From 1996-2006 I skied a nearly consistent 4 days/season in Utah as an Iron Blosam guest. The past 4 seasons have been 8, 9, 14 and 12 days. This year is 10 days so far but I have at least 2 more coming.
I agree with most of rsmith's comments. I started the cat/heli route in 1997 because that is the easiest way to get fresh tracks, especially for the less experienced. Resort powder demands more expertise in terms of local knowledge and ski ability in variable and chopped snow.
rsmith":15u4e172 said:
Each area has it's own disadvantages/advantages, but in the end I think they tend to more-or-less weigh out for a dedicated local.
I'm not so sure about that. The experiences are different. LCC's snow and terrain combination is unsurpassed. The frequency of powder days is much higher than most places, but typically you get amazing mornings followed by afternoons of chowder or lots of grunt work to get limited remaining untracked. Frequency at a place like Snowbasin is much lower, but the best days are more likely to be untracked bell to bell. The Utah locals are fortunate to have both options available. And people like admin often hit those epic LCC mornings, then go home (or to work) and let us tourists scrounge for the scraps later in the day.
The important criteria for great powder skiing are snow, terrain and low skier density, and it's almost impossible to get all 3 in the same place with any frequency. If the terrain/snow are best in a region, the powder experience tends to be similar to LCC. Certainly true at Squaw and Mammoth and probably Vail and Whistler too. Jackson also, though Jackson has an inefficient lift system like Alta before Collins went HSQ, so the competition tends to manifest itself as much in terms of liftlines (particularly the tram) as quickly tracked out snow.
I'm sure JSpin and q could tell us about numerous super low density Montana areas where powder lasts a few days after a storm. Most of these places average only ~250 inches, so short term visitors still won't get powder that often. For the combination of terrain and low density Castle Mt. is conspicuously the best I've experienced, but I know I'm very lucky to have had big powder on 3 out of 5 days there.
There are also some places with a lot of snow and low skier density because they lack the scale and/or big mountain steeps that some of the fanatic powderhounds insist upon. Wolf Creek and Targhee come to mind. These are the type of areas aspiring powder skiers should go if they don't want to shell out the $$$ for cat/heli. I'll also remind everyone of Niseko's unique (70% more than Alta) powder frequency in January/early February.
:stir:
