Ski Area Count 2023 Update

[Patrick]

That's why I created that table by region. Patrick's streak speaks loud and clear in that table. He has skied more areas in the Southern Hemisphere (28) than in Europe (23), western Canada (22) or the western US (18).

The difference also is that I’ve return to some areas in the Alps and the Western more often than in the Southern Hemisphere. You can also fit many Southern Hemisphere areas in one French resort.

My skiing is not always driven by new areas, for example when I stayed 4 days in SLC I preferred skiing and only exploring Alta and Snowbird.

 

[Patrick]

The snow preservation of Val Thorens vs. Les Menuires was night and day. A full bowl of snow at VT and white ribbons at Les Menuires.

I remember a friend telling me that it was highest village in Europe. He was telling me that they used to offer summer liftserved skiing on the glacier above. Base altitude is also at 2300m vs 1850m.

As mentioned in one of my previous replies about Les Menuires being a separate area:
Les Menuires was established in 1964 vs 1972 for VT which is recent compared to Méribel (1939) and Courchevel (1946)

NZ worthwhile, but it would be part vacation + a few days of skiing.

I traveled 18 days, 4400km on both island, skied 7 days at 7 areas.

I'm unsure if I would have the patience to wait for Marte. Rather be trapped in an Alaskan ski lodge. I saw cheap direct flights from Mendoza to Bariloche, so I would try adding that region. (I see the guys from Snowbrains take off to Catedal for most summers vs. anywhere else in South America. Think they were getting burned at Las Lenas for too many years.)

Of the 5 trips I made to the Andes, Las Lenas is the hardest to get to and from. Distance and limited cheap lodging. Bariloche is a beautiful large town only a short bus away from one of the biggest ski resorts in the Andes. Other ski areas and activities are easily accessible from there.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Les Menuires was established in 1964 vs 1972 for VT

There's the explanation, which I did not know. I wonder if Orelle's backside lifts opened at the same time as Val Thorens?

 

[Patrick]

There's the explanation, which I did not know. I wonder if Orelle's backside lifts opened at the same time as Val Thorens?

No, much later. 1997

When I stayed one week at Val Thorens in 2003, Orelle was pretty recent (just found the date). The fact it was in a total different valley and department was a big thing. Just don’t end up there at the end of the day before that cab ride will cost you a fortune.

 

[ChrisC]

When I stayed one week at Val Thorens in 2003, Orelle was pretty recent (just found the date). The fact it was in a total different valley and department was a big thing. Just don’t end up there at the end of the day before that cab ride will cost you a fortune.

Suppose you end up in the wrong valley at Warth vs. Lech/Zurs, Zermatt vs. Cervinia, Arosa vs. Lenzerheide, Gressoney vs. Alagna, La Thuile vs. La Rossiere, 3 Vallees, or possibly Verbier/4 Vallees. In that case, it is cheaper to spend the night. Other mega resorts have buses - Arlberg, Val d'Isere/Tignes, etc...Cabs are expensive!

Our guides at St. Anton utilized cabs for off-piste itineraries at Stuben to Langen, Rendl to Pettneu am Arlberg and west-side Zurs to Flexen Pass area / east-side Zurs to almost Lech. A little more expensive split 4-6 ways, but there was so much powder that trip - it was worth it!

 

[ChrisC]

I traveled 18 days, 4400km on both island, skied 7 days at 7 areas.

I would likely stick to the areas around Queenstown, and possibly Mt. Hutt near Christchurch.

 

[Patrick]

I would likely stick to the areas around Queenstown, and possibly Mt. Hutt near Christchurch.

The 2016 trip was an overview of the country; I was hoping to return with my Ikon pass the only time I had an ikon in 2019-20 then the pandemic hit. 2022-23 being the 2nd time I had an Ikon pass, NZ was once again on radar, unfortunately with my elbow injury, a big trip is unlikely in the short term. First assessment for physio this morning.
For any future trip according to touristy vs skiing priorities.
Explore more the north island and less focus on skiing.
A skiing focus trip would definitely centred on the South Island. I didn’t get to the club fields as time was running out plus I had car issues. Ikon covers 5 days between Remarkables, Coronet and Hutt. Coronet was close the day I had planed to ski there and would definitely want to check it out. I preferred Remarkables over Hutt. That being said, Treble Cone is hands down my favorite NZ resort.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Suppose you end up in the wrong valley at Warth vs. Lech/Zurs, Zermatt vs. Cervinia, Arosa vs. Lenzerheide, Gressoney vs. Alagna, La Thuile vs. La Rossiere, 3 Vallees, or possibly Verbier/4 Vallees. In that case, it is cheaper to spend the night. Other mega resorts have buses - Arlberg, Val d'Isere/Tignes, etc...Cabs are expensive!

Good point about it being less expensive to stay the night rather than paying a multi-hundred dollar cab ride. Portes du Soleil is another one where you don't want to end up on the wrong side late in the day.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

James - Did you include Murren on your list?
Tony - Did you think Les Menuires qualified as a standalone area?

We seem to be using different criteria for counting the Alps mega complexes. My total number isn't important to me; I'm not in a competition. All I want is an accurate listing of everywhere I've skied since 2000-01 so I can click on a hyperlink for a given ski area to easily access the appropriate report(s) and make it a one-step process, instead of using the search box above.

I love looking back on old reports, both mine and other people's. Sometimes I barely have a recollection of being at a specific ski area, even with photos to jog my memory and prove that I was in fact there!

 

[ChrisC]

Good point about it being less expensive to stay the night rather than paying a multi-hundred dollar cab ride. Portes du Soleil is another one where you don't want to end up on the wrong side late in the day.

Yes. I was amazed that it took me almost 1.25+ hrs. to get from Avoriaz/Ardent base to Chatel (on the way to Crans Montana). They are spread out!

 

[ChrisC]

All I want is an accurate listing of everywhere I've skied since 2000-01 so I can click on a hyperlink for a given ski area to easily access the appropriate report(s) and make it a one-step process, instead of using the search box above.

Do you add hyperlinks to write-ups? Way too ambitious for me. Sometimes I have used Chatbots to create reports with photos - with varying results.

I like that Apple Photos and Google Photos will geo-tag your photos on a world map, so it's easy to drill down into photos from trips to a location/ski area over multiple years. It's easy to back up your photos to either Cloud automatically - or Microsoft!

I have most digital camera photos from 2000 onwards online - plus mobile phone photos from 2011/12 to so (when photo quality became good enough).

 

[Tony Crocker]

Good point about it being less expensive to stay the night rather than paying a multi-hundred dollar cab ride.

We thought about that in Zermatt, where the crossing to Cervinia is over 11,000 feet and obviously weather vulnerable. Accordingly we took our passports skiing that day.

the area starts getting some marketing Pinocchio demerits.

The champ in this dubious category in my experience is Maverick Mt. in Montana, claims 2,020 vertical, 1,500 by Vertech watch, later checked on Google Earth and documented in my TR. That's 35% and 500+ feet of exaggeration!

 

[Tony Crocker]

Do you add hyperlinks to write-ups?

No, but my documentation spreadsheet (currently 255MB) has a column for any hyperlink to a TR here. The spreadsheet is chronological so easy to find something even if I only remember what season, and if not I can filter or search by area name.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I would likely stick to the areas around Queenstown, and possibly Mt. Hutt near Christchurch.

Mt. Hutt + Porters + club fields are similar in overall ski terrain to the 4 Queenstown/Wanaka areas. But I've had 2 days at Mt. Hutt and both days the steep terrain was off limits due to refrozen conditions.

That being said, Treble Cone is hands down my favorite NZ resort.

I was fortunate to be in Queenstown in August 2006 with excellent conditions and so got 2 days to explore Treble Cone thoroughly.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

We thought about that in Zermatt, where the crossing to Cervinia is over 11,000 feet and obviously weather vulnerable.

At some point in the past, didn't you and Liz have to pay a couple hundred CHF to have a lift reopened in the late afternoon? Not a big deal for you but that would be a vacation-mood killer for me.

my documentation spreadsheet (currently 255MB) has a column for any hyperlink to a TR here. The spreadsheet is chronological so easy to find something even if I only remember what season, and if not I can filter or search by area name.

As a summer project, I'm doing something somewhat similar but without a spreadsheet, see examples below. Since the list is mainly for my use, I don't need it to be comprehensive. Whenever I've been to a specific ski area many times (like Loveland), I'll just list the top few visits.

CO
75. Sunlight: Jan 2020
76. Loveland: Jan 2011, Jan 2021
77. Monarch: Mar 2008, Apr 2021
78. Crested Butte: Mar 2008,

 

[Harvey]

Lonnie just e-mailed me his list

If Lonnie is a forum member you can make him the owner of that post.

 

[Tony Crocker]

At some point in the past, didn't you and Liz have to pay a couple hundred CHF to have a lift reopened in the late afternoon?

We made a phone call and were informed it would cost 270CHF to turn the lift on. But we chose instead to take two 10 minutes hikes and then ski down a hiking path and along the Gornergrat train track to our hotel, arriving about 6:15PM.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Time to break out this discussion!

 

[Tony Crocker]

Time to break out this discussion!

Done! Molehill and retro Eastern area discussions moved here.

 

[jimk]

Not sure if there is a definitive place on FTOL to put this, but here's my lifetime ski area count as of 18 March 2024. It's not common for me to add new areas to my list at this stage of life, but this winter I skied Monarch, CO and Diamond Peak, NV for the first time.

Ski Areas Visited, Lifetime, Dec 1967 - March 2024 (98 total)

US
California (8): Alpine Meadows, Heavenly (including Nevada side), Homewood, Kirkwood, Mammoth, Sierra at Tahoe, Squaw Valley, Sugar Bowl
Colorado (15): Arapahoe Basin, Aspen Highlands, Aspen Mountain, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Crested Butte, Eldora, Loveland, Monarch, Snowmass, Steamboat, Telluride, Vail, Winter Park
Maine (4): Mt Abram, Saddleback, Sugarloaf, Sunday River
Maryland (1): Wisp
Massachusetts (1): Wachusett Mountain
Montana (1): Big Sky
New Hampshire (7): Attitash, Black Mountain, Cannon Mountain, Gunstock, Loon, Waterville Valley, Wildcat
New Mexico (3): Red River, Ski Santa Fe, Taos
New York (5): Gore Mountain, Hunter Mountain, Plattekill, Whiteface, Windham
Nevada (1): Diamond Peak
Oregon (1): Mount Bachelor
Pennsylvania (8): Blue Knob (first place skied - December 1967), Camelback, Hidden Valley, Laurel Mountain, Liberty Mountain Resort, Roundtop, Seven Springs, Whitetail
Utah (10): Alta, Brighton, Deer Valley, Park City (before and after joining The Canyons), Park West (defunct), Powder Mountain, Snowbasin, Snowbird, Solitude, Sundance
Vermont (12): Jay Peak, Killington, Mad River Glen, Magic Mountain, Mount Snow, Okemo, Pico, Smugglers Notch, Stowe, Stratton Mountain, Sugarbush, Suicide Six
Virginia (4): Bryce Resort, The Homestead, Massanutten, Wintergreen, (I also visited now defunct Big Devil/Rappahannock/Skyline ski area in the early 1970s on a winter day when it was unexpectedly closed and did not get to ski it.)
West Virginia (3): Canaan Valley, Snowshoe, Timberline
Wyoming (2): Grand Targhee, Jackson Hole

International
Austria (5): Bad Hofgastein, Flachau, Saalbach-Hinterglemm-Leogang, Zauchensee, Zell am See
Canada (7): Lake Louise, Le Massif, Mont Sainte Anne, Mt. Norquay, Revelstoke, Sunshine Village, Whistler-Blackcomb

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Which are my favorites? Here's an article I wrote two years ago on that subject, it's sort of slanted towards a Mid-Atlantic audience: https://www.dcski.com/articles/1657
Recently (earlier this month) I had two really fine days on the Olympic Valley side of Palisades-Tahoe (also skied it and Alpine Meadows once ten years ago) and I'd now rank that in my top 20 fav ski areas especially when you add-in Alpine Meadows. Loved the high alpine terrain at OV.