Help needed for late January/early February trip

D

danmorgan

New member
Hi, I'm thinking about a trip from the UK to the USA/Canada in the last week of January and was hoping you knowledgeable chaps could give me some advice. I've been to Whistler several times and really enjoyed it, but am thinking about Utah/Colorado (or maybe Banff/Kicking Horse) this year.

I'm looking to book it in the next week or two, to try and get the best chance of decent conditions (having got fed up of booking trips ages in advance and having rock and ice all week!). There'll be between 2 and 8 of us, varying abilities, mostly snowboarders but with a couple of skiers. Luxury is nice but not essential :P

I've seen some cheap deals to Banff and Breckenridge (e.g. £400/$800 for direct flights, transfers and 11 nights accommodation), albeit staying in fairly basic accommodation (e.g. Breckenridge Mountain Lodge or Banff Swiss Village Inn/Bumpers Inn).

I've had a look at Tony's summary on bestsnow.net and California seems best avoided, and the Canadian Rockies/Northern Central Colorado seem the best bet at the mo. Does anyone have any suggestions for which resorts outside of the PNW will have the best conditions at my preferred time? Alternatively, would we be better off waiting until later in the season?

Thanks for any help

Dan
 
While Banff/Kicking Horse are off to a huge start and Summit County is just above average, conditions should be adequate at either and other considerations should apply. Summit County has massive numbers of intermediate groomed runs, while Lake Louise and particularly Kicking Horse are defintely skewed to more challenging terrain. Resort ambience is different also, more pristine national park setting (Banff) vs. lively resort apres-ski center (Breckenridge). Summit County is fairly compact, with Vail/Beaver Creek half an hour away. Kicking Horse is a 2-hour drive from Banff.

So you should probably decide which resort/areas are the best fit for your group. After all, this is the way most people choose their ski destinations. The principal value of monitoring conditions and waiting until this time to book is to avoid the areas that are lacking in snow.

FYI the Sierra is getting a dump of ~2 feet of cement that will help quite a bit. The steeps will need more snow, but I would expect those 10-30% of terrain open stats at Christmas to jump up to 50-75% by this weekend.
 
I was planning on going to Utah the last week in January, but I just found out that Sundance is that last 2 weeks..

although I woudl like to go to the Sundance festival, I'm not really sure I want to deal with the crowds/higher prices that are likely occuring during this time. (last year I had a full week long hookup, and I blew it to get ther eto take advantage of it)I have also noticed a few of the Sandy area motels are boooked up.. so will likely head to Tahoe instead..(still haven;t been riding in Tahoe!!) that is.. if they start getting into a better weather pattern, which I'm still skeptical will happen this month as most of the long range stuff (2 week outlooks) are still showing the PACNW being in a favorable storm track for the forseeable future.. this last storm will indeed help, but they still haev aways to go to get me to want to go up there (Tahoe).
 
Sundance Film Festival in late January will only mean several things to folks skiing Utah:

1. Lodging in Park City will be more expensive and harder to come by.
2. Crowds in town in Park City will be thick.
3. The atmosphere in Park City, to say the least, will be festive.
4. The slopes at Park City and Deer Valley will be very, very quiet as very few of the Sundance festivalgoers are there to ski, and everyone else is scared away. This effect will be less noticeable, yet still present, at The Canyons.
5. There will be no effect whatsoever to anyone skiing Alta, Solitude, Brighton, Snowbird, Snowbasin, Powder Mountain, Sundance, or Wolf Mountain. Likewise, there will be no effect whatsoever to anyone staying anywhere other than Park City.

Frankly, because I don't go to PC during the festival, I wouldn't even know it was going on if it weren't for the nightly local news on TV.

Snowave, don't let Sundance scare you away -- it's a silly notion. I have the utmost of confidence that those Sandy hotel bookings have absolutely nothing to do with Sundance.

To address Danmorgan's initial query, you'll find lots that I've already written about visiting here in other topics on these forums. The condensed version, though, is:

1. The Cottonwood Canyons resorts -- Solitude, Brighton and Snowbird (Alta prohibits snowboarding, which rules out most of your group) -- get the most snowfall and have the most dependable conditions. Snowbird is the most challenging around here, Solitude is a great sleeper of a hill, and Brighton is a smaller ski area but still entertaining for visitors. You can stay at Snowbird or Solitude for on-the-hill accommodations, but it's pricier and your nightlife options are limited. Staying in the Salt Lake Valley is dirt cheap (i.e., you can do it comfortably for about $50 per room per night), and restaurants are plentiful and varied, but it's a suburban area (the Valley is home to about 1 million) so it doesn't feel very ski-townish even though the mountains are right out your window, and the ski resorts are less than 10 miles away. You can rent a car or depend on the Utah Transit Authority ski buses (http://www.rideuta.com).

2. The Park City-area resorts (Park City Mountain and The Canyons -- again, Deer Valley up there prohibits snowboarding) are typically easier, and have more groomed trail skiing, but receive somewhat less snowfall than their Cottonwood Canyons counterparts. You either drive 40 minutes from the Salt Lake Valley or stay in the Park City area at a higher price (there are no ski buses running from Salt Lake to Park City).

3. If you don't mind a drive in the morning (45-75 minutes from the Salt Lake Valley) you can add a day at Snowbasin, site of the 2002 Olympic downhill and super Gs) or Powder Mountain. To the south, near Provo, you also have Sundance in a similar distance.

We're having an "average" year here thus far, which from my recent posts and photos you may surmise is still pretty darned good! 8)
 
I would strongly advise snowave to stick with original plan and drive to SLC. I was there the first week of the Olympics, one of the best vacation weeks of my life. I skied 3 1/2 days and the slopes were empty. How empty? Alta offered free 2 hour ski lessons on Thursday to lure some visitors and got a grand total of 10 customers for 6 instructors. On the bluebird Saturday of President's weekend at Snowbird there were walk-on trams all day and I skied 41,250 vertical.

As for the specifics of Sundance's effect on the Utah ski areas, I have no doubt that admin's analysis is spot-on.

With regard to Tahoe I see that Alpine Meadows and Kirkwood are now up to 80% open. But we know the recent storm started warm, so I think the lower elevations at Tahoe are still limited or snowmaking dependent. And Squaw and Heavenly have considerable terrain that still needs more coverage.
 
Thanks for the info, I hadn't even thought about Sundance :oops: so will stear clear of staying in Park City (although not necessarily avoid riding there).

Thanks again for the advice!

Dan
 
The Park City-area resorts ..... receive somewhat less snowfall than their Cottonwood Canyons counterparts.
Click to expand...
If you consider 60% somewhat.

I have commented elsewhere that in terms of skiing I consider the two Summit Counties (in Utah and Colorado) very analogous. Similar in terms of scale, intermediate orientation and snowfall. Breckenridge and Park City are also somewhat similar as restored mining towns with good apres-ski reputations. Until about mid-March I think the Park City group is preferred because it's less crowded. From then on Colorado's Summit County is better because the high altitude preserves its snow in spring while Park City's gets sloppy.
 
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