Awesome! We got rid of those damn Statscan distractions from a ski thread!!
I'm gonna weigh in one last time on comparisons - I love skiing in the east as that is where I learned to ski. That said, comparing the best of the east to the big mtns in the west would be like comparing the urban fabric of Quebec City to Montreal. Both are great and you could spend a lifetime crawling through Quebec City and be happy. Montreal's urban fabric may not be better, but it will be bigger.
JUST TO BE CLEAR - I am not disparaging Montreal, Quebec or any ski hills anywhere, just trying to give an analogy (likely a poor one) for those not really into skiing.
Now that said, there are things out west that the east doesn't really provide, and bowls/above tree line skiing is obviously one HOWEVER if you love backcountry skiing, the Chic-Chocs are incredible. It's where I learned to backcountry and while not the same vertical as out west, it's pretty freaking good!!!
This is the area where I first learned how to skin up (and yes it's in QC)
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