Best city for "quick" skiing

[Mezter]

Originally Posted by Deezus

Colorado has some great ski areas, but in terms of what's within an hour away, it's not really much "more world class" than what's close to Salt Lake City. Arapahoe Basin is one of my favorite ski areas in the country and Winter Park is good, but Salt Lake City has Snowbird, Alta, Park City, the Canyons, Deer Valley, Solitude, and Brighton within an hour of easy driving. You can even take a bus to Little or Big Cottonwood Canyons from the Salt Lake metro.

Personally as an expert skier/boarder I like the steeps of Snowbird/Alta over much of the Colorado resorts like Vail or the Summit County areas, which tend to be a little less interesting terrain-wise and a little too crowded. Plus you don't have to face the traffic nightmare that I-70 occasionally becomes, when cars are backed up at the Eisenhower Tunnel on a weekend.

Reno's another good option as you have most of the Lake Tahoe resorts including Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows, Heavenly, Northstar, and Kirkwood(along with even closer small resorts like Diamond Peak or Mount Rose) within an hour or more driving time.

Who says Denver is the only Colorado City with proximity to Skiing!? Some of the skii resorts themselves have There own airports that Take commercial flights. For example (Steamboat Springs, Vail, and Aspen all have small airports by the city). You can be skiing withing 20 minutes from all of these places

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by Mezter

Who says Denver is the only Colorado City with proximity to Skiing!? Some of the skii resorts themselves have There own airports that Take commercial flights. For example (Steamboat Springs, Vail, and Aspen all have small airports by the city). You can be skiing withing 20 minutes from all of these places

I assumed that the OP was interested in decent-sized cities close to skiing. There's plenty of ski towns or developed ski villages where you can literally take a chair lift or gondola right into town, but most of them are pretty small.

Otherwise I'd recommend Telluride or Crested Butte as good options. Or even a larger town like Bozeman which is close to good skiing. But this discussion seemed to be about what larger cities were closest to ski areas.

[Mezter]

Originally Posted by Deezus

I assumed that the OP was interested in decent-sized cities close to skiing. There's plenty of ski towns or developed ski villages where you can literally take a chair lift or gondola right into town, but most of them are pretty small.

Otherwise I'd recommend Telluride or Crested Butte as good options. Or even a larger town like Bozeman which is close to good skiing. But this discussion seemed to be about what larger cities were closest to ski areas.

Ohh, gotcha.

[mikeinalberta]

If we include Canada then Vancouver is a great choice for after work skiing....definitely one of the best night skiing cities in the West.

Weekend trips to Whistler or Baker aren't too bad either.

Calgary is another good choice for weekend trips (though not as good as the top American pics). Calgarians have to drive a bit further than Residents of Seattle, Sacremento, Reno, Denver or SLC...but the resorts are less crowded.

Within an hour of DT Calgary you can be at Nakiska (okay not great).

Within 2 hours you can be at Sunshine, Norquay and Lake Louise (better)

Within 3 hours you can be at Castle, Fernie, and Kicking Horse (Excellent resorts)

Revlestoke is also a long weekend option....but the drive is rough.


In my opinion, SLC is the tops for close skiing. I prefer the LCC resorts the what I have skied in the Denver area. I find Southern Colorado (Teluride, CB, Aspen) more intriguing than Summit Country/Vail.

[btownboss4]

So Boston has the closest Ski runs of any Major city.