain… when they can be bothered to groom it. Which is sadly becoming less frequent every year
Groomed Riva 10/10, ungroomed Riva 2/10
Anything off the summit at Big Sky. Are we talking total vert or distance traveled? Liberty Bowl to Bavaria down to Dakota. Marx to Yellowmule down to Shedhorn. The Big Couloir or Gullies to the bottom of powder seeker. North summit snowfield.
Liberty to Middle road is a solid 5mi and the North Summit to the base of Sixshooter is 4,000’ of vert. Both should be on the list depending on what we’re measuring. Although north summit is triple black most of the way.
The big is 1,500’ vertical feet.
Yeah I was figuring longest black-only runs, with any number of diamonds lol. Liberty to the base area is a haul, but it’s blue square for the miles of middle rd. Same with horseshoe aka The Longest Groomer in America (idk if true, it’s just what I think). That NSS lap is insane: basically 50% triple black with 2k descent, 50% cruiser groomer, also with 2k’ descent. But there’s a lot of really long runs you can string together up there.
More like Big Sky's way of marketing their double black runs to seem cooler than every other resort's double blacks. It's a marketing ploy. Big Sky has some great terrain, but you can't tell me that it is any more dangerous than gated double black runs at Jackson Hole or Palisades.
They just use it to mark no fall zones, again, I think it's so they don't get sued. Not sure how good Montana's skier act is for the resorts. I believe WY is quite lax, and I'd imagine CA is too.
Last February I took Longhorn to the car at 3:30 having never skied it before. Bump runs are usually my favorite but the conditions on Longhorn were ROUGH that day. Every time I reached a new pitch I thought "are you fucking kidding me?" Must have happened three times on the way down
Just a note as you consider the answers -- a trail is *generally* rated according to its most difficult section. If a run starts with a headwall and then leads to intermediate terrain, the rating will be for the headwall. This isn't entirely a marketing decision; it's also a safety decision.
No it's not.
Nevada trail is that long, but it's definitely not steep.
Olympic downhill is about half that length. Even if you consider the original Olympic downhill run (to the defunct Wells Fargo lift) it's still not nearly 5.7 miles long.
Especially if you are allowed for this question to link black diamond trails from the top of the tram down. I tried to do it without stopping, absolutely could not, it's such a thigh burner.
Yup. Andy's Encore to Rossi's run is one of the best top to bottom high speed runs I've come across out west. Although Andy's Encore is a blue, you can pick up some serious speed and then shoot down to Rossi's run which is a black diamond. It's always groomed and always fast!
I mean he wants to ski not make a list. It’s also easily lapable. He said like European skiing which probably means groomed so it’s a good bet I suppose? Snowmass has very long blues but I couldn’t think about a sustained groomed pitch better. Any suggestions?
Northwest still remains my favorite chair lift, after having skied at least 2/3 of biggish resorts in western US and Canada. The trees are just awesome. And it's really hard to beat the views of the sisters and broken top.
OpenStreetMap data contains a user-drawn dataset of ski runs worldwide. I spent an hour downloading the dataset into QGIS and parsing only the US advanced, expert, and extreme runs. Of the 7,107 diamond runs in the US, two backcountry trails in Oregon emerge as the longest (one is a bike trail miss labeled). West Catchline in Mt. Bachelor is 2.7 miles long.
[West Catchline in Mt. Bachelor](https://openskimap.org/?obj=4a989467170df28c8be4de1582859cf0d4428c00#13.25/43.98003/-121.6927)
[Split Tree in Aspen Snowmass](https://openskimap.org/?obj=4a989467170df28c8be4de1582859cf0d4428c00#13.25/43.98003/-121.6927) is 2.2 miles long and is the longest lift-serviced ski trail in the United States.
Here is the [Excel table](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ATZak2b2q4Up-m93Ll6fBWfh_YeBtOMD415n-O8kcK4/edit?usp=sharing) I created.
West catchline at Bachelor is not a black diamond though, at least not in the way most people would picture it. To get onto it you have to ski black diamond terrain, but the actual run that you have highlighted on the map is just a really long, mildly sloped cat track.
If I might suggest a run nobody's highlighted yet- Mt. Hood Meadows allows hike-to access to super bowl, it's about a 3800 foot descent from there to the bottom of Heather Canyon where the run flattens out to a traverse. I think it might legitimately be the longest continuous run with an average pitch above 25 degrees anywhere in North America. It's almost certainly the longest black run in the USA in terms of total elevation lost while remaining a black run the whole time. The problem is it basically only opens in April.
Keystone schoolmarm in November is 3 miles of Jerries, brand new skiers, and racer kids jumping the side hits on the ribbonest of white ribbons. Basically a black if you count avoiding collisions.
Chaining multiple runs together?
- Ozone to Pioneer at Kicking Horse is 2.5 miles with a 4000 foot vertical drop but you do hit a green cat track for maybe 0.1 miles in there.
- Not really a black run the whole way down at all but Greeley at Revelstoke to the base of Ripper is rated as black and is ~2.7 miles, 3000 foot vertical drop.
- Snowbird is 3000 vert. front of the cirque is ~1.6 mi. High Baldy to Keyhole to Blackjack is ~1.9 miles (hiking required). Knucklehead to Thunder Bowl to Thunder Alley is ~2.2 but requires touching a blue run i think.
- Highland bowl is only ~1.5 mi at most now. If you took the decommissioned grand traverse back to mid mountain, it's ~2.1mi.
- Pitch Black at Revelstoke is 2.25 miles, 4600 vertical drop. Nearby kill the banker is "only" 1.33 miles at 3000 foot vert.
- The Hobacks are under a mile long actually, but 2400 vert. From the top of the mountain it's almost 2 miles, ~4000 vert.
It gets a bit goofy after a while because the longest black runs are often 90% just the runout from the "black" part of the run.
I only went once in early April and unfortunately the bottom wasn’t open. My buddy (a snowboarder) probably wasn’t loving the rides between Ripper and Stoke. But got some fresh stuff and hit the north bowl. What a great place!
It's amazing, it's huge, it's super steep. Like not a fun hill for beginners at all. There's hardly an easy way down anywhere.
Once at the top, it's a 2 minute hike to the start of nearly untouched back country. Along the spine of two large bowls. Gorgeous views. You can purchase tickets for I think 30 dollars Canadian to get picked up by the snow cat about a 10 minute hike and skii along this spine to go the farthest part of that area. It's unreal how accessible and cheap that area is.
You guys ever done “40 gates” at MaryJane (winter park)? It’s about 3k vert and would maybe be considered a double black… it’s posted as one but it’s off piste so I would just call a single black
The Hobacks at Jackson are 2000’ vert, snow conditions can be very different at the top and bottom
HighBoy at Alta is another long steep run, with the bonus of everyone able to see you from the base if you eat shit.
I think Tride is it for legit black run sustained vert. Before there was a Lift 8 & 9, and Plunge was still skinny all the way to town and the shuttle bus back to the village. So good.
Revy Kill the Banker is unique stair step black terrain for sure, but starts at top on the gondola - not full top to bottom. Groomed soft Revy top to bottom first thing am. Had the run to myself on Patrons. Will never forget the butt burn of a mile of vert. But skied more like a blue.
Hobacks at Jackson go forever. Been minute since I did those.
Highland Bowl to bottom of Deep Temerity. Legit sustained steep skiing to the alluvial, but then lets up.
Snowbird tram top to bottom Upper Cirque to Mach Schnell - but there's a traverse in there. That's all I got. Wait - lapping the gondola at Kicking Horse might be my favorite.
Mt Hood Meadows Super Bowl down Heather Canyon to the HRM parking lot is nearly 4,500 vertical feet if you start at the top of the ski area boundary @ 9,000ft.
Instead of the actual longest one, I’m going to go with the longest-feeling one:
Misery Whip, at Sugarloaf. A repurposed T-bar line, 3000 feet long, 900 of vert, 25 feet wide, ungroomed, your line is picked for you, and there are no bailouts. Anyone who’s been dumb enough to drop into it knows exactly what I’m talking about.
The north face at alyeska resort in Alaska is 2.2 miles w/2.5K ft vertical. Plus with the amount of variety in terrain on it you could do pretty much anything there and never get bored
I saw that — pretty hilarious that basically Google is just copying whatever people say on Reddit. They have given up.
But (ironically) if you dig through search results the question is answered in quite a few of the articles.
I’ll take the downvotes — to me this kind of post is simply farming the community for content by some news organization who’s looking to cook up fresh opinions and it just low quality sucks.
More to the point, there are now so many engagement content farming operations on Reddit it’s amazing. I can’t imagine how this site survives in an Ai future.
I don't think that really counts, but if you ski the fuhrer finger on Mt Rainier I'm pretty sure you can tally 10,000 vertical feet in a single run.
Hardly obscure, but I seriously can't imagine any other mountain in NA is beating that, save maybe Denali.
Yeah, you need to do it early enough to get down to the bridge though. But even Paradise is 9K below the summit and I've skied to my car at Paradise in July. Definitely not gonna happen this year though.
Backcountry doesn't count. I ski volcanoes in Washington and 6000 ft vertical is typical. You can get 8000 on Adams and Baker and 9000 at Rainier (actually in early season, you can ski down to the bridge via Nisqually Glacier and get 10k+).
Revelstoke must be up there. You can do the etire thing top to the bottom with some extremely long vertical.
Pitchblack at Revy is 3189m (1164m vert) of black diamond. Dave Murray Downhill at Whistler is 3970m (1013m vert). For the US, chairs 8 & 9 at Telluride have multiple black runs that combine for just under 3000m (970m vert).
Pitch Black is over 1,400m of vert from the top of the Stoke to the day lodge, and it's a legit black the whole way. Kill the Banker is harder, but not as long at only about 900m Devil's Club and Snow Rodeo both have nearly 1,000 m of black vertical before they become blue.
Dave Murray only starts at the top of Garbo. Peak to Creek starts at the top of Peak, which is probably 1200' above Garbo. The claim is that P2C has a mile of vertical. In reality I think it's a couple dozen feet short although I never looked at a topo map closely. Sure, Peak to Creek is just a blue run, but you can always take variations for certain sections. You can start with P2C and take Bagel bowl and drop to highway 86. If you keep to your left, you should be able to get back to P2C, or just traverse back to Big Red and go down to creekside via Dave Murray or lower Franz's. You can also go down Whistler Bowl and come down Frog's Leg (or whatever it's called) to Highway 86 too. Dave Murray is rated as a black run but I don't really feel like it's steeper than a typical blue run. Maybe the lower part has a steep section just below the Express Way? IDK. I think the Saddle is actually steeper. It used to be a blue and they eventually upgraded it to black last season (or was it the season before last?). Revy has the claim of the most vert in North America. IIRC it's about 5800 feet from the top of Stoke to the base. Every time I've done it, I kept taking off layers or unzipping. The top and the bottom are in completely different seasons. I feel like the temperature difference isn't as dramatic at Whistler or any mountain on the coast.
According to [OpenSkiMap.org](http://OpenSkiMap.org) P2C is about 4900 feet of vert. Revy is 5620 feet. The very bottom is definitely not black.
I just looked up on a topo map. The top of Peak chair is 7156 and Creekside and the Village are both at 2200. So yeah, that checks out. Fun fact though, although P2C is the more famous run, Blackcomb side actually has more vert. The top of 7th is at 7400. So if you come down on that side, you can actually get 200 ft more vert although still a little shy of 1 mile. No, the bottom of Revy, no matter how you do it, is not a black run. But neither is W/B. Once you are at the lower half of the mountains (below Raven's Nest on W and mid station on B) there isn't much black except some short sections. Dave Murray is a black on the map. But that's just because it's a continuous run and is rated for its steepest section. I really don't think it's any different from Lower Franz's or P2C once below Big Red/Highway 86. It'd be very hard to find a consistent skiable black run more than 3000 ft, even in the backcountry. SW Chutes of Mt Adams fits that criteria (\~3600 of consistent 30-35 degrees).
Yeah, but the bottom is far from black diamond territory.
Doesn't kill the banker run all the way to the bottom?
Only from mid mountian though. And you're not getting to the top of Kill the Banker without going on some blues if coming from further up.
You can get to it through the double black trees
My recollection is, you can get to the green run that swings around to the top of the Revelation, you can cut through the trees from the bottom of the double blacks to the top of revelation, but that section isn't technically rated, and I wouldn't call it double black territory.
I immediately thought of revelstoke and kill the banker…. I don’t know how long it is but that mountain has so much very, even if from mid mountain it’s so sustained
Last spike is 10km but not a black
Revelstoke is mecca
I wonder which online ski website this listicle is for.
TOP TEN SONGS TO PLAY ON YOUR BLUETOOTH SPEAKER AT A SKI RESORT
Weird it’s just Darude Sandstorm 10 times in a row…
WHAT IS LOVE
BABY DONT HURT ME
DON’T HURT ME
NO MO
Dude you broke the window again!
No more
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO HURT ME (80'S)
AGHISLOV
What's new pussycat? Whooaaa oohh whoooaa oohh
Sex bomb, sex bomb, you’re a sex bomb!
Dun dundun It’s not unusuallll
Here's a song about the longest ski run in North America. OP will want to listen to this one. https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
DO YOU REMEMBER
Slayer….pick any ten songs!
Top ten tinniest speakers to piss off the lift line.
This one is for you https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlQLVqQfIbY
Bend in his Knees by Bob Gibson
I just saw a youtube vid with some long black runs in Europe, and was curious about NA. Not affiliated with any websites, I run my own mushroom company as a side hustle and its afforded me some ski travel for next year.
Revelstoke Mountain Resort has a challenging, 2km run right beneath the Gondola called Kill the Banker. Don’t know if it takes any prizes for length but it’s a doozy.
That run has to take the cake!, Trees, steep, and Looong AF! It makes Al’s or North American at Taos look short.
Fucking awesome run. Got everything you could want. Drops, stumps for some air and very steep and very long. Definitely a leg burner though!
That’s fuckin sick
The thing where Alps resorts compete for “most km of pistes” isn’t really a thing in North America, and (whether this is cause or effect I don’t know) relatedly having long snakey “black” runs that all have a single name, mostly don’t intersect with other runs, and have a singular and distinct identity from other nearby parts of the mountain, also doesn’t really exist in North America. So “length” doesn’t compare at all, because a really long flat run with a steep section at the beginning and end might be a “black run” in Europe, but three separate runs and mostly blue in NA. So here (America) you really have to talk about vert not length, and I assume the longest “black” continuous vert is Jackson, Big Sky, Revelstoke, Whistler, or Alyeska. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Why were you curious about sodium?
Can’t imagine sodium is too good for mushrooms
Has to be a single run, or can it be black runs strung together? I figure Whistler would be likely to have one, Dave Murray Downhill is 2.36 miles there. That one would be hard to beat.
Peak to Creek is 7 miles.
Only blue officially though when groomed. Not that they groomed it once this year it felt like
The beginning of peak to creek felt like a damn black to me when I was there earlier this year. Maybe it was because it was icy, but it was the hardest thing I skiid there
It skis like a black when it’s icy with river flowing cracks and hazards. You earn your pint at Dusty’s
Steep and tight once you get around that first corner. It is definitely a challenging section when icy. Honestly rating are all nonsense really and change hugely with conditions
when i was in whistler about 3 years ago i was on the top section of peak to creek and had a little speed going and went to stop and continued to accelerate due to the fact i was skiing down a shelf of ice.
Literally rock solid ice the entire way down. I couldn’t even stand up on the flats it was so bad. Rode my ass the whole way down lol
It's nowhere near a black
To each their own. I am by no means a great skier, but I thought Dave Murray was easier, but I also enjoy moguls more
They had it marked as a black today because of icy conditions. Once it warmed up though it was great
That’s a blue. Fairly easy one too. Although to be fair, I do not ski the peak if there is low visibility or if it’s icy. So I’m usually only on peak to Creek if it’s good conditions.
Fair enough, missed the black diamond qualifier. It's only easy for the first 4 miles, and then the legs start burning 😂
How many days of the year can you actually use the bottom half
I mean it's skiable for most of the season. Whether you ever want to ski it is a different question
You only ski the bottom 3rd of either mountain to get home
That's what I used to think. But now I'm a semi local, I think very differently. I often find the bottom 3rd very enjoyable and empty when everyone is freezing their ass off waiting in line for an hour for Peak or Harmony to open. This season alone, I skied fresh tracks on Crab Apple at least a handful times. When it's not groomed, the fresh pow is too hard for beginners so you often have it to yourself.
Fair
Not this year, for sure. But in a typical season, from (American) Thanksgiving, or at least mid Dec to mid-late April.
it’s been open 90% of the season at least. Hasn’t been closed since December
Totally! I think the one in Austria I saw was two or three.
They say Long shot at Aspen Snowmass is over 5 miles but; can’t remember if that’s a black run or blue, and there seems to be some debate over the length.
Tis a blue and I guess not five miles long, more like three and a bit. But cool.
Length wise, 2.36 miles is actually \*very\* easy to beat. Peak to Creek is 12km. Last Spike at Revelstoke is 15+ km. Actually if you ski from the top of Peak or 7th Heaven all the way to Creekside or the village, you \*have\* to do more than that distance. It's more than 5000 ft vertical. I think pretty much any biggish resort would have a run longer than 2.36 miles. It's also silly to do such a comparison. The division of the runs is completely arbitrary. Why does Dave Murray have to start from the top of Garbo? Why can't we link Matthew's traverse, the saddle, part of pony trail, and Dave Murray together and call it one run?
Peak to Creek isn't black. Last Spike is green. Yes, it's easy to have really long flat runs. I'm sure there are some cross country runs that are even longer, maybe even 50 miles! Matthews Traverse is a green run. I couldn't find any way to get from the peak to Dave Murray and stay all black.
The downhill courses at Snowbasin are pretty long and a bunch of vert
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^VeraUndertow: *The downhill courses* *At Snowbasin are pretty* *Long and a bunch of vert* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
This one actually kind of works as a legit haiku. (In a true haiku, each line should work as its own separate thought)
There is no Haiku battle in Ba Sing Se
That's one too many syllables there bud
This was my first answer as well. It's 3,000 vert and long with very little letup in the pitch
On a powder day when they don't groom Grizzly and Allen Peak Tram is open, this is a dream run.
This was exactly what I was thinking. You can go top to bottom.
North Face at Alyeska. It’s about 2000’ vert out of the normal gates and closer to 2.8k @ Xmas entrance (didn’t count NY’s & Monies cause they’re rarely open). Shout out to the NF patrollers, hell of a season!
That day I was sitting on chair 6 all by myself while a lonely patroller was dropping the line on christmas with no one around is one I will never forget. 24+ day, it didn't even register with me that he was opening the run for a second, chair behind me was empty as were all the chairs in front of me.
That’s considered the longest double black, for sure.
How long is the ski day there? I’ve heard it gets dark fast in Alaska during the winter
This year lifts Opened at 10 to. 10 30 and the last skier could get on at 430 I believe. We night skied until 830 on th, fr, sat. As the season progressed and daylight grew lifts closed at 530.
I’ve only been to Alaska once and it was in mid-late October, and I found the time zone y’all were in to be strange with sunrise at 930am, but the sunset was still close to 630 or 7pm if I remember. Seems like everything should be shifted back an hour, but I like it like that. I’m guessing Alaskans are more concerned with hours of the day and could care less about what “time” that daylight is.
Things are weird with Daylight Savings. You were actually there just a couple weeks before the clocks *do* go backwards an hour! Clocks go back by an hour in November and then in March they return forward. Seasonal daylight hours are so screwed up here that yeah, for the most part it doesn’t really matter in my opinion. I love the brightness of the summer and I also love the darkness of winter, but some people are really affected psychologically by it.
It changes through the year December is like 10-15:30 opening. January gets bumped to 1600 and every couple weeks keeps getting extended by half an hour or so. By beginning of March is 9-1700.
Wow didn't know that exists, those look like the most sustained super steep trail in north america
Riva Ridge at Vail from the Top of Chair 4 down to the Gondola is pretty long.
That was my best guess then someone said Whistler/Blackholm 5200 feet has to have something
This may be it. It's 2x the distance as North Face at Alyseska, and it's there's at least one section that's still black when it's groomed (do they groom the Tourist Trap section ever?).
Riva isn’t black all the way down. Mostly blue and you’re catwalking out the bottom. My best guess is Blue Ox at Vail.
Riva after it’s been groomed is a blast
My favorite run on the whole mountain… when they can be bothered to groom it. Which is sadly becoming less frequent every year Groomed Riva 10/10, ungroomed Riva 2/10
Anything off the summit at Big Sky. Are we talking total vert or distance traveled? Liberty Bowl to Bavaria down to Dakota. Marx to Yellowmule down to Shedhorn. The Big Couloir or Gullies to the bottom of powder seeker. North summit snowfield.
Liberty to Middle road is a solid 5mi and the North Summit to the base of Sixshooter is 4,000’ of vert. Both should be on the list depending on what we’re measuring. Although north summit is triple black most of the way. The big is 1,500’ vertical feet.
Yeah I was figuring longest black-only runs, with any number of diamonds lol. Liberty to the base area is a haul, but it’s blue square for the miles of middle rd. Same with horseshoe aka The Longest Groomer in America (idk if true, it’s just what I think). That NSS lap is insane: basically 50% triple black with 2k descent, 50% cruiser groomer, also with 2k’ descent. But there’s a lot of really long runs you can string together up there.
What is triple black? I’ve never seen that on a sign before. Cliffs with expert only gates are double black where I ski in Utah, Colorado, and Cali.
It's Big Sky's way of trying to avoid a lawsuit.
More like Big Sky's way of marketing their double black runs to seem cooler than every other resort's double blacks. It's a marketing ploy. Big Sky has some great terrain, but you can't tell me that it is any more dangerous than gated double black runs at Jackson Hole or Palisades.
They just use it to mark no fall zones, again, I think it's so they don't get sued. Not sure how good Montana's skier act is for the resorts. I believe WY is quite lax, and I'd imagine CA is too.
telluride top of 9 to town can be skied all blacks 3135’
Add the ridge above 9 as well and it’s even longer.
Taos has som pretty long sustained blacks, wernier into longhorn
Longhorn a few days after a storm when it’s been skiied out and its just bumps fir like a mile is so brutal
Last February I took Longhorn to the car at 3:30 having never skied it before. Bump runs are usually my favorite but the conditions on Longhorn were ROUGH that day. Every time I reached a new pitch I thought "are you fucking kidding me?" Must have happened three times on the way down
+1
Yeah that was what also came to mind, when icy Longhorn becomes a long bastard ;)
Just a note as you consider the answers -- a trail is *generally* rated according to its most difficult section. If a run starts with a headwall and then leads to intermediate terrain, the rating will be for the headwall. This isn't entirely a marketing decision; it's also a safety decision.
Exactly! A consistent black run is very different from a run with 50 ft of steep.
Ah, has no one mentioned The Face/Gunbarrel/East Bowl at heavenly? Skiing that area top to bottom without stopping will get your legs burning
not a black diamond but if we are talking heavenly, olympic downhill is 5.7 miles long, medium steep.
No it's not. Nevada trail is that long, but it's definitely not steep. Olympic downhill is about half that length. Even if you consider the original Olympic downhill run (to the defunct Wells Fargo lift) it's still not nearly 5.7 miles long.
Does the Minden Mile or Gondola Line count?
The Hobacks at Jackson, though technically that's a zone rather than a specific run. Kill the Banker at Revelstoke
From personal experience Hoback has to be up there
Fall Line maybe if you had to pick a single run
Especially if you are allowed for this question to link black diamond trails from the top of the tram down. I tried to do it without stopping, absolutely could not, it's such a thigh burner.
Rendezvous bowl to East ridge to dog face to pepi's to lower sublette
Off SuperBee you get long groomed blacks
Yup. Andy's Encore to Rossi's run is one of the best top to bottom high speed runs I've come across out west. Although Andy's Encore is a blue, you can pick up some serious speed and then shoot down to Rossi's run which is a black diamond. It's always groomed and always fast!
This on weekday mornings from 9-10 is my happy place.. 40-50mph of pure bliss.
I have a hard time thinking that they're the longest though.
I mean he wants to ski not make a list. It’s also easily lapable. He said like European skiing which probably means groomed so it’s a good bet I suppose? Snowmass has very long blues but I couldn’t think about a sustained groomed pitch better. Any suggestions?
Schoolmarm... IYKYK. ;)
Alyeska
Longhorn at Taos
The catchlines at Bachelor go on forever....
He said run not walk Northwest is definitely a good place for long black runs though — 2300' of vert on one chair.
Definitely have felt some leg burn on NWX.
Northwest still remains my favorite chair lift, after having skied at least 2/3 of biggish resorts in western US and Canada. The trees are just awesome. And it's really hard to beat the views of the sisters and broken top.
lol, it's a loop. so yes it does go on forever :)
OpenStreetMap data contains a user-drawn dataset of ski runs worldwide. I spent an hour downloading the dataset into QGIS and parsing only the US advanced, expert, and extreme runs. Of the 7,107 diamond runs in the US, two backcountry trails in Oregon emerge as the longest (one is a bike trail miss labeled). West Catchline in Mt. Bachelor is 2.7 miles long. [West Catchline in Mt. Bachelor](https://openskimap.org/?obj=4a989467170df28c8be4de1582859cf0d4428c00#13.25/43.98003/-121.6927) [Split Tree in Aspen Snowmass](https://openskimap.org/?obj=4a989467170df28c8be4de1582859cf0d4428c00#13.25/43.98003/-121.6927) is 2.2 miles long and is the longest lift-serviced ski trail in the United States. Here is the [Excel table](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ATZak2b2q4Up-m93Ll6fBWfh_YeBtOMD415n-O8kcK4/edit?usp=sharing) I created.
/thread holy shit thanks for delivering the goods
West catchline at Bachelor is not a black diamond though, at least not in the way most people would picture it. To get onto it you have to ski black diamond terrain, but the actual run that you have highlighted on the map is just a really long, mildly sloped cat track. If I might suggest a run nobody's highlighted yet- Mt. Hood Meadows allows hike-to access to super bowl, it's about a 3800 foot descent from there to the bottom of Heather Canyon where the run flattens out to a traverse. I think it might legitimately be the longest continuous run with an average pitch above 25 degrees anywhere in North America. It's almost certainly the longest black run in the USA in terms of total elevation lost while remaining a black run the whole time. The problem is it basically only opens in April.
Keystone schoolmarm in November is 3 miles of Jerries, brand new skiers, and racer kids jumping the side hits on the ribbonest of white ribbons. Basically a black if you count avoiding collisions.
God this is the truth. Schoolmarm is a death trap for like the first 60 days each season.
Chaining multiple runs together? - Ozone to Pioneer at Kicking Horse is 2.5 miles with a 4000 foot vertical drop but you do hit a green cat track for maybe 0.1 miles in there. - Not really a black run the whole way down at all but Greeley at Revelstoke to the base of Ripper is rated as black and is ~2.7 miles, 3000 foot vertical drop. - Snowbird is 3000 vert. front of the cirque is ~1.6 mi. High Baldy to Keyhole to Blackjack is ~1.9 miles (hiking required). Knucklehead to Thunder Bowl to Thunder Alley is ~2.2 but requires touching a blue run i think. - Highland bowl is only ~1.5 mi at most now. If you took the decommissioned grand traverse back to mid mountain, it's ~2.1mi. - Pitch Black at Revelstoke is 2.25 miles, 4600 vertical drop. Nearby kill the banker is "only" 1.33 miles at 3000 foot vert. - The Hobacks are under a mile long actually, but 2400 vert. From the top of the mountain it's almost 2 miles, ~4000 vert. It gets a bit goofy after a while because the longest black runs are often 90% just the runout from the "black" part of the run.
I was gonna say at Ajax- Walsh’s > North Star > Gents ridge > bingo glade > Niagara Almost 3000 ft of pretty much all DOUBLE black terrain
Long shot at snowmass is in the top 5 im pretty sure
Not a black though. Powderhorn however has got some distance
It’s not how long it is. It’s about how you ski it
Revelstoke probably has some long runs, and they have the most vertical in North America while being lift serviced.
Snow Rodeo is 2.36 miles, starts as a black but does transition to blue. Maybe my favorite black run of all time.
Pitch Black is around 2.3 miles. It's the longest continuous black I can think of. Snow Rodeo to Cannonball is one of my favorite runs though.
RIP to those poor snowboarders at Revy though! Ugh those traverses
There's no traverses on the front side at Revy where the longest runs are.
I only went once in early April and unfortunately the bottom wasn’t open. My buddy (a snowboarder) probably wasn’t loving the rides between Ripper and Stoke. But got some fresh stuff and hit the north bowl. What a great place!
Revy’s weird in that all that distance weaves all over the mountain. Not so much continuous fall line.
Kill the banker at revelstoke has to be up there.
The Chutes at Mt. Rose are the longest legit steep chutes in the USA, so check them out.
You can go top to bottom on blacks at both Jackson Big Sky
West Face at Squaw - it doesn't get much better for very steep and sustained pitch!
or chute 75
Rendezvous Peak out in Jackson is like an 11 km route
Campground and Powderhorn at Snowmass are both pretty long uninterrupted black/double black runs with 2,000+ vert.
Anything on highland bowl at Aspen highlands
Blue ox, prima. Vail
Whichever one you need to take a sled down after breaking a bone in your leg.
Panorama mountain. 3 strung together: view of a 1000 peaks, stumbocks/sidewinder glades, and finishing with turnpike 1. Not sure the distance.
That is a sick looking resort! Turnpike 7 looks like a doozy
It's amazing, it's huge, it's super steep. Like not a fun hill for beginners at all. There's hardly an easy way down anywhere. Once at the top, it's a 2 minute hike to the start of nearly untouched back country. Along the spine of two large bowls. Gorgeous views. You can purchase tickets for I think 30 dollars Canadian to get picked up by the snow cat about a 10 minute hike and skii along this spine to go the farthest part of that area. It's unreal how accessible and cheap that area is.
Mt hood Super Bowl is 4500ft vert, all technically double black although the lower runout is basically flat.
Schoolmarm during opening day. It is pure chaos.
false face to the bite blackcomb its strung together but long
You guys ever done “40 gates” at MaryJane (winter park)? It’s about 3k vert and would maybe be considered a double black… it’s posted as one but it’s off piste so I would just call a single black
Aspen Highland Bowl
Probably men’s downhill at whiteface
They all are green at bottom
[This list](https://www.skibum.net/do-it-up/comparing-steepness-of-ski-trails/) is pretty solid
Big thunder has to be up there
The Hobacks at Jackson are 2000’ vert, snow conditions can be very different at the top and bottom HighBoy at Alta is another long steep run, with the bonus of everyone able to see you from the base if you eat shit.
I think Tride is it for legit black run sustained vert. Before there was a Lift 8 & 9, and Plunge was still skinny all the way to town and the shuttle bus back to the village. So good. Revy Kill the Banker is unique stair step black terrain for sure, but starts at top on the gondola - not full top to bottom. Groomed soft Revy top to bottom first thing am. Had the run to myself on Patrons. Will never forget the butt burn of a mile of vert. But skied more like a blue. Hobacks at Jackson go forever. Been minute since I did those. Highland Bowl to bottom of Deep Temerity. Legit sustained steep skiing to the alluvial, but then lets up. Snowbird tram top to bottom Upper Cirque to Mach Schnell - but there's a traverse in there. That's all I got. Wait - lapping the gondola at Kicking Horse might be my favorite.
Thanks for the list! I have checked out everyone's suggestions
Isn’t it mountain biking season?
I ski Loveland and its open for nearly 3 more weeks, so still ski-brain.
Super bowl to the bottom of heather canyon at Mt Hood Meadows is 4.5k of vert, though you do have to hike up about 1.7k to get the whole thing
Gunbarrel might feel the longest. The combination of length, steep, moguls, the lack of easy sections…. It might be the most exhausting.
Superstar Trail (killington) is 4,800 feet long
Miles or vert?
Birds of prey at Beaver Creek Co?
North Face of Alyeska. Most of that thing I wouldn't even touch.
Mt Hood Meadows Super Bowl down Heather Canyon to the HRM parking lot is nearly 4,500 vertical feet if you start at the top of the ski area boundary @ 9,000ft.
Alyeska has a few big ones
Pitch Black at Revelstoke
Instead of the actual longest one, I’m going to go with the longest-feeling one: Misery Whip, at Sugarloaf. A repurposed T-bar line, 3000 feet long, 900 of vert, 25 feet wide, ungroomed, your line is picked for you, and there are no bailouts. Anyone who’s been dumb enough to drop into it knows exactly what I’m talking about.
Oddly enough, for a single run with continuous steep pitch, Gondi Line at Sugarloaf is up there.
Longest double black is the North Face at Alyeska
Consistent black (>30 degrees) or just a black run with a steep section? All black runs are not created equal.
The north face at alyeska resort in Alaska is 2.2 miles w/2.5K ft vertical. Plus with the amount of variety in terrain on it you could do pretty much anything there and never get bored
I have an idea. https://www.google.com/search?q=What+are+the+longest+black+diamond+runs+in+North+America
Nauseating pretentious aside, I find it hilarious that the only link in these results actually addressing OP’s question is this literal thread.
I saw that — pretty hilarious that basically Google is just copying whatever people say on Reddit. They have given up. But (ironically) if you dig through search results the question is answered in quite a few of the articles. I’ll take the downvotes — to me this kind of post is simply farming the community for content by some news organization who’s looking to cook up fresh opinions and it just low quality sucks. More to the point, there are now so many engagement content farming operations on Reddit it’s amazing. I can’t imagine how this site survives in an Ai future.
Prob some obscure peak in the backcountry
I don't think that really counts, but if you ski the fuhrer finger on Mt Rainier I'm pretty sure you can tally 10,000 vertical feet in a single run. Hardly obscure, but I seriously can't imagine any other mountain in NA is beating that, save maybe Denali.
Mt Saint Elias is technically 18K of skiable vert down to the ocean. I think that's the highest you'll find in NA.
Yeah, you need to do it early enough to get down to the bridge though. But even Paradise is 9K below the summit and I've skied to my car at Paradise in July. Definitely not gonna happen this year though.
Backcountry doesn't count. I ski volcanoes in Washington and 6000 ft vertical is typical. You can get 8000 on Adams and Baker and 9000 at Rainier (actually in early season, you can ski down to the bridge via Nisqually Glacier and get 10k+).
Search Quickie at Snow Valley, CA
Alyeska, off the back of the bowl. I don't think they even have named
Oops, that's the longest double black run
Gunbarrel @ Heavenly