Best skiing destinations list.

Well it's this time of year again, which is the place you loved the most and/or which the most wish to ski.

Which place is your number 1 ski destination in the World? Which one you have to go? What is your list?

Having skied Blackcomb/Whistler (if someone removes all the noise and development), that place is surely near the Top of my list.

Val d'Isère/Tignes is another. More charm than Whistler.

Jungfrau area (Grindelwald, Wengen, Muerren) setting is spectacular.

Chamonix, of course.

La Grave on my wishlist.

Lake Louise, probably.

What else? Where should I go? What should I consider going?

I really like to hear from some of our great travellers, Tony, Marc or anyone else.

Well, I prefer the road less traveled. Of course, I moved here for a reason, but there are others that I'd return to in a second. Links below are to FTO feature stories. Photos are by me unless otherwise noted.

Bridger Bowl, MT - No in-your-face pretentiousness, just some seriously steep hike-to terrain and incredibly down-to-earth locals. Nearby Bozeman keeps it interesting in the evening. Easy air access via Bozeman as well.


Up on "The Ridge" at Bridger.

Powder Mountain, UT - Where else can you ski a resort with more acreage than Vail, where an old blue school bus is your "lift" for half the terrain, and where "snowcat skiing" means getting pulled on a rope behind a cat for $6 per run?

Lightning Ridge, which comprises part of Powder Mountain's cat-skiing terrain.

Sugar Bowl, CA - Let the hordes go next door to Squaw, Sugar Bowl will serve up plenty of steep Sierra snow to keep you happy, with a fascinating history to boot.

Sugar Bowl's Mt. Disney. Yep, it's named that for a reason.

Taos, NM - Real Mexican food and champagne-covered steeps that'll make you pee in your ski pants. What more could you ask for?

Taos' hike-to Kachina Peak is sacred in local Native culture...and to powderhounds, too.

Stowe, VT - What's their slogan, "There is only one Stowe"? Yup.

Stowe's Cliff House sits just below Vermont's highest summit.

Massif du Sud, QC - No base development whatsoever, some of the most snowfall of any ski area in eastern Canada, and no one there to ski it. Oodles of steep trees sit untouched while the ski area (no one would ever consider it a "resort") is closed Monday through Thursday each week.

The whole left half of the mountain at Massif du Sud is gladed.

Castle Mountain, AB - I entitled my Castle Mountain piece, "The Best Ski Mountain That You've Never Heard Of". 'Nuf said.

No one else as far as the eye can see in Castle Mountain's south chutes. (photo: J. Crowley)

Zermatt, Switzerland - It's been 15 years since I last set foot in this quaint pedestrian-only Swiss resort. That's far too long.

Zermatt's spectacular Klein Matterhorn tram.

I would round up Sugar Bowl and Castle in the safari topic, but they are very good choice indeed.

All good choice, I add Taos on my wishlist, I guess I might make it bigger.

Massif du Sud, so close (with Edouard), but it didn't happen last year, I guess I had to choose my vacation days between California or Quebec. :shock:

Stowe, definately #1 on my East list (tied with the Loaf).

In 2003, it was either the Jungfrau or Zermatt. Hopefully someday.

What I hate about this is that they are too many places to ski...

Of the well-known places, I rank them as follows:
1. Alta/Snowbird (combination of snow and terrain is unsurpassed)
2. Whistler/Blackcomb (best terrain, though weather is fickle, snow in alpine is very consistent, the past season being only one like that in 40 years)
3. Mammoth (long season, vast terrain for all levels)
4. Vail (even more vast terrain for all levels, but not as many steeps as Mammoth)
5. Squaw Valley (concentration of expert terrain, snow quality a notch below top 4)
6. Mt. Bachelor (longest quality season in North America until 2003 management change, best lift serviced spring corn)
7. Kirkwood (Alta of the Sierra, great steep powder stash)
8. Fernie (another powder stash, great tree skiing in particular)
9. Jackson Hole (superb terrain, would rank much higher if it faced NE instead of SE)

Not a top ten list because it's too close a call for me. Crested Butte, Taos and Red Mt. would be contenders. Also Big Sky/Moonlight now that they are integrated. All of these have more erratic snow conditions than the top 9.

For the off-the-beaten-track, I share Marc's opinion of Castle. Mt. Rose now belongs in the category with Sugar Bowl (better impression to me, but conditions were a big part of that). Just to incite the East vs. West debate again, Mt. Baldy is close to but just below Sugar Bowl and Mt. Rose in terrain quality and comparable to the best of the East (Stowe and MRG). I'm sure Marc will get me up to Powder Mt. for a second look sometime, but it always seems to be T-shirt weather when I'm in Utah.

I've only had the one week in Europe, but I'm inclined towards the view of "different, not necessarily better or worse." I'll be interested to see if Las Lenas has the scale of Verbier or Grands-Montets.

So many peaks, so hard to choose! As far as "out of the country -- I've only been to Falls Creek, Australia and Mt. Hutt , New Zealand (spring skiing!) What a fun adventure ~

But, in the US -- Toas and Sun Valley are at the top. Toas -- one heck of a vertical drop Hike up to the ridge and drop in! Sun Valley -- ya just gotta love it there! I lived there one season -- truly amazing!

I now live an hour from Sugar Bowl ~ LOVE IT! (shhhhhh ~ trying to keep SUgar BOwl a secret)

Must hit Telluride again -- not enough snow, but seemed like an amazing mountain!

Headed to Aspen this year -- can't wait! Any tips!

My Aspen ski reports from March 2004 are the 15th-17th posts at http://216.250.243.13/discus2/messages/ ... 1086038144 .

These are somewhat unfair because the entire West was being scorched by a 3 week heat wave while I was there. Historically late March is an optimal time to ski Aspen. My 1988 trip (a week later than this one) was midwinter conditions with about 15 inches new snow over the week. The inconvenient access to Snowmass' steeps is a virtue on powder days.

President's week of 1980 in Aspen was my first out-of-state ski trip. It snowed 55 inches during that week, but as an inexperienced powder skier my legs were cooked by lunch every day and I was relegated to the groomers in the afternoons. If you put the 3 trips together, I have still seen more than my fair share of new snow at Aspen by historical records.

Highlands is a pretty good expert's mountain, and the new Temerity chair is going to make it better.

The town, restaurants and nightlife deserve their stellar reputations.

Ok, So I'll divide my list into two : one for places I've been and really want to visit again, one for places i've never been and want to get to.

Places I've got to visit again (in no particular order)
Whistler
Mammoth
Red Mountain
Lake Louise
Tremblant (It's still got some funk left to it, though it's dwindling)

Places I've got to go before i can die a happy man:
Jackson Hole (and ride the tram!)
Mt Baker
SLC area
Tahoe: Squaw/ Kirkwood/ Alpine Meadows/ Heavenly
Mad River
Tuckermans
Jay
Taos
La Grave
Chamonix
Las Lenias/ Valle Nevado/ Portillo
Aspen & the Hignlands

Now let me throw another question:
What runs have you always wanted to ski?

Al's - Taos
Star Chute - Mammoth
Couloir Cosmique - Aguille du Midi
Pipeline - Snowbird
Schmidiots - Squaw
Corbets - Jackson


interested in everyone else's thoughts

Jonny D":2wdqn1rk said:

Now let me throw another question:
What runs have you always wanted to ski?

Star Chute - Mammoth
Couloir Cosmique - Aguille du Midi

interested in everyone else's thoughts

Click to expand...

Did you get to ski Star Chute while at Mammoth? Is it on the map?

Couloir Cosmique at Aiguille du Midi. Which one is that? Next time in Cham (when ever that will be), I try to get a guide to bring to some steeper stuff. La vallée blanche is certainly worth the trip, but it is definately not steep.

Star Chute is labelled on one of my pics from May 7.

There are some more technical routes into Vallee Blanche according to our guide in 2004. The most expert is Grand Envers, and he said no more than 4 skiers per guide (normal for VB is 8 ) if you want to ski that. http://skistreak.com has pics from a Chamonix trip in 2002 which is possibly that route.

Tony Crocker":1mzw75o4 said:

There are some more technical routes into Vallee Blanche according to our guide in 2004. The most expert is Grand Envers, and he said no more than 4 skiers per guide (normal for VB is 8 ) if you want to ski that. http://skistreak.com has pics from a Chamonix trip in 2002 which is possibly that route.

Click to expand...

I remember seeing those pics after I came back from Chamonix in 2003. I spoke to a few Ottawa guys that were talking the steep stuff that I guide showed them. Also found out about the different other possibilities with my guide to la vallée blanche, but the fact that:

1) Wanted to ski the classic vallée blanche.
2) I was solo on this trip, so I had to be added to a group unless I had alot of money.
3) Had to get my gear across town after the run and take the last train to Lyon at 4pm. My planned trip at l'Aiguille du Midi was to take place the previous day, but was rained out.