XMas to New Year, where to ski out west? Least crowded areas?

Kurt Knisely wrote:

In article , AstroPax says...

I don't care how often they rename the place, or how much lame terrain
the keep cutting trails on, or how many lifts they build, or how many
condos go up, the fact of the matter is that the place previously
sucked, it sucks NOW, and it will ALWAYS suck!


Thats why I don't ski inbounds there. If you haven't seen it recently, they
have a whole new area there much like Deer Valley, gated community, private
property, their own lifts...the whole thing. Ski areas these days (excluding
Silverton and maybe a few others), are not created for "skiing", they're created
for Real Estate sales.

Same with golf courses. And these days ski areas' terrain often has much
in common with golf courses - flat with artificial features.

Actually, I had a decent day skiing with an ex-coworker at Canyons last
spring. There were 12-18 inchs of light on the surface, it was snowing
so hard I couldn't see anything anyway, and the pow down already and
coming down was light enough that I could keep up a decent speed in
spite of the somewhat subdued angle of repose of the surface - well, all
in all it was a pretty good day.

But that's the basic principle: any day on skis is a pretty good day.
Doesn't pay to look one of life's great gifts in the mouth and count teeth.

(John) wrote in message . com...

Have you even been to the Canyons? Have you only seen the trail map or
listened to the Deer Valley Crowd?


Well, it looks like Vladimir has long since abondoned this thread
but for the fun of discussion, here is my review on The Canyons...


9990 is a lot of fun. Both sides of the lift. A short
hike from the top of the lift takes you to some fantastic
powder via gate access (just out of bounds)

Tombstone has some great runs.

Lots of nice trees to ski and some narrow runs through trees.

Dreamscape is great open powder runs for novices/intermediates.
I thought it sucked because it took me a while to get there and
I like steeper runs. However, because it is on the edge of the resort
the powder lasts a long time and if you're an intermediate, you'll
have a good time.

Super Condor looks nice on the map, but I never had the chance
to really ski that side of the mountain much. Because it is
a wide mountain it does take some time to get from one side
to the other and once you get to a lift you like it is worth
skiing it for a while.

The Canyons has some fantastic runs. Great trees.
It does take some time to get around and I've heard novice boarders
complain about the lift traverses.

IMO better snow than Park City. Just look at the park
city lifts and you'll see the number of people they try
to move around that mountain. All those people ski off powder
pretty quick, but I would rather they ski there and keep the
Canyons powder for for us unfortunate skiers and boarders
who like it. Heck, I think its great that people think it
sucks. FWIW, if you think it does, its all the better for those
of us who enjoy it.

-t