Skiing– East Coast, West Coast

The US has some fantastic skiing coast to coast. Ski resorts on either side of the country offer a wide range of slopes, terrain and activities for beginners, experts, snowboarders and non-skiers alike. It really just depends on what you’re looking for in a ski vacation.

Some of the best skiing is located in the mountains of Colorado. Colorado and skiing are synonymous; you can’t think of one without the other. Twenty-seven resorts, huge resorts scattered in all four corners and across the Rocky Mountains. Many of them are recognizable even to those who have no idea what a green, blue or black diamond refers to– let alone fallen on one.

Breckenridge, Aspen, Telluride, Vail, Keystone and Winter Park are magnets for celebrities and ski enthusiasts alike. And with 55 peaks higher than 14,000 feet in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, there’s plenty of powder to go around.

The trails are steep, long, dotted with few trees and characterized by unmanicured runs and heavy snowfalls. Few trees create opportunities to make big sweeping turns unlike the trails found on the East Coast.

Three thousand miles away, the Appalachian Mountains almost mirror the Rockies in length and latitude. However, resorts like Lake Placid, Stowe, Killington, Sugarbush and Sugar Loaf on the East Coast have considerably less altitude than the Rockies. Ten thousand feet would be considered considerable, right?

In addition, there’s less snowfall, more humidity, which makes the snow heavier and the resorts are forced to rely on snow making machines because they just don’t have the annual snowfall their counterparts on the west coast do. The trails tend to be manicured, narrower with less vertical.

However, it could be argued that those differences might require skiers to be more skilled at shredding.

Great Eastern Trail for example, a green trail that wraps for four miles (from peak to base) around Mount Killington, Vermont is perfectly fine when the resort opens in the morning. However, by the end of the day it is quite treacherous. All the snow is “skied” away and skiers are forced to shift their weight and use their edges to cut into the icy base or end up picking themselves up off the cold and unforgiving mountain floor.

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