Being from Yorkshire, England, I didn’t grow up skiing or snowboarding. We only get snow a couple of times a year in my hometown, and when we do everyone goes a bit nuts… snowball fights in the park with strangers, launching yourself down the nearest big hill on a sled or in a binliner, snowmen, and snowfrogs, and snowphalluses, and so on. But the nearest actual skiing was in France, or up in northern Scotland (though my hometown does have an indoor ski slope these days, it wasn’t there when I was a kid).
So when I went to do a ski season in Austria after university and finally learned to snowboard, it was a case of “where have you been all my life?!” I was hooked, and becoming the best snowboarder I could be (despite the late start) became a major motivator for and focal point of my travels. I’ve since realised that when I live overseas for any significant period of time, it has to be somewhere with a proper winter and decent snow access. So far this has led to me living in half a dozen countries on four continents for the purpose (either solely or in part) of snowboarding, plus ski trips in half a dozen more.
Here, you can find write-ups of all the ski areas I’ve ridden, with my assessment of their snow conditions and terrain, access information and travel tips, and off-piste tips etc for the resorts I know well.
By continent:
By country:
Andorra (Pas de la Casa / Grandvalira)
Australia (Thredbo & Perisher)
Austria (Innsbruck & Mayrhofen)
Bulgaria (Bansko)
China (Nanshan, Beijing)
France & Switzerland (Portes du Soleil)
Korea (see my website Snow Guide Korea)
Scotland (Cairngorm)
USA (Mt Baker)