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Forbes Announces 10 Best Ski Resorts for Families

Forbes Magazine recently announced their list of the 10 Best Ski Resorts for Families in the U.S. and Canada."The best (ski resorts) offer excellent group and private instruction geared towards children of all ages, plus dedicated teaching areas on the slopes. Many have free or discounted lift tickets, equipment rentals, and even lessons for children. For non-skiing members of the family, they should have day care or supervised kid’s camps with a variety of activities. Ski resorts and towns can also be family friendly off the slopes. There should be a variety of family entertainment options for evenings, nights, and non-ski days. While posh boutiques and glamorous cocktail hours attract many to resorts like Aspen, these are not nearly as big selling points for families as having a mountain coaster or zip lines. There should be a wide variety of reasonably priced family restaurants, and ideally, lodging that caters to families, like condos with multiple bedrooms and a kitchen for eating breakfast in, a touch many families 

Go Tahoe for a heavenly ski vacation

DINO VOURNAS
Northstar-At-Tahoe ski resort's front-side is a complex of some of the best ego-building, perfectly-groomed terrain for beginners and intermediates in the Sierra.

Lake Tahoe has a vibrant bar and club scene at the resorts, and there are gaming casinos in North and South Lake and in nearby Reno.

Snow falls on Commercial Row in old Truckee, Calif., near Lake Tahoe. About 800 inches of snow fell around Lake Tahoe last season.

Northstar-At-Tahoe ski resort's front-side is a complex of some of the best ego-building, perfectly-groomed terrain for beginners and intermediates in the Sierra. DINO VOURNAS


Lake Tahoe has a vibrant bar and club scene at the resorts, and there are gaming casinos in North and South Lake and in nearby Reno.


Snow falls on Commercial Row in old Truckee, Calif., near Lake Tahoe. About 800 inches of snow fell around Lake Tahoe last season.

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These words and similar accolades, uttered by the entranced, surely helped hasten the influx of visitors to Lake Tahoe. They arrived first to work, then to enjoy the waters and vistas of summer. Later on, in the mid-20th century, the excitement and challenge of winter sports came to call.

So what should you expect, flying from Florida -- over two perfectly good ski mountain ranges -- to ski the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe? Simply put, expect the greatest overall skiing and riding experience in these United States.
Tahoe, 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, is the largest Alpine lake in North America and straddles the states of California and Nevada, about 45 miles from Reno and 200 miles from San Francisco. Taken as a whole and in no particular order, Lake Tahoe has:

Weather: An average winter high of 43 degrees, mostly sunny weather, with very rare instances of bitter cold, unlike the inner ranges.

Snow: Usually lots of it. About 800 inches (that's 67 feet!) last season, with 40-plus powder days, and averaging 350 to 500 inches of great quality snow.

Resorts: Three mega-sized and seven large-to-moderate ski areas, and a huge Nordic resort, surround the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Terrain: Appeals on all levels. Squaw Valley is internationally known for its steeps. Snowmaking at Heavenly and Northstar is among the best in the United States.

Scenery: Most resorts have gorgeous views of the Sierra Range and the always-blue, never-frozen Lake Tahoe; and snow-laden evergreens beat bare-naked aspens anytime.

Real, small towns and Reno: Sure, you have the A-Class trappings, but real towns mean good, cheaper options for lodging and food.

Apres-ski: They have the jubilant bar and club scene at the resorts, but there's also an assortment of gaming casinos in North and South Lake and in nearby Reno. They offer 24/7 entertainment, gaming and great bargains in lodging and food.

Whistler – one of the popular ski resorts in Canada

Whistler ski resort is one of the major resort in Canada and is located in British Columbia. It is located in close proximity to Vancouver. All through the summer months Whistler offers golf, fishing, mountain biking, white-water rafting, natural parks, and hiking trails.

Placed within the huge shadows of the snowy white-capped towering peaks of Blackcomb Mountains, Whistler is regarded as one of the most popular mountain resort that is visited throughout the year.



Whistler is located in the northern region of Vancouver over the scenic Sea-to-Sky Highway (Highway 99) in Canada. Every year, Whistler attracts almost around two million extreme sports fanatics and outdoor enthusiasts from each and every corner of the world. Snowboarders and skiers will be surely delighted, since at this mountain resort they are provided with more than 200 trails of soft powdery white-colored stuff. The various other activities at Whistler, which are enjoyed in winter, are ice skating, snowshoeing, heli-skiing, dog sledding, sleigh rides, snowmobiling and many others.



All through the spring season the white snow and freeze ice starts melting. This is the time when Whistler starts transforming itself into a grand paradise for the hikers, rock-climbers, and bikers. The various other activities at Whistler, which are enjoyed in summer, are fishing, rafting, canoeing, paintball, and bungee jumping. Apart from being a wonderful ski-resort, Whistler is also one of the popular world-class golf destinations. The astonishing mountain landscape provides the perfect backdrop for numerous challenging courses.



For all those who are quite fitness conscious and love spending their time indoors, simply don’t have to worry here, since the Meadow Park Sports Center in Whistler provides you with a fully-equipped gym along with that are facilities for squash, swimming, skating, and also few fitness classes. Also, the Whistler Core & Climbing Center permits its visitors of each and every ability level, with the chance for trying out a new sport. All those you are wiling to give it a short are provided with trained climber. You can also try out the more ambitious out-of-doors climb over one of the close by mountains.
Also the non-thrill-seekers can hit upon something exciting for passing their time in Whistler. Designed for all the travelers who are looking out for some pampering, Whistler boasts numerous day salons and spas. Numerous shops, which range from the familiar retail chains up to the funky boutiques all, are offered within this village. In Whistler you will also come across trendy art galleries, exclusive museums, and a local theatre where the visitors can enjoy live performances or listen to lectures, and enjoy a cinema.

Spotlight On Tignes

Why Tignes? Simply put, it’s one of the best ski areas in the world. The village may not have the quintessential classy feel of St Moritz, Zermatt or Megève and there are no fur coats for sale in the shops! But let us not forget, Tignes’ popularity developed in the ’80’s when France brought skiing to the masses and enabled thousands of skiers just like ourselves to get cheap skiing. We crammed ourselves 6 to an apartment suitable for 2 adults of average size! But we skied and we learned and we had the time of our lives and many British skiers were able to purchase property in French ski resorts to ski even more. Try buying a property in St Moritz or Zermatt!

Now many French resorts know they have to compete and Tignes is one of these that have slowly but surely begun to remodel themselves. Go to the official Tignes website at www.tignes.net and you will immediately see what their image is all about – ‘Tignes, La Station de Ski La Plus Sportive’, ‘Tignes, the sportiest ski resort’.
So how does Tignes live up to this claim? Firstly, they have one of the longest seasons anywhere in France and most of Europe. The glacier opens on the 1^st October, the Espace Killy from the 26^th November and stays open until May 8^th. They have also recently built the ‘Lagoon’ – a leisure complex with a swimming pool equipped with slides, segregated swimming lanes, fitness, spa and sauna. And this year they’re building a high altitude sports centre complete with its own indoor running track for national teams from other sports to train at altitude. If you visit in the summer, everyone is outdoors – cycling, walking, running, playing football, basketball and volleyball. Plus there’s the lake where people launch themselves off a giant ramp practising their freeskiing!
But most importantly, it’s all about the skiing – with two great ski resorts linked to form the Espace Killy with over 300km of slopes, giving you high altitude skiing with a history of the best ski conditions around. The villages of Tignes perched at over 2,000m make it amongst the highest ski resorts in Europe. For those that want to stay on the pistes and travel, in one direction you have Les Brevieres and in the other Val d’Isère and on to Le Fornet, and if you need height you’ve got the Grande Motte Funicular that will whisk you to a height of 3456m in a matter of minutes, then up from there!
If you’re looking for the off-piste, it’s easily accessible from the lifts with an abundance of backcountry routes. Rather then discourage off-piste skiing like many areas, Tignes welcomes it, and has worked hard to ensure off-piste skiers are well educated and know the risks. They’ve built test stations where you can check your transceivers near access to off-piste and backcountry routes with comprehensive information about snow conditions, safety and hazards.
Then there’s the prices – yes all resorts are expensive these days but in Tignes there are still places where you can get a sandwich and coffee for lunch and don’t need to take out a loan! With a huge selection of accommodation in Tignes-le-Lac, le Lavachet and Val-Claret, there’s an option to suit everyones needs and pocket.
As instructors when we go skiing in Tignes we register with the Marie and have exactly the same rights as every ski school and ski instructor in Tignes – lift priority, attendance at local meetings and a say in the development of Tignes. Now that’s really something.

Popular ski and snowboard playgrounds in America

Looking for a career change? Why not get a job that comes with a powder clause. We spoke to the people who hold some of the most desirable jobs in skiing — filmmakers, product designers, marketing managers — about how to get their job.

“When your passion is your job, you never work a day in your life,” says Jordan Grano, founder of Folsom Custom Skis in Boulder, Colorado. “To have a chance to affect the industry you love in a positive way and help people enjoy their time skiing is what motivates me.” Many boutique ski companies are spawned by skiers, usually after they’re dissatisfied with the skis already out on the market. Perks include testing the skis during powder days. How to break in: Find a gap in the current market and be creative on how you can help fill it. Study ski design from other companies and stay motivated. Grano doesn’t have a degree in designing, instead he spent years doing personal, in-depth field work with skis he built before he began marketing them.

 

1. Heavenly Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., offers skiers 91 trails and 4,800 acres of terrain.