If we get some early snow in the NE i may end up trying Tremblant in December. We're gonna book our Park City trip for late February. I may forego one of my Whiteface trips and do Tremblant. The only problem with Tremblant is its just a little too far to drive (for me).

Hard to go wrong with the SLC area and it seems your choice is made, but.......

Just thought I'd throw Breckenridge out there. Great town, right at the base of the mountain. The mountain is big, with lots of varied terrain. Does it still boast highest lift serviced terrain? Figures the year after I schlep the hour hike up to the Lake Chutes they put in a lift to the top of Peak 8. Anywho, in addition to having a great family base in Breck, A Basin is just around the corner and is a really fun mountain if you are up to it. Also a variety of other Summit County resorts nearby if you want to spread your time around. The drive over the Continental Divide at Loveland Pass is breathtaking and something everyone should see.

BTW: How is the skiing at Tremblant vs. Whiteface? Comparable? better? worse? and how about the crowds?

SKIdds, I will definitely look into the town at Breckenridge, thats more important to me than the skiing. I know i will get pretty much great skiing out there but keeping my other half happy while the rest of us are skiing is the key.

Weez wrote:

BTW: How is the skiing at Tremblant vs. Whiteface? Comparable? better? worse? and how about the crowds? SKIdds, I will definitely look into the town at Breckenridge, thats more important to me than the skiing. I know i will get pretty much great skiing out there but keeping my other half happy while the rest of us are skiing is the key.

Tremblant Sucks. It’s OK for the first time. I have been made to go there every year by my wife and the only time I enjoyed myself was when the exchange rate was 50%. Weekend crowds are awful; you’ll wait forever and freeze your a** off doing it. The terrain is very unchallenging! Snows OK. We went last year and found that customer service is going down hill fast. I wanted to change my multiday ticket to another jacket and they treated me like a criminal. Unless you don’t want to fly save your money or go out west. Copper is the best and they include CAT skiing in the lift ticket price.

Whiteface Willy wrote:

Weez wrote: BTW: How is the skiing at Tremblant vs. Whiteface? Comparable? better? worse? and how about the crowds? SKIdds, I will definitely look into the town at Breckenridge, thats more important to me than the skiing. I know i will get pretty much great skiing out there but keeping my other half happy while the rest of us are skiing is the key. Tremblant Sucks. It’s OK for the first time. I have been made to go there every year by my wife and the only time I enjoyed myself was when the exchange rate was 50%. Weekend crowds are awful; you’ll wait forever and freeze your a** off doing it. The terrain is very unchallenging! Snows OK. We went last year and found that customer service is going down hill fast. I wanted to change my multiday ticket to another jacket and they treated me like a criminal. Unless you don’t want to fly save your money or go out west. Copper is the best and they include CAT skiing in the lift ticket price.

You just made my decision a whole lot easier, i had some minor trepidation about spending my money in quebec to begin with. I'll stick to lake placid this winter with my one trip out west.

I forgot to mention, if you do decdide to head to PC, you should know that the Smith supermarket chain out there sells discount tickets to most of the SLC areas. They have the full listing on their website.

Weez wrote:

SKIdds, I will definitely look into the town at Breckenridge, thats more important to me than the skiing. I know i will get pretty much great skiing out there but keeping my other half happy while the rest of us are skiing is the key.

Whiteface Willy's Copper recommendation is consistent with Summit County. With Breckenridge as a base, and a pretty good one at that, you have another four resorts within a half hours drive. Copper, Keystone, A Basin and Loveland. Keystone and Copper probably have great base villages as resorts go, but Breckenridge has a real, down to earth, Western town. Shopping, restaurants, night life....a lot of it and nothing pretentious. As for the skiing, Breck has a ton of terrain good for beginners and intermediates. There is a ton of bowl skiing that is accessible to an intermediate to light expert if you can handle the powder. I wouldn't say there is anything Jackson Hole hairball, but you now have lift serviced access to 13,000 feet and a 55 degree pitch in the Lake Chutes. It's not a no fall zone kind of experience and you won't kill yourself tumbling over a cliff band if you fall, but it sure is steep and will still scare the bejeesus out of many an expert level recreational skiers. The Peak 9 Chutes have some pretty steep shots down through the trees if you don't mind hiking for your turns. You want to hike and ski some scarier stuff there is always A Basin and the East Wall. Keystone and Copper both have their own bowls and both offer cat skiing. There a lot to choose from. A week in Breck could see you ski a different resort each day for part of the week, then going back to your favorites later in the week.

Of course the same can be said of Park City, although I've never been.

Okay, and if you go with Breakin'wind, the King supermarket chain offers similar discounts for Copper, and I would imagine some other Summit Co. spots, but I don't know for sure.

JMO, I think PC is a better ski town for the wife then Breck. Both work though.

highpeaksdrifter wrote:

JMO, I think PC is a better ski town for the wife then Breck. Both work though.

Not to mention, SLC's a two second ride away. She can check out the Mormony Tab Choir/Temple, a truly world class Aviary, she can cruise out to the island in the Great Salt Lake where buffalo herds roam wild ( and mountain bike through them if she's into that ), etc., etc.. And if you really want to drop a buck, you can bring her up to the spa in the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird, and, oh yeah, you then get a day in at the 'Bird, or better yet a day trip with Wasatch Powderbird Guides.

Then again, at Breakin'wind, she's always got that day trip to Frisco.

I would also check out big sky montana. It is 45 miles north of bozeman. I haven't been out there yet, but I have heard it is awesome. Vail size (over 4000 acres) and 400 inches of snow per year. They have invested millions in new lifts over the past 5-10 years and there are tons of options for ski in ski out accomodations. It is relatively unknown too so I think the lift lines are pretty tame. One of my neighbors just retired and bought a house out there and loves it.

www.bigskyresort.com

Breck is also one of my favorites as there are a lot of restaurants and shopping nearby. You can also drive to vail, copper, keystone, a-basin, etc. There is an awesome tubing hill at copper and lots of non-sking stuff to do. They just installed a gondi at breck that goes into the middle of town and they also put a lift in to access the top bowls which are pretty sweet (used to be a rope tow).

Steamboat is pretty fun too, but is kind of isolated. The wife and I lived in Laramie for a few years and used to drive over there quite a bit.

I haven't skied Utah, but I don't think you'll be disappointed there either except that their beer is all 3.2% alcohol.

I'd have a pretty tough time choosing between Summit Co, Colorado and SLC if I were making a choice for my family. Seeing as I'm not at this point (although hopefully some day) I haven't invested that much time thinking it through.

If it were just me skiing, I'd without a doubt go Utah, although I wouldn't stay in Park City. I'd want to spend my time skiing Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. Snowbird, Alta, Solitude and Brighton are probably an hour plus drive from Park City, and that's probably if the roads are good, assuming they aren't closed, which can happen.

If I were bringing the family, I'd probably go with Summit County. The combination of real town and multiple resorts within close proximity is big. I could ski a variety of stuff without having to drive too far, while the rest of the family has a big mountain and a great town to play in.

To add further fuel to the fire we have friends telling us what a great village Vail is. I don't really care about the money part of it as much as i care about keeping everyone happy. I thought my decision was made but its now its completely up in the air I figure I really can't go wrong at any of the 3 but to be honest I love the thought of an old authentic western town to spend my evenings in. I ski primarily expert/intermediate with my son and spend some time with my daughter on the beginner slopes. I wont be doing any of the hardcore expert skiing but will spend most of my time on the blue, black and with some lesser time on the green and double black.

If you are loaded then go to Vail.

SLC is by far the most convient, well established and consistanly reliable area of the country that you could go to to meet the needs you decribed early in the season.

From a female point of view, I would vote Park City and stay near the mountain. If you stay in SLC you have to travel approx. 30-45 minutes to all of the mountains, which is good for the person who wants to ski, but not for the person who wants to shop. Park City/Deer Valley has great shopping and is very conveient for both parties.