Utah vs Colorado vs Tahoe etc.

henry42894

henry42894

Member
Planning a trip over Jan 5-13, and have no clue where I should go. So fire away, your favorite spot and why. What Im looking for in a resort is POW. Parks are cool, nightlife is great, but i have those on the east coast, pow not so much. With that in mind give me the best resort in America. +K for good answers

Cheers!
 
Jackson Hole>any other resort in lower 48...If you're a good skier out side of the park
 
I'm pretty sure you just described most great resorts in the U.S. Have you seen videos from Park City or Breck? They all are full of gapers because they are well known and people want to go there. Utah had some of the worst snow last year. Same for Tahoe. And 2 years ago I shredded more pow than groomers for way longer than most, so I think you're just bullshitting.
 
coming from someone who moved from the east to tahoe.....it's amazing. youre jaded cause you live there and that's understandable but very few places in the country have what tahoe, esp squaw, has
 
have you considered whistler or the PNW? the past few years they've had a bunch of snow early on in the season while Utah, CO and Tahoe struggled. While course you can't predict the weather, whistler is pretty good early on from what I hear.
 
All three places have a lot of mountains with really nice Pow. Generally speaking I would say Tahoe first, then Utah, then CO. But it all depends on the snowfall in that area.
 
I can't say much about Utah, but I like CO skiing. The string of mountains owned by vail are all about 30 min away from eachother which aren't bad if you don't mind a few gapers and want to get a lot of variety. Its also a pretty good choice if you're really into park since the best 3 parks are all in CO according to TW. But then again I don't know how well the skiing here compares to places like Utah.
 
OP, I wouldn't come to the vail string of mountains to be honest. If you are looking for powder, summit county is ok but you'll probably find more of what you're looking for at Jackson hole, utah, or tahoe. If you want to ski in Colorado, I'd look at silverton, telluride, or possibly aspen.
 
Guys I appreciate all the responses. People who tossed in Jackson Hole & Revelstoke, mind speaking a little more on those?
 
My thoughts exactly. Only started skiing there 3 years ago, and coming from lesser areas you realized how great it is.
 
Revelstoke is in British Columbia. Mountain has the most vert in North America. Powder heaven. Right beside Rodgers pass, Possibly Canada's best touring area. No park, but you won't even think about park here. It's huge.
 
Pretty sure Snowbird Utah stays open longer than most resorts in CO. Could be wrong though. Also I have skied Utah my whole life so I could be biased but I spent about two weeks in Jackson Hole various different seasons. I think the snow in Utah is alot more consistent and we tend to get alot more frequent dumps then Jackson.
 
Ski vacations in search of powder are so hard to do. If you're booking months in advance you almost have to go cat skiing to guarantee untracked snow (I know this is not realistic for most people's budget). Otherwise there is a big chance you'll get skunked.

My advice: Book multiple hotel reservations now to lock in early season rates, but MAKE SURE you can cancel up to a day or two in advance and not lose money. Flying is kind of tricky, I've found southwest airlines are the most flexible in terms of changing your ticket, they are also good about a ski bag and boot bag counting as one item. So get plane tickets to your first choice, a week before check the weather to see if a storm is supposed to roll in if it is, great, cancel the backup hotel reservations. If your primary location is dry but the back up place is looking like they're gonna get snow, change your plane tickets and cancel the 1st choice's hotel reservations. That's how I've played the game in the past. You might get burned a few hundred if plane tickets to the back up have gone up, but it's better than skiing old snow. This year I've booked three consecutive weekends at the same place (within driving distance) and will cancel hotels as needed.
 
bottom line is ....deabate all you want, the only place to go in the usa for consistnent snowfall is somewhere in utah. enjoy
 
Average annual snowfall:Snowbird: 500 in

Targhee: 500in

Jackson: 450 in

Vail: 350 in

Telluride: 309 in

I would avoid Colorado if you aren't looking for parks and nightlife. You can't go wrong with Utah or Wyoming but I would recommend going to wherever is getting the best snow at the time of your trip.
 
Jackson is just fucking incredible. And if you find yourself needing something a little more relaxed Grand Targhee is right down the road
 
Send me a message with your address and I'll send you a copy of the November issue of Powder. We answered this very question and left out all of the bullshit like Best Dining and Most Black Diamonds.
 
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I would do Tahoe of Utah.

If you do Tahoe, I would focus on Squaw/Alpine. There is no reason why you should ski Northstar. Kirkwood is sick too, but a long way away. Sugar Bowl is also fun. I wouldn't bother with Heavenly.

If you do Utah, go with Snowbird/Alta. Solitude is also supposed to be sick, but I have not been there. Park City is not as good as Snowbird or Alta.
 
Ski Jackson, have lots of fun.Ski Telluride, have lots of fun

Ski almost anywhere in Utah, have lots of fun

Ski Taos, have lots of fun

Ski Tahoe, have lots a fun

You just got to go hit them all!
 
at most of the colorado mountains you'll get good nightlife but mainly with the vail resorts you aren't going to get great pow unless you're up there the day after a storm
 
Tahoe if you do hit it right is awesome. But tahoe works like this, 5 feet, then 50 degree weather for three weeks, then an inch, 2 weeks of bluebird, then another 3 feet.

Jackson Hole, I think ,would be your best option.
 
Tahoe sucks, don't come here. Kirkwood is flat. Us hosting the only annual FWT is a joke, it doesn't even happen. The 560" kirkwood gets a year is also a lie, never snows. Only rains. Yadayadayada.

For real though ask yourself a few questions. Which ski area (utah, PNW, tahoe, Colorado, Tahoe, etc..) has the most atheletes in the FWT aka the best big mountain riders in the world? Tahoe, undoubtably. 2ndly where is the best parks in the US? This question can be argued for days but most would say colorado. The reason I bring up the 2nd question is because the argument factor. You can build a good park ANYWHERE(relatively speaking). That being said it snows more here (per hour) than anywhere else in the US, and we have the most sunny days of any place previously mentioned. Now don't go thinking the glass is 100% full, we do get dry spells, specifically this winter which has been the driest ever during the months of feb and jan but that's not the norm. I still managed to ski a 33" overnight and 1.5' during the day and spring shredding has been fun per usual.

2 years ago I skied on the 4th of july. Also you're not going to find a prettier place to shred, exception, san juans. Whatever you do DON'T go to colorado(summit county that is). It's really the east coast of the west. In all honesty your two options for AREAS are Tahoe or Utah (maybe PNW), excluding CO within the united states. The rest of the places people mentioned are Singular mountains. People tend to forget that Tahoe has multiple world class resorts with world class terrain, similar to Utah.

But really, don't come here, it's flat and it sucks and all we get is sierra cement.

 
True what you say about Tahoe.

Having said that, spring slush is lots of fun. I love Tahoe when it is slushy. Obviously you want pow, but Squaw steeps in slush are a blast.
 
Ya and snowfall totals that make Utah, Colorado, and Tahoe look like a joke. I'm not hating, I live in Utah right now but I've spent a lot of time in the pnw and I'm from ak. Sure the snow is a bit wet but there's two to three times as much of it. And wet snow creates the most incredible features. You can't ski on trees without a coastal snowpack.
 
Utah is really nice although they haven't gotten great snow in the the last 2 seasons. Alta, Solitude, Snowbasin, Powder Mountain all fucking rock.
 
i cant speak for everywhere but i have been to heavenly northstar park city and mammoth

MAMMOTH is definetely the answer our parks are so prime right now man we got 4 seperate legit parks main park south park forest trail and jibs galore not to mention all the mini parks. we have 13' 18' and 22' pipes 1'-85' jumps tons of rails. mammoth is 4 times bigger than northstar and twice as big as park city. plus we have huge terrain clif drops groomed runs awesome trees and powder base at the summit is around 17-18 feet around 3300ft vertical of terrain 25 lifts usually open man its awesome out here i hate i got fired from mammoth and have to leave haha
 
i live up in tahoe, and on the days i do make it out to the top resorts we have here, they are really fun. there are lots of hotels/places you can stay around the ski areas. some are even in the parking lot! my experience with tahoe has always been super fantastic. this year we have a pretty good amount of snow (its snowing now) and i think we are supposed to get more. what is so great about tahoe is there is a whole range of types of skiing. kirkwood for regular skiing, squaw/alpine for park, and north star for creative stuff (wood park, half pipe, etc.) i hope my input helped you and im sure you will have fun where ever you go!
 
This is 100% False. Mammoth being 4 times bigger would require flatstar to be 11,600 acres, or roughly 3.2 times the REAL size of mammoth. I don't have the effort to look up the size of park city but I'm guessing it's a lot larger than a basin which is about 1500 acres, aka half the size of your giant mammoth mountain.

Mammoth, it's really too bad you get that LA crowd. YAY area folks know how to shred (at least some do).

Also whoever said it snows more in PNW than CA is wrong, exception baker.

By that I mean it's terrible in California and it never snows here.

 
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