The best mountain ski town in America?

[survivingearth]

What if we included Canada?

[Phil P]

Originally Posted by BigCity76

Aspen. Skied and partied there, nice town and mountains. I liked Breckenridge too, felt more like an old school Western mountain town.

Breckenridge is literally built on mining tailings.

It's hard to do an apples to apples comparison here because some are $$$ places and some are $$$$$. It seems like setting and geography is what is getting many peoples votes. We can argue about which mountain valley God blessed more, but to me the more important question is which village did people set up better, given what they had to work with.

I haven't been to many outside of CO, but the best designed ski area in CO is Beaver Creek, which is also one of the newest. It was built off the lessons learned from other areas. It's completely masterplanned: it's compact in one valley, there's few surface parking lots, it's walkable, it's a quick walk from condo to the lift, the lifts connect into a fanned valley without having lot's of cross mountain hiking to get from one side to the other and the forest is actually thinned making tree runs better.

It's upscale while still being within reach of middle America, compared to the global elite money pits that are Telluride and Aspen, ostentatious to the point where it's a turn off.

Originally Posted by ABQConvict

Anyway, Lake Placid is one of my favorite ski towns. I prefer real towns that have ski areas, like Placid, Telluride, Stowe, Taos, etc. as opposed to resort "towns" full of condos and overpriced boutiques.

I'm the opposite, have the resort be the resort. Places like Aspen are not real towns anyways, it's a resort laid out like a town so as to not be a "boutique condo place" where you could actually house more people using the slopes. The real towns are nearby down the valley if you need them or are actually trying to live there.

[Champ le monstre du lac]

Originally Posted by survivingearth

What if we included Canada?

In the East, the big three in Quebec are at Mont Tremblant, Mont Ste. Anne, and Le Masif. They are all around 2,000 feet vertical more or less. Mont Tremblant has the resort village but it's a development rather than a town, though pretty well done. It's got a faux Quebecois French colonial look with all the poutine and Quebecois food your heart could desire. Mont Tremblant is up in the Laurentians region just north Montreal and can get pretty crowded.

Mont Ste Anne has the best mountain and slopes and it's a very short drive from Quebec City. Le Masif is the most scenic with awesome views of the St. Lawrence River from the slopes and a new Club Med resort opening this year. La Masif is a bit further out in the beautiful Charlevoix region.

The Eastern Townships is a region about one to two hours east of Montreal that have some small mountains to ski on. They're very affordable, easily accessible, and usually not crowded. This includes Bromont, Sutton, and Owls Head located in a really pretty area dotted quaint old towns. Owls Head has views of Lake Mephremagog from the slopes, it's one of my favorites. There's lots of spas and B & B's in the area.

I'm not as familiar with Western Canadian ski areas. I've been to Whistler where the snow conditions can vary quite a bit, but when they're good it's phenomenal and the biggest ski mountain on the continent. I don't care much for the village and resort, it feels manufactured and a bit overdone. I'd love to get out to the Rockies and ski at Kicking Horse.