Best Skiing in Western US

Vail. Blue Sky Basin behind the back bowls is unbelievable when it dumps.

[BadBoyBenny]

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"Aleyeska" are you kidding? that place sucks and boy is it out of the way


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Every time I have been there it gets somewhwere in the neighborhood of 2-3 feet of fresh powder a week. And the north face has excellent runs.

[bicyclekick]

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jackson hole/grand targhee is the shizzle but can be hit/miss snow conditions.

SLC is always the best bet if you're booking months in advance, IMHO

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Grand targhee hit or miss for snow? Ha. They're probably the MOST consistant when it comes to snow year in and year out. We actualy got too much snow the week we were there...86". 45" one night...just a little too much. Jackson not quite as consistant but still they do decent...better than most CO resorts. The hobacks are sweet at Jhole.

SLC - Alta is my personal fav of all areas. Snowbasin is sweet and out of the way (both a plus and a minus...a little over an hour drive from SLC)

Big mountain is pretty cool in MT. Can be really foggy though.

Most of CO is for people who want a 'ski vacation' more than they want skiing. A lot of the CO areas feel resorty and are crowded. They work well for a lot of people...but in reality don't actually get half as much snow as a number of other places.

Gonna spend most of the winter after xmas out west...I can hardly wait!

[Leaky Eye]

I prefer SLC (Little Cottonwood Canyon), then Jackson Hole. Because of my location I mostly go to Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows though. As someone said earlier, these are the best spring skiing locations in the country. Once you learn to love the endless sun and slush anyway [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] On a clear day you can see Mt Diablo from the peaks at Squaw.

[w_alloy]

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"Aleyeska" are you kidding? that place sucks

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This is an absolutely ludicrous comment. I have skied all over and had some of my absolutely best runs at Alyeska. North Face on a powder day is incredible. Not many other places you can you find lots of 40+% pitch runs for 2500 vertical, with almost 600 inches annual.

Edit to add something relevent to the topic: I would def. go to Jackson. If you want to go to tahoe, and like steep backountry, go to alpine. I am in Reno right now and most of the good local skier/snowboarders I know have passes to alpine.

But (barring weather) you really cant go wrong.

[banditbdl]

If you're looking for glades/backcountry then there are many answers but Alta is the best I've been to.

[Mens Rea]

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Vail. Blue Sky Basin behind the back bowls is unbelievable when it dumps.

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Probably the best skiing of my life so far. Last winter while I was there, they were getting new snow every night. Unbelievable.

And to answer someone's point above - I am looking for skiing - not a ski vacation. Just me and a couple guys who are all better than average skiiers. The resort is not really a concern - no families. Just skiing.

[bicyclekick]

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Vail. Blue Sky Basin behind the back bowls is unbelievable when it dumps.

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Probably the best skiing of my life so far. Last winter while I was there, they were getting new snow every night. Unbelievable.

And to answer someone's point above - I am looking for skiing - not a ski vacation. Just me and a couple guys who are all better than average skiiers. The resort is not really a concern - no families. Just skiing.

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I hate to bring the P word in...but think of it like this -

If what you want out of a ski trip is fresh snow and lots of it (and that's what it sounds like)...call it EFS...expected fresh snow...then colorado is generally not the place to go. Colorado has one of the lower EFS values. They're (CO) is off to a super year so far though this year...

That's not to say you can't get big dumps or have a fantastic freaking time in colorado or any of the other places that don't get as much snow, it's just that so many people have pretty big misconceptions about snow in the west.

I recommend checking out this site. They keep historical of almost all the resorts and keep you up to date on who's got what snow with updates every week or so:

[trying2learn]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Telluride - one of my favs - though it's been 5 or 6 years since I've been.

[bicyclekick]

Yeah telluride is on my list of places to check out this year...they're hurting for snow so far though. I hear great terrain, though.