Europe or North America

[Geoff]

Yeah but "heavy snow" does not come all that often in the Alps. I spent 2 weeks skiing in St Anton, Lech, Zurs, St. Christoph and Kitzbuhel . I've also skied a number of times in West US and you all know about East US. Weather-wise, the alps can be just as good/bad as the east. They don't have the base altitude West US has. I experienced drought in Kitzbuhel along with icy slopes, but then I also experienced 2 feet of powder at St. Anton.

Kitzbuhel is some of the lowest terrain in the Alps. It can't be much more than 2500 feet at the base. It's a cool little town and has some good skiing but it's not exactly known for reliable snow due to the elevation and local microclimate issue. Even the bottom of St Anton is pretty low... around 4K. If you hit the French Alps, there are plenty of places where you sleep at 6,000 feet or higher with huge amounts of vertical above. The main Val Claret base area at Tignes, Val d'Isere, all the base villages at Les Trois Vallees are aboive 6K with Val Thorens the highest at 7500 feet. Switzerland also has some places with huge vertical and relatively high base areas. Zermatt is at 5.3K. The skiing above is the highest lift-serviced in Europe. At most resorts, you don't ski the lower mountain and with 5000+ feet of vertical, it's not all that big a deal. Whistler-Blackcomb has the same problem and you don't hear people complaining about the crappy skiing on the lower mountain.

 

[Riverskier]

Wow, I am jealous of all of you that have an opinion on this based on experience. I have been skiing for 25 years, all New England.