Skiers/Boarders - Winter in Canada or the USA?

[Ragingrob]

Winter in Canada or The USA? Which and why? Pros and cons? Your thoughts please!

Planning on a trip this coming NZ summer for 3-4 months and am having trouble deciding where to. I'm after some awesome snow, lots of good runs, not overly busy, good party atmosphere on the weekend, inexpensive rent and plenty of jobs available. Haha so any information from experience/hearing stories would be good.

Much appreciated, help me narrow myself down to a country! USA/Canada??

[EJK]

Fiji

+10char

[Hitcher]

My limited knowledge of the world's physical geography reveals that not only do the USA and Canada have winter at exactly the same time of the year, they also share a border. Within a few hours' drive one can ski in either country. Very convenient!

[Ragingrob]

My limited knowledge of the world's physical geography reveals that not only do the USA and Canada have winter at exactly the same time of the year, they also share a border. Within a few hours' drive one can ski in either country. Very convenient!

Haha very true, alas I am looking for somewhere to be based.

[McWild]

I've only skied in Canada out of the two, but if it were my choice I would go Canada. Not for the snow, as it's bound to be identical or very very similar, but more for the immigration and legal aspects. Lets face it there's a fair chance you'll get injured in several months worth of skiing daily, and I would much rather deal with Canadian healthcare than the USA's. From what I have heard and read Canada also tends to have more multicultural ski-town communities, probably for the immigration aspect which I mentioned.

I can also vouch for Big White and Silverstar as awesome mountains with awesome towns. Big White in particular has a WICKED on mountain township with lots of bars and lots of really chill people working throughout. I think you would find it easier to get a job there than at Silverstar, as the community there is less on mountain and more in the base town. If you were working it would be more likely to be in the township.
Snow wise the two mountains are really different, more in the runs that you are afforded. I preferred Silverstar's terrain as there was a shit ton of technical double black diamond trails through trees, really isolated. It didn't have as much in the way of supersteep, but wide faces though, and the terrain park, whilst plenty to keep you entertained, was nowhere near the scale of Big White's. It didn't have an isolated park chair.
Big White is fantastic also though, lots of faces but with enough technical stuff to keep you busy, but certainly not to the extent of Silverstar. Park was wicked fun though, had its own 2 seater chairlift and all sorts of different features.

I would recommend Big White. Hopefully I'll be making the same decision not too far away.
Keep us updated on where you're off to please. Also I know that post sort of went into a monologue but I could write pages on that particular trip.

[ac3_snow]

haha so a ski town with heapsa snow mean runs, wicked parties... BUT not too many people and cheap rent. Good luck with that one bro!!

My recomendation would prolly be canada eh. People just seeem to be friendlier etc. plus its just cool.
Spent christmas just gone over there a first weekend in whistler, then down to mt bachelor in oregon USA then got to go to kicking horse in Golden BC Canada.
Kicking horse is SICK we didnt even have any fresh snow (just a dusting the night we arrived) but was real cool terrain steep and knarly. Only downfall was the mountain seemed to be run by auzzies! that appears to be the same with alot of places over there tho..
But any way the national park near there BANF is a pretty sweet place to be theres a few different mountains there plus kicking horse then revel stoke another hour away all getting mad POW too. plus not soo much golden but I beleive BANF has a half dece party vibe (dont quote me on that tho).
I gotta mate who works in keystone as well reckons thats the place to be in the states he alterantes between there and turoa. Its all goood tho whereever you go is gotta be better than the snow here!
don't work at cyprus or grouse near vancouver waste of fucking time. Whistler is MASSIVE but not realy the friendly little cheap rent place ur afta

[ac3_snow]

TIP: is you ride greyhound any where over there leave extra time incase you bus is delayed/missed/slow/whatever, so you dont miss a connection sumwhr.

[Ragingrob]

Thought I'd quickly update this thread so it's not left hanging.

I ended up going for Canada. Went through Overseas Working Holidays, who set me up with a job and accommodation in Whistler, BC, helped sort my working visa, insurance and also scored me a $1,699 return flight Auckland to Vancouver. November 2010 saw me head over with three other mates, our accommodation was a 10min walk from the center of the village and cost $14 a night (inc. all power and water). My best mate and I had decided to be lifties and I managed to get based on Harmony, one of the alpine lifts with a bucket-load of snow around. All set!

The 2010/2011 season was pretty sweet, I think we had a total of 13 metres of snow over the season with some really decent falls (over 2m in a week) to get some solid powder riding where you're waist-deep in snow. Had a great time over there, you get paid crap all but can ride so much it didn't matter. I worked a 4 days on, 3 days off schedule until Christmas and then decided to just do 3 days on, 4 off for the rest of the season to get even more riding in. Even the days we worked, I could manage 5 or 6 decent runs during my shift. The shifts were pretty full on though, starting work at 630am when it's pitch black and freezing, finishing work at 6pm when it's just about pitch black and freezing again. Pretty mind-numbing work but it's all good fun and I met a bunch of cool people (mostly Aussies ).

The Whistler climate is pretty mild, averaging about 0 degrees Celsius over the season. A few cold snaps in January where it was a flat -29 degrees, hitting -50 or colder up the chairlifts with the wind chill... I had to keep telling people to go back to the cafe as they didn't realise they had the first stages of frost bite on the tips of their ears or nose.

The highlight of my 5 months in Canada was a road trip me and about 10 mates organised. We hired a 15 seater v8 Chevy from Vancouver and took it all the way through to Banff. We managed to ski at Revelstoke (AMAZING!), Sunshine, Sun Peaks, Lake Louise and Norquay... I think that was it, was a while ago now haha.

And that was about that, I didn't get eaten by a bear or cougar so that's a plus! I'll leave you with a few photos to liven things up...

Lost in Vancouver with a truckload of gear.


Powder day!


The roadtrip crew.


"Onesies" Wednesday!


Whistler Terrain Park.


Some of the flatties, plus our PBR beer wall.

[sil3nt]

Awesome!

Me and the girlfriend are planning on doing this. My brother (who doesn't skid or board) just did this and is still in Canada working. Unfortunately he got stuck working Loch Lomond ski field which is not what I would want at all. I would be stoked if I got to work on Whistler.

Hopefully we can do 13/14 season as I don't think it will happen this year

Which company did you use? Overseas Working Holidays appears to be Australian http://www.owh.com.au/

[Ragingrob]

Awesome!

Me and the girlfriend are planning on doing this. My brother (who doesn't skid or board) just did this and is still in Canada working. Unfortunately he got stuck working Loch Lomond ski field which is not what I would want at all. I would be stoked if I got to work on Whistler.

Hopefully we can do 13/14 season as I don't think it will happen this year

Which company did you use? Overseas Working Holidays appears to be Australian http://www.owh.com.au/

Try www.owh.co.nz

From memory they worked through flight centre and maybe student flights as well, and they get people from Aussie, NZ, UK, even Africa. OWH now has exclusive rights to employing people at Whistler too, so if you're keen on Whistler definitely go straight to OWH, cost me about $700 to sort my job and everything but you get such a good discount on flights that the cost evens out easily. Make sure you get in quick to have your pick of the jobs too!

[dogsnbikes]

Onya Rob reminds me of the good ole days,When I went to Swtizerland for the winter....Brought a season pass for Davos/Klosters which covered 11 ski fleids and connecting trains and buses, didn't work just became a Ski/Snowboard bum...Made a few contacts for Switzerland while working at Ruapehu during the 90's which made it easy getting Free Accomadation,

[dogsnbikes]

Awesome!

Me and the girlfriend are planning on doing this. My brother (who doesn't skid or board) just did this and is still in Canada working. Unfortunately he got stuck working Loch Lomond ski field which is not what I would want at all. I would be stoked if I got to work on Whistler.

Hopefully we can do 13/14 season as I don't think it will happen this year

Which company did you use? Overseas Working Holidays appears to be Australian http://www.owh.com.au/

Get work at a local ski field next season as most have exchange's with European/North American ski areas