Skiing resorts

Question
Hello,

I have been skiing in the Arlberg region/ski-circus of Austria for 3 decades and am looking for new ski-circuses which are nearly as vast as the one I've been doing for years(say, not less than 80% of total Arlberg ski-pistes in terms of km). The trouble is that I know very little about the rest of the world, just that American ski-resorts are tiny  by comparison(the largest seems to be Mammoth, with just c.30 lifts!). If any relevant ski-circuses have regular bus-connections, I wouldn't mind if they weren't linked by the same ski-pass.

Also, is there any info online re improving ski-technique? I, apparently, have very poor ski-technique, but am still able to negotiate black pistes and off-piste areas. I just am not good at following orders from ski-teachers.

Answer
Hey Geoff,

You are right about North America not having the large, connected ski areas like your ski-circuses of Austria. I visited your Arlberg area but it was summer and we enjoyed a lot of great hiking and mountain biking. Would love to ski there sometime.

Our ski areas tend to stay separated as it brings more money to the individual corporations than if they shared their areas with others, thus no really large connected areas. There are a lot of good ski areas and plenty of terrain to choose from. Utah has a lot of resorts close to the Salt Lake Airport so easy access and great skiing. Colorado is a bit more of a drive to the ski resorts from the Denver airport but many large areas. There are a few that have shared lift tickets with buses to get you around to the other resorts. Canada has a variety of places that have multiple resorts close together. British Columbia is probably the best with the largest area being Whistler/Blackcomb. But don't overlook the Banff area and there is a newer area near Revelstoke that has lift serviced runs and a huge back country offering with multi passenger snow cats and helicopters.

Here are some websites that have lots of good information on ski resorts in North America and Europe.

http://www.onthesnow.com/

http://www.skiresortguide.com/

http://skicentral.com/

Hope this helps.
Keep on skiing,
Windlover