The West:
1. Mt Spokane, WA. This is where I learned to ski and I've probably skied more times there, than all the other times I've skied in the west, not counting Sun Valley.
2. Sun Valley, ID. I lived there for two ski seasons and the summer between those two seasons. I skied more there than all the other places I've skied at, combined.
3. 49 Degrees North, WA. When we didn't go to Mt. Spokane, we usually went to this place. Early on, the main drawback was that the primary chairlift covered a very long bunny hill before starting to really climb. Eventually, they added a more direct lift and another one on the next ridge over. Big improvements.
4. Schweitzer Basin, ID. The other alternative to Mt Spokane for family day-trips to the slopes.
5. Red Mountain, BC. My brother and I went up to Canada one weekend when I was on winter break from college. We skied at this place twice.
6. Whitewater, BC. On the same trip, we went here once. It was much smaller than Red Mountain, I think it had only one chairlift, but it was a good one. You got on and it was all steep uphill for the whole ride. I had more fun there than at Red Mountain.
7. Brundage Mountain, ID. I think I did two trips down to McCall while I was in college. Really great skiing! It may have been one trip with two ski days--I winter camped at a local hot spring.
8. North-South Ski Bowl, ID. I skied there a couple of times while a student at WSU. It was a tiny bowl with 400 feet of vertical. The only redeeming factor was that it had night skiing, so you could go after classes. If it was a weekend, much better to just drive up to one of the three places around Spokane. There was a place down in the Blue Mountains, now called Bluewood, which I never went to, but would be about the same distance as going to Mt. Spokane if starting from Pullman.
9. Timberline, Mt Hood OR.
The East:
1. Smuggler's Notch, VT. I took the recommendation of a lab mate, which in hindsight was kind of stupid of me, as she was wrong about every thing else. The trails were generally narrow and the slopes were very uneven, so I felt like I spent the day on cat tracks.
2. Sugarbush, VT. This place reminded me of Mt. Spokane. Lots of good skiing, nice layout, not too far to drive--this is when I lived in Burlington Vermont.
3. Jay Peak, VT. My favorite of the three I skied at in Vermont. Lots of open glade skiing, lots of vertical.
4. Nashoba Valley, MA. This is where the kids and my wife learned to ski. It is maybe 15 minutes away. Not much of a hill, maybe 300 vertical feet but perfect for learning to ski and I had fun skiing there while teaching my wife to ski and while the kids took professional lessons.
5. Crotched Mountain, NH. Took Dahlia there yesterday. A bit more than an hour's drive from Chelmsford for a decent skiing experience. Only 1000 vertical, but they have a detachable quad and nice wide ski runs which are well groomed, so you can put in a lot of skiing in a day.
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