Best cities to ski park?

[HackerDuties]

I'm from the UK and I narrowly avoided being in a 2 year contract in London due to covid. Don't get me wrong it would have been a great opportunity but in actual fact, after getting a taste of being in London during the 13 weeks training I had, I've come to realise that I would have hated being so distant from skiing.

So my plan is either do a season this winter or put the training I had to good use and apply for jobs in cities where I can be a weekend warrior and maybe night ski. I already have Vancouver, Innsbruck and SLC in mind, considering also Queenstown/Wanaka. Have you guys got anymore good suggestions? (Not interested if there's no snow parks)

 

[mattm7]

Did my last season in Vancouver, it's an amazing city and has 3 different mountains right beside it, they're not huge resorts or anything. Seymour and grouse have pretty good parks and didn't get a chance to go to cypress so not sure about there. Plus bigger mountains like big white and apex are about 4 hours away and mount baker is really close as well. So there's lots of options

 

[hi_vis360]

I imagine the cost of living is wayyy lower in SLC than Van and Innsbruck. Rent is wicked cheap, and when I lived there it seemed like it was always pretty easy to get a job too. PC and Brighton are two of the best parks in the world. Alta and the Bird are legendary as well.

 

[little1337]

SLC's probably your best bet

 

[BradFiAusNzCoCa]

Im going to go ahead and throw my 2 cents in on Queenstown. You said you’re from the UK - you’ll feel right at home. The town is compromised of almost entirely Brits (not entirely, but a lot). It is a beautiful town with a lot to do, a lot to drink, and a lot of people to meet. The food is okay (I was quite underwhelmed for the amount of options, to be honest) and every bar basically turns into a club past 10pm. There are a lot of tourists and a lot of pub crawl groups, etc.

In all honesty, I was hoping Queenstown would be a little more ski oriented than it is, so I was let down. It’s definitely a party town and a town full of tourists. Don’t get me wrong, I love partying but skiing was an after thought there. The mountains (skiing wise - not view wise) are a bit underwhelming too, compared to Europe and North America.

If you’re debating New Zealand, do Wanaka. Way more of a ski experience.

 

[skiP.E.I.]

Helsinki might actually be a good option. Serena and Talma are TINY ski hills but reasonably affordable, basically in the city and they have good parks and night skiing. Ultra fast T-bar laps all night. The two months I lived there was the fastest I've ever progressed in the park. I found the city to be overall a good place to live. The ski culture there is well established. I know there's another small hill near there too but I forget what it's called. There's a bus that goes to Serena too. Aside from the ski hills, you can get things done on the urban front if that's your thing. This past winter was the worst ever there for snow, but usually there's a decent amount of snow. The downside there is it can get really cold and hours of daylight are short in the winter. Ruka is a 13 hour drive away.

I know Oslo has a ski hill with a good park in the city too.

If you go to Vancouver and ski Grouse, you get that iconic city view. World class resorts Whistler and Mount Baker are day trip distance away too.

Alberta's economy may never recover, but if you can find work there, Calgary would be more affordable than Van. COP is in the city and has an amazing park and pipe with night skiing that is totally geared toward progression. It can get pretty busy there. Nakiska, Lake Louise, Sunshine Village and Norquay are all within 2 hours from Calgary. Castle Mountain and Fernie are about 3 hours away, and Kicking Horse and Revelstoke are 5-6 hours drive. Revy is in an earlier time zone, so that gives you an advantage for weekend trips. This may change, but Alberta has no provincial tax, just 5% Fed tax, so most things work out to be a bit cheaper there than the rest of Canada.

Quebec City or Montreal could be decent options too, although if you don't speak French your employment options might be more limited. Stoneham and Le Relais have great parks like 20 min from downtown Quebec

Mont Avila and Mont Saint-Sauveur are pretty close to Montreal. Mont Saint Anne, Le Massif and Jay Peak are in that area too.

**This post was edited on May 9th 2020 at 2:21:13pm

 

[Jesushadvishnus]

both oslo and innsbruck are pretty sick but oslo is a bit longer away from a proper mountain, i think you are gonna get bored of ropetows pretty quick.

i would go innsbruck if you stay in europe and slc if u go outside of europe.

**This post was edited on May 9th 2020 at 4:45:02pm

 

[k3ndall.g]

Salt lake all the wayyyyy

 

[JAHBRADOR]

SLC if you can get the visa. Van if you can’t.

 

[arnie_grape]

calgary is not nearly as nice as vancouver but amazing parks nearby none the less. will be far less expensive.

COP (small hill in calgary) always has a high caliber park. olympic slope/pipe training spot that beckinsale builds at once a year

sunshine and lake louise are 2-2.5hrs away but both world class parks.

and then you have nakiska and norquay if you feel like pissing away $100 on something exceptionally mediocre. they are a bit closer

and aside from all the nearby parks, calgary and nearby towns are loaded with street spots and usually have reliable snow between december and march

 

[PeteMahn]

Salt Lake 100 percent, it's so cheap plus you can work in Park city and make good money. You have park city, woodward at park city and brighton for park. Brighton for all mountain is sick then solitude, Alta and snowbird are all close as well.To think that these mountains are 35 minutes to a major city is crazy. Even if you couldn't get a job you could live off of not that much for 3-4 months.

 

[flavourtown]

calgary is not nearly as nice as vancouver but amazing parks nearby none the less. will be far less expensive.

COP (small hill in calgary) always has a high caliber park. olympic slope/pipe training spot that beckinsale builds at once a year

sunshine and lake louise are 2-2.5hrs away but both world class parks.

and then you have nakiska and norquay if you feel like pissing away $100 on something exceptionally mediocre. they are a bit closer

and aside from all the nearby parks, calgary and nearby towns are loaded with street spots and usually have reliable snow between december and march

Nakiska sucks, bad park that they call najibska and pure ice everywhere else but norqway is underrated not the biggest park or hill but the park has lots of great features and some of the expert terrain is really nice, nowhere close to sunshine or lake but pretty nice.

 

[danbrown]

+1 for salt lake, although rent is likely going way up

 

[dolanslebensraum]

I'm from the UK and I narrowly avoided being in a 2 year contract in London due to covid. Don't get me wrong it would have been a great opportunity but in actual fact, after getting a taste of being in London during the 13 weeks training I had, I've come to realise that I would have hated being so distant from skiing.

So my plan is either do a season this winter or put the training I had to good use and apply for jobs in cities where I can be a weekend warrior and maybe night ski. I already have Vancouver, Innsbruck and SLC in mind, considering also Queenstown/Wanaka. Have you guys got anymore good suggestions? (Not interested if there's no snow parks)

Innsbruck is pants-shitting amazing. They also have a nearly 60 year old relic bobsled/luge track from the innsbruck olympics in 64.

 

[Titus69]

talk to the real estate expert of NS [tag=1388]@skierman[/tag]

 

[arnie_grape]

norqway is underrated not the biggest park or hill but the park has lots of great features and some of the expert terrain is really nice

 

[Smuffy]

SLC is pretty great if you wanna ski park. PC, Woodward and Brighton are all sick.

Definitely consider Innsbruck too though, especially if you want to avoid buying a car. You can take buses to a handful of the local areas, including a few parks. You can be on Nordkette from downtown in 30 minutes with the bus, it's sick. I find utah weather to be a bit nicer, plenty of sun for park days. So I guess that's something to think about too

 

[anders_a]

Oslo, you can take subway or bus from city center, like 15 mins and your there. decent park setup , also a big jump at bottom of a slope you wanna to send it. Indoor park in summer 15 min the other way.

We got chairlifts, like 3 of them, not a single ropetow!

The huge resorts are 2-3 hours away

Also we have hot girls.

**This post was edited on May 11th 2020 at 5:11:34am

 

[Ginger_Drew]

SLC is a solid move. Night skiing options are growing with the addition of Woodward PC.

 

[OCoffey]

There’s also uh bend with Woodward bachelor 20 minutes away. Great parks till the end of may but no night skiing

 

[irfaan156]

I'm from the UK and I narrowly avoided being in a 2 year contract in London due to covid. Don't get me wrong it would have been a great opportunity but in actual fact, after getting a taste of being in London during the 13 weeks training I had, I've come to realise that I would have hated being so distant from skiing.

So my plan is either do a season this winter or put the training I had to good use and apply for jobs in cities where I can be a weekend warrior and maybe night ski. I already have Vancouver, Innsbruck and SLC in mind, considering also Queenstown/Wanaka. Have you guys got anymore good suggestions? (Not interested if there's no snow parks)

There are some good ski resorts near Barrie in Ontario.

 

[Grimesg]

Come party in SLC with us

 

[dolanslebensraum]

Come party in SLC with us

3% beer and having to share needles bc the pharmacist wants you dead doesnt sound like a fun party to me.

 

[Grimesg]

I ain’t talking drinking I’m talking skiing

3% beer and having to share needles bc the pharmacist wants you dead doesnt sound like a fun party to me.