As close as you can afford.
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How far away from a ski resort would you be willing to live?
- Thread starter Shawn
- Start date
..and you can afford to still ski.
One way times...
For me, 2 hours is a comfortable day trip. 3 hours or more makes for a tough day trip, but still doable with enough motivation. Much more than 3 and....I'm pretty tired.
3-5 hours make for okay weekend trips. I'm okay driving up on a Saturday, staying Saturday night and skiing sunday and driving home that night. With more than 5 hours of driving, I would be looking at a long weekend or longer.
So from Calgary, I am happy to daytrip to Sunshine 1.5 hours, Lake Louise 2 hours, and Castle 2.5 hours. I am willing to daytrip to Kicking Horse and Fernie 3hours, but would rather get a cheap motel for one of the nights. I am also willing to do a weekend trip to Revelstoke or Jasper (5 hours), but I have to be really motivated.
I have done a 2 day weekend at Red (7 hours), but that was really tough.
I drive a lot though. My partner and I have work places that are 100km apart!
For me, 2 hours is a comfortable day trip. 3 hours or more makes for a tough day trip, but still doable with enough motivation. Much more than 3 and....I'm pretty tired.
3-5 hours make for okay weekend trips. I'm okay driving up on a Saturday, staying Saturday night and skiing sunday and driving home that night. With more than 5 hours of driving, I would be looking at a long weekend or longer.
So from Calgary, I am happy to daytrip to Sunshine 1.5 hours, Lake Louise 2 hours, and Castle 2.5 hours. I am willing to daytrip to Kicking Horse and Fernie 3hours, but would rather get a cheap motel for one of the nights. I am also willing to do a weekend trip to Revelstoke or Jasper (5 hours), but I have to be really motivated.
I have done a 2 day weekend at Red (7 hours), but that was really tough.
I drive a lot though. My partner and I have work places that are 100km apart!
2.5 hr flight (nonstop) to land in Denver. 3-3.5 hr flight to Salt Lake City. That's the fastest way door to door for me. I think closest to drive is ~10 hrs to Ski Apache...
After starting at 50 yo, I spent the last 10 years doing mostly 2.5 hr day trips to the Poconos with the occasional 3+ hr bus trip. Later, we started mixing in a ski week and long weekends at major NE resorts requiring 6-10 hr drives. The day and bus trips burned my wife out, but I was willing to tolerate them. Now we ski at Killington (7 hr drive), but only on long weekends (next weekend!) or ski weeks (Christmas week). If my wife was not on board, this never would have happened, but in fact, she was the one that started looking for a condo in VT instead of my suggestion for the Poconos. Our condo is for retirement really, but we can start paying for it now and still enjoy more and better skiing. But if we sold everything and bought a house in VT or ME, I would like to be no more than 30 minutes from a resort. I imagine @Josh Matta 's 35 minute drive reflects a tipping point in tolerance for driving daily for skiing.
Unfortunately , my big choices for local day trips are 1-1/2 hours to the 550ft bump. (generally good snow and grooming, albeit Ontario snow, like no other in the world) or
2 hrs for the 750ft escarpment hills , 1 of which is public, 4 private. ( Snow more typically Ontarian)
I could only dream of having a major ski destination within a 2 hour drive. Its 6 hours to Tremblant, 8 or more to Mt Ste Anne, 7 to Jay.
2 hrs for the 750ft escarpment hills , 1 of which is public, 4 private. ( Snow more typically Ontarian)
I could only dream of having a major ski destination within a 2 hour drive. Its 6 hours to Tremblant, 8 or more to Mt Ste Anne, 7 to Jay.
Depends on frequency of skiing. If I went under 10 times a year for a day trip, 3 hours tops. Right now it's 1:05 for about 30-40 days of skiing. Dead boring hill but I've improved my skiing quite a bit. We throw in about 4 longer trips a year to VT and CO with overnights. Considering a season rental in VT next year ... I think 1.5 hours would be about my limit on day trips skiing both Saturday and Sunday. That Saturday evening drive home plus the early drive to the mountain on Sunday morning is what's hard.
17.5 minute drive to the gondola 
I would like to live no farther than 30 minutes drive from parking and no longer than 45 minutes from getting on a lift. But the reality is that I am not in a position to move closer to skiing than I am now. Currently I am 26 miles or so from parking at Mount Spokane. It takes closer to 45 minutes to get there and an hour until I'm actually on a lift. But I seldom ski Mount Spokane any more. I'm 62 miles from parking at 49° North and it takes about an hour and a half to actually be on a lift.
My current distance is about 35mins to Brighton/Solitude/Alta/Snowbird is perfect barring hitting the jackpot and buying something on the canyon road. In Upstate NY I was about an hour from decent skiing, which I came to realize is about my limit for a day trip. When I lived in Japan, it was about a 2.5 hour bus trip to the resorts in Gifu. It was painful each weekend after a month or so going every weekend.
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2015
- Posts
- 4,123
isnt one of those Camp Fortune ?
No, Camp Misfortune is a 500 footer in Ottawa. And its definitely not a destination resort.
Still about a 5 hour drive. Bristol Mountain in NY is about 3 - 3.5 hours , depending on border crossing issues. I may try that one day .
I live 2.5 hours one way from my season pass hill here in MI. But I'm looking for a place within 20 minutes for the weekends. If I were to move west again I'd have to be within 30 minutes or so.
I think for at least some, how close you are is kind of nebulous. I live up in the foothills of the San Juans, and so work is a 40 minutes commute- nothing is close. But how close am I to a ski area? Depends on what defines as a ski area. I can ski my own property, for example, we average about 150" and tend to get a 36-60" base each winter.
Next level up would be snowmobile assisted skiing, I can run my snowmobile out the driveway and up to the ridgeline above me, I have about 1200 vert there on Forest Service land. Honestly I am typically just running the snowmobile up there instead of skiing.
To get to life service that isn't me, I would have to go out to Durango, Chapman Hill is in town with a rope tow and is about 30 minutes away, 600 ish vert (1 run).
Next level up is lift service, closest is Hesperus at about 50 minutes away. Hesperus is a tiny throwback ski area on ~150 acres, 800 vert on a single double chair.
Next up is Purgatory, an hour and 15 minutes.
Wolf Creek is an hour and 30.
Silverton is 2.
Telluride is 3.
Taos, Monarch and CB are 4.5
Aspen is 6, I guess Breck Vail Summit is about that if I cared.
Farthest we have road tripped so far was Powder Mountain in Utah, which is 8. Took us more like 12 rolling a motorhome on some serious glare ice in SW Utah.
I think some of this is cultural. I grew up in Colorado Springs, which is actually farther away from skiing than it appears. Compared to Denver, it takes 1 1/2 hours just to get to I-70 heading up Mt Vernon Canyon. Even before I-70 traffic suckage, this has you approaching 3 hours each way. You do get a back way to Breck at about 2:15, however. Aside from I70, your only other day skiing option is Monarch. So, I got used to LONG ski days and an hourish to ski great places is now simple by comparison.
Next level up would be snowmobile assisted skiing, I can run my snowmobile out the driveway and up to the ridgeline above me, I have about 1200 vert there on Forest Service land. Honestly I am typically just running the snowmobile up there instead of skiing.
To get to life service that isn't me, I would have to go out to Durango, Chapman Hill is in town with a rope tow and is about 30 minutes away, 600 ish vert (1 run).
Next level up is lift service, closest is Hesperus at about 50 minutes away. Hesperus is a tiny throwback ski area on ~150 acres, 800 vert on a single double chair.
Next up is Purgatory, an hour and 15 minutes.
Wolf Creek is an hour and 30.
Silverton is 2.
Telluride is 3.
Taos, Monarch and CB are 4.5
Aspen is 6, I guess Breck Vail Summit is about that if I cared.
Farthest we have road tripped so far was Powder Mountain in Utah, which is 8. Took us more like 12 rolling a motorhome on some serious glare ice in SW Utah.
I think some of this is cultural. I grew up in Colorado Springs, which is actually farther away from skiing than it appears. Compared to Denver, it takes 1 1/2 hours just to get to I-70 heading up Mt Vernon Canyon. Even before I-70 traffic suckage, this has you approaching 3 hours each way. You do get a back way to Breck at about 2:15, however. Aside from I70, your only other day skiing option is Monarch. So, I got used to LONG ski days and an hourish to ski great places is now simple by comparison.
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- Dec 21, 2015
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Its for sure regional.
in an hour I can get to
Stowe, SMuggs, Jay, Bolton, Burke, Sugarbush, MRG, Cannon. Mont Orford, Mount Sutton, owls head.
I think they are all too far except for Stowe, Smuggs and Jay.
in an hour I can get to
Stowe, SMuggs, Jay, Bolton, Burke, Sugarbush, MRG, Cannon. Mont Orford, Mount Sutton, owls head.
I think they are all too far except for Stowe, Smuggs and Jay.
About 30 min for me.
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2017
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- 1,177
I'd never want to be more than 45 minutes from the hill. In the 8 years I've been skiing (since I started up again) I've never been further than that. When we bought a new house 3 years ago it being 45 minutes drive or less from a local hill was a requirement.
Sure wish I was closer to a bigger hill though.
Sure wish I was closer to a bigger hill though.
My problem is that I am lazy and am a creature of habit. When we skied Northstar, it was easy. We booted up at True North and went off to ski. Now, Mt. Rose has become the easy choice, boot up close to the lift and ski. Both of these options are w/in 35 minutes to the area, Rose, skis skiing with one lift ride, Northstar was 3 lifts..another 10 minutes. We don't go to Squaw/Alpine as much even though it is only 10 minutes further. Kirkwood is about 1:45..rarely ever go there, we would sooner travel 2:45 to Mammoth. SHame on us for not going to the other areas as much. Whenever I drive to Mammoth, I think that I would take me 3:45 to drive to Hunter (from Philly)...why don't I do this more often.
They built a new extension on the highway that shaved about 10 minutes off my drive. Home to lift in about 45 minutes (good weather). If I stay at the house in Tahoe, the heater barely gets hot before pulling in the lot!