Markus,

You want to ski at Christmas & New Year's, you're looking for
good snow and not too crowded.
That is a very difficult order to fill.

I've skied almost all the resorts in Colorado, a couple each in
WY, OR, and WA, another 6+ in Calif., another 5 in Utah, and one
trip to Whistler/Blackcomb, and all this over many years,
and to guess in October what any of their snowpacks will be
in late December....? It would be exactly that: a guess, and a
wild guess at that.

You could hit just right at almost any of the Western resorts and
have very good conditions for that time of year.
Then again, almost any of them could have a dry spell.
The odds are though, you will have mediocre skiing conditions
unless you do strictly Green and Blue runs.
Again, these are gross generalities, and anything is possible
when Mother Nature dishes out the snow.

I would venture that most Western resorts will be almost fully open,
(except for double-black areas) by New Years, but that does NOT mean
there will not be exposed rock (& some hidden rocks) on many runs!
In fact, I would bet that almost all single black runs will be
hazardous to p-tex come Christmas time. Even Blue runs at most
resorts in the Rockies can have rocks just under the surface ready
to do a number on your p-tex. You almost have to be a local to know
the very safest parts of runs to ski until mid-January, assuming the
resort(s) don't get an un-naturally large amount of snow during
December; it can happen, but not that often.

In general, and everyone has their own opinion, I'd say these are
the snow base depths (in inches)you need to see to be pretty much safe
from rocks) on all Blue Runs, in these states:

Colorado: 50"+ (inches), best at 60" & over
Utah: 40"+, best at 50" & over
Calif.: 40"+, best at 50" or over
B.C.: 40"+, best at over 55". Whistler/Blackcomb are tall enough
to experience entirely different weather systems and snow from
top to bottom. In fact, expect three seriously different types of
snow if you ski Whistler from top to bottom, and that is generally
true for the whole dang ski season! To some extent this true of
some resorts in Calif. and Colorado too, depending on where you are skiing.

Avoiding crowds at Christmas and New Years? I really don't think
that is possible unless maybe you ski very early on Christmas Day
and New Year's Day. Otherwise expect large crowds every day
and probably all day, period!
Christmas & New Years is hands down the busiest time of ski season,
no getting around it.

I have stopped skiing altogether at Christmas or New Years,
except night skiing on New Years, and early New Year's Day skiing.
IMO, skiing in big crowds is dangerous to your longevity as a skier.
There are ALWAYS a few yahoos out there when there are crowds,
and they may not be able to avoid you, and you may not be able to
avoid them, i.e. CRASH!
If you are going ski around any Holiday season, you better have
eyes in the back of your head or being skiing very fast and probably
hazardously yourself.
Personally, I try to be faster, quicker and more agile than the
yahoos out there during crowded times, but often it is exhausting,
frustratingand still dangerous for everybody. I hope you can do
hockey stops from the left or right, sometimes it's your only option,
Better to spray someone with snow than run over them.
Never had any bad accidents myself, but lots of close calls and I've seen
(as have many other I'm sure), some terrifically nasty collisions
between skiers on the slopes, and often only because it was too crowded
and to many mixed skiing abilities in tight group.

One caveat, if it's really snowing cats and dogs out there, and you know
how to ski fresh snow, the poor visibility and maybe deep snow
will exhaust a lot of skiers quickly and could get in some good
skiing during Christmas just due to the attrition of frustrated
skiers during tougher weather to ski in....?
But as you know, poor visibility on the slopes is a hazard in itself.

In short, I don't recommend you ski at Christmas at all!
Unless that is the only time you really get to ski during the year.
Better to ski at dangerous times than not ski at all, but.....
if you have any choice in the matter, ski either the week before
Christmas week, or the week after New Years and your likely to have
a better overall experience.

Now that I've helped you not at all. You still have to decide.
And if you insist on Christmas skiing, you WILL have to reserve
your lodging early, because thousands and thousands of other skiers
will be reserving lodging at the exact same time.

Good Luck! -Tom G.
----------------------


Markus Hornkvist wrote:
It's been years since I last read rec.skiing.alpine, but I guess this
is the place for those tricky questions.

I am planning a skiing trip for Christmas and New Years. We are 5
people. 4 are coming from Europe and 1 from the US, but the person
from the US has the shortest holiday (surprise!), so because of that,
it would make ski in North America.

This is my reasoning so far:

I really like Whistler for the almost-constant snow fall and the
decent fall height, but I hate the lift lines they have these days,
and I can imagine what they are like at Christmas, so Whistler is out
of the question. Besides, Whistler does not seem to have that much
snow at Christmas anyway.

Snowbird and Alta are good resorts, but I guess they do not have much
snow at Christmas either.

Same with Colorado, I presume, and somehow I am not that much of a
Colorado fan after visiting Breckenridge a few years ago.

I have always wanted to ski Jackson Hole, but I remember someone
telling me that Jackson Hole gets its snow really late.

Kirkwood seems to get lots and lots of snow and should be good because
of that, but the fall height is really paltry. I cannot think of a
mountain I have been to with that low fall height?

In addition, I can get a really good deal on a package trip to Fernie,
but does Fernie usually have good snow that early in the season?

I appreciate all ideas and thoughts. Please note that this will be a
group of good skiers that will ski from when the lifts open to when
they close and who care more about good skiing conditions than sun
tans.