Posts: 24725
-
Karma: 29,944
Alright. Take this from someone who has skied tahoe all his life, but has checked out Bozeman for a week.
About 3 years ago, I went up to Bozeman for a week to check it out. I was seeing if it was sufficiant for me to go to college there. After a week, I was pretty much sold. Huge mountains.. (big sky, bridger) lots of snow, pretty fun college atmosphere (half the town is college aged, very down to earth) about 4 national parks nearby.. including Yellowstone... Jackson Fucking Hole is a bit of a drive away, but closer to bozeman than any other town with a college that I know of... crazy weather.. (chinook winds = rapid temperature loss/gain like nowhere else in the world) lots of wilderness, lots of nature. Really cool.
However, the rest of my life, I've been skiing in Tahoe, and staying at places in South Reno for weeks at a time. The town is large, another college town, but with the gambling element. Theres almost ALWAYS something to do there, and there is rarely any huge traffic congestion or other big city things that you would find in other larger cities. It is half an hour from tahoe, which is in my opinion the most beautiful place in the world to ski.. (nothing like the feeling you get when you think you're about to ski into a giant blue lake) and when it dumps in tahoe.. it DUMPS in tahoe.. (we had a 13 foot week earlier in the season, and are about to get a 5.5 foot dump this weekend) something that it really doesnt do in MT. There ARE more people that are up there... many many more gapers, but much much better parks, and many more ski areas to choose from. Skiing on weekdays, you can ussually avoid the crowd anyway, so its all good. There are also plenty of wilderness areas nearby if you NEED to get away from everyone and go exploring, so thats always a goodie. Plenty of BC terrain too, which is definitely a good thing.
Reno is mini-vegas with skiing nearby...
Bozeman is a town between Calgary and Denver.
If you want to go to a town, JUST to ski, and ski primarily big mountain stuff, chill with mainly college people and get away from all the dimwitted city people, go to Bozeman...
If you want to go to a town to ski all different types of terrain, AND party? BUT, deal with a lot of lame people along the way, while still having the ABILITY to get away from them if you try hard? Go to Reno