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I have to agree with stealthn about western Canada.
In the US, I've skiied Colorado and California. Vail is great for those immense back bowls but I'm not impressed with the front side or the completely fake looking "village".
Breckenridge is pretty big and has everything for every level of skier AND has a cool old-west feel to the town, which began life as a frontier mining town. Also, it sits in a big beautiful valley.
As for California, if you're into immense crowds (from the gambling town at its base) and generally ho-hum skiing, go for Heavenly. It IS big though, but I personally avoid that place.
Squaw is a fun mountain, and home to the '64 Olympics, but there's really nothing to do there, Apres Ski - at least when I was there ten years ago.
Mammoth Mountain in the central Sierra is a huge mountain with all sorts of terrain, but it can get really crowded on the weekends. Weekdays are fine though with no lift lines anywhere but at the base lifts. The town leaves much to be desired though. It's spread out and mostly pretty boring. However, they have begun to build a little "village" of sorts that has a few bars, restaurants, and shops all in one place.
For me, Austria had great skiing, a great view, and a fun Apres'-ski. However, the mind set at the lift lines was amazingly rude. One entry point into a lift line, which created mass pushing and shoving, with a biggest man wins attitude. It was very different from the organized, multi-lane, and controlled-entry onto the lifts that are the norm at North American ski resorts. Frankly, it greatly soured the actual skiing experience for me. Everything else though was awesome.
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