SLC: Iron Blosam week still works well for us for the obvious reason of being based on-site. I am less inclined to visit SLC at other times than before. The combination of last year's snow and the crowds seriously degraded our former admin's ski season. Limited to weekends he skied around 40 days, probably a record low since moving there in 2005.
The high Parking Fees now in place at almost all the SLC ski resorts are really egregious. I think the only free parking left is at the 'Canyons" entrance to Park City. Not only do you need an IKON ski pass, but you need a parking pass. (You could see this coming - even in 2000, there were bad parking issues at Stevens Pass and, to a lesser extent - Crystal and Alpental. Really, it's no longer about High-Speed lifts and terrain expansions -> it's about 250 new parking spots on a pass or canyon that are most exciting!)
Overall, the magic of a cheap SLC trip to Alta, Brighton, and Solitude is mostly gone.
Denver: One word answer, April. Crowds ease off and many areas have their best conditions relative to the rest of the West in April. James should be timing at least one family long weekend trip per season accordingly.
True. By mid-March, the traffic eases. And most years, ABasin, Loveland and Breck are finally in there prime in the alpine.
Jackson: For snow conditions, advance booking needs to be mid-January through early February. Fortunately this is not a peak time frame for crowds and Liz and I have managed OK, even as recently as 2022. Crowds are up some, but manageable as long as you don't insist on using the tram much.
Telluride and Jackson Hole had similar skier days numbers in the early 2000s - roughly in the 400sk/yr. Still today in Telluride, on a powder day, you can just drop your skis in line and go get a coffee and/or breakfast burrito. Or even back home. At the 9 am lift opening, your place in line is respected, and you slap on your skis. I pity the tourists who do not follow this local code of conduct on powder days - it's enforced.
Targhee is still good. But my brother's friend, who is married to the Jackson town lawyer, no longer skis on the weekends at Jackson Hole. Hell, they now need shuttle service on The Pass on weekends/holidays in mid-winter. Community-supported cat-skiing....a strange, good development!
Paradise lost.
Mammoth: Despite that pic from last weekend, Mammoth in general handles crowds extremely well, unless too many lifts are shut down for weather/conditions. Mammoth's peak attendance pre-Alterra was just under 1.5 million. Because those numbers were attained in 1982, 1986, then 2005 and 2006, lift infrastructure was built to handle that. Was that number exceeded in 2023? Maybe, but it's not like Jackson where visits have doubled in the past 20 years.
Mammoth can handle crowds quite well.
I'm probably more negative on Bozeman than ChrisC. Bridger has the same topographic flaw as Big Sky, a huge gap at the advanced intermediate level, along with east exposure at much lower altitude. And Red Lodge is not exactly in the neighborhood at 2.5 hours distance. If driving that far from Bozeman, I'd go the other way to Discovery.
Did not add Disco Basin to my list, oversight. I have caught Bridger mid-winter and like the idea of an avy-gated lift. The locals kicked my a-- on the normal hike to the Ridge. My other visit was during a 40" late March storm, so my experience is jaded.
However, I had a few friends trade their Seattle homes for a House in Bozeman + $$$ .... and a slightly better lifestyle. The place had a huge real estate runup during COVID-19. So did Boise.
But you really need to be lodge based to get the quality and quality of skiing that ChrisC values most. I agree for heli, you want high alpine terrain that is generally not accessible by cat. And for more consistent snow stability on steep terrain, that means Alaska or Iceland.
I know. Need to do the Cat Lodge experience. The day cat areas are fun, but waste time in the AM with training.
Re: Aspen
I really used to hate Aspen, but I'm now starting to like it. The skiing is quite good: Highlands + Bowl (even if it's one run per trip), Cirque and Hanging Valley, and Ajax - classic bump skiing (Likely will be improved by new Hero's expansion). No crowds.
But the place is just soooo expensive: lodging and food. And Aspen town is such LaLa land. A 100 art galleries? Clubs? This is not a ski town - it's its own thing. Barely resembles other high-end ski towns like Whistler, Park City, Sun Valley, Vail, Telluride, etc.
