Hi all,
I did a season at Whistler and loved it. I'm looking at doing another season next year, in the US or Canada. I'm wondering if anyone can let me in on some resorts that have a similar feel to Whistler.
Things like a base village, great range of terrain, working-holiday minded with a good bar/social scene are all the things i'm looking for that i found in Whistler. Any thoughts?
There is terrific skiing/boarding in the Kootenays (SE B.C.) but I'm guessing those resorts won't have near the size of Whistler Village re the bar/restaurant scene. I'd suggest looking at http://www.britishcolumbia.com/Ski/ and open the "Kootenay Rockies" page. Red Mountain Resort is supposed to be fantastic and is where my older teenage sons are yearning to board at.
Perhaps the Canadian Rockies are the way to go. Here is some info I pulled from one of Judy_in_Calgary's responses re resorts:
"If you do end up choosing Banff as your ski destination, a popular deal is the Tri Area Lift Ticket that covers skiing at Sunshine, Lake Louise and Norquay. You can check out the details here:
http://www.skibig3.com/onmountain/tickets.html
Here is a web site for planning a ski trip to the Canadian Rockies:
http://www.canadianrockies.net/skithero/
Here's another web site that provides detailed information on each ski resort in the Canadian Rockies:
http://www.canadianrockies.net/skithero/skiguide.html:
Happy planning!
Contributor 
34,291 posts
130 reviews 
189 helpful votes In the Alberta Rockies, you will find that except for Sunshine Village near Banff, the resorts do not have base villages - and even Sunshine's village is quite small. The resorts that are in the national parks (Mt. Norquay, Sunshine, Lake Louise, Marmot Basin) are subject to national park development regulations... the base village for these resorts is their respective nearby town or hamlet - Banff, Lake Louise or Jasper. The towns of Banff and Jasper would meet your criteria re: bars and social scene, the village of Lake Louise is much smaller (but still can be lots of fun.... I worked there (in the village) one winter 1980/81 and it was basically a non-stop party ;-) Marmot, LL and Sunshine are all large ski areas (not as large as Whistler/Blackcomb) with varied terrain (check out their websites). One problem though for kids working up at Marmot Basin ski area is that the staff bus adds time on either end of your work day (Marmot is a 35 minute drive from town and there are only a couple of staff buses so you are at the mercy of their schedule unless you have your own vehicle.)
Have not yet been to Whistler so can't compare it but if you're after great skiing as well as nightlife, definitely have a look at Stowe or Killington in Vermont. Maybe also Heavenly at South Lake Tahoe.
Contributor
1,924 posts
638 reviews
299 helpful votes Aspen,Colorado
compared to whistler, aspen is like skiing on magic chair...the terrain is about 1/15th of whistler's. thanks for the input though. What about colorado/tahoe/utah resorts? Any thoughts there?
WB is the site in Canada. If you want you can head east to Mt. Tremblant, but the hill is horrible. I would stay out west...try Panorama in the Kootenays. I just don't think you are going to find anything compareable to WB in Canada. For the US, some big resorts in Utah, California and Colorado. Maybe you should post on those boards.
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I've been to them all on the west coast and the only two that compare would be Mammoth for the amazing terrain and snow. The village in Mammoth was purchased by Intrawest so it is beginning to have a whistler-esque feel but not nearly the night life. Lake Tahoe has a better night life scene and has incredible skiing but no central village so I think Tahoe would be the closest to Whistler even though I still think it's the best.
I'm with SkiGal ... FERNIE has the powder and incredible terrain. Panorama is a wonderful resort but doesn't get enough snow (nickname = Rock-a-rama). Like the other bigger areas - Silverstar, Big White, Sun Peaks - you'd have to commute daily to work. Rossland and Nelson are great towns to live and party in, cheap too, but while the snow and terrain at Red Mountain and Whitewater are awesome, neither place can compare in size to W-B or the bigger American resorts. The other bonus to W-B is that the season lasts 6 months while the rest of mountains in BC-AB only stay open for 4.
~ jw
