The votes are in and counted. And, envelope please: The No. 1 ski area in North America is . . . Deer Valley.

In the annual poll taken by SKI Magazine, of some 20,000 subscribers who have been on its mailing list for two or more years, Deer Valley came out on top, leapfrogging Vail, Colo., which held the No. 1 spot the two previous years. Deer Valley was No. 2 in those two polls.

"I would like to think this reaffirms out continued focus on our guests," reported Bob Wheaton, president of Deer Valley, "everything from guest services to our attention to detail to our outstanding food."

Park City Mountain Resort was voted No. 5 and The Canyons No. 14. Last year Park City was No. 8 and The Canyons No. 22.

Other Utah resorts making the Top 30 were Snowbird at No. 20; Alta, No. 29; and Solitude, No. 30. Last year Snowbird was 23rd, Solitude 26th, and Alta was unranked.

Voters ranked resorts in 17 categories, including snow, grooming, terrain, challenge, value, lifts, service, weather, access, on-mountain food, lodging, dining, apres-ski, off-hill activities, family programs, scenery and terrain parks.

Those who voted had skied an average of 23 days a year.

After votes were counted in each of the 17 categories, and Deer Valley came out No. 1, each category was then ranked and weighted according to the order of importance listed by those surveyed, and votes were recounted. Again, Deer Valley came out as the No. 1 choice.

The resort's highest scores came in areas of customer service, food, grooming and lodging.

This was not the first time Deer Valley has the No. 1 spot. Voters ranked the resort No. 1 back in 2002.

This is the first time Park City Mountain Resort has broken into the top five. Krista Parry, public relations manager, said the jump from No. 8 can be credited to a number of new programs, including one intended to improve overall morale of the employees.

"We set up a lot of programs for our employees last season to help them and make them feel good about the work they were doing. Having happy employees paid off, we believe. The guests noticed," she said.

"We also changed our grooming program. We paid more attention to our signature runs and groomed several black-diamond (most difficult) runs, which opened up more of the mountain."

According to magazine officials, Park City improved its score in 15 of the 17 categories and earned the same scores in the remaining two.

Snowbird jumped up from No. 23 to No. 20.