Skiing In The U.S.A.

A snowHead

Subscribed this morning as a result of finding you guys (and gals) extremely helpful in the past. So here goes...

We (me my wife and 2 children 10 and 13 years) want to ski in the U.S. We normally go away for New Year and have been given some advice which I'd like to run by you...

I have been told NOT to ski in the U.S. at this time of year because of the severe temperatures (down to -40 C) and the high risk of frost bite... This is obviously a major concern with us taking the kids. We have been told to go at Easter as there is still plenty of snow, less skiers and most importantly, it's nowhere near as cold.

Any further advice would be greatly appreciated.

Advice on resorts would also be a huge plus... We're looking at Breckenridge but if there are any other suggestions I'd like to hear about them.

Cheers

Rob

A snowHead

Well the USA is a big place and weather varies accordingly. Brrckenridge is in Colorado so its fairly far south. Its not as cold as,say, Big Sky in Montana or sone of the inland eastern resorts up by the Canadian border.. But it will be colder thete in January than Lake Tahoe. On the other hand the season starts later in Tahoe and good snow is not certain there at new year. i think Breckenridge is a good choice for the time of year you are planning to go.

Mark

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Depends on what you want from your trip but I had a great time in Mammoth. Fly into LA, SF or LV and stay for a couple of days, then drive to the Mountain for 10 days or so, then back to the city for flight back. Big fan of mammoth which is a great place, and normally pretty warm, regular daytime temp hovers around freezing. Pass there also links with June Mountain which is about 30 minutes or so away.

I've snowboarded across the US and Canada and the coldest I've experienced was -32 C, but that was once. Most of the time it was about -15/-20 or so in Canada in January.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

This year there's been very little snow in Mammoth and Lake Tahoe at New Year (this is unusual though). I can confirm that Snowbird (in Utah) and Jackson Hole (in Wyoming) had some really cold days in early Jan, although down to -20 Celsius during the day, rather than -40. The wind was a killer.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Agree its wind more than cold which hurts.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Richard_Sideways, really keen on exploring Mammoth next January (on our way back from honeymoon) as we've been there in the summer and loved it. Did you drive from LA? Flight prices to Mammoth airport from LA are pretty reasonable which we would consider, but could you survive five or six days of skiing there without a car? We previously drove there from LV, through Death Valley.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

We drove from LA to LV then on to Mammoth via Death Vally as you did. Drove back to LA though, and its about a 5-6hr drive depending on breaks.
Since the new chair into the village area, you don't need a car as much as you used to, there always was a bus to the day lodge, but you know what the US is like for those without transport - plus a car will get you access to June too, which I understand has been reopened now and shares a pass with Mammoth. I was talking to the Mammoth rep at the snowshow this year and he mentioned that there is a regular service from LAX to Mammoth Lakes airport (although when I was last there it really was a field)

After all it is free

PisteBasher1969, We went to Aspen first week of January, lowest it got was -16C, had days when it was sunny too, its colder perhaps than Europe as your a lot higher the town is around 2,900 meters, we just put on an extra layer and made sure we had neck warmers and if you felt cold you could have free coffee or hot cider from guest services and blow your nose on the thoughtfully placed free tissues and top up your sunscreen from the handy dispenser, just like skiing in france Toofy Grin

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I've been to Colorado and Utah a few times in January, and have never experienced -40. I've had a few parky days in Canada (Banff/LL) when it's been -30.......but of course this is anecdotal, and that's not to say it might not get down to -40 on occasion.

Temperatures per se aren't so much of a problem, since usually the humidity is very low, so just being well-layered keeps you comfy. Wind chill can be combated with a face mask or full-face balaclava (very good for protecting that razor-thin gap between goggles and helmet). For me, altitude is the bigger problem (when it comes to getting a good night's sleep), so finding somewhere you can sleep at relatively low altitude might be more important - especially for the kids.

snow reports

The problem with New Year isn't really about the temperature. It's the short day and lack of sun to keep you warm past 2pm.

There's also the POTENTIAL lack of snow depth.

"Normally", there ought to be enough snow to ski on at the Rockies (Colorado/Utah/Montana) at New Year's time. But the same can't be said about the Tahoe region. There, the season tend to start later. But some years, Tahoe may get lots of snow by New Year, and the Rockies only got marginal amount.

If you can wait till end of November, you'll get a sense if there'll be enough snow to slide on. But if you need to book in advacne, Easter is a lot safer.

Not to mention the days will be longer and more pleasent. Considerably less expensive too.

We did Mammoth at Easter 2012, (so mid April) driving up from LA. By their standards it had not been a great snow year, but it started dumping the day we arrived and there was knee deep powder on piste several days running. Our teens were 13 and 15 and loved the ski area - we rented a 2 bed apartment that was ski-in ski-out at Eagle Lodge (far end of ski area but easy to ski from one end to the other) and had a pool and hot tub outside, which the teens used every night. They had a great half day private lesson with an instructor. Weather was cold and windy on the days it was snowing heavily.

We drove back to LA via Death Valley - highly recommended. If you have a couple of days in LA a trip to Venice Beach is great - don't just walk along the beach front, explore the canals area behind it.

You know it makes sense.

Long run you'll generally find decent snow cover most places by new year. Short run of course you can get royalty screwed over like lucky Tahoe punters this NY.

Re cold I'd generally be more concerned about altitude than cold in Colorado but don't expect to ski every day if there is bad windchill.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Hi, we did the Christmas and New Year just gone in the US. Stayed in Frisco, just off I70, and skiied the surrounding resorts (Breckenridge, A-Basin, Keystone, Copper, Vail, Beaver Creek) and took a day trip to Aspen. We bought the Epic pass in early season which gave us unlimited access to five of the above plus five free days each in Verbier and the Three Valleys, which should occupy us for the rest of the season. Have made a few US trips in the past but only to Colorado and Utah so can't speak for Tahoe etc, but can talk a bit about temperature/snow at new year in CO...

On this trip, snow was apparently unusually good for early season. There was enough for multiple powder days though with very thin base cover - both of us knocked our skis about a lot, sometimes skiing, say, unmaintained forest, but also on rocks on the piste.

I feel the cold quite badly - have bad circulation in my hands - and was mostly fine with tons of layers, hand warmers, and new snazzy mittens and inner gloves (yay Christmas).

The only place where I had to stop repeatedly was Breckenridge and apparently it's notorious for being the coldest resort (Breckenfridge is a nickname) - as I understood it, the shape of the mountain range means they consistently get strong winds and high windchill.

OTOH it also felt like the most fun resort in terms of restaurants, nightlife etc.

Hope this helps and let me know if you want any more info.

A snowHead

Thank you everyone, plenty of food for thought there... The general theme is the altitude in Colorado and not the cold especially... This could be a factor as I suffered in Tignes 2 years ago (short of breath and felt as sick as a dog most mornings!) Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

A snowHead

I've skiied Heavenly Lake Tahoe (from San Francisco) and Vail (from Denver) a number of times. In every case it's been at the end of a business/training trip so I was already in SFR, Denver or New York. On the plus side, the snow is (95% of the time) immense - we're talking about 5-6 metres of snow when I skied Heavenly; queues are usually short and everyone is very polite; they have a great ski-patrol team in most resorts who are paid just to ski around and help/guide people; pistes are often very extensive and wide; and instructors are usually good. Most hotels will clean and wax your skis overnight for free. On the downside, it can be expensive (Vail was more £ per head than Verbier, for example); long flight; jetlag. As with anywhere, you can suffer winds or a whiteout. On the whole, I'm not sure that it's worth the extra effort and you'd be gutted if you made the trip out and then couldn't ski because it was snowing so hard (those 5-6 metres have to fall at some time). Conversely, I always remember being at the top of Heavenly in massive snow and looking down on the Utah desert thousands of metres below to the east, and in Vail the huge wide-open bowl skiing which was still within an intermediate's capabilities. Clearly, given that people do go to Canada and the US from the UK, for many people the upsides outweigh the downsides. Perhaps if you can combine it with a bit of a road-trip and take your time, then that might work better.

One thing that I would say is that given the cost of an American trip, you should consider Switzerland as well. I don't ski in France any more. Partly because I had enough of queues and rudeness. Partly as a boycott of the outrageous cartel that is the Ecole du Ski Francais. Switzerland has altitude, little or no queuing (outside of school hols), good instruction, and some large ski areas. But it is intrinsically more expensive than, say Italy. It's noticeable that where I ski in the Four Valleys, the number of French visitors has gone up significantly in the last five years. I suspect (but can't be certain) that now the CHF is 'ceilinged' against the €, more French skiers are happy to pay the premium.

Just a thought, and I daresay that many people won't agree ......

Help!!

Skiing In The U.S.A.

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste