The Biggest Expert Ski Areas in N America

[Sibhusky]

I liked it when I was there in the late 90's. We stayed in a nice Victorian B&B within walking distance of the restaurants and the lifts. Skied Park City, the Canyons, and Deer Valley. To me Park City was the best, but it could have been a timing thing as the Canyons had started closing and although we had several feet of snow over the course of the week, they had a significant amount of terrain closed.

 

[raisingarizona]

I love Park City and never got all of the complaints, I think the terrain there is very underrated. The main problem with the resort is that it's so spread out which makes it hard to ski all the best parts in one day. You really need to focus on Park City one day then the Canyons on another day.

Not being able to ski a whole area in a day is a bad thing for some people? That’s such a weird complaint to me. A total head scratcher.

 

[JoeSchmoe]

Not being able to ski a whole area in a day is a bad thing for some people? That’s such a weird complaint to me. A total head scratcher.

I think they probably meant it's harder to sample a little of the whole area in one day because it's so spread out and takes so long to get from one advanced/expert pod to the next. Other areas have that amount of expert terrain without so much blue terrain in between.

 

[Bad Bob]

I like skiing PC and The Canyons, Deer Valley not so much, too many people running into me from behind; did like skiing off the gondola on the east end, nobody was skiing it. There is some very good terrain at all of them once you find it.

 

[raisingarizona]

I think they probably meant it's harder to sample a little of the whole area in one day because it's so spread out and takes so long to get from one advanced/expert pod to the next. Other areas have that amount of expert terrain without so much blue terrain in between.

Ya gotta change your perception of how to ski an area like that then I guess.

im more of , find something ya like and session it doing hot laps sort of guy.

 

[JoeSchmoe]

Ya gotta change your perception of how to ski an area like that then I guess.

im more of , find something ya like and session it doing hot laps sort of guy.

True... It's the old bird in the hand / grass is greener thing by checking out other spots.

Personally, I find it fun to explore a lot of the mountain if I can on the first day. As I get the flavour of where everything is, I tend to focus more on certain areas.

Some mountains are fun pretty much no matter where you go... Some you have to know where to go and where to avoid.

 

[4ster]

I have not skied Park city a ton but it seems like there is plenty of terrain and lifts that you could always find something away from the crowds. The last time I skied there was during a melt freeze cycle on a day that it didn’t really want to soften. I had a friend who works there guiding me and after a couple of runs we decided we would just do the real estate tour and ride as many lifts as we could. We ended up riding almost 30 different lifts, some of them twice. I think we were able to ski most of the mountain in a day.

 

[RJS]

I love the feeling of exploring a mountain and discovering new terrain pods, lifts, and trails. PCMR has this in spades, and while you can certainly spend a single day going from the Town Lift all the way to Super Condor and back to see the entire mountain, it truly takes multiple days to appreciate the place.

The biggest strike against PCMR and DV are their proximity to the Cottonwoods, which have more snow and better terrain. PCMR and DV probably have snowfall and expert terrain that is comparable to most ski areas in Colorado, but like almost everywhere else in the country they don't quite stack up against the Cottonwoods. In the past, PCMR was considered the most crowded of the ski areas around SLC, but today on a weekend or powder day I can't imagine the lines are much longer (and perhaps they are shorter in certain terrain pods) at PCMR than Snowbird or Solitude.