Downhill skiing within driving distance....what's good?
 

My wife and I want to try taking a driving vacation for skiing this winter, something maybe 10-12 hours away? Has anybody done this? Where did you go and how did you like it? Thanks :)

Joe

The last place we went to was Boone, NC. It was fun but nothing compared to western US ski areas.

Did you get this info from that magic thing Google Search?😜

Last Friday my kids left us in Poinciana and drove to Steamboat Springs CO....only took them about 30 hours. Of course, they aren't planning on coming back anytime soon...

I hear the snow is great though.

There might be snow Christmas Day on the championship courses

I drove to Breckenridge this summer so I'm somewhat familiar with the drive. Getting there is a long slog, getting home is even worse! 30 hours is damn good time.

Joe

I've been eyeing the embankment on Southern Oaks that obscures the Okahumpka rest area. Even a dusting and I'd be there, 100%. Probably would use my rock skis though unless it was deep.

Joe

30 hours driving time. they stopped in Nashville and Denver.

Maybe I need to add a little more information....Most of my skiing life has been on a 400ft vertical hill in Wisconsin but I've raced in plenty of beer leagues on a 250 foot hill. Have skied quite a number of big and small resorts in the west and a few in the east. I'm pretty happy on virtually any terrain from easy greens to super gnarly double blacks. Bluebird or blizzard. 50 degrees or 20 below. All is fine for me.

The thing is I'm looking for a place that works for my wife, she's a bit more particular. She needs fall-line greens and easy blues served by a detachable quad. (none of these "oh so common" "crowded, twisty, narrow catwalk all the way down" type "green" runs...hey, it's a trigger issue for me!) She *can* manage a fixed grip lift but fall-line greens are a must. Runs *****cannot***** be populated by large numbers of lunatics! Skiing with her at some places is super difficult (for example, Sun Valley, Snowbird, Jackson Hole, etc. Not because of the lunatics, more because of terrain and run layout) We really enjoyed Deer Mountain because she could "ski the whole mountain" and not just one little section....although it probably isn't an issue in North Carolina (a few runs and you've done them all it seems) ((and that's OK, I'm not complaining))

Sugar Mountain has a pretty darn respectable vertical but it looks like most of the runs funnel into a valley. Those places don't work for us as she's not a super fast skier and gets quickly overtaken by "young boys on snowboards" (or similar) which...on occasion...hasn't worked out very well. Of the resorts in the link above, Cataloochee looks the best on paper, it seems like there is quite a bit of room at the bottom with people bee lining it to the lift going skiers right leaving the left side safe. Has anybody skied there?

Joe

Dam Joe, wish I knew ya when my knees were still good. Would have loved to rip some double diamonds with ya at Jackson Hole, Snowbird/Alta, or Telluride. I still wake up in the middle of the night dreaming about the times Helicopter skiing in Utah and jumping into Corbett’s Coulier at Jackson Hole or Tuckerman Ravine on Mt. Washington.

With this cold weather that familiar feeling is really hitting hard this year. We've been here almost 3 years now but for some reason it's more intense this year.

I've haven't made it to Tuckerman Ravine yet but I did make a feeble jump into corbett's in the era of 205cm slalom skis and survived. Went heli skiing once in BC. That was kinda funny, right when the first shorter wide powder skis came out. The guides were like "you really want to use the Chubbs vs. your GS skis" and I was like "they're only 180cm long, how can they possibly work at all??" but they really, really did and, like your heli days I'm sure, it turned out to be a day I'll never forget.

Joe

Still, it's a hell of a drive and even splitting it into 3 (?) days, it's still a hell of a drive.

Maybe the way to do it would be to make a big arc...start towards NC, then north to West Virginia then on to Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas (is there skiing there??), and into Wyoming or Montana. You could try to ski every day or so along the way. It'd probably take weeks but it'd be super fun.

I know what you're gonna say "...Or just fly" LOL. Can't argue, just wanna drive this time :)

Joe

:rolleyes: Oh! You've heard of it? Not too many have.

Forgot to add: You're very welcome Fastskiguy ...... glad I took the time to answer you. Lol

LOL, most of my adventures were using Atomic or Rossignol 205cm slalom boards, which were a major upgrade from my first set of equipment, wooden Hart skies with screw in edges, safety straps, and lace up ski boots. During my younger years, got a new set of boards on sale at the end of each ski season for next years powder days and proceeded to totally destroy last years skies as my rock boards in the early/late season. Only got to use the new modern technology for the last few years of the ski career before the knees went totally bad. Unfortunately, had to cross off Heli skiing in the B.C. Bugaboos from the bucket list and replace it with some scuba diving adventures.

West Virginia has excellent skiing

Beech Mtn in Banner Elk NC.
Snowshoe WV
Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley NC

Yes, I wish I'd brought my cross country skis! :p

join the ski club

Joe - that is quite a lot of info!!

It is!

Come on folks. We all know we can Google a subject. The OP was asking for personal experiences. Kinda what this site is all about.

Bunny hills in North Carolina mountains!

A 3 hr flight to New England or a 4 hr flight to the Rockies. than you can have some good skiing and not settle.

Mount Dora has some excellent black diamond trails.

😁

Perfect Resort For Wife, But Not Nearby
 

Our wives might have been separated at birth as far as what they want in a ski resort. I struggled for 40 years to find the resort you are seeking. I finally found Crested Butte, Colorado. The Red Lady Express chair from the base takes you 1/2 way up the mountain. There are 5 separate long Green runs back to the base. All are wide and have varying terrain to make it interesting. My wife could ski all and I could "bomb" them from top to bottom. They were the perfect runs for us. In addition, you can divert to a second chair which has several shorter Green runs the wife will enjoy. If she has any sense of adventure, a slightly different run, Paradise, leads from Red Lady to the day lodge. It is marked Blue; however, my wife who NEVER skied hard runs, could easily handle it. From the day lodge another express chair takes you back to the top of Red Lady from where you ski to the base. When you want to go on your own, there is a second express, Silver Queen, from the base which takes you to the top of the mountain where you can have all the blues and blacks you want.

There are three hotels at the base. The furthest from the express lifts is a 5 minute walk. The shortest walk is the Elevation, which is 55 steps from the lifts. Their prices are half or less than what you pay at other Colorado resorts. The town of Crested Butte is a 10 minute drive and a free shuttle bus runs every 1/2 hour. The town advertises itself as the "last genuine ski town", with most of the building dating to the gold mining days. Many "lean"from old age. The bars date to the 1800's. For every Bogner ski suit, you'll see 100 pairs of jeans. This is not Vail, Telluride, or Aspen. Although Vail did buy the resort two years ago, they have yet to ruin it. Lift tickets are still cheap.

I discovered Crested Butte by accident 14 years ago. In addition to my wife, I've introduced many others to the place. Not one has been disappointed. I know this isn't an answer to the question; however, it is good advice.

Cheek Pucker
 

Tucks will pucker the cheeks of many skiers. If the hike up doesn't wear you dropping off headwall and heading down on mostly ice will just plan squeeze those cheeks. Yeah, the rock runout at bottom is also interesting.

There are stats online but the nuance is missing. Kinda looking for "we have driven to XXX several times and skied XXX, it's really good" Or "tried driving to ski from TV, just not worth it" Or something similar.

I'm not entirely sure if anybody has actually even tried this....still looking for first hand experience.

Joe

That sounds like just the kind of place we're looking for, we'll try to get there. Our current favorite is Buttermilk but Aspen has a drawback or two. Well, I guess just one drawback ($$$$). We'll totally give this a shot, thanks!

Joe

are you sure that your post is more about not knowing how to goggle these destinations or is it about impressing us with your skiing acumen?

Anyone else catching the irony in this post?

Are you the Bogie-mans brother?

Honestly and genuinely asking if anybody has skied at any place within 10-ish hours from TV and can share some 1st hand observations.

And of course if somebody mentions heli skiing or some exotic (or non-exotic!) ski adventure I'm gonna comment. I'm sure you understand being fired up and and enthusiastic. Here's a picture from a rainy day in 2019. Great snow and the place was totally empty. Even got to bust out the ski-gee that day, awesome!!!

Joe

Tucks is definitely not for the faint of heart. Got well over 100 runs under the belt there. We used to make it an annual spring tradition. Hike up to the base camps late at night, camp out for a three day weekend and do three or four runs per day. Basically lived on peanut butter and jelly, water, and vodka. Experienced every imaginable condition, from glare ice, corn snow, rock skiing, and deep powder. Nothing like a powder day, skiing from the parking lot on the top of Mt. Washington through almost a mile and half of snow fields then dropping off the head wall. Watched a couple unfortunate skiers get airlifted out of there and always tried to stay well clear of the crevasses. One of my best friends named his two sons Tucker and Hunter, after two of the ravines. Ski on : )

Snowshoe WV ~ 14 hours drive from the villages

Hmmm ... Ten to twelve hours. Have you considered a 3-D headset?

On the other hand, you can probably find something with "Good" conditions 10-12 hours away as long as you keep in mind the definitions of decreasing slope quality; Excellent Winter, Good Winter, Poor Winter, Excellent Spring and GOOD spring.

Yes! But it induced instant motion sickness and I just couldn't handle it. Unfortunately!

WOW you are a brave soul! I've skied all over NH and hiked up to the lunch rocks at Tuckerman's not in a million years would I ski Tucks, I wasn't a bad skier but that was beyond my ability.

Used to love it when an entrepreneurial day hiker would lug a couple cases of Budweiser up to the lunch rocks and sell singles for $3 each (a case cost about $10 back then). When your camping up there for three days and you had to lug a winter sleeping bag, food, a water filter, a couple bottles of hard liquor, a couple changes of clothes, skies, poles, and ski boots up Mt. Washington, beer was priceless. We would buy every beer they carried up there, for whatever they wanted for them ($20 bills were light). We quickly learned you had to sleep with the beers inside your sleeping bag or they would freeze and the cans would explode. Fast forward 40 years and now we float around in our heated pool in Florida and drink frozen Margaritas during the winter. How times change when you get old.