I grew up skiing, but switched to boarding when I moved out west five years ago. (EDIT: it's actually been eight years since i came out west, wow, time flies). This year is the first that I've decided to retire my board and go back to skiing. It's a more sustainable sport for me, and I've honestly never been totally comfortable on a board. Happy I did it for a bit though.

As far as mountains. It doesn't get much better than Vancouver. Every morning on my walk to work downtown, I pass a line full of boarders waiting for the city bus to take them up to Grouse. There are three hills 15 minutes from downtown. Grouse, Cypress, and Seymour. Each about 1100 vertical feet. Coolest part is when the night skiing is on, the mountain looks like a floating, glowing city in the distance. It's almost eerie.

Whistler/Blackcomb is 2 hours north. The winter olympics were there in '10. It's good, but expensive. 5200 vertical feet of skiing. They have a peak to peak gondola that's pretty cool. The place I go to most though is Mt. Baker in Washington state. I just like that hill. Fun fact: Baker holds the world record for most snowfall in a year.