Just planning our annual boarding trip to France. We've been about a dozen times now, but I was thinking of going to The US or Canada? Is it something we need to experience or are we better off sticking to Europe, bearing in mind the cost and length of flight? Very happy driving to France, but wondered at somepoint do we need to take the plunge and experience something different..
I would say so, or at least consider it.
I've been to Banff twice now and really enjoyed it there. People are friendly, the snow was good, the slopes were huge and like a playground and the food was nice. It was also cheaper than goign to France for two weeks.
Went to Mammoth years ago, only the length of flight stop us going back every year. It's.... AWESOME.
Definitely worth going.
Not ridden in the US but have in Canada - Fernie, Lake Louise, Sunshine, couple of other places. Depends what you want but I'd highly recommend it.
Not sure what Vancouver is like but if you believe the hype it's the dogs dangly bits. A mate has been there and a lot of Canada and loved it.
It's a little different over there in that most places you don't stay on the hill - generally stay in town and get the bus/drive up to the lifts. This means that the apres ski can be a bit odd but it's all good.
Oh, and it's frickin freezing Mr Bigglesworth.
Another vote to go - but to make it worth your while, make it a two week trip
Banff is spectacular, but don't neglect the possibility of a visit to Quebec. Mont Tremblant, for example, though not as big as any of the Rockies resorts, is pretty wonderful, and you get to visit Montreal at the same time.
Yeah
Why not!!
Either that or try somewhere new in Europe maybe?
do it, holidays are for discovering new places/things.
+1 Do it, had my best days riding ever in the states.
Had a weekend in Mammoth after previous trips to France, Italy & Switzerland. Would love to go back for a longer trip. Has anywhere in Europe adopted the single queue line?
[quote=FB-ATB ] Has anywhere in Europe adopted the single queue line?
Most places in europe have a single queue line - everyone queues down one line, then waits at the front till their mates catch up 😆
Seriously though Things are getting better - last time I was in Val d'Isere the lifties were proactively finding singles and pairs and trying to get every seat filled. Not perfect, but better
Ah - A thread I can really contribute to 😀
So right now I'm living in Calgary and am approaching my 4th winter in Canada. Before that I was UK based and had skied in France / Switzerland for about 6 years visiting most of the French mega resorts but also a few of the smaller ones.
Is it worth visiting Canada for skiing.. it depends on what you want in a holiday. It is very different. All of this is written with the exception of Whistler; I've never visited Whistler in the winter but it is not typical of Canadian ski resorts. I've mostly skied stuff within a days drive of Calgary.
Canadian ski resorts are small compared to ones in France. So if you want to cruise around on groomed reds all day you're going to get bored. Especially as they don't tend to have lots of cafes or similar; just a base resort.
If however you really want to push you skiing and get into the trees (lots of trees in Canada) and possibly ski steeper stuff than in Europe Canada might be for you.
A key difference is that in Europe you have "on-piste" and "off-piste"; in Canada we have "in-bounds" and "out-of-bounds". What this means in practice is that in Canada you can ski where ever you like inside the resort and it's all been avalanche controlled. You don't have to keep between the piste markers; but there is generally less grooming in Canada. So if you want to ski something very steep you probably can have at it.
As said above most ski resorts are close to small towns and it is unusual (or impossible) to have ski-in, ski-out accommodation. (There are exceptions to this like Panorama but generally this is true).
The snow can be fantastic but it isn't always as good as the adverts suggest. My recommendation is always to hire a car and do a skiing road trip for a couple of weeks. That way you don't get bored of resorts and to some extent can chase the snow. But you need to accept you'll be travelling on Canadian roads in winter; most of the time they're fine but occasionally they're "entertaining".
On a good day the skiing in Canada can be very good. This is in the back country near Revelstoke...
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7019/6638949709_f5b57e7fc9.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/40674021@N05/6638949709/ ]Rogers Pass Jan 2012[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/40674021@N05/ ]Mark and Liz in Canada[/url], on Flickr
Fernie, Banff, Lake Louise, Sunshine loved it. Would go again in preference to Europe. Main draw back is travel time, flight plus transfer, they can be long but worth it.
I went to Banff a few years ago and really enjoyed it...although it was particularly cold!
The good thing about Canada is the mountains are smaller than the European Alps, and due to the high snow fall you have a lot more tree runs. It was great fun going through narrow tree runs off piste where your options were to go straight, through a narrow gap, or hit a tree!
Do it.
YES! Been to Whistler, Banff (Lake Louise, Sunshine) and Fernie - all were excellent holidays.
sweaman2 has covered it mainly.
The other massive difference compared to the Alps is how quiet it can be. This is Lake Louise - the rider is my missus:
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I've done a few marked runs in Canada where I haven't seen anyone else from top to bottom!
Oh and of course there is better access to motorised transport which is heavily restricted in the Alps (e.g. catskiing, heliskiing and...
[img] 
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...snowmobiling) 😀
Went to Whistler last year, EPIC...got a friends brother who is an instructor doing his 3rd year out there...there is nothing like it in Europe for the amount of snow you get and the size of on or off piste.
Been to about 20 European resorts, so enough to compare it with...
If you book before 1st November you get a 40% or so discount on ski pass...so you will find it expensive if you go this year...
We booked accomodation though this websites, http://www.alluradirect.com/whistler/ which has really good value properties with hot tubs etc. then booked flights independently.
Go for at least 10 days as jet lag is a hastle, means you wake up early for the first few days, so suggest getting fresh tracks which is a $15 ticket for all you can eat breakfast at the top of the mountain followed by an hour or so of just 400 or so people on the mountain. Very very highly recommended. We did every morning. One of the highlights of any ski trip.
will go back as soon as money allows. Cost around £1500 for 12 days all in. No lessons, hire or guide as the brother knew the off piste.
Also plan on Utah some day as people rate it a lot, but a fair bit of driving around pushed us towards Whistler first.
We had around 160cm of snow fall over the time we where there, not many places get that in 12 days 🙂 and that is not uncommon in whistler
If you go to Fernie then I [b]HIGHLY[/b] recommend staying here:
http://www.canadianpowdertours.com/thechalet.html
Susan the chalet owner is an absolutely awesome cook and incredibly welcoming host.
By far the best food I have ever eaten on a snowboarding holiday.
Plus she has a hot tub out the back looking onto the mountain.
Oh just remembered the other huge difference:
[b]Lift Line in Europe[/b]: ill tempered shovefest with 80 folk from [i]certain-nations-without-a-social-tradition-of-queueing[/i] standing on your board, poking you with ski poles and generally being annoying.
[b]Lift Line in Canada[/b]: generally non-existent. When there is one, expect utter courtesy and politeness. People will insist you go first. If you are on your own you'll be ushered to the front. We queued at one lift which they had to stop it for a few minutes - so the lifty broke out the Trivial Pursuit cards and started shouting out questions. They even have little boxes of tissues at each lift for the cold noses.
GO!!!!!! you will not regret it, nothing wrong with Europe at all... The Canadian's really know how to put a resort together.
Been all over Canada riding snowboards and I will be going back there once mini me can ride.
carbon footprint would swing it for me
carbon footprint would swing it for me
a fresh dump of snow will cover that over like it wasn't even there 😉
Went to Niseko in Japan for 10 days - unbelieveable. Waist deep fresh everyday. Never been to anywhere with so much snow. Not as expensive as you would expect either, but its a bit of a mission to get there - flight to tokyo, internal flight north then a bus trip. Its honestly like being on the planet Hoth from empire strikes back. The only problem is its pretty much ruined boarding in Europe for me now. Skidding about on ice, and getting excited about 2 inches of fresh snow just doesnt have quite the same appeal anymore! Whistler is pretty awesome as well - but so busy - we waited for over 40 mins in a lift line one year. Its always good to try new places so i would say if you have the chance - go for it!
To slightly temper the above; I've skiied Fernie, Park City and Whistler over the last few years, and whilst the pistes have been immaculate, the off piste has been poor due to no fresh snow. I'd say that North American resorts are all about the snow, so without good snow they are poor; you cant spend a week cruising the piste stopping at Cafes if conditions aren't ideal - you will soon get bored if you are a half competent skier.
Obviously if conditions are good it will be amazing, but then so will most resorts in Europe.
I guess I have just been unlucky (and conversely I seem to be very lucky in Europe).
As above though, lift queues are non existent, and pistes are deathly quiet.
Sorry if that all sounds a bit negative, and I would try it again, but it certainly ain't all like it is in the videos. Best bet, as with all skiing trips is book as late as you can and chase the conditions, be they Europe or America.
Now Japan does appeal, the snow there really looks amazing!
First and foremost I loved snowboarding in France. Then I went to Big White, followed by two trips to Whistler and a a trip to Steamboat Springs. I will now go over the pond everytime.
DO IT! in 2007 when it was about 1.96 dollar to pound we got a week to Winter Park, Colorado for £600 that was flights, transfer, room only accommodation at a great hotel with micro brewery and lift passes. whole holiday a week in end was £800. Phenomenal week we returned in 2008 & 2010. we were there the year they had the worst snow in 25yrs it was still way better than a good yr in Europe. we were also there during Presidents day which is their huge bank holiday and it was like a "normal" busy French lift queue. the Americans are polite in the lift line and don't stomp and scrape their skis over your board trashing it, they don't have that ignorant barge into the lift line attitude to get to the front to wait for their mate's as there is no way a Frenchie can get on a lift without his buddy. if you go to Colorado too you can go for a week as it is only a 9 hr flight into Denver then maybe 2 1/2 hr transfer you arrive around 1900 local time having had a 20 ish hr day get to bed 12 hours kip up ready to rock it's not like going to Lake Tahoe or Canada where you need at least 10days to make it worthwhile. if you want more info feel free to drop us a line. nowhere near as cheap as it has been also just remember lift passes are super expensive in US so you want to try to get them included as they can be as much as £250 for a week each.
I would go to Canada/US every time
in this order
Whitefish Montana
Blacktail Montana
Powder Mountain Utah
Fernie
Castle Mountain BC
Red Mountain BC
Revelstoke
Kicking Horse
Heavenly and other resorts around Tahoe
Sunshine - but only if I didn't have to stop in Banff, its an absolute shithole
Absolutely wont go again to
Lake Louise
Whistler
Park City
I'd seriously struggle to go to Europe again after years across the pond
Freshtrackworld......
Any suggestions for somewhere in April? Pretty solid red Skiier stuck with work commitments restricting my holidays until after mid March....
Any suggestions welcome.
Used to go to Banff with the Missus until we had kids and loved it. The town is fine, not particularly exciting but good for a few beers, decent meal and the odd moose. We always did well with the snow. Remember one day could only ski blacks as the snow was up to my neck (honest). Buses to mountains really well organised. Loved Sunshine and Lake Louise. Mt Norquay was fine. Went up to Kicking Horse too - still have the cool baseball cap, which has always been annoyingly just too small. Had a flat light day there so did not get the most out of it. People are a bit more polite than Europe,and running through the treeline is good.
Thought that I would never get snow like it in Europe, but last time we were in Verbier it absolutely chucked it down. Still had more great days in Canada than anywhere else.
Or Banff for that matter? - I've not been there skiing, but it's a great town.
Plumber, I think, is a former local. In my opinion Louise is a bit mixed as well to be honest.
The front side is always icy and crowded (by Canadian standards)
The backside has some nice stuff on it but it only opens later in the season as there is a lot of rocks on it. Also the very best stuff is accessible only by a tow from hell
The larch area is nice but doesn't have many glades
However the main reason is that the restaurant area is awful at weekends (impossible to get a seat; full of skier racer mums guarding seats while their offspring are on the slopes).
My list of preference goes like this...
Red Mountain
Castle Mountain
Panorama
Kicking Horse on a good day (but perhaps not now it's an RCR resort)
Sunshine
Revelstoke - February onwards though.
Lake Louise
Fernie (I've had bad experiences with Fernie which put me off RCR in general)
#edit# and yes I know complaining about restaurants when I should be skiing first lift to last lift is potentially lame but sometimes when it's -25C everyone needs to warm up...
Went to Mammoth years ago, only the length of flight stop us going back every year. It's.... AWESOME.
Definitely worth going.
This. Went skiing there about 10 years ago. Was great.
Oi you lot, stop recommending Fernie. I want it all to myself ;). Got two weeks there in feb.
I'd echo most of what has been said that resorts are smaller than Europe, the queues are much better organised, it's less crowded, and the après is a bit dull. You do need to go for two weeks though. I'll also be heading to Europe too so I should get the best of both worlds this winter.
not been in winter, but did Canmore - Calgary - Kamloops (stopover) - Vancouver - Lake Louise (stopover) - Calgary in summer 2009.
Canmore is nice, as is Banff; Lake Louise is good for a visit but we didn't think much of [s]Stalag[/s] Lake Louise Inn on the way back to the airport at Calgary.
Kamloops was hot (won't be in winter though!) and Vancouver was great - I'd happily go back. Heck I'd happily live there. But as it's at sea level right next to the sea, the climate is pretty much like Manchester.
The only problem with going to North America or Canada is that it'll spoil you. Europe will always be 2nd rate after that. I lived in Banff for a while & boarded at all the big resorts in Alberta. Wish I'd tried more of the BC resorts though, like Revelstoke & Fernie. The people are fantastic, the lift queues non existent & the powders amazing. Just got to put up with occasionally harsh temperatures (-35 degrees) & taking buses to the slopes each day.
Went to Colorado too & was completely blown away by it. A list pass at Breckenridge took us to Vail, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain & Beaver Creak. More waist deep powder than you can shake a stick at 🙂
Really want to go back there NOW... Anyone want to buy a kidney???, ....maybe a child or two????? Just wondering......
I agree with the 'it'll spoil you' comment - after Banff europe was never the same.
Banff / Lake Louise is amazing, massive wide long runs, lot of variety and easily accessible off piste powder without having to hike too far.
Oh and the best snow I have ever seen - super dry fluffy pow they call Champagne Powder. Glorious.
Got a deal for a few of us and worked out less than going to europe.
No brainer really.
Oh and Canadians are lovely people.
You won't regret it... this is all!
Oh and Canadians are lovely people
if you're a tourist
otherwise, not so much, f'sure hey
headpotdog you hit the nail on the head, Winter Park is awesome! may have to put in some cheeky extra leave to see if we could hit Breck in Feb 2013 what did you think of Breck? are yiu a boarder? we nearly went there in 2011 but decided to try Avoriaz instead, there was no snow on super morzine, only fake snow cannon on Let Pleney and monster muddy grass patches in Avoriaz, it sucked and that year Breck had their best ever year how gutted we were!!!!
Canada and the US are a great option if you [b]have[/b] to go at February half term. I've tried Banff, Tahoe and Jackson Hole - all excellent. If your gear is getting a bit tired it's a great opportunity to stock up (especially if the town has a monster sports store as opposed to a ski specialist)
Canada was especially awesome when it was $2CAD to the pound
Lift tickets are expensive though - it's one thing you can really save money on buying in advance from the UK before you go. (Google is your friend)
Group of us skied and boarded at Vail and Beaver Creek. The Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin at Vail are something else, miles and miles of powder. Expensive mind you, and got a frostbitten nose at minus 25.
The locals apologised on Martin Luther bank holiday because it was 'busy'. Queues were about 6 people deep and waits of oooh, 20 seconds.
The jetlag coming back was a killer, factor in 2 days to get back to normal.
Saying that, the Zillertal valley has been amazing in recent years, really top quality links and conditions. Great powder out at Konigsleiten if you've got a car out there.
I used to help run the snowboard champs for a large UK employer. These were held for several years at a time in resorts across Europe with a regular look at the rest of the world.
The only reason we didn't go to US/Canada was the cold. We took a high percentage of complete beginners every year, and the risk to them of the extreme cold was not worth it. For every other aspect, Europe came second. So - wrap up and go for it!
Jackson Hole was fantastic - great snow, nice people, not too busy even on "busy" days. Just make sure you're not the scumbag European that doesn't tip properly.
Do it! You won't regret it I'm sure!
But it's a long way to go for less than 2 weeks I reckon - especially if flying to the west coast. I definitely recommend BC, but whilst Lake Louise is stunningly beautiful, as others have said it is often icy and the snowfall isn't as high as other resorts.
Another advantage of staying longer is you have more chance of getting some 'Legendary Powder'
- Yes it can be properly chilly - take extra layers
- The locals are often incredibly polite - as others have said the lift line experience is totally different to Europe
- Mountain restaurants aren't as prolific (the mountains aren't as high as the European alps, weather is often 'locked in' with low visibility and the majority of resorts/run are below the tree line
- Riding in the trees is fantastic - you can still find 'freshies' in the trees days after a storm - and you can still ride in flat light
- Apres Ski isn't the same as Europe, but then that's not a problem for many people. Most resorts are situated some distance from the local towns & majority of accommodation which means that Apres Ski in the likes of BC tends to be a few beers & nachos when the last lift has closed ... there's no silly face painting and dancing around to Euro-Disco in your ski boots until the early hours! 😆
Alps are having somee epic powder now, 1.5 metres in 5 days
😀
Interesting as I was bigging up Winter Park, CO at the moment it's 70 degrees out there and Aspen need another 8 inches of natural snow before they can open for hte season!
Cupid stunt, where specifically? Went to AVoriaz last year and the snow was rubbish! Could've done more MTBing than boarding.
You're unlikely to want to ski in Europe again.
This can be a drawback if family/time/money means that you have to 🙂
Sainte Foy, Val d'Isere, Tignes (and, I'm assuming Les Arcs / La Plagne / La Rosiere) currently have stupid amounts of snow and it's still coming down hard. Went up for a quick slide this morning... 😈
I've had neck-deep powder in Europe and rocks & dirt in British Columbia, for snow conditions timing is everything no matter where you go.
Most of the French Alps had a near-record season last year though, I'm pretty surprised you had poor conditions in Avoriaz munque-chick - did you go later in the season? March was a bit sparse - but then April was epic again.
Munqe-chick,
In Verbier, snowed another 50cm since, and lots more forecast next week.
Nope we were away 23-30th Jan or something! super Morzine was green, Le Pleney had only fake snow and Avoriaz was just muddy patches between ice it properly sucked! This year going last week in Feb and waitnig last minute to book where the snow is.
Definately worth the trip...best for 11 days or more..Friendly people, orderly queues and massive space to play in...Have been to Banff,Lake Louise, Jasper and Kicking Horse....All have their own merits but some fantastic extreme play areas....Skidooing at Mammoth is also worth the day trip.....Avalanche receiver on and go play in the mountains by the old silver mine....Superb experience...jumps, steeps the lot...Now I wanna go back :-(((
plumber - MemberOh and Canadians are lovely people
if you're a tourist
otherwise, not so much, f'sure hey
Oh, I don't know. I'm pretty lovely. Eh.
munque-chick - thinking back, there was loads of snow last year, but it wasn't especially cold so very low-altitude areas such as Morzine/Avoriaz may have suffered. You were probably in the only place in France that DIDN'T have awesome snow.
We were running an off-piste week here that week and it was proper epic!
Where are you STevomcd?? what company recommend it for last week in Feb? keeping options open, open to ideas!!! Want to go wher snow is good hence possibly waiting until last minute this time!!!!!!!!!
Winter Park is absolutely superb, long flights (7 hours to Newark from Heathrow then 4 hours to Denver) but only an hour from Denver over the Berthoud Pass. They had 14" of snow over this weekend weekend, the year we went they had 330" of snow. 4000ft of altitude difference helps to make decent length runs, and you can link Mary Jane and Steamboat to get a huge ski area. Worth noting you might end up with some altitude sickness as the village is at 9000ft, I missed an afternoon of boarding but was fine after plenty of water and some more sleep.
Hey Munge-chick. Yup, I'm a boarder, but I used to go to the US & Canada with a skier mate. Really mixed up the groomed, mogul & powder runs with him.
The back bowls at Lake Louise, Vail & Keystone were particularly memorable as he was really fast in all conditions. Reckon I had more fun on the board though, although it was handy having him there to tow me out of the flat sections after Outer Siberia bowl 😉
We got a great last minute deal on the Colorado trip too. About £550 for 2 weeks!! Didn't know exactly where we were going to stay when we booked, bit ended up in a 4 star catered chalet in Breckenridge!! Sooo jammy 😀 . I'd love to do it again, but 2 kids makes it more than a little bit complicated & expensive.. 🙁
Munque-chick - I'm in Sainte Foy : www.whiteroomchalet.com
Not read all of this but do remember that some US resorts are much higher that European ones so the air is thinner, making it a bit tougher - especially for less fit people.
SAmbob you can fly directly to Denver from Heathrow in 9 hours which is perfect for a weeks skiing holiday!