It's time for my daughter to learn to ski, so I'm looking for a place with a great ski school and plenty of snow in the Spring (third or fourth week of March). I'd like to stay in a beautiful hotel on the mountain -- some have recommended Steamboat Springs, others Copper Mountain. I'm open to other states too -- Montana, Utah. I don't need a scene -- not Vail or Aspen. Just a nice mountain with beautiful lodgings, a good ski school, and plenty of snow. Your thoughts?

I'd recommend Steamboat. You could stay at the 4 star Steamboat Grand, ski school is excellent and the Steamboat Ski area is a great place for kids to ski.

Check out this Steamboat Blog
www.steamboat-springs.blogspot.com

Hands down the best for value quality of snow, resort, lodging, and ski school

Alta Utah- 680 inches last year

Easy flight and arrival also

I think you should look at Beaver Creek- great kids' ski school- beautiful hotels on the mountain are the Hyatt or the Ritz. Another choice for a great kids' ski school is Deer Valley- Stein Eriksen Lodge is a beautiful hotel on the mountain.

I wouldn't describe any of the accomodations at Copper as being "beautiful" or even attractive. There's not much to do there as well.

Though this is still Colorado, it's off the beaten path with no real "scene", but nice lodging options and a great ski school - had 3 kids in it last year, and great restaurants. Loved skiing here last year despite need for new snow. We have almost always skiied in mid to late March and had great snow in Colorado, but some years you can't count on that. But, most Colorado ski mountains have a pretty good base of snow built up by March even if they aren't getting fresh powder regularly.

Might be nice if I'd mention WHERE I was talking about in previous post - Crested Butte, Colorado

It's hard to beat Steamboat for beatiful Spring days and reliable snow in late March. Southern Colorado can really get skunked but I will say that last year was an exception year for them.

Check out my Steamboat Blog at: http://steamboat-springs.blogspot.co...-ski-area.html

We went to Vail when our kids were young. I really like the terrain there. The ski school is topnotch. I do love the new "magic carpet" for teaching very young folk how to get back up the little hill. A lot better than the rope tow we had back east.

Steamboat conditions can be really iffy in the spring because so many runs are southern exposure. It can mean slushy days and icy, crusty mornings. I wouldn't recommend it for spring break.

I like the Alta suggestion.

Always wanted to try some of their base lodging. I think a lot of it is all-inclusive, but perhaps not horribly fancy or overdone...not cheap, either, though, but rates may come down later in the season. Go to their website to check that out.

Area is lovely, ski school is supposed to be first rate.

No snowboards allowed, so make sure you just want to SKI if you pick Alta...