Steamboat, Snowmass, Heavenly, or ???

I'm planning our Feb 2005, President's week family ski vacation. The
family is two 14-year olds, a 9-year-old, a 7-year-old, and the
parents.

One 14-year-old is an expert skier and one's a solid intermediate.
They'll stick together the whole week, may ski with us on occasion,
and may take a 1/2 day lesson to work on bumps or style. I'm not
worried about them.

The 7 and 9 year old are level 5 and 6 skiers each. The 7 year-old
thinks he can do black diamonds, we prefer him on blues. The 9
year-old flies down blues, and is working on bumps.

Us 40-something parents are happiest on easy blacks -- we only do
bumps in the morning these days!

I see our top priority for a ski vacation as a place with a
quality/entertaining ski school for the 7 and 9 year old. Preferrably
the "ski week" style school where they'll be with the same kids for
the week and make new friends and get to race at the end of the week.

Two years ago we went to Steamboat and were thrilled with the ski
school -- the three instructors were perfect for the then 5-, 7-, and
12 year olds! We're willing to go back, but are also looking for
alternatives -- we always like to try new things.

Based on Ski Magazine and poking around websites, it seems the most
likely alternatives are Snowmass, Heavenly, and Northstar. Other
candidates are Winter Park and The Canyons. Any opinions? Note --
it's school vacation week in all of New England that week, so that's
why we head west. I know most of Colorado does *not* have school
vacation that week. What about Utah, CA, and Nevada? Just trying to
figure out the crowds.

Thanks for any shared experiences.

-Jenifer

I'd say try Snowmass CO or The Canyons UT.
Both have varied terrain and are large enough and have decent accommodation
near the slopes.
Never tried the ski lessons but they should be OK.

"Jen" wrote in message
om...
I'm planning our Feb 2005, President's week family ski vacation. The
family is two 14-year olds, a 9-year-old, a 7-year-old, and the
parents.

One 14-year-old is an expert skier and one's a solid intermediate.
They'll stick together the whole week, may ski with us on occasion,
and may take a 1/2 day lesson to work on bumps or style. I'm not
worried about them.

The 7 and 9 year old are level 5 and 6 skiers each. The 7 year-old
thinks he can do black diamonds, we prefer him on blues. The 9
year-old flies down blues, and is working on bumps.

Us 40-something parents are happiest on easy blacks -- we only do
bumps in the morning these days!

I see our top priority for a ski vacation as a place with a
quality/entertaining ski school for the 7 and 9 year old. Preferrably
the "ski week" style school where they'll be with the same kids for
the week and make new friends and get to race at the end of the week.

Two years ago we went to Steamboat and were thrilled with the ski
school -- the three instructors were perfect for the then 5-, 7-, and
12 year olds! We're willing to go back, but are also looking for
alternatives -- we always like to try new things.

Based on Ski Magazine and poking around websites, it seems the most
likely alternatives are Snowmass, Heavenly, and Northstar. Other
candidates are Winter Park and The Canyons. Any opinions? Note --
it's school vacation week in all of New England that week, so that's
why we head west. I know most of Colorado does *not* have school
vacation that week. What about Utah, CA, and Nevada? Just trying to
figure out the crowds.

Thanks for any shared experiences.

-Jenifer

We took our then 13 year old son to Snowmass last year. He absolutely loved
it! He was already an intermediate skier, and after 3 days of lessons in
the Ski School at Snowmass, he's getting to the point that I have to work to
keep up with him. My wife and I also took the small group lessons on 2 days
(Tuesday and Thursday) and were very impressed with their school. The first
day of lessons, after evaluation, there were 6 people of similar skill in
our group, the instructor did a very nice job of individual instruction and
my wife and I were both skiing much better by the end of the first day.
Then on Thursday, there was nobody else in our group, my wife and I skied
all day with the same instructor that we had on Tuesday and got the
equivalent of a private lesson for the price of the group lesson. I'm sure
that is the exception and not the rule, but we were extremely pleased. We
haven't skied anywhere else that you mentioned, all of our previous skiing
has been at eastern resorts, but Snowmass has got those beat hands down.
We'll be going again this Feb. (5-12), and are again planning on lessons for
both ourselves and our son.

Good luck in your planning, hope the vacation is wonderful no matter where
you choose.
William


"Jen" wrote in message
om...
I'm planning our Feb 2005, President's week family ski vacation. The
family is two 14-year olds, a 9-year-old, a 7-year-old, and the
parents.

One 14-year-old is an expert skier and one's a solid intermediate.
They'll stick together the whole week, may ski with us on occasion,
and may take a 1/2 day lesson to work on bumps or style. I'm not
worried about them.

The 7 and 9 year old are level 5 and 6 skiers each. The 7 year-old
thinks he can do black diamonds, we prefer him on blues. The 9
year-old flies down blues, and is working on bumps.

Us 40-something parents are happiest on easy blacks -- we only do
bumps in the morning these days!

I see our top priority for a ski vacation as a place with a
quality/entertaining ski school for the 7 and 9 year old. Preferrably
the "ski week" style school where they'll be with the same kids for
the week and make new friends and get to race at the end of the week.

Two years ago we went to Steamboat and were thrilled with the ski
school -- the three instructors were perfect for the then 5-, 7-, and
12 year olds! We're willing to go back, but are also looking for
alternatives -- we always like to try new things.

Based on Ski Magazine and poking around websites, it seems the most
likely alternatives are Snowmass, Heavenly, and Northstar. Other
candidates are Winter Park and The Canyons. Any opinions? Note --
it's school vacation week in all of New England that week, so that's
why we head west. I know most of Colorado does *not* have school
vacation that week. What about Utah, CA, and Nevada? Just trying to
figure out the crowds.

Thanks for any shared experiences.

-Jenifer