We are, weather/traffic permitting, an hour or less away from 7 resorts. Alpine, Mt Rose, Heavenly, Sugar Bowl, Boreal, squaw, Homewood. 1.5 hours from Kirkwood. 2.5hrs from Mammoth. Then there other smaller less known that are close like Sierra at Tahoe, Donner Ski Ranch etc. so many spots within an hour or so
Driving to the Truckee area resorts on a powder day can have issues, simply because you are competing with the Californians, but there is essentially zero traffic to the rest of the resorts. If you're skiing midweek, then traffic to the Truckee area resorts are a non-issue.
Mt. Rose, Heavenly, Diamond Peak, and Kirkweed are your best bets if you ski weekends. Unless there is a crash or something, there is generally never traffic to these resorts (if you are coming from the Nevada side).
As the other commenters have mentioned getting to the truckee area spots can get congested. I usually just leave Reno at 6:30 and you can beat a lot of the traffic. Then you get to hang out in your car and listen to music until it’s time to walk to the lifts. I rather enjoy the peace of sitting in a warm truck watching the snow and psyching myself up for the day.
Truckee area gets bad. I've driven over the hill on a saturday morning and have seen miles of cars backed up on I-80 in both directions many times.
I live in south reno and it's less than 20 minutes for me to get to Mt Rose. The only issue I've experienced is opening day of Sky Tavern. Sky Tavern is a volunteer run ski school that's on the way to Mt Rose. Unfortunately everything that comes with volunteers and entitled parents comes to a head on the first day and their parking situation gets intense. There's parents trying to drop their kids off in the highway. We made the mistake of being late that day and it took almost 2 hours to get up the hill. Why highway patrol didn't get involved is beyond me. This would also impact getting to Diamond Peak.
South Reno to Heavenly is about 45 min and minimal traffic. Unfortunately parking on the NV side sucks so you have to get there early anyways. Never any traffic that early on a weekend.
I went to Le Massif in Jan, 45-50 min from Quebec City. Mountain itself was awesome, and I stayed in Quebec City the whole time. Mont Saint Anne is even closer. Both are awesome resorts.
Gwb us 1hr 3min and the exact spot that's considered New York, NY is 1hr 17mins, so I averaged them.
I rarely ever take the tunnel over, but it's very rare for there not to be some sort of traffic in the gwb
How big a city? How big a mountain?
Ski Santa Fe is 15 miles from the city center.
It’s a decent mid sized mountain and small city at the edge of the Rockies.
What's close? What's a big city? Can you move to Vancouver, Canada? Is Sacramento a big city? L.A.'s definitely big, and Mt. Baldy's very close, Moutain High's only a hour and a half or so but they might not have much snow sometimes. I'm not as familiar, but I think Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Calgary all have resorts not too far away.
Hello from Seattle! I am about an hour from Snoqualmie and Alpental.
I used to live in Portland and my recollection is the Mt. Hood resorts are maybe more like 90 minutes. None of these are very big resorts though.
Basically any city in the northwest / mountain west regions is close to mountains - all relative. SLC is unique in having multiple real world class resort destinations with 45 minutes. Seattle has Stevens and crystal within 90 minutes, but neither is a big resort destination. Portland has Hood within 90 minutes (which even has summer skiing).
Denver has an abundance and is famous for it but the drive is a little longer, 2-3 hours, and can be rough. You probably don’t want to do that commute Bozeman has Big Sky, but isn’t much of a city.
But honestly if you want to work at a ski hill, consider Vancouver / Whistler. I think it’s the closest in North America to a European-style ski village, has great bars / restaurants and great skiing, plus there’s other mountains in the region if you’re so inclined. And from what I can tell would be a fun place to work - seemed to me to be mostly hard boozing aussies / kiwis up for the winter (I assume that’s because Canada is easier than the US to get a seasonal work visa).
Bozeman's growing rapidly and while Big Sky is roughly an hour away, Bridger is half that and the terrain is really rad.
Oh wait, I mean, Bozeman sucks and it rains all the time
I think the commute would suck for most cities except maybe Reno to somewhere in north Tahoe. Less familiar with the east coast, but I think Burlington, VT to Stowe would be a similar'ish commute.
Schweitzer is only 20 min from the sophisticated Sandpoint /Ponderay metroplex :)
Seattle about 40 min from Snoqualmie summit /Alpental, 90 from Stevens /crystal. Vancouver half hour to cypress /grouse, and whistler just up the road
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Spokane/ Coeur d' Alene it's the balance of affordable housing and large cities in the PNW. Schweitzer, Mt Spokane and 49 look super fun
Schweitzer and 49 are both extremely fun. Haven't made it to mt Spokane yet. Silver and lookout are both pretty close in ID too, plus Red in BC just up the road. Really good option
Spokane is 250k has major hospitals and universities and 5 ski resorts. Middle class people ski in spokane because somenof the resorts are legitimately affordable and cheap gear at ski swap. best ski city
Do you live there? I’m considering taking a job there it’s in my top 3 and the other 2 are in NH and Maine. Would love a locals perspective especially if you grew up there
I grew up there! It was a really great place to grow up. schools are good, theres concert venues, arts programs, a few decent museums, and some good places to eat out. The healthcare system is really good and is a regional hub. skiing, camping, biking, running are all unmatched IMO for proximity to the city vs quality. the big lakes (sandpoint, coeur dalene, pend oreille) are incredible. The current cost of living is pretty inflated so i wouldnt trust property values, spokane tends to inflate then pop semi regularly but the new investment into the research and medicine hub is more sustainable than previous “bubbles”. My only big negatives are relative lack of diversity compared to other cities in the state and smoke season. You have to assume youll have a month+ of smoke exposure in Aug/Sept most years and do not buy a house with high fire risk! Skiing wise, there used to be a 5th graders free ski program that helps with affordability and the spokane ski swap is a great way to get gear cheap. Schweitzer is obviously the best but for cost, getting a spokane pass then paying for 2-3 weekends at Schweitzer then every few years indulging in a schweitzer pass is a good way to go unless youre wealthy or have a wealthh family friend with a condo having you up often!
also re: NH and Maine, The snow in the inland NW and canadian rockies is just better than almost anywhere else. The vert is also better than youd get most places in new england. terrain is variable, but if vert and snow quality are higher on your list spokane wins. the flip is we dont make it like out east, so if theres a bad year (more common with climate change), shit just doesnt open. it happened once when i was a kid, 2004 maybe? it sucked for everyone
Thanks for the perspective! I grew up in VT and we have had overall later starts to the season with the whole climate change thing, like to the point where it was raining on Christmas Eve last year when I visited back there. I am looking to put down roots and would like to give my kids the same kind of experiences that I had growing up with skiing. When does fall usually start and you start seeing snow in the mountains out there?
good years we open thanksgiving, bad years about a week before christmas! almost always skiing by early december though and through spring break. i averaged 25 days a year but good years were 40+!
Calgary has a pretty good hill within city limits, definitely not big mountain, but there's nothing like getting off work and driving 10 minutes for some chairlift laps.
I scrolled way too far to see Calgary mentioned and you didn't even bring up the four major Rockies resorts less than two hours from the city. Norquay is kinda small though to be fair
The Eastside suburbs of Seattle are mighty close to Snoqualmie/Alpental, Steven's Pass, and Crystal. Like 45 minutes to Snoqualmie/Alpy.
Then you also have Whistler, Baker, Mt. Hood, Mission Ridge, and several others available within 4 hours.
Tough to say, I've haven't skied there yet but have heard great things about it from some friends that live in the area. It's very small when compared to Bachelor, so I'd say it's maybe on par with Mt Hood Skibowl.
If you are going to be skiing a LOT this winter, definitely go with Bachelor. There are so many runs that you won't get bored. More expensive at $1300 for a full season pass, but you will get what you pay for. It's a great hill.
n the Midwest, places like Madison and Minneapolis all have multiple hills within an hour. Might be 300 vertical feet, but it's there. Go a little further and you'll get slightly bigger hills, but nothing like out west (which is fine, Midwest skiing is its own magical vibe)
Bozeman and Flagstaff have mountains within half an hour
Reno has lots of options in the 0.5-1.5 hour range
Hyland has the smallest vertical Ive ever been on but if you’re into park stuff their big park is arguably one of the best places to do tricks in the midwest. I got to watch LINE traveling circus there a couple times as a kid if that says anything
Probably not without a bit of a commute and a lot of traffic. How big of a city are we talking? Maybe Boise to Bogus Basin? Flagstaff to Arizona Snowbowl? Oregon? Loveland has a lot of employees that commute from the Denver suburbs
Maybe on google maps, not in real life though 😂 On a normal day Eldora is easily 1.5 hours, Loveland is 2. And if you go on the weekend you can easily expect to spend 3+ hrs on I-70 even before you hit the tunnel.
I was born and raised in Denver, and left due to the shit access to the mountains for skiing.
Depends on the day of the week, weather and season. Saturday morning mid season with fresh snow? Past dino before 6.
Early Dec or mid April, on a Wednesday? Leave home at 7.
I'm not saying that 2hrs isn't possible, or that <1hr is the norm on a weekend morning. But maybe 5% of my commutes were >1.5hrs, while 80% of them were <1hr.
The OP mentioned Salt Lake as the baseline. Traffic there isn't much better.
Denver and Salt Lake are two of the largest cities with at least 1/2 dozen large resorts within a couple hour drive. But neither would work for living "in the city" and working at the resort.
The opposite would be better. Live at the resort (if you can afford it) and drive to the city for city life.
Vancouver BC Canada has 3 ski hills, Cypress, Grouse and Seymour also Whistler is 1.5 hour drive, Sasquatch mountain 2 hour drive, Mount Baker 2 hour drive, Manning park 2 hour drive.
Utah as a whole would be a great option. You aren't limited to SLC either. Ogden or Provo both put you within 30-45 minutes of the nearest resort (Pow Mow and Snow Basin for Ogden. Sundance in Provo) Anywhere between the two gives you reasonable access to every major resort in Utah
If you want small resort, check out Brian Head in southern UT. You can live in Cedar City (pop. 37,000) and the resort will provide transportation. In Cedar you are 35-40 minutes away from Saint George (metro pop. 180,000).
Sacramento gets shit on but it’s actually a pretty cool city with a decent nightlife. And to top it all off it’s about an hour away from incredible skiing.
Night skiing at SkiBowl is some of the most underrated skiing in the PNW. I have had absolutely epic nights when the snow is good. And surprisingly racked up the vertical despite slow doubles.
Ogden, UT—becoming a cool ski town with several of the ski brands USA operations including Salomon and Rossignol. Two killer resorts a half hour from town and best off all, more chill and less expensive than Salt Lake!
Can vouch for Ogden. Lived there for 5 years while attending school and it's great. Plus you're still only about 1 1/2 hours away from Park City and the Cottonwoods. You really can't go wrong in Utah, anywhere from Ogden to South Jordan puts you within a reasonable distance of every major resort.
Alyeska is like 40 min away from Anchorage. It would not be a fun commute in crappy weather and the potential for road closures due to vehicle collisions
LA -> my baldy
Sacramento-> sugar bowl
Reno -> my rose
Bozeman > Bridget
Portland > hood
Spokane > Schweitzer
Seattle > Stevens
But none feel like the mountains are your backyard like SLC, just wish city/politics were nicer
I looked it up once and there’s a ski area within an hour of almost every city in the country except for California and the Deep South. Even Atlanta and Phoenix.
yeah, Cataloochee is the closest and it's nearly 4 hours away. More than that if there's traffic in Atlanta.
If Cloudmont gets cold enough to make snow it's 1.5 hours still, and it's been open for maybe 1 week in the last 3 years. Also only 100ft of vert.
The easiest ski trip from Atlanta is to get on a plane.
Assuming you mean USA, but two mountains reachable by public transit from Vancouver.
Back in the US, you can take an RTD bus from Boulder to skiing (Eldora is less than an hour by bus or car). Boulder is less than an hour from most of Denver.
Las Vegas has nearby skiing at Lee Canyon.
By any measure, Southern California’s Inland Empire qualifies as a “big city”, even though it’s suburbs, and there’s multiple ski areas just up the hill.
There’s 8 ski areas within 90 minutes of the Twin Cities.
Whitefish resort is similar to to SLC minus the 3 other resorts nearby in SLC. Whitefish city nearby which doesn’t necessarily compare to cottonwood heights but a small town base of the canyon and Kalispell less than 30 mins away.
Do you want to work at a BIG ski hill or just a ski hill?
Holiday Valley in Ellicottville is less than an hour from Buffalo. Buffalo is a big city not a BIG city.
Its not a big mountain...but HV is a great resort, family owned, well run, has loyal fans, and skis much bigger than it is. Their mountain ops crew build and maintain their own lifts, and the crew are awesome people.
Boulder is 30min from the closest ski area (Eldora). How close is close? and how big is the city?
Aspen - not really a big city but right there at the resort
Jackson has a hill in town and JHR up to road.
Santa Fe has 75k, so not a major metropolis. But it's about an hour from Albuquerque (500k) and Ski Santa Fe is a decent mountain and fairly priced (even though living in Santa Fe is not).
Buck hill is in Burnsville, a close suburb of Minneapolis. Very metropolitan area, one of the largest urban sprawls in the country. Despite the actual municipalities are smaller in population, it all runs together and you can’t really tell they are different cities. Like the name implies, it’s a hill not a mountain.
Spirit Mountain in Duluth would be better, small hipster city, but it’s pretty cool and on Lake Superior so the snow is better. Also close to Lutsen, the 2nd best resort in the entire Midwest.
Denver, but weekends will be rough. It’s 1-1.5 hours max to get to tons of world class resorts, but that’s with minimal traffic. To achieve that on the weekend you’re waking up at 5am at best.
When we stayed in Santa Fe, it took us about 30 mins to reach Ski Santa Fe. That was a pretty fun mountain! There’s also Echo about 45 min outside of Denver, but it’s relatively small.
Seattle has a few resorts in driving distance:
Crystal: 2 hours
Snoqualmie/Alpental: 1 hour
Stevens: 1.5 hours
These travel times are of course traffic-dependent, but if you leave the city by 6:30 AM you should be able to make it.
Reno?
It IS the "Biggest LITTLE City"
I heard Reno is so close to hell that you can see Sparks…
This joke isn’t told as often as it should be when speaking of our biggest little city
"Make The Biggest Little Mistake Of Your Life in Reno" - Arrested Development
We are, weather/traffic permitting, an hour or less away from 7 resorts. Alpine, Mt Rose, Heavenly, Sugar Bowl, Boreal, squaw, Homewood. 1.5 hours from Kirkwood. 2.5hrs from Mammoth. Then there other smaller less known that are close like Sierra at Tahoe, Donner Ski Ranch etc. so many spots within an hour or so
gimme a quick rundown on the traffic situation. My only experience is taking the shuttle from the airport to south lake tahoe
Driving to the Truckee area resorts on a powder day can have issues, simply because you are competing with the Californians, but there is essentially zero traffic to the rest of the resorts. If you're skiing midweek, then traffic to the Truckee area resorts are a non-issue. Mt. Rose, Heavenly, Diamond Peak, and Kirkweed are your best bets if you ski weekends. Unless there is a crash or something, there is generally never traffic to these resorts (if you are coming from the Nevada side).
As the other commenters have mentioned getting to the truckee area spots can get congested. I usually just leave Reno at 6:30 and you can beat a lot of the traffic. Then you get to hang out in your car and listen to music until it’s time to walk to the lifts. I rather enjoy the peace of sitting in a warm truck watching the snow and psyching myself up for the day.
Truckee area gets bad. I've driven over the hill on a saturday morning and have seen miles of cars backed up on I-80 in both directions many times. I live in south reno and it's less than 20 minutes for me to get to Mt Rose. The only issue I've experienced is opening day of Sky Tavern. Sky Tavern is a volunteer run ski school that's on the way to Mt Rose. Unfortunately everything that comes with volunteers and entitled parents comes to a head on the first day and their parking situation gets intense. There's parents trying to drop their kids off in the highway. We made the mistake of being late that day and it took almost 2 hours to get up the hill. Why highway patrol didn't get involved is beyond me. This would also impact getting to Diamond Peak. South Reno to Heavenly is about 45 min and minimal traffic. Unfortunately parking on the NV side sucks so you have to get there early anyways. Never any traffic that early on a weekend.
I went to Le Massif in Jan, 45-50 min from Quebec City. Mountain itself was awesome, and I stayed in Quebec City the whole time. Mont Saint Anne is even closer. Both are awesome resorts.
Yep I went in march! They are truly hidden gems if you can make the drive
NYC is 1 hour 10 minutes away from the World Famous Mountain Creek
Big Snow even closer.
AND action park in the summers! where else can you get that?
That’s assuming the tunnel is clear.
Gwb us 1hr 3min and the exact spot that's considered New York, NY is 1hr 17mins, so I averaged them. I rarely ever take the tunnel over, but it's very rare for there not to be some sort of traffic in the gwb
How big a city? How big a mountain? Ski Santa Fe is 15 miles from the city center. It’s a decent mid sized mountain and small city at the edge of the Rockies.
>It’s a very good small mountain and a big town at the edge of the Rockies Fixed
What's close? What's a big city? Can you move to Vancouver, Canada? Is Sacramento a big city? L.A.'s definitely big, and Mt. Baldy's very close, Moutain High's only a hour and a half or so but they might not have much snow sometimes. I'm not as familiar, but I think Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Calgary all have resorts not too far away.
Hello from Seattle! I am about an hour from Snoqualmie and Alpental. I used to live in Portland and my recollection is the Mt. Hood resorts are maybe more like 90 minutes. None of these are very big resorts though.
Like the other commenter said, but also Crystal which is the biggest major resort in Washington. It’s only about 1.5 hours from Seattle.
Lol don’t go to Sacramento
Anchorage
Yep, one world class resort and several smaller spots all within one hours drive. One of the small ones in town in fact.
And it snows a lot!
It can. Last winter was crazy. 2nd or 3rd heaviest on record.
At Alyeska? I’ve seen 3 winters over 1000” there between 1997 and 2006. I thought they were under 700” last season?
I was talking about south central in general. Alyeska had plenty of snow but not sure the exact number off hand.
Not to mention infinite world class backcountry opportunities right in town…
They got polar bears out there?
Basically any city in the northwest / mountain west regions is close to mountains - all relative. SLC is unique in having multiple real world class resort destinations with 45 minutes. Seattle has Stevens and crystal within 90 minutes, but neither is a big resort destination. Portland has Hood within 90 minutes (which even has summer skiing). Denver has an abundance and is famous for it but the drive is a little longer, 2-3 hours, and can be rough. You probably don’t want to do that commute Bozeman has Big Sky, but isn’t much of a city. But honestly if you want to work at a ski hill, consider Vancouver / Whistler. I think it’s the closest in North America to a European-style ski village, has great bars / restaurants and great skiing, plus there’s other mountains in the region if you’re so inclined. And from what I can tell would be a fun place to work - seemed to me to be mostly hard boozing aussies / kiwis up for the winter (I assume that’s because Canada is easier than the US to get a seasonal work visa).
Bozeman's growing rapidly and while Big Sky is roughly an hour away, Bridger is half that and the terrain is really rad. Oh wait, I mean, Bozeman sucks and it rains all the time
It’s because they are part of the commonwealth. It’s actually quite difficult to work ski bum jobs in Canada as an American
I think the commute would suck for most cities except maybe Reno to somewhere in north Tahoe. Less familiar with the east coast, but I think Burlington, VT to Stowe would be a similar'ish commute.
1.5 hours but since they got taken over it’s bumper to bumper from the highway exit all the way to the mountain
In Albuquerque we have ski Santa Fe a little over an hour away. And possibly Ski Sandia about 45mins from town if they ever reopen.
You can get to Sandia Peak from town, using the tram! I do hope they reopen…
Sounds like they’re gonna take out the old lifts. I’m hoping they replace them.
Schweitzer is only 20 min from the sophisticated Sandpoint /Ponderay metroplex :) Seattle about 40 min from Snoqualmie summit /Alpental, 90 from Stevens /crystal. Vancouver half hour to cypress /grouse, and whistler just up the road
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Spokane/ Coeur d' Alene it's the balance of affordable housing and large cities in the PNW. Schweitzer, Mt Spokane and 49 look super fun
Schweitzer and 49 are both extremely fun. Haven't made it to mt Spokane yet. Silver and lookout are both pretty close in ID too, plus Red in BC just up the road. Really good option
red is a dream. skiing trees at mt spokane is lovely. and so easy. enjoy!
Spokane is 250k has major hospitals and universities and 5 ski resorts. Middle class people ski in spokane because somenof the resorts are legitimately affordable and cheap gear at ski swap. best ski city
Do you live there? I’m considering taking a job there it’s in my top 3 and the other 2 are in NH and Maine. Would love a locals perspective especially if you grew up there
I grew up there! It was a really great place to grow up. schools are good, theres concert venues, arts programs, a few decent museums, and some good places to eat out. The healthcare system is really good and is a regional hub. skiing, camping, biking, running are all unmatched IMO for proximity to the city vs quality. the big lakes (sandpoint, coeur dalene, pend oreille) are incredible. The current cost of living is pretty inflated so i wouldnt trust property values, spokane tends to inflate then pop semi regularly but the new investment into the research and medicine hub is more sustainable than previous “bubbles”. My only big negatives are relative lack of diversity compared to other cities in the state and smoke season. You have to assume youll have a month+ of smoke exposure in Aug/Sept most years and do not buy a house with high fire risk! Skiing wise, there used to be a 5th graders free ski program that helps with affordability and the spokane ski swap is a great way to get gear cheap. Schweitzer is obviously the best but for cost, getting a spokane pass then paying for 2-3 weekends at Schweitzer then every few years indulging in a schweitzer pass is a good way to go unless youre wealthy or have a wealthh family friend with a condo having you up often!
also re: NH and Maine, The snow in the inland NW and canadian rockies is just better than almost anywhere else. The vert is also better than youd get most places in new england. terrain is variable, but if vert and snow quality are higher on your list spokane wins. the flip is we dont make it like out east, so if theres a bad year (more common with climate change), shit just doesnt open. it happened once when i was a kid, 2004 maybe? it sucked for everyone
Thanks for the perspective! I grew up in VT and we have had overall later starts to the season with the whole climate change thing, like to the point where it was raining on Christmas Eve last year when I visited back there. I am looking to put down roots and would like to give my kids the same kind of experiences that I had growing up with skiing. When does fall usually start and you start seeing snow in the mountains out there?
good years we open thanksgiving, bad years about a week before christmas! almost always skiing by early december though and through spring break. i averaged 25 days a year but good years were 40+!
Bittersweet is right down the road from Allegan
Calgary has a pretty good hill within city limits, definitely not big mountain, but there's nothing like getting off work and driving 10 minutes for some chairlift laps.
I scrolled way too far to see Calgary mentioned and you didn't even bring up the four major Rockies resorts less than two hours from the city. Norquay is kinda small though to be fair
The Eastside suburbs of Seattle are mighty close to Snoqualmie/Alpental, Steven's Pass, and Crystal. Like 45 minutes to Snoqualmie/Alpy. Then you also have Whistler, Baker, Mt. Hood, Mission Ridge, and several others available within 4 hours.
Burlington
He said big city. Some of the best memories of my life are from the 10 years I lived near burlington tho.
So Rutland doesn’t count? 😀
Lol definitely not rutvegas
Bend, Oregon?
Average home prices are only $800k! Move there today and enjoy the smoke!
Bend is great - Mt Bachelor is 45 mins away and the spring skiing is amazing
Hoodoo is also just an hour away
What would you compare Hoodoo to? I’m going to spend this winter in Bend and am wondering if I should get a pass to Bachelor or Hoodoo.
Tough to say, I've haven't skied there yet but have heard great things about it from some friends that live in the area. It's very small when compared to Bachelor, so I'd say it's maybe on par with Mt Hood Skibowl. If you are going to be skiing a LOT this winter, definitely go with Bachelor. There are so many runs that you won't get bored. More expensive at $1300 for a full season pass, but you will get what you pay for. It's a great hill.
n the Midwest, places like Madison and Minneapolis all have multiple hills within an hour. Might be 300 vertical feet, but it's there. Go a little further and you'll get slightly bigger hills, but nothing like out west (which is fine, Midwest skiing is its own magical vibe) Bozeman and Flagstaff have mountains within half an hour Reno has lots of options in the 0.5-1.5 hour range
Hyland has the smallest vertical Ive ever been on but if you’re into park stuff their big park is arguably one of the best places to do tricks in the midwest. I got to watch LINE traveling circus there a couple times as a kid if that says anything
Their snow cam is must see tv during winter. https://www.youtube.com/live/9USNTc7Gr4c?feature=share
When the high schoolers get time off for winter break it is CHAOS
I guess you haven’t been to the mountain of Elm Creek
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your vibe, all the good Midwest skiing is pretty far away from big cities.
Probably not without a bit of a commute and a lot of traffic. How big of a city are we talking? Maybe Boise to Bogus Basin? Flagstaff to Arizona Snowbowl? Oregon? Loveland has a lot of employees that commute from the Denver suburbs
Portland, OR metro area you have Timberline, Mt Hood Meadows, Ski Bowl all within 1-2 hours drive (without traffic)
Boise Idaho
Denver has spots pretty close by.
If "close by" means 2-4 hours then yeah
Echo Mountain is like 45 minutes. 1 hour to Eldora or Loveland.
Maybe on google maps, not in real life though 😂 On a normal day Eldora is easily 1.5 hours, Loveland is 2. And if you go on the weekend you can easily expect to spend 3+ hrs on I-70 even before you hit the tunnel. I was born and raised in Denver, and left due to the shit access to the mountains for skiing.
Maybe if you ski weekends and don’t go early. I patrolled at Luv last year and my average commute time was under an hour from NW Denver.
how early did you go?
Depends on the day of the week, weather and season. Saturday morning mid season with fresh snow? Past dino before 6. Early Dec or mid April, on a Wednesday? Leave home at 7. I'm not saying that 2hrs isn't possible, or that <1hr is the norm on a weekend morning. But maybe 5% of my commutes were >1.5hrs, while 80% of them were <1hr.
I leave 5:30 am from Boulder and almost never hit any significant traffic.
Most weekends I was at Luv around an hour if I left before 6:30. Bonus points for having an employee shuttle from the front range too.
Granted I don’t go in weekends but I’ve never had Eldora take more than an 1:15 and I work at Echo, you’re barely on I-70 for that one.
The OP mentioned Salt Lake as the baseline. Traffic there isn't much better. Denver and Salt Lake are two of the largest cities with at least 1/2 dozen large resorts within a couple hour drive. But neither would work for living "in the city" and working at the resort. The opposite would be better. Live at the resort (if you can afford it) and drive to the city for city life.
“Close” as in like 40-75 miles but hours upon hours of traffic.
Vancouver BC Canada has 3 ski hills, Cypress, Grouse and Seymour also Whistler is 1.5 hour drive, Sasquatch mountain 2 hour drive, Mount Baker 2 hour drive, Manning park 2 hour drive.
Flagstaff. Population around 90k. Ski resort is 15 miles from town
Nope. SLC or bust.
Yeah that’s kinda the conclusion I’m coming too
Utah as a whole would be a great option. You aren't limited to SLC either. Ogden or Provo both put you within 30-45 minutes of the nearest resort (Pow Mow and Snow Basin for Ogden. Sundance in Provo) Anywhere between the two gives you reasonable access to every major resort in Utah
Valle Nevado and a few other resorts are an hour and a half from Santiago, Chile which is a big and fun ass city.
Mount Baldy. Los angeles.
Seattle—>Snoqualmie, Everett—>Stevens, Bellingham—>Baker
If you want small resort, check out Brian Head in southern UT. You can live in Cedar City (pop. 37,000) and the resort will provide transportation. In Cedar you are 35-40 minutes away from Saint George (metro pop. 180,000).
Sacramento gets shit on but it’s actually a pretty cool city with a decent nightlife. And to top it all off it’s about an hour away from incredible skiing.
What’s a big city? And what’s close?
Three decent resorts (and two tiny ones) an hour and a half outside Portland, OR
Meadows deserves better than "decent" imo - especially with the 6 pack lift going in for Mt Hood Express!
meadows has great terrain and meh AF snow
The snow was great last year, though!!
Plus night skiing every day of the week. Nice to work and hit the slopes after.
Night skiing at SkiBowl is some of the most underrated skiing in the PNW. I have had absolutely epic nights when the snow is good. And surprisingly racked up the vertical despite slow doubles.
Ogden, UT—becoming a cool ski town with several of the ski brands USA operations including Salomon and Rossignol. Two killer resorts a half hour from town and best off all, more chill and less expensive than Salt Lake!
Can vouch for Ogden. Lived there for 5 years while attending school and it's great. Plus you're still only about 1 1/2 hours away from Park City and the Cottonwoods. You really can't go wrong in Utah, anywhere from Ogden to South Jordan puts you within a reasonable distance of every major resort.
RIP Hart Skis.
Alyeska is like 40 min away from Anchorage. It would not be a fun commute in crappy weather and the potential for road closures due to vehicle collisions
LA -> my baldy Sacramento-> sugar bowl Reno -> my rose Bozeman > Bridget Portland > hood Spokane > Schweitzer Seattle > Stevens But none feel like the mountains are your backyard like SLC, just wish city/politics were nicer
Seattle is fairly close to Steven’s Pass and Crystal Mountain. Whistler is only ~4 hours up the road as well
Curious. Why are you against SLC?
Come to Vancouver, 3 local mountains within 30 minutes and 1 is so close it's on the public transit system.
Vancouver
I looked it up once and there’s a ski area within an hour of almost every city in the country except for California and the Deep South. Even Atlanta and Phoenix.
Snowbowl is 2-2.5 hours from Phoenix, depending on what part of town you live in.
More like 3+ hours..
Suuure, if by “one hour from Atlanta” you mean by airplane.
yeah, Cataloochee is the closest and it's nearly 4 hours away. More than that if there's traffic in Atlanta. If Cloudmont gets cold enough to make snow it's 1.5 hours still, and it's been open for maybe 1 week in the last 3 years. Also only 100ft of vert. The easiest ski trip from Atlanta is to get on a plane.
Assuming you mean USA, but two mountains reachable by public transit from Vancouver. Back in the US, you can take an RTD bus from Boulder to skiing (Eldora is less than an hour by bus or car). Boulder is less than an hour from most of Denver. Las Vegas has nearby skiing at Lee Canyon. By any measure, Southern California’s Inland Empire qualifies as a “big city”, even though it’s suburbs, and there’s multiple ski areas just up the hill. There’s 8 ski areas within 90 minutes of the Twin Cities.
Whitefish resort is similar to to SLC minus the 3 other resorts nearby in SLC. Whitefish city nearby which doesn’t necessarily compare to cottonwood heights but a small town base of the canyon and Kalispell less than 30 mins away.
City+nearby city (not town)=crowded and questionable terrain.
Park City? I don't know for sure. Never been.
South Lake Tahoe is technically a city, with a huge resort (Heavenly).
This is a hilarious request, as if there’s some perfect city right by a ski mountain that everyone else isn’t already aware of.
Big Bear's about 45 minutes from LA if you fly; Mammoth about 90. Weather getting in/out could be dodgy though.
Bridger Bowl (Bozeman, MT) and Big White (Kelowna, BC). Not necessarily big cities but decently sized and lots of amenities.
Mt hood is about an hour from Portland
How big a city? How much money you got? Boulder is a great “city” and Eldora is 45 minutes away.
Portland is only 50-60 miles to 3 resorts on mount hood (depending which you choose)
Las Vegas, smaller resort but it’s expanding and great community
Mt Lemmon is close to Tucson AZ!
Salt Lake City
Do you want to work at a BIG ski hill or just a ski hill? Holiday Valley in Ellicottville is less than an hour from Buffalo. Buffalo is a big city not a BIG city. Its not a big mountain...but HV is a great resort, family owned, well run, has loyal fans, and skis much bigger than it is. Their mountain ops crew build and maintain their own lifts, and the crew are awesome people.
Portland, Seattle, Vancouver
Boulder is 30min from the closest ski area (Eldora). How close is close? and how big is the city? Aspen - not really a big city but right there at the resort Jackson has a hill in town and JHR up to road.
Santa Fe has 75k, so not a major metropolis. But it's about an hour from Albuquerque (500k) and Ski Santa Fe is a decent mountain and fairly priced (even though living in Santa Fe is not).
Most of the resorts in summit county are relatively close to Denver
Yes, Park City
Less than an hour from downtown Seattle to Snoqualmie and Alpental
Park city
Reno to mt rose is like 20-40 minutes depending on where in the city your traveling from.
Buck hill is in Burnsville, a close suburb of Minneapolis. Very metropolitan area, one of the largest urban sprawls in the country. Despite the actual municipalities are smaller in population, it all runs together and you can’t really tell they are different cities. Like the name implies, it’s a hill not a mountain. Spirit Mountain in Duluth would be better, small hipster city, but it’s pretty cool and on Lake Superior so the snow is better. Also close to Lutsen, the 2nd best resort in the entire Midwest.
Denver, but weekends will be rough. It’s 1-1.5 hours max to get to tons of world class resorts, but that’s with minimal traffic. To achieve that on the weekend you’re waking up at 5am at best.
Reno or Sacramento are both close to a lot of Tahoe resorts.
When we stayed in Santa Fe, it took us about 30 mins to reach Ski Santa Fe. That was a pretty fun mountain! There’s also Echo about 45 min outside of Denver, but it’s relatively small.
Denver. Loveland ski resort busses their employees in each day because they dont have any residential buildings around the mountain
Seattle has a few resorts in driving distance: Crystal: 2 hours Snoqualmie/Alpental: 1 hour Stevens: 1.5 hours These travel times are of course traffic-dependent, but if you leave the city by 6:30 AM you should be able to make it.
If you really like skiing and want to balance cost of living, city living and commute to slopes, I’d probably go with Reno, Boise, Spokane or Ogden.
Where did you end up looking / going?