Customer Reviews

Ski North America: The Ultimate Travel Guide

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Being new to the States as well as a crazy skier I spent hours on the net trying to collect information about different resorts. This book is the first, and so far the only book, that gives very detailed, professional overview while providing non-biased information about resorts. I visited many resorts in the States in the last 2 years and compared my impressions with the reviews in the book - you can relay on the book! Great advantage of this edition is a an amount of illustrations such as aerial photos, maps of the area, etc. I wish there will be similar book about skiing in Europe.
On the down side I would expect more info about resorts on the NE (for example, my favorite Whiteface is not included).

David Holyoak's Ski North America Guide is first class. Nothing like this has been published before. This stocky, well-illustrated guide to all the significant North American ski resorts contains intelligent, un-flowery text and good practical advice. A must for any skier or snowboarder seeking the reality behind the American dream, I wish I'd written it myself.

Arnie Wilson, ski author and editor, Financial Times ski correspondent for 18 years who, in 1994, became the first person to ski for 365 consecutive days (Guinness Book of Records), including more than 100 resorts in North America

This book by far surpasses excellent. If you are planning a ski trip and are interested in going somewhere new this book seems to have it all. It lists every major ski area in the United States. Every ski resort mentioned is chronicaled by state and gives you area and mountain facts and most have their trail map pictured as well. It also lists local airports, directions from most areas to the ski resort as well as lodging suggestions. I could go on and on about the other little tidbits within the publication but you'll just have to read it yourself.

Some things which one finds on the first pages of this book make you wonder if the author knows what he writes about, or if he has ever been to these resorts. For example, on page 25 the author gives the rating of the steepness of ski runs and classifies green runs ("what is this, a golf course?") as slope with steepness of 10 to 25 degrees, and blue runs as slopes with steepness of 25 to 30 degrees. This makes you wonder if the author has the slightest clue what the 30 degree angle means, or what kind of slope it is. In fact, many mountains don't even have any runs steeper than 30 degrees, and it is uncommon to rank slopes under 20 degrees as black diamonds (e.g. backside runs at Northstar have average pitch of 18 degrees). Likewise, Top ten ranking on pp. 12-13 seem to be pulled out of the blue sky. Snowbird somehow got to the 5th place in the "mostly easy" ranking (has the author ever skied Snowbird or seen it from the parking lot??? Sure, if 25 degrees is green, Snowbird is easy!), while Heavenly is on the 6th place for low skiers density (how about 10-15 mins lift lines on weekdays in 2003 when this book was published?? The most crowded mountain in CA is the only one on the low skiers density in this ranking! Sure, everyone can divide published nominal acreage (including cliffs, dense forest, and everything within boundaries) by uphill lift capacity, but what is the value of this number?). The rest of the book, upon closer inspection, is just as inaccurate and superficial. Besides beautiful color pictures, including geographical maps and trail maps, there is nothing there that one can't find on the web sites of the corresponding mountains, no insider information, nothing that can help understand if this mountain is for you. I'll give you another example - Sierra at Tahoe. The book does NOT tell you that none of the black runs is ever groomed, and huge moguls are formed after a few days without snow. It does NOT tell you that it is one of few few places with a detachable high speed quad on the bunny hill and kids are taught in fenced and isolated learning area, so it is a great place for the first days on skis. It does NOT tell that nice blue runs in the west bowl all have a fairly steep area in the beginning which may intimidate low intermediates. What the book does, however, it lists all black diamond runs that Sierra has and says that they are experts' favorites on a powder day. This is certainly great insider information.

The layout of the book follows the same template for each mountain: Getting there; The Village; Accommodations; Ski Area; Ski lifts; Lift passes; Ski school and guiding; Beginners; Intermediates; Advanced and expert; Boarding and freestyle; Eating on the mountain; Apres ski; Other activities; plus a list of web sites and phone numbers. Each section is typically one paragraph, and there is no real in-depth information in any of these section, although I will not argue that there is some value in having even very basic information in one place.

It may have been a great book before the internet was invented. Not anymore. It is not a good source of reliable information, and, over 6 years after it was published, much of the information is out of date. What this book is really good for, is to open it at the end of summer, look at the pictures, and start dreaming about winter!

I really enjoy this book. I've checked it out at least five times. Each resort section has alot of helpful information. It makes planning a trip a breeze. David Holyoak really nailed it.

Very informative but dated. The lift ticket prices listed are significantly below the actual rate in some cases (i.e. Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper Moutain). They should be updated.

My fiance loved this book. Even though it was older, he still enjoyed reading about all of the different mountains. He worked out in Breckonridge for 4 years running a snowcat, so this so up his alley! I did get expedited shipping and that was kind of slow, but I got and it was in great condition!