I have recently moved to Thousand Oaks, California.  I would like to
find all the ski destinations in the western US (and perhaps Canada)
that I can get to on a **non-stop** flight.  I prefer skiing in
Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, California and Idaho but I am open to other
options.

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Request for Question Clarification by hagan-ga on 03 Aug 2005 12:23 PDT

Hi razetta.  Having lived in Mammoth Lakes for eight years, I'm
tempted to advise you to go there on a non-stop drive!  :-)
But the real question I have is this:  How far are you thinking of
driving from the airport once you get there?  In other words, do you
consider a non-stop flight to Reno, NV, an acceptable means of getting
to Mammoth, for example, since the drive from Reno to Mammoth is
another three hours?
Knowing your driving parameters will help a lot.
Also, are you flying only out of LAX?

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Clarification of Question by razetta-ga on 03 Aug 2005 14:51 PDT

Good question.  I'd say more than about an hour away is too far.  You
mentioned Mammoth, I haven't skied there, yet.  I hear both good and
bad.  I will check it out this winter but I also like to know what are
all the other places that we can get to, reasonably quickly and
without the hassel of having to connect flights.
What do you think of skiing at Mammoth?  How is the quality of snow? 
Wet/dry? Long lines on weekends? Is Mammoth Lakes close to the slopes?
Razetta

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Clarification of Question by razetta-ga on 03 Aug 2005 14:55 PDT

Oh, oh, forgot: I can fly out of LAX as well as Burbank, or Orange. 
Prefer LAX or Burbank, however.

Here we go!

UTAH
LAX nonstop to Salt Lake City
http://dps1.travelocity.com/airgchoice.ctl?SearchMethod=BestFareFinder&trip_option=roundtrp&dep_arp_cd(1)=lax&arr_arp_cd(1)=salt%20lake%20city,%20utah&module=calendar&adult_pax_cnt=1&chld_pax_cnt=0&senior_pax_cnt=0&frontDoor=Y&departure_dt=Aug&arrival_dt=Dec&pref_aln=all&FromTF=true

includes:  
Alta Ski Area
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=11
Brighton Ski Resort
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=44
Powder Mountain (a little more than an hour from the airport)
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=48
Snowbasin (a little more than an hour)
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=49
Canyons (Park City Area)
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=45
Deer Valley (Park City Area)
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=36
Park City Mountain (Park City Area
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=47
Snowbird
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=50
Solitude Mountain
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=53
Sundance Resort
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=54
White Pine Touring
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=180
Wolf Mountain
http://www.skiutah.com/resorts/resort.ski?resortid=11904

COLORADO
LAX has direct flights to Denver, but none of the Colorado ski areas
are within an hour?s drive from Denver.
http://www.coloradoski.com/resorts/resort_detail.cfm?resortid=14
And there are no direct flights from LAX to Vail.

WYOMING/MONTANA
Nothing in Wyoming or Montana is served by a direct flight.  All of
them connect in Salt Lake City.

IDAHO
LAX nonstop to Boise 
http://dps1.travelocity.com/airgchoice.ctl?SearchMethod=BestFareFinder&trip_option=roundtrp&dep_arp_cd(1)=lax&arr_arp_cd(1)=boise&module=calendar&adult_pax_cnt=1&chld_pax_cnt=0&senior_pax_cnt=0&frontDoor=Y&departure_dt=Aug&arrival_dt=Dec&pref_aln=all&FromTF=true
includes
Bogus Basin
http://www.goski.com/resorts/rusaid/bogus.htm
Sun Valley, the best resort in Idaho, is about 2.5 hours from Boise Airport.
http://www.goski.com/resorts/rusaid/sun.htm

LAX nonstop to Spokane via Alaska Airlines
http://dps1.travelocity.com/aircairline.ctl?SEQ=112317408478266808042005&LANG=EN
Includes
Lookout Pass
http://www.goski.com/resorts/rusaid/lookout.htm
Schweitzer Mountain (more than an hour, tho)
http://www.goski.com/resorts/rusaid/idaho.htm#travel
Silver Mountain
http://www.goski.com/resorts/rusaid/silver.htm

WASHINGTON
LAX nonstop to Spokane
Mt. Spokane
http://www.mtspokane.com/
49 Degrees North
http://www.ski49n.com/mountain.asp

CALIFORNIA (my personal favorite)
LAX nonstop to Reno
http://dps1.travelocity.com/airgchoice.ctl?SearchMethod=BestFareFinder&trip_option=roundtrp&dep_arp_cd(1)=LAX&arr_arp_cd(1)=rno&module=calendar&adult_pax_cnt=1&chld_pax_cnt=0&senior_pax_cnt=0&frontDoor=Y&departure_dt=Aug&arrival_dt=Dec&pref_aln=all&FromTF=true
includes all of the Tahoe Basin resorts:
http://www.aboutlaketahoe.com/ski_resorts/ski_resorts.htm
including Kirkland (California?s deepest and driest snow, but not a
large resort and VERY few nearby amenities), Heavenly, and Squaw
Valley.
BUT!  By the time you get to the airport; park; get checked in; get
through security; load onto the plane; sit on the tarmac; fly to Reno
(1.5 hour flight time); get off the plane; get your luggage; stand in
line at the rental counter; get your rental car; drive to Tahoe
(approx. 30 mins to an hour depending on where you stay); and check in
? you?ve just about taken the time it would take you to drive to
Mammoth.
http://www.mammothmountain.com/

CANADA
LAX nonstop to Calgary
http://dps1.travelocity.com/airgchoice.ctl?SearchMethod=BestFareFinder&trip_option=roundtrp&dep_arp_cd(1)=LAX&arr_arp_cd(1)=calgary,%20canada&module=calendar&adult_pax_cnt=1&chld_pax_cnt=0&senior_pax_cnt=0&frontDoor=Y&departure_dt=Aug&arrival_dt=Dec&pref_aln=all&FromTF=true
includes
Canada Olympic Park
Drumhiller Valley Ski Club

LAX nonstop to Vancouver
http://dps1.travelocity.com/aircairline.ctl?SEQ=112317527188782508042005&LANG=EN
includes
Cypress Mountain
Grouse Mountain Resorts
Whistler-Blackcomb (GREAT SKIING!)
Mount Seymour
Hemlock Valley
Manning Park
http://www.skicanada.org/site/index.cfm?DSP=Chapter&ID=4

I hope this was helpful!  If you'd like any more misty-eyed
reminiscences about Mammoth, please don't hesitate to ask.  (Or any
other information, of course!)

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Request for Answer Clarification by razetta-ga on 04 Aug 2005 22:58 PDT

Wow!  What a nice job you did.  Thank you!  I particularly enjoyed
your informative comments regarding skiing in CA and the first hand
knowledge of Mammoth.  If you can thin of anything else that you would
like mentioning, I'd be very interested.  There's nothing like the
advice of someone who has lived in the place!
I have one question: in your searches for Colorado: did you see any
direct flights to Teluride.  I think I heard that Continnental had or
will have direct flights from LAX to Telluride.  Am I dreaming?

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Clarification of Answer by hagan-ga on 05 Aug 2005 05:43 PDT

I'm very glad you're pleased.  Sadly, I could not find any nonstop
flights from California to Telluride.  I checked with Continental
specifically, and it says it does not have any nonstops.
http://www.continental.com/fSearch.asp?SID=BF5AEFB7462E4CD29344BBE21EA8164B&FS=RT&AF=0&PS=US&SS=SP&ST=SF

Here I'm going to babble about Mammoth again.  Mammoth has an airport,
but no commercial carrier has ever managed to make it financially
worthwhile to fly there.  A few have made temporary efforts -- all
have failed.  But the entire time I lived there, it was an article of
faith among all the locals that ANY DAY NOW we were going to have
commercial air travel.  It's still going on to this day.

http://mammothtimes.com/articles/2005/08/04/this_week/breaking_news/breaking01.txt
http://mammothtimes.com/shared-content/search/index.php?search=go&o=0&q=commercial+AND+airport+&d1=07-22-1999&d2=08-05-2005&s=relevance&r=Subject%2CAuthor%2CContent&l=20

So I'm suspicious when I hear rumors like this.  :-)

Thanks for the clarification request, and if there's anything else
you'd like before you rate the answer, don't hesitate to ask.

The answer was better than anything I had hoped for.  Not only I got a
thorough answer to my specific question but Hagan's additional
comments based on his/her personal experience and knowledge helped me
re-assess my agenda altogether.  This was the first time I had used GA
and now, I'm hooked.  You just won over a regular client and advocate
of your service.  Standing ovation!

Re your question about Mammoth:  if you're familiar with skiing in
California, you understand "Sierra cement."  Because most days are
nice, sunny and above-freezing even in winter, the snow tends to
soften during the day and then freeze hard at night.  They have one of
the best grooming crews in the business, but there's only so much you
can do, and you can't turn it back into powder.

Other than Kirkland, which is a small resort in Alpine County south of
Tahoe, Mammoth gets more snow per year than any other California
resort.  But like any other California resort, you have to have a
decent base in order to ski at all, because the rocks are so big. 
Don't bother trying to ski at Mammoth until the base is at least three
or four feet.

People don't understand how BIG Mammoth is until they go.  It's HUGE. 
You can ski there for a week and not get bored, because you're still
exploring new territory.  Nice mix of expert/intermediate/beginner,
and the expert stuff is truly hardcore.  One of the longest seasons in
the business, because they get SO MUCH SNOW -- they opened last year
the last week of October, and didn't close till the Fourth of July.

Intrawest Corp. invested a ton of money in the mountain over the last
ten years or so, and they've put it to VERY good use.  Lots of
high-speed quads now, a new gondola, and so on, so the lines are
really not a problem except on the busiest holiday weekend.  Don't go
over President's Day; but on Christmas and New Year's, you'll have a
blast.

You ask how close Mammoth Lakes is to the mountain itself.  The answer
is, they blend together they're so close.  The new gondola loads right
in the middle of North Village, which is a shopping/lodging area in
town.  I used to live on a street that dead-ended at the ski area, and
I would let my dogs play on the runs in the early fall (can't do it in
summer, the mountain bikes are all over the place).  The whole town is
about two miles square, and one side of it is the ski area itself.

I'm kind of babbling now, because I moved away about two years ago and
I miss it like a hole in my heart.  Still have a lot of friends there,
and if I close my eyes I can see green fir trees laden with white snow
against an azure sky.  Go.  You won't be sorry you did.  It's a long
damn drive, especially from Thousand Oaks because you have to go south
and east to get to Hwy 14 northbound; but thousands of people do just
that, every weekend, because it's such a wonderful wonderful place. 
Nowhere near the traffic that Tahoe suffers from, and the people are
nicer.

Roberto's is the local favorite for Mexican food; Whiskey Creek for
nightlife; Mogul for a good quiet steak; Nevado's for a pricey gourmet
meal.

Anyway, I'm working on your real question, but it was nice to babble
on about Mammoth for a while.

It's Kirkwood, not Kirkland. :-)
http://www.kirkwood.com/

Wonderful year round.

Omigosh how embarrassing, you're SO right.  Kirkwood!  Jeesh, and I've
only been gone less than two years.  Eek!
Thanks!