Best Colleges for Skiing/ Snowboarding

<p>Speaking as someone who lives in L.A., I wouldn't recommend Big Bear. Too icy, mostly artificial snow. The double blacks there are comparable to blue/blacks at Mammoth.</p>

<p>You're lucky to be up in Tahoe. I've only been to Heavenly and Northstar, but I loved it.</p>

<p>But Mammoth is definitely worthwhile.</p>

<p>I've never been on the east coast, so I can't say, but friends that live over there come west to ski, for however much that's worth.</p>

<p>Williams definitely. Skiing and boarding are major pasttimes. During Winter Study (January term during which kids take one fun or unusual class) the college runs daily shuttles. It would fit academically with the other schools that you are looking at as well.</p>

<p>Washington Seattle has some good skiing within two hours. Hard to beat Utah and Boulder though. Close and excellent with student deals.</p>

<p>I guess anything in Colorado</p>

<p>If you've been boarding in Tahoe, you will be horribly disappointed with the east coast mountains (and I say this as someone who grew up skiing/boarding in Tahoe and then moved east right before college). Anything in the Bay Area will get you there in 5 hours or less. There's also Davis, and I did look briefly at Sierra Nevada College if for no other reason than it is right there. Reed also has a cabin on Mt Hood and anything in the Seattle-Tacoma area will get you good day-trip skiing and also good-better skiing in longer trips. And of course anything in the rockies.</p>

<p>Western Washington University in the NW of the Pacific Northwest, an unsung gem, is about 1 hour from Mt. Baker, considered by many to be the birthplace of snowboarding, and about 3 hours from Whistler in British Columbia. Can't get much better boarding than these two areas.</p>

<p>Cerro Coso Community College in Mammoth and other locations along the Eastern Sierra. You can transfer to a 4-year college, like Davis, Cal State Sacramento or Berkeley, and be a few hour drive from Tahoe.</p>

<p>It depends on what you mean by a top school. Here's a quick rundown on some states, schools, and the skiiing.</p>

<p>Washington: The best regarded school in the state is probably Whitman. It's within 5 hours of day skiing in the Cascades, but those areas are small, the snow is wet, and the lodging is spartan, at best. The best skiing in Washington, I believe, is at Crystal Mountain, and from the direction, it may be more than five hours. I think there are a number of Idaho areas within that distance, however, including Schweitzer, Silver Mountain, Brundage, and Bogus Basin. I'm guessing that Sun Valley may be just on the edge of five hours, but I don't know.</p>

<p>If you want to consider the University of Washington, then Crystal Mountain plus the small areas are an easy drive. The small areas on I90, in fact, have night skiing, so it's very possible to head up after the school day. But the vertical on these areas is rarely more than 900 feet, so it's not the best skiing in the world.</p>

<p>On the other hand, it's about 4.5 hours to Whistler/Blackcomb north of Vancouver, BC. Those mountains are simply fabulous. Sometimes, there's little or no snow at the bottom, but that really doesn't matter. Each mountain has at least a mile of vertical! I'm not kidding.</p>

<p>Oregon: Reed is within distance of Mt. Hood but, once again, skiiing in both Washington and Oregon is pretty primitive. Still, you can get up pretty high on Hood, so the snow is a bit better than in Washington.</p>

<p>California: The Claremont Colleges are probably about five hours or so from Mammoth. Obviously, Berkeley should be within five hours of Tahoe, and Stanford, though across the Bay, comes close.</p>

<p>Colorado: The only school in this state that most would consider "top" (other than the Air Force Academy) is Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Certainly, the Summit County resorts (Breckenridge, Loveland Pass, Keystone, Copper Mountain) are within five hours, as well as Winter Park which is a bit closer. You might even be within five hours of Telluride and Gunnison, though I'm not sure about that. If the University of Colorado qualifies, it is also within five hours of the Summit resorts and Winter Park, plus (probably) Vail and Beaver Creek.</p>

<p>New England: I'm not completely sure about this, but I think that just about every place in New England is within five hours of some resort, somewhere.</p>

<p>Utah: I'm not sure you'd agree that any of the schools there are top, but if that doesn't matter to you so much, ANY school in the Salt Lake area or suburbs would be within very easy reach of some fabulous skiing.</p>

<p>Idaho: See Utah, but the skiing isn't quite as good.</p>

<p>Montana and Wyoming: Big Mountain, Big Sky, and (of course) Jackson Hole are good to great resorts, but I don't think they're really near much of anything.</p>

<p>Utah has the best snow, w/ CO as a close 2nd. So anything close to Salt Lake, or if western Colorado, Western State, Ft Lewis, Mesa. CU-Boulder if you want a good school.</p>

<p>I'd say that Colorado College to Breckenridge is just a 2 hour drive (US 24 to CO 9) -- I think that Tarhunt was assuming that you'd drive up I25 over Monument and then west on 70, but I wouldn't bother with that. Monarch is also reasonable (and in a different weather area) and you can get to quite a few others from the Breckenridge area. </p>

<p>If you're at CU Boulder, the easiest skiing by far is Eldora. The RTD bus (and all students get RTD passes automatically) goes from downtown right up to the front of the ski lodge -- it takes about 40 minutes. Eldora's improved its skiing a lot in the past few years -- a lot of snowmaking equipment has been added, and new lifts and back areas opened. There's also a cheap ski bus that leaves (really early) from CU on the weekends to go up to one of the Summit County resorts like Breckenridge.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I think that Tarhunt was assuming that you'd drive up I25 over Monument and then west on 70,

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yep. That's what I was assuming. Obviously, I don't know that area all that well. Thanks for the correction.</p>

<p>University of Utah in SLC.
But to really be close to the "best kept secret" you should move to Ogden and attend Weber State Univeristy . I have heard that it is 20 min. from
Snowbasin</a> Resort; a Year-Round Resort - Utah's most asked about resort
I have tried this mountain and it is just superb. Two gondolas, tram, no lines.
They had Super G here during Salt Lake Olympics</p>

<p>Kelowna:</p>

<p>Good get! I concur.</p>

<p>Reviving a dead thread, but are all of these recomendations for advanced skiers and boarders, or would beginners be ok at them, too? It would suck to go somewhere and have basically no intermediate or novice slopes.</p>

<p>great discussion on this is here:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/220641-best-colleges-skiing-snowboarding.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/220641-best-colleges-skiing-snowboarding.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Stay west. East coast skiing pales in comparison. </p>

<p>I'd do Colorado College or CU Boulder.</p>

<p>My son's at the University of Denver. He loves being close to the slopes (he and his friends were at Vail last week) while being in and taking advantage of a great city....he is having the best of both worlds.</p>

<p>U OF VERMONT, my sons good friend who graduated last year, was #1 in his class and apparently got into many schools, but also loved loved snowboarding and chose U VERMONT and is supposedbly over the top happy.</p>

<p>I'd stay where I had access to the Sierra or the Rockies. The Colorado schools are mostly close to great hills and just about every CSU and UC campus offers outdoor clubs that take cheap trips up to the mountains. You could go up to any of the excellent LACs or publics in Oregon or Washington too and continue to have great access to great hills. You also may want to check out Carroll College in Helena Montana. It's 22 miles from Great Divide Ski resort. An excellent school and a total bargain though today it's 13 below on campus. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr</p>

<p>Outdoor rec opportunities are a criteria for my daughters to. It's an important consideration when trying to determine how well you will fit.</p>

<p>G’day I am an Australian student from Sydney and I was wondering just that. I am doing my Masters of International Business at UWS and I want to study in the US (your dollar is really struggling which is great news for us) And I wanna go to a Uni that is close to the slopes. I will be without a car and I know that you Americans do alot of things well (America f#@% yeah…) but public transport isn’t really one of them. So the list of exchange options that I have are on this website. </p>

<p>[ISEP</a> - Directory of US Member Universities](<a href=“Isep.org”>Isep.org) </p>

<p>From this thread it appears that Vermont and Salt Lake City are my best option. I heard though that you can’t buy full strenght beer in Utah and for an Aussie this would be a deal breaker. Also Burlington looks like a really small place but it is closer to Boston, NYC etc. Plus Burlington does seem to lack public transport to the slopes.</p>

<p>Also I will be living on campus so I would need to know if it’s like fun or not. So yeah please help with your advice! The skiing in Australia is pretty rubbish and I am pretty average so if the snow isn’t amazing that won’t matter so much.</p>