Rate a ski/snowboard resort.

[The pet beaver on bass]

ok, so the word snowboarding had no matches in the search, and I'm gettin' anxious to start getting some new gear. so I'm my humble opinion it's a good time to review the places to check out next year.

so in this thread you can discuss or rate a hill you've been to (even local), or one someone else has mentioned. or just discuss general snowboarding. (or skiing if you wish)

ok I'll start us off with a couple.



firstly: WHISTLER, BC CANADA

obviously North americas most hyped up resort, so much so in fact many people often say it doesn't live up to the hype. Well I went last during a bad season and I would have to say, beyond a shadow of a doubt it does. all the titles and shows and recognition it gets, are undenyably deserved. It's conviniently situated at around an hour and a half's drive from the metropolitan city of Vancouver, with the charming little town of Squamish as a half way rest stop.

This hill has nearly everything a rider could ask for, from impecable high altitude gladed skiing, Perfect powder bowls, remote long nearly deserted trails and some immense record holding park (plus many other regular sized parks). Personally I highly recommend the black comb glacier (entrance by either the horstman T-bar or for a more advanced rider, spanky's ladder which is a set of 4 or 5 double diamond bowls and chutes). the glacier is a large open bowl funneling into a serene 10K (or so) forest trail.

The downsides: Avoid holidays, even the march break isn't bad for crowds as long as you avoid it's weekends. on holidays there can be annoyingly long lift lines, at least at popular lifts. on these days my personaly advice, would be to simply avoid going all the way down, just hang out in the upper altitudes/park lift and your golden, thats where the best riding is anyways :thumb:. also at the gate, passes are a bit pricey. this can be avoided by a) buying your tickets in Squamish, or b) through a 3rd party internet site. also hotels are ridiculous in the main villiage, if you stick to whistle creeside villiage however you can get a room with a gondola outside you door for about half price.
also you can get in lost of trouble for going out of bouds, but I wouldnt try doing that anyways, you really shouldnt need to, and if you do, your screwed.

in short whistler/blackcomb is all it lives up to be, but it costs accordingly, but a little research and extra work can make your trip more than affordable.

official site: http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/index.htm (http://whistlerblackcomb.com)

[The pet beaver on bass]

TROIS (3) VALLEES, SAVOI FRANCE

WOW. the only word that can possibly describe this place is WOW. I spent 6 days here on the past march break, and at the busyiest you will wait in line no more than 3 minutes for a chairlift. and rightly so, between 3 vallees (meribel, val thorens and courchevelle) and at least 10 small villiages scattered between, this place is serviced by a stunning 200 lifts ( mostly chair with some poma lifts at higher altitudes). it has 600K of GROOMED trailes, and since at least 50-60% of the terrain is above the treeline you can imagine the off piste possibilities.in 6 days, I didn't scratch the serface of this place, each valle has at least 3 parks for those of you interested, but if you make a trip here, I'd suggest not getting hung up in a park, find a backcountry kicker instead.

One of the things I most enjoyed were these fields of boulders that you find up high, like massive 15 foot boulders, you can spend half an hour going through one of them, and the shade provided by the rocks keeps the snow inbetween perfect. untouched powder surrounds you and each rock is a veritable big air, with a pool of powder to catch you on landing. but avoid powder bowls, they look promising and theyre alot of fun to ride down, but hiking back out sucks, if you go you'll learn this fast.

since the place is in the alps it's often overshadowed by chamonix which is a little ways north, so the crowds are stunningly thin, and this mean ticket prices are affordable. my friends and I also enjoyed a 16 year old drinking age :chug:. if your travelling here you'll want to bring lots of food from home as westerm food is rather pricey. but from the local depanneur or grocery store you can get all you food for a price not unlike home, I spent no more than around 300$ canadian total during the trip which also included 3 days in paris.

Downsides: firstly, deciding what to do, the possibilities for each day are endless. also the language barrier could get in the way but it's not difficult to find an english speaking worker, and a basic knowledge of french goes a long way. I speak it so I had no trouble. also don't be fooled thinking something is cheap by the price tag, the euro is worth much more than canadian or american dollars. but this isn't too much of a problem. also if you go with a company, the trip itself (hotel/lift tickets/busses/airfair) will be pricey. but our hotel was a humble abode and if you and some buddies organised your trip yourself, avoided paris, you could probably do the whole trip for around 1000-1500. (airfare kills ya). also, if you do the sensible thing and stay in the villiage of Brides-les-bains (much much cheaper for everything), then you have a 20 minute gondola ride up the mountain to get to the central base, and only at a few times of the year is there enough snow to ride all the back to your hotel. that means the skiable snow doesnt start till about 800-1000 meters. but when the place goes up to 3200 that isnt a problem either. as I said our hotel was humble don't expect much out of a bride-les-bains economy hotel, youll have a mini kitchen and a bathroom (although you may need a new light from the desk for it) but remember, your only sleeping there, youll be riding the day, and clubbing or hitting the small town bars till the wee hours of the morning. also I didn't enjoy snowboarding in temperatures in excess of 10 degrees celsius (we got as high as 20) but riding in a t-shirt is an expirience. also the high altitudes provide reliefe and you can get back below 0 in a matter of minutes.

all-in-all the worlds largest resort is surreal. you can't even begin to imagine it. crossing into Italy as well, whenever you think youve reached the end of the line, one more chairlift takes you a step further. you could spend a year here and not ride everything, but the glaciers and bowls(in different context than the ones you get stuck in) are phenominal. also the locals are fantastic :thumb:

official website: http://www.les3vallees.com/uk/index.php (http://www.les3vallees.com)

[ragingrob]

Wow......lol, well I live in New Zealand and I snowboard and I just got a new Reaction board and Burton boots, but the snows still pretty ****e, can't wait until it snows more and then decides to be sunny. I stay at a little lodge up the mountain and I know evryone there because it's just a little private lodge kinda thing. Maximum 36 people at the same time. Haha I went three weeks ago and played strip poker with one other guy and four chicks!! It was awesome. Go snowboarding lol!! I really need to start to learn how to ride fakie perfectly so I can land 180's and keep going, can you ride both ways?

[The pet beaver on bass]

Wow......lol, well I live in New Zealand and I snowboard and I just got a new Reaction board and Burton boots, but the snows still pretty ****e, can't wait until it snows more and then decides to be sunny. I stay at a little lodge up the mountain and I know evryone there because it's just a little private lodge kinda thing. Maximum 36 people at the same time. Haha I went three weeks ago and played strip poker with one other guy and four chicks!! It was awesome. Go snowboarding lol!! I really need to start to learn how to ride fakie perfectly so I can land 180's and keep going, can you ride both ways?

I started out riding goofy and now ride regular so I'm decent at riding fakie, it does me for landing, although I really need to wor on my spins. I've gotten a 540 once but short of that I usually am lucky to land a 3.
As of late I've been focusing more on the back country riding as opposed to park, and the rock fields for example are basically just a natural park with no other riders and a whole lot more poweder.

that lodge sounds really nice, on that trip to france 21 of us from my school went with 2 chaperones, but since the chaperones were drunk up in thier room all night they basically wern't there.

I've always wanted to check out New Zealand,whats the terrain like? I've heard only good things about the resorts and after France I've opened up to a whole new level of riding outside north america. I also wanted to go to the andes some day.

[The pet beaver on bass]

well so much for my attempt at a worthwhile thread.

[ragingrob]

Well the snow it useless in the North Island but the South Island is OK, umm we have about 2 metres of snow right now on Mt Ruapehu in the North Island. Mt Ruapehu is an active volcano by the way, it is only made up of rocks and boulders, no flat areas, but the snow fills in the gaps. We have a 200 metre vertical drop lol.

[The pet beaver on bass]

well this thread failed a while ago but im gonna revive it now since snoboard season is starting again :D whistler opened today...but i didn't go

[GN'Randallthat]

I know how you feel about failed threads. Noone replies about skateboarding in the sports section. But i'll revive this a little later because I'm going to a snowboarding resort in a couple days and I'll rate it on here. :)

[GN'Randallthat]

Like I said I'm going to revive this thread. I just went snowboarding so I'm gonna' rate a resort.

Mountain high WRIGHTWOOD, CA


Well, this is a pretty small place but i loved it. There are three resorts! The West resort has about 5 beginner slopes which i enjoyed. 7 Intermediate slopes which you speed down it's amazing. About 8 advanced slopes which look terrifying but fun. And 1 experts only slope which I didn't get a good look at. People are really cool and helpful there. Especially the asian people who come there. There's plenty of rental shops in the town. And there is a rental shop up on the slopes. There are lockers at the west. There is also classes on site which you can sign up for. There are lots of things to to tricks on. There is one mini park and one park at the top called Vans faultline terrain park. The East resort has 4 very small beginner slopes, a few intermediates, about 5 advanced, and one enormous experts only. The east resort really isn't that great. I'd suggest west. The north resort has about 2 beginner slopes, one lift, and about 4 intermediates. And there is an are that's under construction that might open 06/07. Overall rating: 4/5

[The pet beaver on bass]

Like I said I'm going to revive this thread. I just went snowboarding so I'm gonna' rate a resort.

Mountain high WRIGHTWOOD, CA


Well, this is a pretty small place but i loved it. There are three resorts! The West resort has about 5 beginner slopes which i enjoyed. 7 Intermediate slopes which you speed down it's amazing. About 8 advanced slopes which look terrifying but fun. And 1 experts only slope which I didn't get a good look at. People are really cool and helpful there. Especially the asian people who come there. There's plenty of rental shops in the town. And there is a rental shop up on the slopes. There are lockers at the west. There is also classes on site which you can sign up for. There are lots of things to to tricks on. There is one mini park and one park at the top called Vans faultline terrain park. The East resort has 4 very small beginner slopes, a few intermediates, about 5 advanced, and one enormous experts only. The east resort really isn't that great. I'd suggest west. The north resort has about 2 beginner slopes, one lift, and about 4 intermediates. And there is an are that's under construction that might open 06/07. Overall rating: 4/5

in ontario i used to ride those quiant little resorts almost exclusively, although im sure its much bigger but i know the feeling, sounds great. probably a great villiage too.

man...living in Vancouver rules im not gonna lie :D

[GN'Randallthat]

I'm posting yet another resort.

BIG BEAR, CA

Wow. Fun. Fun. Fun. I ****ing love this place. This is the place to learn and become a snowboarder. They have an incredible terrain park and 31 slopes. I loved it. There's mainly intermediate slopes and a decent amount of double black. Only a few beginner slopes. And the whole place is just incredibly boarder-friendly. The slopes are so ridable and fun at the same time. And you just don't wanna' leave the slopes. It's incredible there. But that might be to me because I've only been to a few places.

Overall rating: 5/5

[NastyNate]

A very underrated place in my opinion is Homewood on the CA side of Lake Tahoe.

It's a small area that usually has a decent amount of powder and is never crowded so you can get runs basically to yourself. The food there is actually pretty decent, but expensive like most places. For it being a small area, there are actually a fair amount of expert runs with mouguls that go on for quite a while. There are also back areas to huge powder runs that are always fun. They don't have much for the way of jumps, but I've never really been into jumps anyway, they do have a small park, however. The people there are nice and on half of the runs it looks like you're going to ski/ride right into the lake. I also like going on this back-trail run with a lot of speed to end up going up another run then wave at people going down it, that's always fun.