Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

I think I am even more confused now since you have recommended most of the resorts in North America ;)

From what you say I am leaning towards Vail or Whistler. Alta looks good to but getting there from Spain may be more difficult.

Although I can get a cheap flights ($600 to Denver, for example), the rest of the costs are significantly higher than in Europe (especially lifts and lodging). I will now check with the rest of the group and see if we consider it or not.

Thanks!!!

Check with some London based agents re package deals ex London. These can be very cheap. Friends of mine last year paid less than 1,000 GBP p/p for round trip transport London/Whistler/London, hotels & breakfast, lift tickets & equipment rental for two weeks peak season. That's crazy cheap.

My sister and brother-in-law live for skiing. They live in Colorado, and they usually go to Utah because of the excellent powder. Once a year, they fly to British Columbia with a group of friends, and they heli-ski for a long weekend. That is their favorite place to ski. Apparently BC has excellent powder, as Dottore and others have mentioned? No long lines, just get on the helicopter and fly to the top again. I assume they stay in a nearby town and have good accommodations. I don't know the cost, but it might be great with a group...

_

Man, all you guys are making me go crazy looking forward to ski season. I suck, but love skiing, haha.

The big worry for me about the idea of a trip to the US is how unpredictable weather can be. Ski towns here are just that, and if the snow doesn't fall, there's really nothing else to do. We had a horrible season in Tahoe last year. (Which I personally blame on myself, for buying a season pass!)

wow all these "world class" skiers on here and no mention of some very nice/quiet/limited lift line/limited crowd areas like:

telluride/purgatory/copper mtn/lake eldora/arapahoe/loveland/winterpark/crested butte/taos.



i used to ski for my college in colorado. giant slalom(collegiate downhill was outlawed the year before due to high rate of impacting trees). this was during the era of "spider sabich " hank kashiwa" " billy kidd". we actually trained with them , when the snow got slim and they came over to our training facilities at lake eldora. spider was running the "bud cup" before he met his demise at the hands of that beeeattch claudine longet.


what MOST of YOU are missing out on is the FACT that as prevailing winds and storms going west to east,after crossing from kalif, into utah, into colorado loose their moisture. ie. WET SNOW................hence colorados DRY SNOW or CHAMPAGNE POWDER as steamboat hypes.


i have skied all over the west and NOTHING BEATS COLORADO most years if weather is good. we would literally hop into van with our gear every weekend and hit another race hill. big small medium cheap crowded no crowds expensive ski areas. all paid for by the college. FUN TIMES!


the areas i listed are some of the most beautiful areas and very often no crowds aside from a holiday weekend.


all of them beat the hell out of squaw valley/heavenly/alta/park city/jackson/vail/aspen/ and all the so called "big name" areas.


if ya want entertainment..............pfft go to a bar or a concert where ya live.


ya want good skiing with max amounts of runs per day(you are there to ski right? or just look good in yer fashion show ensemble?) then look at some of these areas.


steamboat since its out of the way on a non holiday weekend, is insane SNORKEL POWDER..........literally. hit it on a monday tuesday after a good blow of snow, and you will think you had died and gone to heaven.


oh yeah back in the day my roommates and i were running 215-225cm ski's. non of this short poo "ballet ski's", with our bindings cranked so damn tight so we wouldnt loose them in the powder with leashes. yeah LEASHES! so in the event of a high speed in flight discombodulation FUBAR, we wouldnt loose a ski and have to come down on one ski. giant PITA and very spendy.


another place to look is new mexico, dry snow, hit it on a week day zero crowds and wonderful dry snow.

hit them in the spring, and get a tan as if you were sitting on the beach at maui.


and if yer a total ski freak like us................NIGHT SKIING! lake eldora. wow nothing like it.



heres the bottomline.............yer paying BIG AZZ BUCKS to STAND IN A LINE! how many runs do ya get? so take my advice and hit a "no name area" and get yer bucks worth and learn how to ski.

In the US, the snow is superior in the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevada. It is generally too warm in the west for really good snow. New Mexico and Utah have that really dry, powdery snow that is nice when you get back in the trees. Taos, NM is pretty amazing. Nothing withing hundreds of miles but Santa Fe, if you are interested in apres ski activities.

Tahoe can be crowded, but is really not bad in midweek, it does get ugly on the weekends, or it can. If I were going to take a week, I would get a 5 day pass and ski Monday through Friday. Do NOT go on a holiday or between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Squaw Valley built this resort in the last few years that is very not bad. I don't care for gambling myself, and would be inclined to go see the car collection in Reno on Saturday, maybe just drive around the Lake on Sunday, or do a little cross country rather than alpine skiing

You like cars, right?
:: National Automobile Museum | Reno, Nevada ::

Yep, to close to the ocean and the fresh snow is heavy. Inland a few hundred miles and it gets dry and light. +1

And if for some reason the conditions aren't great at Jackson, there is a small resort on the other side of the range --Grand Targee-- which often has drier, deeper powder snow.

Winter Day light hours can be short....obviously the further north you go the shorter the day light. --Sorry a boat that Canada.

We have year-round skiing in Oregon State at Timberline. --Summer skiing can be fun and very different. The snow is old in the summer, but skiing in shorts is fun. ...Some women ski in bikinis. (warning, the summer glacial snow is course and abrasive - don't fall on to exposed skin)

As a primarily midwest and east skier (Boyne Mi, Holiday Valley NY, Killington VT) I really can't comment with any authority on Europe vs decent NA skiing. That said, I did enjoy my one and only ski trip to Colorado. We skied Breckenridge, Copper and Vail. My friends and I enjoyed Copper the most as they had several longish medium steepness runs that contained perfect bumps which we spent the majority of our time skiing on with no lift lines. Vail had very few bump runs at that time... seemed overpriced and boring to us. Breckenridge had a lot of variety and the town was pretty neat.

Some of you are forgetting (ODDJOB) that a European is coming over. He doesn't live here. Hence, driving all over kingdom come to ski some little out of the way hills that have good snow and nothing else is probably NOT the best of ideas, unless he has time and money to burn.

With that said, many of us have listed the BIGGEST of the good resorts out there - which leads to many days of varied skiing all over the resort (more like Europe), rather than skiing the same runs over and over and over again because the resort is smallish (but good). For the most part, they are all excellent places to ski.

I guess you are the only decent skier around here since you skied with Billy and on the 225's. Guess what, many of us who replied skied on those long boards too. We learned on those skis but we don't feel the need to point it out as you did because it wasn't relevant to the OP's request.

Anyway, yes...as one moves east away from the coastline, the moisture content of the snow diminishes and makes for lighter, drier snow. Utah is the best place for that stuff. Colorado is right up there too. However, with that said, the west offers up some great skiing too - even if the powder is not quite as light. The OP mentioned Whistler and I have to say that is an EXCELLENT choice. It has two 5000+ foot mountains to ski on, with everything from small glaciers to tree skiing. You will not run out of terrain to ski on either.

my point being the "trend" has been short ski's for some time. and yeah popping moguls is best done with shorties when the hill is mogul alley. but long ski's ARE a european thang, and the places mentioned were designed for them.

2 others i forgot monarch pass, and wolf creek pass. wolf creek gets DUMPED ON BAD when prevailing conditions are goood. and i mean ITS GOOOOOOOD! insane amounts of snow.


some may come thinking a big name area is cool, when in reality all ya do is stand in a very long lift line. and that sucks. thats all i was pointing out.


all these areas excepting say telluride(now) are small to medium areas. holidays which is when MOST people have off, these are great areas to get some stick time and NOT stand in a line.


hell one of the easiest expeditions anywhere was winterpark taking the "ski train" from denver. load yer crap in a duffle bag, and they dump ya right off at winterpark. and take ya back at the end of the day. its TOO SIMPLE!


i have been skiing since age 9 or 10. here in az we only had snowbowl in flagstaff, until sunrise opened on the white mtn rez. well sunrise is about 45 minutes from where i spent alot of my youth in pinetop,az. soooooooo..............since there was nothing to do in winters..........we went skiing.


its no different than riding a bike. 1st day it kicks yer azz, 2 nd day kicks yer azz, 3rd day feel a little better, 4th and upward, yer ready for the olympics and yer SUPERMAN!


long boards..................is when ya "feel the need fer speed"

dynamic/fischer/k-2/kneissl/rossignol pilot.

The best skiing I have ever experienced is Steamboat. By far. Far enough away from Denver so that there is no weekend pile-up of lift lines, best terrain, lightest snow.

Whistler has great terrain, but the snow is much heavier than the Rockys.

My number two is probably Vail.

The snow at Whistler isn't always wet. I have woken up there hundreds of times to 12" dumps of fresh dry powder.

As I said upthread, the higher altitude resorts in the US are more reliable when it comes to weather, and this is a key consideration for anyone booking a short vacation. However, if you are at Whistler on a good day, it is very hard to beat.

Here's a spring skiing picture looking towards the back bowls.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1347231666.jpg

I grew up skiing in Colorado in the 60's with leather lace up boots and wood ski's and poles. Awhile back. All over Colorado and recall Vail at 6 or 10 bucks a day. Living to the godforsaken panhandle of Texas all the people here talked about Taos. I ignored the advice but finally tried it in 82. They had a 90 inch base that year and I told my wife I could never ski again and die a happy skier. That was in fact my last time for one reason after another. Great place.

Here are some pics from Whistler from Feb. 2007. The neat thing is it can be minus 10 deg.C at the top of the mountain and as you head down the mountain you can feel the temp. change. By the time you are in the village it can be 5 deg. C.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1347236578.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1347236605.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1347236650.jpg

If it's down to costs.....Stay in Europe....snow is snow.....it's just depends on conditions. American ski area's food sucks....the fare in Austria, Italy, Germany and Switzerland was excellent. If you want to see the world come on over.

The only downside of skiing in Europe, is wankers cutting in line.

the HOT(FREE) TICKET is to join SKI PATROL and ya never evar have to wait in a line.

drawback is yer apres ski fiesta activity will be cut way short by an OH DARK THIRTY ALARM as yer 1st on the slope every stinking day................and the LAST OFF!

Mammoth is really great. Go the weekend before Christmas and you will have the whole mountain with small crowds.

for that matter even when its crowded its not all that bad.

Endless terrain.

This year they are closing June mountain ( a sister property up the freeway)

If you like back country stuff I think this will probably be amazing!

I sincerely did not know that queues in the US were "civilized" since I am used to "Euro-wankers" :) It can really be an experience in itself to see how queues work over there.

Cost is definitely and issue but not a deal breaker. I am currently exploring options and will present 3 possibilities to my skiing buddies:

1. Go back to Avoriaz (base cost)
2. Go to St. Anton in Austria (+$200)
3. Go to the US (+$1000-$1500)

I am guessing it will be option 2, but who knows...

I slept one night in Mammoth Lakes back in 2005 when I spent 2 weeks in the summer touring the west coast. I really liked the place and would not mind going back.

One problem is each option requieres a different airport (Denver, Reno, Salt Lake City, SF, ...) and air fares change each minute, so it is difficult to really plan ahead.

One time in Kitzbuhl..I think that's how it's spelled, I was waiting in line. I have a book out, (yes I read on the chair and inline if no Betties are about) plodding ahead....shorts, tee shirt and a bandana on....obvious a douche from the States. Some guy comes up a few spaces ahead and plops his skiis down and clips in.

He made a move to cut in....I suggested he go to the end of the line or I would thump his ass.....

He looked shocked....people behind me started to applaud.