How the Seasoned Score Works

The Seasoned Score is a single number (0–100) that ranks resorts from the perspective of someone doing a full ski season — not a tourist. It combines up to fifteen stats, each weighted to reflect what actually matters when you're living and working somewhere for 4–6 months.

Every resort is ranked against all others for each stat. That rank (0–1 percentile) is multiplied by the stat's weight and summed. The result is scaled to 0–100. We publish the weights here and they never change silently — if the formula changes, the version is noted.

Default weights (v4)

Stat	Weight	Why it matters to a seasonaire
Season length	21%	More days open = more earning potential and more time on the mountain. The single biggest differentiator for seasonaires.
Annual snowfall	20%	Upper-mountain snowfall average. Better snow = better conditions on your days off across the whole season, not just the first few weeks.
Resort size	17%	Large terrain = you won't get skied out after 4 months. Tourist sites care about variety for a week; seasonaires need longevity across a full winter.
Vertical drop	16%	More vertical = more interesting, varied runs for staff who ski every single day, not just weekends. Low vertical makes repetitive laps feel repetitive fast.
Nightlife	8%	The après-ski and nightlife scene matters when you're there for 4–6 months, not just a week. A good scene = better social life, easier to meet people, better staff morale.
Affordability	5%	Ranked as monthly rent + 4× weekly groceries in USD. The biggest variable in your season budget after you've accepted the job — often the difference between saving money and breaking even.
Staff accommodation	5%	Whether the resort actively provides or helps staff find housing is a major practical factor. Bad staff housing — or none at all — makes a season significantly harder to plan.
Price of a beer	4%	A reliable proxy for overall resort pricing culture. Cheap beer usually means cheaper everything else — food, gear hire, socialising. Expensive beer signals a premium tourist resort where your wages won't stretch as far.
Airport proximity	2%	Seasonaires fly home mid-season, meet visiting family and friends, and travel between jobs. Proximity to an international airport matters far more than for a one-trip tourist.
Day ticket price	1%	Lower weight because most seasonaires get a free or heavily discounted staff pass with employment. Still useful as a proxy for how tourist-priced the resort feels day-to-day.
Lift count	1%	More lifts generally means more terrain coverage and shorter queues on peak days. Weighted lower than area because the two are correlated — extra lifts don't always add new terrain.
Beginner-friendly	0%	Many seasonaires arrive as genuine beginners on skis. A resort that supports rapid progression through well-maintained beginner areas makes a real difference to your season on the mountain.
Gnarliness	0%	For expert and freeride-oriented seasonaires, terrain quality matters more than quantity. A gnarly resort keeps advanced skiers and snowboarders engaged through a long season.
Groomed terrain	0%	Some seasonaires want high-speed groomed runs; others want off-piste powder. This weight lets you match the resort's character to your own skiing style — neither extreme is objectively better.
Backcountry access	0%	Sidecountry and slackcountry accessible from the lifts extends the terrain dramatically. For backcountry-oriented seasonaires, this turns a good season into a great one.

Cost of living is a composite: monthly_rent + (4 × weekly_groceries), both converted to USD for cross-country comparability. Resorts missing either rent or grocery data are excluded from the cost component and their score is rebalanced across the remaining stats.

Affordability: Deliberately underweighted. Our rent figures price a normal one-bedroom apartment, not the shared staff housing most seasonaires actually live in — so they read high. We're keeping this low until enough reviews tell us what seasonal workers really pay.

Set your own priorities

This page explains the default score. If you want resorts ranked by what matters to you instead, adjust your preferences.

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