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We lived at the mouth of Little Cottonwood (Alta, Snowbird) for 6 years... Best snow and skiing in the world but there is a reason that they have "Learn to ski @ Taos. Skiing in western US ...#1 Alta, #2 Jacksonhole, #3 Taos. Taking into account crowds, atmosphere and experience quality .
Great dry snow, quite atmosphere, little crowds, all sorts of terrain.
Negatives: no grocery store near by. I think the closes one is 30 mins away. Shuttle drivers know about it and don't mind stopping at on in Bozeman to let people stock up on food.
Can't beat the Vladivostok conveyor belt... just spent 3 weeks in Hokkaido, snowed continuously, a skiers dream "never saw a blue sky or a damn Blue Bird".
season update for people planning ski vacations.
records(or close) being set for snowfall totals from Mammoth Mountain to Squaw Valley, Jackson Hole to Alta.
Squaw is claiming 7ft of snow this month already and another 4-7ft this coming week.
forecast for Alta is between 95-130 inches of new snow sunday to tuesday.
that would put the season total in the 300 inch range as of early january and be a record as far as I can find.
my suggestion is to drop everything and get to Jackson, Squaw, Snowbird or Alta.
Mt Bachelor should get about 30" this weekend, and is forecast for Mon-Weds, and again next weekend. It also should be at 300" this week. Yesterday was a bluebird day of clear skies. Not so much today. We've got better beer here, too!
The weeks stretching Christmas thru New Year's brought about 3+ feet of fresh powder,,, outside our front door. ...
Vail is a World Class killer ski mountain. There's great bars, restaurants, swim/heath clubs and a wide pallet of accommodations for any size group. A big plus is the area's Vail Transportation District which affords getting around day or night without even thinking about the car.. The free Vail bus schedule runs like clockwork and ,,, operating well beyond any club's AM "last call".
The major airline, wide-body jets, flights thru nearby (25-30min) Eagle/Vail Airport (EGE). In the winter season there's non-stop wheels up/down flights thru.. ORD, EWR, LGA, SFO, LAX, IAH, DFW, twice / trice daily.
Juha G have you explored Vail mountain? Plenty of long, glade tree'd, fall-line cut runs, Hi-speed 4 & 6 seat'r chairs galore, 8 passenger Hi-speed gondola, several 11,500ft summit restaurant/lodge's (haute cuisine) and there's the back bowels; Siberia Bowl and Outer Mongolia to name two, both are legendary. .. And Blue Sky Basin, Game Creek Bowl ... and on and on...
http://www.vail.com ... The ski/snow report claims 3 feet of new snow for the first two weeks of January '17.
crazy crowded here, skiers from all over setting up shop to ski LCC.
that said, some crazy lines are becoming skiable and its kind of worth the trouble.
records go back to 1944-45, at 142 inches of snow for the month of january, 2017 is tied for 5th best with still a week to go.
currently at 164% of normal and 4th most water weight with records back to 1990.
epic
Grew up in Utah.....In addition to Alta check out 1)Park City for dining and nightlife-skiing OK, 2) A must is Snow Basin (25 miles north of SLC).....Olympic downhill was held there. It is less crowed....has all kinds of terrain for skiing. Enjoy.
PS........also skied Vail, Aspen, Jackson Hole, Sun Valley Idaho and all over New England. Snow basin is the best of all of them.
We found the problem with Alta and Snowbird was the POW gets skied out by lunch. Brighton has lots of no-climb accessible double blacks where POW lasts the day. Solitude is second choice, Snow Basin third because some (easy) traversing required. I don't climb any more!
02-25-2016, 03:07 AM
