SKI magazine 2013/14 Best Ski Areas in West

HowieT2 said:

I havent been there in 4 years, so maybe things have gotten more crowded, but even so, I go out west for snow. sure the mountains are bigger and the terrain more expansive, but what a skier really needs is good fresh snow. and for that, it doesnt get much better than alta/snowbird. there may be a handful of places that get almost as much and as consistently as they do, but there arent 17.

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jaytrem said:

Even the more resorty Canadian places don't seem to be getting on the list much these days. Examples...

Sunshine Village
Lake Louise
Sun Peaks
Big White
Silver Star
Fernie
Panorama

Do Canadians read Ski magazine even less than Americans these days?

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jaytrem said:

I actually haven't been to Alta since 2003. I found a lot of other places where the power doesn't get tracked out so fast and just have less crowds in general. For the really good snow I've done much better at places that are less expansive than Alta. But there are also plenty of big ones that hold the snow real well, they're just not so close to a major airport. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Alta, and I'd love to get back there one of these days. I just don't rank it any where near the top for untracked powder per minute.

Same deal with Whitewater in BC, it's like the Alta of Canada. Everybody is ready to go 1/2 an hour before the lifts open and ready to hike all over the place. Was a bit more shocking at Whitewater though.

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MadPadraic said:

I know that ALL ski areas in the West are better than ALL ski areas in the East, but I'd take a day at Sugarloaf over Northstar. The situation is also somewhat murky with regards to Keystone: Bracket Basin is better than Keystone's North Bowl, but the South Bowl is a bit more fun than Sugarloaf's snowfields. However, I've not found anything trails at Keystone on par with the King Pine pod.

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4aprice said:

The snow is better in the west not necessarily the terrain. I've never been to Northstar but kind of agree with your opinion on Keystone though the addition of the back areas made it better. In many ways eastern tree skiing is unique and different from anything in the west and I've had days in the east that rival the west. Overall though you can't beat elevation when it comes to snow and snow quality and there the east will never catch the west.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

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4aprice said:

The snow is better in the west not necessarily the terrain. I've never been to Northstar but kind of agree with your opinion on Keystone though the addition of the back areas made it better. In many ways eastern tree skiing is unique and different from anything in the west and I've had days in the east that rival the west. Overall though you can't beat elevation when it comes to snow and snow quality and there the east will never catch the west.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

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fbrissette said:

Very fair assessment. I would add that the total acreage of major western ski mountains dwarfs their eastern counterparts (Whistler-Blackomb 8000+ skiable acres vs 700 in Killington for example. Plus near limitless slackcountry/backcountry opportunities.

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St. Bear said:

Two major key differences:

Elevation keeps the precipitation as snow, and instead of recovering from NCP events and freeze/thaws, you're adding to your skiable base. The best conditions in the East are the stretches of consistently cold temps with light refreshers every day or two. Those are the times when the East skis like the West (in terms of snow).

A close second is the much lower skier density.

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It would take a panel of well travelled skiers to do this exercise properly. Acreage is not always calculated consistently. Eastern numbers look tiny because it's usually only trail acreage. But when the trees are skiable to some extent and not counted an adjustment is needed. The published 485 acres for Stowe is IMHO a massive understatement. One of the Vermont snow geeks loaded a Google Map and calculated that boundary to boundary Stowe had 2,500 acres. IMHO Stowe doesn't ski like a 2,500 acre western area, but I do think it skis like a 1,500 acre western area. These are the kind of subjective judgments that the "panel" would go through to compile a consistent database of ski area extent.

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Smellytele said:

If you include Tahoe in the West they do have rain and Sierra Cement which is worse than anything you can experience in the east.

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4aprice said:

The snow is better in the west not necessarily the terrain. I've never been to Northstar but kind of agree with your opinion on Keystone though the addition of the back areas made it better. In many ways eastern tree skiing is unique and different from anything in the west and I've had days in the east that rival the west. Overall though you can't beat elevation when it comes to snow and snow quality and there the east will never catch the west.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

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St. Bear said:

I saw an interesting comment on EpicSki from Tony Crocker that the way Eastern and Western areas calculate size are very different, and in general Eastern resorts ski bigger than their reported acreage and Western resorts ski smaller.

Obviously, Eastern resorts are still smaller, but not to the extreme that it seems by looking at the numbers.

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MadMadWorld said:

I have a hard time going along with that. There are very few times that I have passed up a line on the east coast because it was out of my league. On the other hand, there were plenty of times at KH and Revelstoke where I chickened out. East coast definitely offers up a unique experience that is much different than the west but I don't think you can compare the terrain.

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St. Bear said:

Wouldn't you say that many of the Western resorts that we think of and travel to are more the exception than the rule? There is also a selection bias, because if we're spending all the money to travel out West, of course we're going to KH, Revelstoke, JH, or Snowbird, but there are hundreds of other resorts.

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Smellytele said:

And most of us on here do not like SKI magazine anyway. Although I do get it for free (actually we get 2 for some reason at our house). I rarely more than browse through it.

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Cannonball said:

Exactly! SKI might be the worst publication I've ever opened. Might as well have the top 30 ski resorts as voted by Cat Fancy magazine.

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MadMadWorld said:

I have a hard time going along with that. There are very few times that I have passed up a line on the east coast because it was out of my league. On the other hand, there were plenty of times at KH and Revelstoke where I chickened out. East coast definitely offers up a unique experience that is much different than the west but I don't think you can compare the terrain.

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jaytrem said:

I actually haven't been to Alta since 2003. I found a lot of other places where the power doesn't get tracked out so fast and just have less crowds in general. For the really good snow I've done much better at places that are less expansive than Alta. But there are also plenty of big ones that hold the snow real well, they're just not so close to a major airport. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Alta, and I'd love to get back there one of these days. I just don't rank it any where near the top for untracked powder per minute.

Same deal with Whitewater in BC, it's like the Alta of Canada. Everybody is ready to go 1/2 an hour before the lifts open and ready to hike all over the place. Was a bit more shocking at Whitewater though.

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