Our Favorite Places for Skiing

This post is primarily about our favorite places to ski. If you want to see more about the best and most romantic places to ski, please see our Best Places for Couples to Ski post.

Cos and Robin grew up skiing in the northeast. Robin learned to ski in Maine and New Hampshire. Cos learned in the Catskills in New York, but preferred to ski more often in Vermont whenever he could. None of those places had very good snow. In fact, when they did get some good snow, it was usually wet and heavy or sheer ice with freezing temps. Cos still has problems with his right knee. It came from a partial tear in his ACL that happened over thirty years ago. It was the first time they had a decent dump at the mountain. He is feeling it may be time to finally get the knee fixed, or just stop skiing.

Both Cos and Robin experienced skiing once in their lives in the Alps. That was fun, but Europeans, Germans in particular, have no idea of what a queue is. As a result, you get stepped on and your skis get scraped. Where are the English skiers, who we thought understood queues, when you need them?

Our Favorite Place for Skiing – Park City

So, we have settled on skiing back in the USA in the West. Our favorite place is Park City for a number of reasons:

• First, the snow is light and the people who run the mountain know what they are doing.
• We are no longer able to ski at the expert level, (perhaps we never were), so we enjoy big open medium level terrain.
• Park City is fun. We usually book during the Sundance film festival, which means most people staying in the hotels are at the movies and not on the slopes.
• Park City is part of the EPIC ski program which includes Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckinridge, Telluride, Whistler and a lot of other great ski destinations.
• We own a 4-bedroom ski on/ski off timeshare unit during the Platinum period at the Canyons, enabling us to have family and friends join us. (Stay in touch, we will likely rent it once our legs no longer allow us to ski).
• The base at Park City is lower than many other mountains, which means less chance of high-altitude sickness.
• We found a service that will hold our skis and clothing, allowing us to travel with a lot less luggage. We have included a skiing packing list to remind you of the good to have/nice to have items. Some ski resorts are dressier than others. Take a look at some Pinterest pins where you plan to go for some ideas.
• Check out other fun things to do in Utah and also some great restaurants In Park City.

Ski Reservations:

There are a number of ways to make ski reservations. First is to get a good place to stay. In Park City we recommend trying VBRO.

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Lift Tickets and Skiing Reservations

These days you need reservations to ski. If you are only going to ski for a few days, then you should buy tickets at Park City Mountain Resort. If you are planning on skiing for a longer period of time, we recommend looking into the Epic Pass. This is a season-type pass that allows you to ski at almost any ski Resort that is owned by Vail Resorts.

Our Favorite Other Places We Like for Skiing

We are not just limited to skiing at Park City. Because we have the EPIC ski pass, we can ski in many of the Colorado locations (Vail, Beaver Creek and Breckinridge in particular), as well as Whistler and many other locations. Cos has skied Vail and Breckinridge and loves them both. The only issue with Breck is the height, you are up at 9000 feet. Both Cos and Robin are considering another trip up to Canada and to try Whistler. Oh, Canada! Here are some quick photos from Cos’s last trip to Breck. They get plenty of snow there; and at his and Robin’s last trip to Vail, they know how to celebrate Christmas there.

Our Favorite Things to Pack for Skiing

Packing for skiing can be a challenge, especially if you are planning to bring your skiing equipment. In addition, for those of us living in a warm weather climate, gathering and packing all that cold-weather clothing can also be a challenge. We have developed a skiing packing checklist that should help you with the packing challenge. Just click on the button below and download the checklist.