Arizona Snowbowl?

I am looking for a spring vacation site for my wife and me. She barely skis, so a trip to Utah is not in the cards.

I saw Arizona Snowbowl a few years back, but assumed it was just better than nothing, like the one near Tucson; but it is actually 2200'. (from WNY, that is huge...) We have friends in Sedona who want us to stay with them, but we were just there a couple years ago. Unless the skiing was worthwhile, I probably wouldn't want to do that.

So...
How is Arizona Skibowl?
For the sake of comparison, I have been to Squaw Valley and Whiteface.

On 10/3/2013 7:58 PM, Toller wrote:
I am looking for a spring vacation site for my wife and me. She barely skis, so a trip to Utah is not in the cards.

I saw Arizona Snowbowl a few years back, but assumed it was just better than nothing, like the one near Tucson; but it is actually 2200'. (from WNY, that is huge...) We have friends in Sedona who want us to stay with them, but we were just there a couple years ago. Unless the skiing was worthwhile, I probably wouldn't want to do that.

So...
How is Arizona Skibowl?
For the sake of comparison, I have been to Squaw Valley and Whiteface.


I've skied "the place near Tucson", it's called Mt Lemmon and it's not
somewhere that you would make a special trip to go to. If you are in
the area for some other reason it's worth a day trip, but any more than
that is pushing it. It's certainly an *interesting* ski hill because it
is so unlike any of the other ~80 ski areas I've been to. The amazing
thing is that it exists at all, being at the same latitude as Tijuana.

The Snowbowl is much farther north and in an overall climate where one
might expect a ski area. I'm sure I could amuse myself for several days
there. Never skied there though.

Taos is the real deal - in a good snow year it rivals any other area on
the continent. Fresh snow is generally much lighter than the Sierra
Cement you experienced at Squaw. Plenty of steeps if you are into that,
but a variety of mellower terrain too.

Angel Fire is nearby, and worth checking out - it's a much more flat
area with mostly easy blues and a couple of exceptionally flat greens.
Your "casual skier" wife would probably love Angel Fire.

The town of Taos is pretty cool - if you liked Sedona, you should like
Taos. Stay in town, and it's a half hour to the lifts at Taos and 40
minutes to Angel Fire.

I've never skied at the Santa Fe hill. Can't help you there.


--
//Walt