short-cuts: New England, PA, NY State, CO, UT.
It's not called the Great White North for nothing. The giant country of Canada has some great skiing ops.
Eastern Canada
Mont Tremblant is a well-known ski resort in Quebec, about 1-1/2 hours from Montreal, with a respectable vertical drop of 2116', and a village with shops and lodgings that include a Fairmont hotel with ski valet. (Don't worry, you'll have no trouble speaking English even though Quebec is French-speaking.)
Canadian Rockies
For much bigger mountains, skip west a few thousand miles to Banff /Lake Louise, about 90 minutes from Calgary. Sunshine Village has three mountains, 3358 acres skiable terrain, vertical of 3574'. Lake Louise has 4200 skiable acres, major off-piste, and 3250' vertical. Smaller ski resort Norquay bills itself as "Banff's best family ski resort"; vertical drop is 1650 feet.
British Columbia
Whistler-Blackcomb -- about 1-1/2 hours from Vancouver -- is often ranked as the top ski resort in the world, with a winning combo of terrain, village, and apres-ski. Mountain stats are huge: over 8000 acres, nearly a mile of vertical drop; and ski season lasts into June. Families will find kids programs, on-mountain Kids Adventure Zones, terrain garden, "Ride Tribe" for teens. Dog-friendly, too!
Okanagan BC
Why, then, why do so many Vancouver snowhounds head out of town in another direction? They're driving farther, to a completely different climate zone with "champagne powder", and four family-friendly ski resorts, each smaller compared to Whistler but of a size that would be enviable elsewhere. Sun Peaks, for example, has 3,678 skiable acres on 3 mountains, and a vertical drop of 2891 feet; read about Sun Peaks Ski Resort, near Kamloops BC.
See more details about these Ski Resorts in Canada.
*photo © Teresa Plowright
