short-cut to: family skiing in New England, Pennsylvania, New York State, Colorado, Canada.
"The Greatest Snow on Earth" - that's the slogan in Utah: Utah's Wasatch Range is part of the Rockies, and we're talking "champagne powder" -- very smooth, light, dry.
But that's not all Utah's got going for it. Salt Lake City is a major hub for airlines, and pretty much any city in the US has a direct flight of just a few hours to SLC. Once there, seven different mountains are right by Salt Lake City, and two more are under an hour from the airport. This all adds up to: getting on the slopes FAST.
From your house, to sliding on the Greatest Snow on Earth, in a matter of hours: Sweet. Especially for family skiers, with impatient kids.
And sweeter: the three Park City ski resorts (Deer Valley, The Canyons, and Park City Mountain Resort) offer Quick START Vacation: ski free on the day you arrive in Utah; convert your boarding pass into a lift ticket.
Park City, by the way, was home to the 2002 Olympics. Which means there's a cool Olympic Park to check out.
- read about Utah Ski Resorts near Salt Lake City. You won't believe it, until you've seen it: SLC is flat (there's a big salt lake, right?) yet within an hour's drive are no less than seven very different ski resorts. Variety! Alta Ski Resort and Deer Valley are skiers-only, by the way.
- Also within an hour of the SLC airport are the Snowbasin and Powder Mountain ski resorts: very different, and both awesome.
One point to note, and similar to Colorado: with base elevation at, say, 8530' for Alta ski resort, some people may have altitude symptoms such as headache; usually symptoms are mild and go away in a few days.
--Continue to Family Skiing in Canada
