USA 2022-23 Planning, travel updates, destination resort news

[MarzNC]

Given the posts lately in the 2021-22 USA planning thread, seems past time to have one for 2022-23.

Anyone book flights to the USA yet for a ski trip? As noted by @absentskier , there will be less hassles when crossing international borders.

Assuming people have seen that the US no longer requires air passengers travelling from a foreign country to show a negative covid test or documentation of recovery from covid before they board their flight. Certainly good news for those of us considering a North American ski holiday in 2022/23.

 

[MarzNC]

Park City may not get the two fancy high-speed lifts that Vail Resorts was planning to have ready for 2022-23 after all. The existing lifts weren't taken down given the ongoing opposition from vocal residents of the town.

June 16, 2022 (USA)

Park City Lift Projects Blocked

The Park City Planning Commission voted 3-1 tonight to grant an appeal of two approved lift projects at Park City Mountain. First announced in September 2021, the new Eagle six pack would have feat…

liftblog.com

My ski buddy, Bill, joined friends at Park City during the winter holiday period last season. He won't ever do that again. Low snow conditions and limited lift openings due to staff shortages due to COVID-19 cases meant very long lift lines. He did renew his Epic pass because he wants to explore a few Epic locations, but will mostly be skiing at Ikon/MCP resorts. Last season he used Epic at Park City and Telluride when friends were there.

 

[Kash]

Given the posts lately in the 2021-22 USA planning thread, seems past time to have one for 2022-23.

Anyone book flights to the USA yet for a ski trip? As noted by @absentskier , there will be less hassles when crossing international borders.

Yep! Booked for 2.5 weeks end Feb23 to Colorado. Syd to aspen, 4 days riding somewhere else on the ikon pass (ideally Steamboat, Copper or A basin), 6 days riding Aspen then driving from there to LAX. Excited about the 6 day road trip, visiting Monument, Moab, Vegas and hopefully the Canyon. We are there over Presidents weekend which clearly isn’t ideal so might even look at riding some smaller resorts that weekend.

Got flights for A$1,500 on Delta. SYD-ASE drive then LAX-SYD. Saved $400 by not flying back from ASE to LAX which gave us the chance to do the drive which will be great.

 

[MarzNC]

Yep! Booked for 2.5 weeks end Feb23 to Colorado. Syd to aspen, 4 days riding somewhere else on the ikon pass (ideally Steamboat, Copper or A basin), 6 days riding Aspen then driving from there to LAX. Excited about the 6 day road trip, visiting Monument, Moab, Vegas and hopefully the Canyon. We are there over Presidents weekend which clearly isn’t ideal so might even look at riding some smaller resorts that weekend.

Got flights for A$1,500 on Delta. SYD-ASE drive then LAX-SYD. Saved $400 by not flying back from ASE to LAX which gave us the chance to do the drive which will be great.

Sounds like a great trip!

I'll be skiing at Steamboat Feb. 17-20. Going over President's Day weekend because my ski buddy Bill will be there as part of a hot air balloon crew, per usual. Steamboat organizes a balloon glow on the holiday weekends. It's good fun.

The drive on I-70 from Glenwood Springs west towards Utah is very pretty. But mudslides last summer caused a lot of damage. Hopefully all the fixes will be completed this summer (before Oct 2022). Colorado Dept. of Transportation , CDOT does a good job keeping the public informed about road closures caused by weather.

April 27, 2022 (Colorado)

CDOT preparing for more work in Glenwood Canyon

When warnings are in place, CDOT said it will close the highway through the canyon again this year.

www.9news.com

I-70 Glenwood Canyon Emergency Project

www.codot.gov

 

[Crystal]

Made it a sticky so easy to find.

 

[BoofHead]

I would like to think that I‘ll be using my epic pass somewhere other than Hotham. Breckenridge is somewhere we would like to go having popped in for lunch and look around a few years ago.

 

[Kash]

Anyone know of a forum for US ski/travel trip info, planning for the drives, accom etc? There's some good info here but postings are a bit sparse. Looking for more detailed info. snowheads seems to be closed.

 

[Sbooker]

https://www.skitalk.com/

 

[Kash]

https://www.skitalk.com/

Legend, thanks @Sbooker

 

[MarzNC]

Anyone know of a forum for US ski/travel trip info, planning for the drives, accom etc? There's some good info here but postings are a bit sparse. Looking for more detailed info. snowheads seems to be closed.

SkiTalk is a good source for ski trip planning info for people who have plenty of experience posting to a ski forum. Responses may be slow until mid-August since it's summer time in the USA. It used to be that August or September was early enough to make reservations for less expensive lodging. Post-pandemic, some places are getting booked up by July.

For women who haven't engaged that often online, TheSkiDiva.com can be a good place to ask questions when planning a ski trip to the USA. Especially if planning a family trip that includes kids under 16.

Most of my personal experience planning ski trips in the last decade to the destination resorts in the Rockies is for Utah, Taos, Big Sky/Bridger, with a few trips to JH/GT, Aspen/Snowmass, and north Tahoe. While I've skied in Colorado in recent years, the higher altitude and other factors mean that I haven't added any of the resorts besides Steamboat and Wolf Creek to my personal Top Ten for mid-season (Feb-Mar) trips. My trips have been based on the MCP and/or Ikon, not Epic.

 

[MarzNC]

A little off-topic but if anyone is curious about the indoor slope near New York City, check out this interview with Joe Hession. Joe has been with Snow Operating, which evolved into Snow Partners, from the beginning. Snow Operating is a consulting company that helps ski areas/resorts improve operations with beginners and renters in mind, as well as set up Terrain Based Learning (TM).

June 19, 2022

Podcast #91: Snow Partners (Big Snow, Mountain Creek) CEO Joe Hession

Listen now (141 min) | “We are really focused on new Big Snows,” and a monster Mountain Creek lift project in the works

www.stormskiing.com

I've been to Big SNOW in New Jersey a couple of times. It was good place to introduce my daughter's BF to skiing for the first time. Being able to rent a package that included ski jacket and ski pants was a plus. Having floating instructors meant he had a private lesson for 45 minutes for no extra charge since we went when the place wasn't busy last summer.

 

[Kash]

A little off-topic but if anyone is curious about the indoor slope near New York City, check out this interview with Joe Hession. Joe has been with Snow Operating, which evolved into Snow Partners, from the beginning. Snow Operating is a consulting company that helps ski areas/resorts improve operations with beginners and renters in mind, as well as set up Terrain Based Learning (TM).

June 19, 2022

Podcast #91: Snow Partners (Big Snow, Mountain Creek) CEO Joe Hession

Listen now (141 min) | “We are really focused on new Big Snows,” and a monster Mountain Creek lift project in the works

www.stormskiing.com

I've been to Big SNOW in New Jersey a couple of times. It was good place to introduce my daughter's BF to skiing for the first time. Being able to rent a package that included ski jacket and ski pants was a plus. Having floating instructors meant he had a private lesson for 45 minutes for no extra charge since we went when the place wasn't busy last summer.

Will check this out, thanks.

I think indoor ski slopes are an excellent way to practice skiing before the big trip to the mountains. I wish Aus had them. I'm sure they would get the patronage if built near Sydney/Melbourne. Yes, I know there's been talk of them for years but until construction starts I wont believe it. I've used Xscape in the UK when i lived in London and was really impressed with it.

 

[MarzNC]

I think indoor ski slopes are an excellent way to practice skiing before the big trip to the mountains. I wish Aus had them. I'm sure they would get the patronage if built near Sydney/Melbourne.

Apparently Snow Partners has found financial backing to open more Big SNOW locations. There is also a new company called Alpine-X that is building an indoor slope (with snowmaking, not a rolling carpet or plastic slope) relatively close to Washington DC. Alpine-X has partnered with the company that operates more than one indoor slope in The Netherlands. They also intend to build more locations. Bode Miller is on board as the Chief Innovation Officer aka promoter.

There have been a few Ski Diva meetups during the off-season at Big SNOW in NJ. Always good fun. People I know who live within 1-2 hours drive like going once or twice during the summer, than again once or twice during the fall. While some are intermediates, there are also advanced skiers who appreciate getting on some turns before they head out during early season.

Finding customers probably isn't the issue in the USA near big cities. Finding the big money needed to build the needed building and infrastructure takes quite an undertaking. Big SNOW was created in a building that was part of a giant mall development that failed years ago. The current mall isn't doing well financially even though the company owns and operates the Mall of America in Minnesota and the giant mall in West Edmonton in Canada.

 

[MarzNC]

There is a lot of construction related to new lifts at Palisades Tahoe. Updates started in mid-April and are being posted weekly. The biggest project is the gondola that will connect Alpine Meadows to Olympic Valley during the winter. The name change to Palisades Tahoe is old news in 2022.

Palisades Tahoe Construction Updates - Palisades Tahoe at Lake Tahoe

Palisades Tahoe is preparing for the construction of the base-to-base gondola connecting the two areas. This is a tremendously complex project, with four terminals spanning two ski areas, and our team will continue to work closely with Leitner-Poma on the planning and construction.

blog.palisadestahoe.com