Terrain	Challenge	Bumps	Value	Elbow Room	Lift Lines	True Vertical	Grooming	OVERALL	Last Visit
CALIFORNIA
Heavenly	8	8	8	7	8	8	8	8	8	'00
Northstar	7	6	6	6	7	8	8	8	7	'00
Sugar Bowl	8	9	7	10	9	9	9	8	9	'00
Squaw Valley	10	9	8	8	8	8	9	7	9	'00
CANADA
Whistler- Blackcomb	10	9	9	10	10	8	10	8	10	'00

 

Alta: Incredible snow, incredible terrain, incredible lift prices (~$40).  All the hype about Alta, it's true.  And of course Alf's High Rustler is on the top 100 things to do before you die (from People magazine I think). They have recently added some high speed chairs to move the sometimes long lift lines along. If visiting Utah, which by the way, is easily the best place to state to ski, I highly recommend Alta. Although fair warning...they are not known for their green runs and grooming, maybe 1/2 trails at most from each lift is groomed.

Brighton: Caters more to snowboarders with all the grooming, but an excellent resort nevertheless.  I especially like Millicent area, no crowds and the steepest trails at Brighton.

Deer Valley: If marble bathrooms, cushy chairs, over $70 lift tickets, and trails that are groomed with a fine toothed comb are your thing, then this is your place.  Not many steep or bump runs here. This is the Okemo of the west. If skiing and value are your thing, this is not your place. If visiting Utah for skiing, you can avoid the 3 Park City resorts (Deer, Park City, Canyons), save on driving time from SLC, save tons of money on lodging and lift tickets, and ski at resorts that average ~150 inches of snow a year (Alta, Snowbird, Solitude, Brighton).

Park City: Jupiter Bowl makes this place worthwhile, although still expensive for what they offer.

Powder: Skied Powder in late Janaury of '03 on a Friday, during a bad snow winter (so far) for Utah standards, maybe 30 paid skiers on the mountain with o.k. snow. Very cheap lift tickets and average terrain, a nice place to avoid crowds, but at least an hour drive from SLC, better choices closer.

Snowbasin: Wide open terrain, lots of high-speed stuff, low lift ticket prices, and yet no crowds.  Havn't been here after the Olympics, but it's definitely worth it if making the trip up to Ogden.

Snowbird: See Alta.  With the addition of the Gadzoom high-speed quad and Mineral Basin lifts, you don't need to buy the tram ticket anymore for trails like Great Scott.  But for the choice to ski one of the best resorts in the world for only $40, highly recommended. PS - The Bird is not for beginners, tough to find any green or blue's here! Oh yeah, did I mention that these resorts get 500 inches of snow a year with less water content than just about anywhere?!? (basically that means it is really light and fluffy)

Solitude: Honeycomb Canyon.  It's reason enough to ski here.  Wide-open bowl with fresh snow days after a storm.  And as the name states, crowds are sparse here (most of the time).

The Canyons:  What a difference from Park West and Wolf. A lot of groomed stuff and high-speed lifts. Tickets were ~$50, which was not that bad, but still a lot, unless you like the cushy chairlifts. :)

COLORADO:

Arapahoe Basin: Favorite resort in Colorado.  While small (only 500 acres), what it lacks in size it makes up for in steep, challenging terrain.  The runs coming off the East Wall and Pali are some of the best I've skied.  Plus a great, relaxed attitude is always a plus.  If you want slopeside lodging, this isn't the place for you. :)

Breckenridge: Huge area, but the set-up isn't that great.  Hard to explain, but it seems as if the lifts are in the wrong places on the mountains.  Some very steep trails like Devils Crotch make Breck a nice resort, but fairly expensive.

Copper: Some great tree skiing and nice bowls.  Also several steep drops such as Drain Pipe. Has enough to keep everyone happy, good mix of greens to blacks. Good mix of groomed vs. bumps. Has chairlifts all over the place to spread the crowds out. If driving from Denver and you have already passed A-Basin, please stop here before Vail! :)

Keystone: Reminds me too much like east coast skiing.  Not a single bowl or wide-open skiing.  Not too much steep stuff either.  I would keep driving up the mountain until you hit A-Basin.

Vail: This is where I become unpopular. :) For all the hype, Vail didn't impress me at all.  Sure, it's enormous, but back to the old theory "size doesn't matter".  While Vail has a great lift system and grooming, boy do you pay for it.  Plus, it was way too hard to find any steep bump runs, Vail consists of mostly groomed blues.  This story describes Vail in a nutshell, and I'm not making this up, I have many witnesses!! It was around 9am and we were buying our lift tickets (after paying $11 for parking mind you). A pretty nice day out, upper 20's, no wind, snowing a bit. A lady was in front of us and looked exactly what I pictured Vail as. She had those tight black ski pants on (tucked in the boot of course), leopard skin ski jacket, and one of those white ski hats with fuzzy stuff around the bottom. She was demanding to get her money back for the ski lift ticket because it was snowing out. You can't make up stories like this, if I wasn't directly behind her I wouldn't belive it myself. While some people live and die by Vail, I think I'll stick to my Alta's and A-Basin's.

CALIFORNIA:

Heavenly: Not much was open when I visited in early 2000, a lot of wind closures.  From what I skied, a very nice place with some nice steeps.  Beautiful views of Lake Tahoe, especially downloading on Gunbarrel.

Northstar: The east coast mountain at Lake Tahoe.  No steeps, no bowls, few bumps; definitely a family place. :)

Sugar Bowl: Close to I-80, an annual 40ft of snow, wide-open steep terrain, and no crowds - what else could a skier ask for?!  Not much.  Sugar Bowl has been around for 60 years, but outside of Lake Tahoe, it is a relative unknown.  One of my favorite resorts in the west, but just don't tell anyone about it, keep it our secret.

Squaw Valley: Kind of like Alta, everything you have heard about Squaw, it's true.  While a little crowded, it is big enough to find some acres for yourself.  KT-22 offers some incredible terrain, and you never have to take the same run down.  Some great "hidden" terrain on Granite Chief Peak.

CANADA:

Whistler-Blackcomb:  In this case, size does matter.  Think Killington, think 6 times bigger.  Think Snowbird, think 3 times bigger.  Think Vail, think 2000 acres bigger.  Almost all high-speed lifts taking you to incredible terrain spread over two huge mountains.  Normally, value would drag the score down, but with the US$ (as of 2001 of course, not it stinks!), a 3 day lift ticket was around US$99 (late season), tremendous value for a resort that offers so much.  And normally I don't care about the village or nightlife, but Whistler Village has some great parties. :)