Good & Cheap Ski resort in US for Intermediates?

[scarymamma]

Hi - looking to ski for the first time in the US at Xmas 2012.
Can anyone recommend a good yet cheap resort that's not full of posers!
Child care's not an issue as DS and DD are now old enough to ski with us. Ideally good for intermediates with lots of reds!

Breckenridge.

Canada rather than US but Mont Tremblant in Quebec might fit the bill. It's cold though so you'd need good gear! You could fly to Montreal for an acclimatising / jetlag recovery couple of days first.

try Silver Star in Canada - we went last half term and was fab - stayed in firelight lodge, new apartmants nr activity area - only small village but lots of activites for kids - the tube slide was fab!

Santa Fe is quite cheap (although there are posers). A lot of the New Mexico resorts are cheap but their idea of a red may not be your idea, when we were there my elder 2 DCs skied all the runs including the blacks mainly as the runs are graded red/black because they are narrow rather than steep or hard.

Lake Tahoe has some great little areas off the beaten track that are cheap, we found several that were just a little hut at the bottom of a mountain then when you got further up the runs started and they were good. We were passing through once with no kit at all (it was March so not even coats) and hired all kit/skis/lift pass for $65 each. The main resort however is expensive in comparison

Agree with others though Canada is way better.

Snowmass? Aspen without the posing basically! Although I think Aspen is pretty good as well. I would suggest Jackson Hole for an awesome resort and it's not as difficult as you might think.

Canada is also good - Whistler and Lake Louise for example.

I am quite keen on Breckenridge this season...time to get my 3yo on skis and they look to have an excellent kids program (as do Whistler but DH not keen on going back as he thinks it is boring!)

I don't think snowmass or Jackson are great for families with younger children, unless the flights are direct now?

I wouldn't have said Jackson was an intermediate resort either!

I think you can fly direct to Denver now?

But, yes, maybe not Jackson given the flights but it is honestly not as difficult as it's reputation suggests. Just avoid Corbett's!

It's a heck of a drive from Denver!

winter park colorado!!

I haven't been there for ages, but I used to ski in Sussex County, NJ, which had Great Gorge/Vernon Valley (and a few other smaller places are nearby). I'm having a hard time finding current information, but it's apparently still open.

I'd never been to the Rockies, but since NJ is a helluva lot less of a journey (transatlantic plane into NYC, no internal flight, apx 1.5 hour drive from NYC), it's probably worth considering.

The Appalachian mountains aren't as big as the Rockies, of course, and therefore probably not as many expert runs, but if you're after intermediate, you might find New Jersey more convenient.

I hear upstate New York is pretty nice, but don't have any resort names (past or present) to throw at you. When I was skiing in NJ, I used to hear of Vermont being the most expensive of the [New York City weekend] area, may still be.

Have fun!

Whistler is amazing, huge and great for intermediates. I wouldn't call it cheap though.

Copper Mountain (Co) is good for intermediates and when I went (2006) you got a free lift pass if you were staying in the resort, which makes a difference. This also allowed you to jump any lift queues, in the unlikely event of you finding one; outside the weekends the place was deserted. The nightlife is a bit quiet and being high (the base is 10000 feet) means you feel like you have a permanent hangover for the first couple of days. But the skiing was excellent and the lift pass gets you a free day in Vail and a couple of other places.