A Ski Expert’s Tips And Favorite Snow Areas/Resorts Worldwide

Whether you’re an avid skier, a beginner, a snowboarder or just someone who enjoys mountain views and partying, Harvey Bierman, Chief Digital Officer for Christy Sports, offers info you can use. Harvey is one of the few people who can claim to have won a high school and collegiate ski racing championship in the same state. Here he discusses all things skiing, including favorite ski areas worldwide and in the States. The interview is condensed and edited for clarity.

What makes a great ski resort or a great ski area? If I'm skiing frequently, it's accessibility. Also the look, snow quality, chances of fresh snow, food and lodging, costs, maybe the diversity.

Give us a couple of your favorite international ski resorts and ski areas. Whistler Blackcomb is ginormous. It’s incredibly high, an incredibly large mountain, great diversity of nightlife, relatively easy access out of Vancouver. It has a tram that connects from one peak to the other, and there’s a glass-bottom version of that tram, if it doesn't scare you.

It's basically 5,000 vertical feet of skiing, so there's almost always guaranteed good snow the higher you get up, and terrain for everyone — the closest experience you can get to a European-centric or off-piste experience in North America, in backcountry. Whistler also has accessible daily heli-skiing, an incredible journey.

What exactly is heli-skiing? You basically get in a helicopter and fly to the peak of the mountain get dropped off, ski down, get picked back up there and do it again.

How about a European ski experience? The quintessential one is Verbier, also known as the Four Vallées. It's not like in the U.S. where you pull up to a parking lot or lodge and there's a mountain in front of you with a bunch of lifts. It's interconnected communities of high-alpine living, connected by skiing.

I took a journey off-piste that took me about 20 miles as the crow flies from one end of the valley to the other to have a bowl of soup at the end of the day. I ended up skiing down the side of a dam that was built during World War II. I had to take a bus, two trams for chair lifts, a surface lift and a train to get back to where I started. An incredible experience.

What about Japan? The northern part of Japan, Sapporo, is where powder skiing has brought to the masses. The amount of snow they get in northern Japan, the quality of the powder is incredibly high, but very hard to get to.

My skiing experience is a little more pedestrian, on a bullet train to a ski area that's just an hour outside of Tokyo. Tons of people get out there every weekend to ski and experience the Nordic lifestyle. They get a tremendous amount of snow, but their elevation is incredibly low, so the quality of that snow can be questionable.

Probably the most interesting thing about that area is just the culture of skiing. The trails are lined with ropes, and no one would dare enter the backcountry or side country, despite how good the snow might be.

A few top US ski resorts you'd recommend? One of my favorite ski areas in the world is Vail. Any skier of any ability can have an amazing run. There are great resort destinations in Idaho and Montana, as well, but a bit harder to get to. Jackson Hole in Wyoming is very much big mountain skiing. And a Colorado local can't not mention Arapahoe Basin. You can count on team at A-Basin to get that resort open and ready to rock early.

Snowbird in Utah has incredible skiing, incredible snow interconnected with another ski area called Alta, a short drive from the Salt Lake City airport. And no list is complete without Deer Valley. An incredible experience to ski, eat incredible food, have amazing views in a great little city, Park City.

You haven't mentioned any Eastern U.S. skiing. I ski raced throughout the Northeast as a kid, so I know the area. Killington— incredible nightlife. I taught the kids to ski in New Hampshire at Gunstock, which is a great family mountain. But my favorite ski area in the east is probably Sunday River in Maine, mostly because it's the best simulation of a Western experience: long wide runs, good natural snow at times, very well spread out, lots of different peaks. But a little bit of a pain to get to.

A couple of others: Jay Peak in northern Vermont gets the most snow of the other northeast resorts, and they have a tram which is super cool. And Vernon Valley, Great Gorge. I'm a Jersey guy. I spent more time on that mountain as a kid.

How about summer skiing? Lots of folks live their life chasing snow; they spend winters in the mountains of Colorado and then they spend their summers —winter number two — in the mountains of the Andes. I used to spend my summers on Mount Hood in Oregon. Super fun to just ski from eight to 12 in the morning when the snow is good, and then go rafting and mountain climbing and biking.

Can you offer a few quick tips on learning to ski? Be ready. Don't have high expectations. Don't go beyond your ability. When you start, get a lesson, get the right gear, set yourself up for success. And enjoy the progress. Get back out there for day two, because it will be better. And I guarantee you on that third day, even better.

What's the biggest difference between snowboarding and skiing? The differences are many besides the equipment and standing sideways versus facing downhill. It's a different sense of movement; more of a skateboard movement on a snowboard, whereas skiing is much more of a skating movement, and may be nuanced. There's something different about having your feet planted sideways versus independently moving vertically.

You want to bend your knees in all those winter sports, the terrain is always moving. But the way in which the device moves across the snow in snowboarding is very much a surfing feeling.

Falling on a snowboard those first couple of times is very hard, but once you get on a snowboard, it's generally easier to progress to a higher level. Skiing is so technical beyond that intermediate level that it takes a generally a longer period of time for people to become expert skiers versus expert snowboarders

What is snowcat skiing? A snowcat is basically two snowmobiles side by side, with a cab in the middle. So it's like a big truck that goes on snow. Everyone's looking for the next adventure, and backcountry is one way to get outside of the controlled environments and the groomed trails.With a snowcat you can get much farther and do a lot more in a shorter period of time.

Après is generally defined as the social activities and entertainment following a day's skiing. How would you define it? Après means something different to different people. There are really great towns that offer diversity of apres. Often my apres is how close is the hot tub, and is there delivery? And can I sleep quickly? In my younger years, I used to travel a ton to Vermont and Killington, because I could be out till 12, or one in the morning, having a really great time with my friends with easy access back to where I needed to sleep for the night.

You were destined to be a ski person I can see that. What’s one unexpected element that’s made skiing special for you? Everyone has their own style or their own enjoyment. It might be the upgrade part, it might be being outside, it might be being with friends or family. For me it's the apex of the turn, just the geometric biometric physics part of it that is so rewarding when it's done well. There's a saying ‘you've never skied the perfect turn.’ There's always something about it you can improve.