What’s a great destination for intermediate skiing? The “10” is perfect: on piste, off the beaten track

I live too far in the south for too much snow and work too long hours to get away very far, I’m an “intermittent average” and have no hope of getting better. The biggest challenge is finding a destination that can be hard to be interesting but still easy enough to ski in when I’m traveling on my own. Since the difficulty level rating for running varies from mountain to mountain, I often find that it just doesn’t work for me. Particularly surprising was the difference between skiing Lake Tahoe’s Heavenly Valley and Sun Valley, or Big Sky. In the northwestern United States where the intermediate slopes looked like the Matterhorn, I had to go with plan B: counting the bison in Yellowstone. After these near misses, I developed a personal checklist to find the best destinations for intermediate skiing:

1. The number and type of slopes assigned are averaged
2. Snow quality and typical conditions
3. Apres-ski activity / restaurants and housing nearby
4. Affordability / attractive prices
5. Easy access to airports
6. Friendly environment
7. Interesting/different but practical website
8. Availability/timing of ski instruction
9. Weather / temperature on the mountain
10. Proximity to Plan B/alternative sightseeing

Preferring the off-the-beaten path, I sampled an active volcano, Ruapehu/Whakapapa in New Zealand. Living north of the equator, I was especially excited about skiing our summer. Plus, with the North Island’s mild climate, I was able to whitewater rafting one day and ski down this active volcano the next. On subsequent trips to other slopes, wearing a jacket with kiwis on skis was a great icebreaker.

We move to Hafjel, Norway which had all the right advantages even traveling alone. The snow was great even though it was 50 degrees Fahrenheit at the base. The ski instruction was great and the lessons friendly. The price was right and a local bus takes skiers all day from Lillehammer. Better yet, sending postcards home from that Olympic stadium gave my ability to skate an undeserved boost that I could eat into the rest of the year. If only my luggage had arrived when I arrived, it would have been perfect.

Still struggling at times to keep up with the better skaters, I finally had a pay problem. I found the perfect ski ’10’ in Andorra. I was immediately excited to see a new, albeit rather small, country based in the Pyrenees. The mixture of four languages, Spanish, Catalan, French and English, made it sound exotic but still easy to get by. The ski lessons were very informative with a small group of well matched mediums. It was a really friendly atmosphere with part of the class practicing English and others Spanish. After lunch, my classmate and I spent the afternoon working to master the parallel turns.

Every day the sun was shining. Even at lower elevations, there was no snow. The local villages offered multiple après ski and dinner options at a good price. Finally, it was easy to get to Barcelona by plane. The weather in February in northeastern Spain is mild, not unlike California. This made it the perfect way to combine an active outdoors trip with a cultural excursion to see Gaudi’s stunning architecture.

If I can’t get a perfect ’10’, I choose to find a destination off the beaten track. Whatever the skiing conditions, I can always enjoy the adventure and have the pictures to prove it.