liftopia, North America, Outdoors, Summer, The Industry, Travel →

Reports from the Road, Summer Edition

by Kate Christiaanse / @chiggle / September 13, 2011

You may be wondering what us Liftopians could possibly be doing during the summer. Hitting the beach and waiting for it to snow we are not. Actually, we probably work harder during the summer months than any other time of year. The development team has been launching new products, cranking out new features and testing new design elements on our site. The ops team has been busy getting our sweet new office ready to debut. The marketing team is hard at work securing new partnerships and finding new ways to get the word out on all the killer deals we have to offer. You may be wondering what I’m doing – as Director of Accounts and Partner Management, my team and I are escaping the San Francisco summer fog and hitting the road.

From Kelowna, British Columbia, to Stowe, Vermont, I spent most of the summer logging miles crisscrossing North America attending ski industry conferences and visiting our current and prospective resort partners. My summer travel season, by the numbers: between May 23^st and August 18th I…

Visited 25 resorts
Flew 27 segments
Drove 2,264 miles
Slept in 11 different hotels
Traversed 7 mountain passes
Consumed at least 5 lbs of road-trip candy

Although being on the road can be hard, it’s tough to complain as you’re taking a scenic gondola ride at Mont Tremblant, downhill biking at Whitefish, Montana, or tasting whiskeys at the High West Distillery in Park City, Utah. It is certainly a treat to get to see what our partners have to offer in the summer months while planning for the winter season.

In case you’re contemplating a jaunt to a resort this fall or next summer, I’ve compiled a few superlatives from my experiences to help inform your itinerary:

Best Alpine Slide: Park City, Utah – they boast 4 different tracks and some of the best drops, steeps and turns you’ll see.
Alpine Slide, Park City
Highest ski town in the east: Beech Mountain, North Carolina – a little known fact, you’ll get winded walking up the stairs as this town towers over 5,000 feet above sea level.
Best fireworks display: Telluride, Colorado – visit over the 4^th of July for a parade out of a Norman Rockwell painting and some of the closest fireworks you’ll ever experience.
Cheapest bar tab you’ll run up in a ski town: Whitefish, Montana– six drinks will likely cost you under $18, $1 PBRs are the norm in most establishments – go ahead, treat your friends to a round.
Downtown Whitefish, Montana
Nicest people you’ll meet in a ski region: Hockley Valley, Ontario – what they say about Canadians is true, they are some of the nicer people you’ll encounter, especially those in the hills of Ontario.