SKI magazine 2013/14 Best Ski Areas in West

Nick · Sep 18, 2013

http://www.skinet.com/ski/galleries...-west?brn=ski&src=email&date=091613&lnk=image

Complementing DHS's east coast thread, we can cover the west coast resorts here.

Hopefully I didn't miss this and it's not a repost

Smellytele · Sep 18, 2013

Never heard anyone say Park City is better than Alta or Snowbird but what do I know I have only skied Snowbird.

Puck it · Sep 18, 2013

Smellytele said:
Never heard anyone say Park City is better than Alta or Snowbird but what do I know I have only skied Snowbird.

I prefer Snowbird over Alta.

wa-loaf · Sep 18, 2013

Smellytele said:
Never heard anyone say Park City is better than Alta or Snowbird but what do I know I have only skied Snowbird.

From a terrain perspective it isn't, but having a cool town right at the base goes a long way. I'm surprised none of the Utah resorts made the top ten.

Smellytele · Sep 18, 2013

wa-loaf said:
From a terrain perspective it isn't, but having a cool town right at the base goes a long way. I'm surprised none of the Utah resorts made the top ten.

They did Deer Valley at 2, Park City at 5 and Canyons at 10

wa-loaf · Sep 18, 2013

Smellytele said:
They did Deer Valley at 2, Park City at 5 and Canyons at 10

Doh, think I saw Alta, Snowbird and others at the bottom and quit paying attention.

ScottySkis · Sep 18, 2013

My list for Utah for the places I have skiied is
1 Alta
2 Snowbird

3 Snowbasin
4 Solitude
5 Brighton
I haven't ski any other mountains in Utah yet.

HowieT2 · Sep 18, 2013

Puck it said:
I prefer Snowbird over Alta.

totally agree.

and any list that has Alta 27th and snowbird 17th is not about the skiing experience.
and I love sun valley and have a good friend living out there, but they get less snow than stratton. just sayin'

skinowworklater · Sep 18, 2013

Scotty, I like your list of places skied in Utah, just add Powder Mountain, the Canyons and Park City and you'll have my list. On your next trip to Utah, you have to try Powder, especially Powder country! Have to agree with Wa-loaf, the only place with any cool town at the base would be in Park City/Canyons.

St. Bear · Sep 18, 2013

I'm going to Utah this season.
I'm going to Utah this season.
I'm going to Utah this season.

They say if you write down your goals, you're more likely to realize them.

jaytrem · Sep 18, 2013

HowieT2 said:
and any list that has Alta 27th and snowbird 17th is not about the skiing experience.

27 sounds about right to me, and the only thing I care about is the skiing experience. Lots of negative points for crowds, even on weekdays. There's just people hiking everywhere to get to every possible inch of powder. The mountain itself is pretty nice and the snow is great, but it gets tracked out a lot faster than many other places. Especially when you take Canada into consideration.

4aprice · Sep 18, 2013

I'll take any of the 4 canyon areas over the 3 Park City areas anyday. Just my opinion.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

thetrailboss · Sep 18, 2013

Not surprised by J-Hole and Deer Valley being Nos. 1 and 2. PCMR, for whatever reason, and Canyons both rate higher than the LCC areas. If I had to guess it is because of more resort amenitites and more folks going to those resorts and voting in the poll.

skiNEwhere · Sep 18, 2013

Damit Nick you beat me to the punch.

Squaw Valley ranked 24th? I can see that they simply picked the top 5 or so, and picked the rest of them out of a hat at random.

I HATED Beaver Creek with a passion when I went last year. Very Icy, and the people were very rude, and worst of all......I DIDN'T GET A COOKIE AT 3:00PM!

I'd like to see Mt.Baker in Washington make the list. Pretty small by western standards, but seeing as it gets dumped on multiple times a season and has challenging terrain, it should at least be an honorable mention

thetrailboss · Sep 18, 2013

jaytrem said:
27 sounds about right to me, and the only thing I care about is the skiing experience. Lots of negative points for crowds, even on weekdays. There's just people hiking everywhere to get to every possible inch of powder. The mountain itself is pretty nice and the snow is great, but it gets tracked out a lot faster than many other places. Especially when you take Canada into consideration.

I wonder why Alta was ranked so low here...although we had another low snow year here.

As to crowds, my experience at both Snowbird and Alta is that there are no crowds per se, but the terrain does get skied out like any other place. I think folks need to set their expectations accordingly since both are so close to SLC and the masses of skiers and riders who can be up there pretty easily. I would not expect virgin powder unless (1) I was at the right place, right time, for the ropes dropping, (2) I was earning turns way out in the middle of the Wasatch, or (3) I was paying big bucks for cat skiing at Snowbird, Alta, or Pow Mow.

But getting back to these rankings: what I come back to is the poll that is the basis for these "results". When I took it this summer, they focus a lot of things such as (1) off-slope amentities, (2) lodging, (3) restaurants and night-life, etc. The PC resorts definitely have a leg-up in these areas. But also a lot more of the "resort types" are going to go to PC and rank those areas higher than the LCC and BCC areas where skiing is the focus.

thetrailboss · Sep 18, 2013

skiNEwhere said:
Damit Nick you beat me to the punch.

Squaw Valley ranked 24th? I can see that they simply picked the top 5 or so, and picked the rest of them out of a hat at random.

I HATED Beaver Creek with a passion when I went last year. Very Icy, and the people were very rude, and worst of all......I DIDN'T GET A COOKIE AT 3:00PM!

I'd like to see Mt.Baker in Washington make the like. Pretty small by western standards, but seeing as it gets dumped on multiple times a season and has challenging terrain, it should at least be an honorable mention

Squaw was another one that surprised me. It was the second place I skied out west and it kicks ass.

deadheadskier · Sep 18, 2013

What I find interesting is the bit of a shake up at the top. This has to be a first for Jackson Hole. Can't ever remember the top spot not being occupied by either Whistler, Vail or Deer Valley. You could bank on that just like you could always bank on Tremblant getting the number 1 spot in the East.

ScottySkis · Sep 18, 2013

thetrailboss said:
I wonder why Alta was ranked so low here...although we had another low snow year here.

As to crowds, my experience at both Snowbird and Alta is that there are no crowds per se, but the terrain does get skied out like any other place. I think folks need to set their expectations accordingly since both are so close to SLC and the masses of skiers and riders who can be up there pretty easily. I would not expect virgin powder unless (1) I was at the right place, right time, for the ropes dropping, (2) I was earning turns way out in the middle of the Wasatch, or (3) I was paying big bucks for cat skiing at Snowbird, Alta, or Pow Mow.

Well what I did was went to a really good website for forecast of snow in the West, and 3 weeks before I went they predicted lots of snow for the the snowy 4 and it snowed 110 inches in one week Some days over 3 feet in 24 hour period. It was amazing best skiing ever, that was the snow record for that year I was told, yes like trailblazer said it will not be their all day but you can easily learn were to go for powder most of day. And by 1 or 2 pm your legs will give out.

I just have such found memories of skiing Gad chair( I think that was the name) and eveytime up the chair in the storm it be untracted powder oh the memory.

Edd · Sep 18, 2013

thetrailboss said:
Squaw was another one that surprised me. It was the second place I skied out west and it kicks ass.

It seriously does.

thetrailboss · Sep 18, 2013

deadheadskier said:
What I find interesting is the bit of a shake up at the top. This has to be a first for Jackson Hole. Can't ever remember the top spot not being occupied by either Whistler, Vail or Deer Valley. You could bank on that just like you could always bank on Tremblant getting the number 1 spot in the East.

The new owners of J-Hole have spent a ton of money up there and it shows.

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