Flying out to Little Rock, Arkensas this morning (posting from my laptop over a wireless connection), I saw something on the ground that was quite interesting!

Looking out the window, I noticed what looked like ski runs. After studying it for a little bit, it dawned on me that I was looking at Snowshoe and Silver Creek! I could clearly see the village on the summit as well as make out the lake at the base. As I was flying over it, I could also see Cupp's Run and Shay's Revenge!

I just thought how cool it was to see Snowshoe from the air some 30K feet from the air. It looked so tiny! I wish I had my camera handy as it would've made for an interesting picture.

It was also cool when I went to Sun Valley back in January, on the approach to Boise, we flew right over Sun Valley itself. Pretty wild to see it from the air like that.

Curious if anybody else ever managed to see any ski areas from the air while on flights, especially any they are familier/been to.

Lots. Seven Springs, Hidden Valley, Whitetail, Liberty, Canaan, Timberline, Snowshoe, Silver Creek all around here (and all with snow on them). Big Mountain out west a couple times, Crystal Mountain, Steamboat, and some others in CO I only got a glimpse of so couldn't recognize right away. The ones in Utah are difficult to spot- their terrain blends into the natural ground cover pretty well, so there are not as many distinctive runs. I've seen Park City and Deer Valley and once strained to find Solitude (found it, turned to tell someone, and when I looked back I couldn't find it again).

And I've seen Mount Wachusett in Massachusetts about 100 times. My dad was a flight instructor and morning radio traffic reporter up there. We flew around Wachusett pretty much every chance we got. Small planes are the neatest way to see just about anything; a completely different perspective both on flying and visualization than any jumbo jet.

I flew over Buckhorn! Does that count?

Of course. Buckhorn is the sine qua non of skiing. How was the glacier doing, by the way?

A lot of pilots ski. It's no wonder the flight routes often go by ski resorts. Of course, flying in to Salt Lake from the East, you pretty much have to fly over the resorts anyway.

The coolest (and closest) I've ever seen is flying over Lake Tahoe. We did not fly directly over it but coming home from San Jose, we flew near it over a crystal blue sunny day. You could clearly tell it was tahoe with the snow capped mountains and the lake. One of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen.

I've looked for Snowshoe as I flew west before but have never seen it.

I also have seen ski areas from the air during trips. One of the fun things is trying to identify which ski area you are looking at, especially in places like Utah and Colorado which have a multitude of area.
I have seen the following areas: Lake Tahoe region, SnowBasin in Utha, Park City and Little Cottonword areas, I70 areas in Colorado, areas in New Mexico, and frequently the areas just west of LA. And I have seen the local areas, Massanutten, Cannan, and Snowbird.
Always exciting to see ski areas, whether winter or summer, and at night!
The Colonel