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Looking for input from xc and skate skiers. I'm looking for a long season and easy access to groomed trails in the contiguous 48 (heard Anchorage is good but won't be moving there). Prefer northeast or upper midwest U.S.- the West generally is too warm for good skate-skiing (lived in Bend a while, didn't like it) - tell me about the skiing in the town you live in. Thanks.
Northwest Vermont has excellent skiing of all kinds.
Most xc facilities offer miles of terrain for both classical and skating.
Trap Family Lodge in Stowe, Craftsbury, Blueberry Hill, - there are 7 places just in Northwest VT alone. I can drive easily to all of them from Burlington. There's a lot of backcountry here, and of course lots of Alpine skiing as well.
There are a lot of Rail to Trails conversions here, and there are, of course, xc facilities at every Alpine resort too - some of them quite good.
Steamboat Springs, CO has spectacular skiing from October through to early May. It's a beautiful area AND has excellent outdoor and indoor skating facilities complete with a very active year-round figure skating club. They play hockey there too. Cross country trails are numerous and beautiful. There is also a good Nordic hill and if you crave Olympic facilities, Salt Lake is a day's drive so you can try out luge, skeleton, and bob. I'd recommend Salt Lake otherwise because Utah is, on paper, a great state, but it may be difficult to fit-in professionally and personally unless you are LDS.
Most resort communities suck but I lived in Steamboat for a year and my brother has lived there over 20 years. The schools are great and the community is very friendly. More important perhaps, is Steamboat is one of the few major ski resorts where the cost of living isn't outrageous. It's actually quite reasonable. If you tire of the magnificent champagne powder you can reach Breckenridge, Aspen, Vail, Alta, Beaver Creek, or Telluride within a day's drive. Other nice things are the hot springs themselves, kayaking on the Yampa river which flows through Steamboat, ballooning, hiking, and mountain biking in the off season. Steamboat really is a family-oriented community, much more so than the celebrity hangouts elsewhere.
Ishpeming is the birthplace of organized skiing (I read this just now but I can't find the source, sorry) and home to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame (this I know).
Blueberry Ridge, about 10 miles southwest of Marquette, is one of the best cross country ski trails in the Great Lakes region.
Although it has maintained a relatively low profile, the Marquette area is fast becoming known as one of the top cross country ski communities in the US! This is partly because of the lake effect snowfall the area receives. Marquette is usually the first and last area to report skiable snow in the entire Midwest. Marquette is also home to the U.S. Olympic Education Training Center, specializing in training young short track speed skating and boxing athletes.
The Noquenamon Ski Marathon runs a very scenic and challenging 53K course starting in Ishpeming and ending in Marquette.
The town of Negaunee is home to Lucy Hill Luge Track at Naturbahn Hill, where Olympic Silver Medalist Chris Thorpe trained early in his career.
Utah has the best snow in the country, but downhill is much bigger here than XC. That's not to say we don't have groomed trails, but the appeal here is the mountains.
Looking for input from xc and skate skiers. I'm looking for a long season and easy access to groomed trails in the contiguous 48 (heard Anchorage is good but won't be moving there). Prefer northeast or upper midwest U.S.- the West generally is too warm for good skate-skiing (lived in Bend a while, didn't like it) - tell me about the skiing in the town you live in. Thanks.
Have to ask why didn't you like Bend. I am moving there.I don't know much about Bend. Good luck finding the place your looking for!
Thanks for the input all! DBNN, I just meant I didn't like the xc/skate-skiing in the Bend area, just too warm in the PNW for the snow at lower elevations to set up good and hard, except for a few days a year. Mt. Bachelor isn't too bad for downhill though, those couple thousand extra feet in elevation make quite a difference in snow quality, though still not as good as Utah. The town is OK, growing a lot and definitely has some nice qualities although I generally agree with Jason_Els comment about resort towns - if you want more info on Bend feel free to ask. Mariatherese, I'm adding Marquette to my list of "places of interest." Is it a resort town or does it still have a "hometown" feel to it? New England has that feel to it in a lot of places too it seems. Would love to hear specifics from anyone anywhere as to how long it takes to drive to to their favorite xc ski places and how well the snow sets up for fast skiing. Thanks again, this is a great site with great people!
Marquette definitely has a "hometown" feel to it. Cost of living... very, very reasonable. A lot of history in the area, and of course the unique Finnish culture. A very gorgeous, gorgeous area!
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