I never realized that particular fantasy in my not-so-wild youth, but in recent years I have enjoyed fully attired skiing beside some beautiful bodies of water. Getting to the point, one of my favorite aspects of our sport is soaking-up the attendant outdoor scenery. I love clear mountain vistas, forests blanketed with snow to the far off horizon, and if all the stars align - making tracks while gazing at a spectacular alpine lake just beyond the ski trails.
My bucket list of dazzling ski layouts where sea meets snow is certainly incomplete, but I’ve seen and photographed enough of them now to trigger fond memories. There are countless gorgeous ski areas without lakeside settings, but you have to admit proximity to a deep blue lake or silvery frozen body of water adds a glamorous and exotic touch to any ski resort. With this in mind I offer descriptions and photos of my list of top ten sea & ski locations I have personally visited. Most of the photos that follow were taken by me (except Timberline and Gunstock) and reflect the evolution of my digital cameras and/or lousy picture taking skills.
Honorable mention - Timberline, WV. The Canaan Valley/Timberline area is not one that immediately comes to mind in the sea & ski category, but from the right angle, on the right day, and by the right photographer the view of Spruce Island Lake from White Lightning Trail is almost heaven.
10. Gunstock Mountain Resort, NH. It was so freakin’ cold and snowy the day two buddies and I skied Gunstock back in February 1995 that we didn’t spend much time admiring the view. However, it’s a stunner of Lake Winnipesaukee. It’s the largest lake in NH approximately 20 miles long and 10 miles wide in spots.
9. Alpine Meadows, CA. Pardon my hubris, but you know it’s going to be a good list when a Lake Tahoe resort is only number nine. Nearby Squaw Valley has similar views, just a little farther from the lake.
8. Snowbasin, UT. This is a bit of a cheat since Snowbasin is not really lakeside, but from the 9,366-foot summit of the Mt. Allen Tram you can look off the backside of the mountain for a peek at the Great Salt Lake about 15 miles to the west. It’s pretty dang awesome from a jet airliner sort of perspective.
7. Zell am See, Austria. “Zellon the lake” is the only lakeside resort I’ve skied in the Alps. This is an old, low-resolution 2003 photo and what you don’t get from it is that to the skier’s right there is an incredible complementary view of the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier (el 10,509’).
6. Keystone, CO. You don’t often hear about the terrific view of Dillon Reservoir from Keystone’s slopes and it was a pleasant surprise for me during a first ever visit there in 2007. I’m told this might be higher on my list if I saw this 9,000-foot seascape in early ski season before the surface freezes over. This photo was taken from Schoolmarm, which on a quiet day is one of America’s sweetest green circle runs.
Wisp, MD. I want to show some love for a local resort that cracks my top five. If you’ve never skied at Wisp, set beside Deep Creek Lake (~12 miles long), you need to get there on a pretty day and check out Eye Opener trail. In my honest opinion it features the nicest view in mid-Atlantic skiing. This is one of my favorite family ski photos, taken in December 2002 after an ice storm that was capped off by six inches of fluffy snow.
Heavenly, CA. Heavenly has a mini-Vegas at the base of its extensive trail layout, that and the sublime views imbue it with international drawing power. What makes Lake Tahoe extraordinarily scenic is that the water is always a piercing cobalt blue regardless of the season. The lake is 1,644 feet deep and never freezes. If you put on scuba gear and started from Heavenly’s summit you could (theoretically) ski a run with a total vertical drop of 5,400 feet!
3. Saddleback, ME. The Appalachian Trail transits Saddleback Mountain and the highest ski terrain has a pristine, side-country feel that during my visit in March 2012 included runs with deeply drifted snow. The panorama from the summit includes not just one lake, but a bunch of them as far as the eye can see deep into western Maine lake country. This one low resolution shot was all I got of the great view on a day when my camera kept freezing up. The picture doesn’t do it justice.
2. Le Massif, Quebec: This gem of a resort about an hour outside Quebec City ranks high on my list because of its singular mountain-maritime locale. The trail layout drops about 2,500 vertical feet to within a couple hundred yards of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, a river that becomes an ocean-like estuary nearly 15 miles wide in this part of Canada. Blocks of ice the size of 18-wheelers litter the shoreline in a magnificent setting that looks like something out of Lord of the Rings.
1. Homewood, CA. This photo of my son Vince taken on New Year’s Day 2013 says all you need to know about Homewood: good snow, good terrain, good weather, and mind blowing scenery. The lake feels close enough to dip your ski tips in it. The word that comes to mind is mesmerizing. Beware, on a clear day the scenery is so distracting at Homewood that you might forget to apply the Sea & Ski.
Other great sea & ski locations around the world: Alyeska-AK, Whitefish-MT, Schweitzer-ID, Big Squaw-ME, Mt. Snow (North Face)-VT, Sunapee-NH, Chestnut Mountain-IL, Mt. Bohemia-MI, Lake Louise-Alberta, Grouse Mtn-British Columbia, Mont Tremblant-Quebec, Bariloche-Argentina, Portillo-Chile, Treble Cone-New Zealand, St. Moritz-Switzerland, Tignes-France, Mottarone by Lake Maggiore-Italy.
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