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Whistler is by far the best resort in North America. The place is massive, you can spend a week there and never come close to skiing the same run twice. Theres so much terrain in so many different areas that you can literally ski any type of terrain and any conditions in the same run. The areas are so different and diverse, you will never get bored there. They also by far have the hardest terrain. Don't get me wrong, Corbett's is hard, the top of KT-22 is hard, but Whistler has sooo much extremely difficult terrain and chutes and everything...Spanky's ladder, The Coffin, Liftee's Leap, Waterfall cliffs, Air Jordan, Jersey Cream Bowl, The Cirque, The Couloir, Pakalolo, Blow Hole the list goes on and on. Oh and they also have sick tree runs, tons of BC, great parks, and the sickest ski town ever.
Jackson has a good amount of difficult terrain, the runs are long, and theres like no blues or greens on the mountain. But compared to Whistler its kinda small, and also the lift systems not as good, theres a lot of slow lifts and a lot of the terrain you want to ski is hike-only which sucks. Corbett's is the best run by far but after that nothing else is really that exciting, S & S is never open, and theres great lines to find off Sublette & Thunder but its just not comparable to the vastness of whistler. Also the tram sucks, its crowded as fuck and you don't get a chance to sit down and relax between runs. Whats sick about Jackson is that you get long runs, unlike other mountains you can take black runs to the bottom (hobacks) but its tiring and tracked out and at the end of the day your like fuck it lets take a green. Also Jackson has the worst parks (stash parks blow). The village is mediocore at best and the town is too far away.
Vail 's saving grace is that its huge so like whistler, its hard to get bored, theres some good shit on the front of the mountain but its few and far between. The Back Bowls and Blue Sky are the places to spend time and its easy to get good runs in and find some good cliffs but everything there is too easy, theres no runs that compare to the expert stuff at Whistler and Jackson. Vail has a such an awesome and well maintained park on golden peak thats so fun to lap, its park doesn't get enough credit but its awesome. Also like every lift is a high speed and its very well-connected if you know what your doing, it takes planning but you can avoid lines and too many catwalks if your smart.
Squaw has some difficult runs but its too small and a lot of the runs are all in the same bowl so it feels like your skiing the same run over and over again. Top of KT-22 is steep and amazing, palisades are sick, fingers, some cliffs in granite, theres good shit but its hard to find. Parks aren't horrible but not great unless (I've heard) its very late in the season.
I've been to a few other mountains, but haven't explored/experienced them enough to comment on.
