jsfBoat

I haven't been skiing in a while and would like to go this season. Any slopes out there that are easy to get to, perhaps without renting a car, regional F/o budget friendly, and good powder? I grew up in Colorado and went to went to Winter Park and A-Basin a lot, but seeing what others recommend.

rickair7777

Non-rev into SLC, and take a city bus up to Snowbird, Solitude, Alta, or Brighton (Alta is skis only). At Solitude you can buy runs ten at a time, so if you don't use them all you can come back later. Non-rev home the same day, long day but I've done it, you can be on the slopes by 1100. Works better on weekdays obviously.

Also Park City and the Canyons used to let you ski free on the same day you fly in, you just had to show your boarding pass (nonrev passes always worked). The city buses don't go there, but you could rent a car or I'm sure there's a shuttle.

JamesNoBrakes

Wolf Creek is the champion of early-season and powder dumps in Colorado. It gets more snow, and it gets it more often, so you end up with many more powder opportunities. On the negative side, it's kind of small without a lot of vertical, but it's often running full-swing while other's are struggling. Pagosa springs is a nice laid back mountain town without most of the positives of such a town and few of the negatives of the high-end places like Tahoe and such. This means relatively cheap lodging available, I know there are shuttles that run from town to the resort. The tickets aren't too expensive. It's kind of a neat place to go skiing/snowboarding though due to being somewhat isolated from the rest of Colorado and the much more consistent conditions.

I've skied a lot of places, it's hard to sometimes get the "value" thing with decent lodging, not outrageous lift tickets, reasonable places to get a meal, the resort being relatively close-by, and so on. There are lots of other places I'd rather ski in other situations, but Wolf Creek is pretty fun.

Dry "desert powder" is the best. Utah and AZ (Flagstaff) have some amazingly light fluff when it dumps. Before I'd experienced it, I thought it was all hype, but it really is what it claims to be, especially compared to the slop in the pacific. As much as those guys don't want to admit it, powder dumps there just aren't the same. Colorado isn't far behind in this way, so it's a good backup to the more desert areas.

I did mammoth a few years back and got totally skunked out by the conditions. It was horrible.

Now I have a mom-and-pop ski hill w/lifts 2 miles from my house! A pretty large resort is about 45 min south. I'm excited because I'll be able to get some runs in this winter without spending an arm and a leg doing so.

porqueno

Fly into Reno stay at a casino downtown for dirt cheap on a weekday. They run free shuttle busses up to lake tahoe.

CassinAK

If you bring your ID you can get an airline discount at Northstar!! I think it was around 20 dollars off...

WalkOfShame

There's always ski colorado express (skicoloradoexpress.com). NOt sure about prices but you should be able to get to any of the major ski areas in CO. And as a previous post said, wolf creek is where it's at, especially early in the season. Got my season pass last week and plan on heading up the mountain early next week. Hopefully Copper will be some snow this weekend.

BabeGTR

Near RNO, Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows (merged) offers free lift tickets good after 1pm with a same day boarding pass. Squaw also has night skiing.

mmaviator

a lot of resorts out west have a ski shuttle. I used one to get to big sky/moonlight basin for 5 bucks round trip. Also, I can't remember which one gives an airline discount.....just be nice and ask if they offer it.