[Jeanne wilson]

West Virginia has excellent skiing

[me4vt]

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

[La lamy]

Originally Posted by thelegges

There might be snow Christmas Day on the championship courses

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

[thevillagernie]

Originally Posted by Fastskiguy

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

join the ski club

[mkjelenbaas]

Originally Posted by Fastskiguy

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

Joe - that is quite a lot of info!!

[Ski Bum]

Originally Posted by Laker14

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.

It is!

[npwalters]

Originally Posted by mkjelenbaas

Are you kidding me - do you know GOOGLE - come on you can do it on your own!!

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.

[Wondering]

Originally Posted by Fastskiguy

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

Bunny hills in North Carolina mountains!

[nick demis]

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.

[Flyers999]

Mount Dora has some excellent black diamond trails.

😁

[lawgolfer]

Originally Posted by Fastskiguy

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

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.

[Wilson02852]

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.

[Fastskiguy]

Originally Posted by mkjelenbaas

Are you kidding me - do you know GOOGLE - come on you can do it on your own!!

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

[Fastskiguy]

Originally Posted by mkjelenbaas

Are you kidding me - do you know GOOGLE - come on you can do it on your own!!

Originally Posted by lawgolfer

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.

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

[charlieo1126@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by Fastskiguy

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

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?