Great North American Ski Adventure (GNASA)

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The Ski Resorts of North America

Europe has the Alps, but North America has the Rockies. The Alps are pint size (750 miles in length) versus the Rockies (3,000 miles). Europe’s earlier start in developing its mountainous regions have blessed the Alps with world’s most famous ski resorts. But North America is doing its best to catch up. Condition wise, the Rockies 3,000-mile swath through the United States and Canada are hard to match. It doesn’t matter whether its an El Nino year or a La Nina one. Every year, from Taos to Jasper the Rockies will have good skiing somewhere.

In this Blog, we divide the Rockies into the following sections: Canadian Rockies, the Wasatch, Rockies North, and Rockies South. The  Canadian Rockies because “eh” it’s Canada. The Wasatch gets its own category because it deserves it: no one who avidly skis Utah would suggest otherwise. Rockies North and South were a bit arbitrary, but here is our logic. The great ski resorts of New Mexico are in the North, bordering on Colorado. So we grouped Colorado and New Mexico and called it Rockies South. That left Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. We call that Rockies North.

In addition to the Rockies, the United States has the Sierras, New England and the North West. The Sierras run through California and Nevada. Resorts here include Mammoth, June, Squaw, Heavenly Valley, and Alpine Meadows. New England’s premier ski resorts include Stowe, Killington, Mad River Glen and Sunday River. There are ski areas in Oregon and Washington that bode coverage like Mt. Hood, Mt. Bachelor, Crystal and Steven’s Pass. We’ll get there eventually.

Michael spent his early years and I have spent my college years skiing in New England. We’ll cover areas in New England as soon as possible. I grew up skiing in the Sierras (Mammoth, Squaw, Heavenly Valley, etc.). I even had an opportunity to meet and ski with some of the founders of these areas.