Cheapflights.ca Goes for Gold

TORONTO--(Marketwire - Dec 11, 2012) - While the holiday spirit is abuzz around the world, so too is the excitement level for ski and snowboarding fanatics gearing up to hit the slopes. For those looking for something extra with their downhill adrenaline, the travel experts at Cheapflights.ca, the online leader in finding and publishing travel deals, have compiled their list of Top 10 Places to Ski Like an Olympian. Beginner and expert skiers alike can experience that Olympic feeling and a history lesson while hitting the slopes at any of these landmark mountains. 

The resorts on this Cheapflights.ca list are all places where you can ski in the tracks of legends while you carve your own adventure. Here are five from North America to make our list:

• Park City Mountain Resort, Utah - The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City caused quite a stir between bribery scandals and referee controversies, but it was also one of the most successful Winter Olympics in history. Top events including Giant Slalom and snowboarding were held at Park City Mountain Resort, one of Salt Lake City's premier ski resorts, just 34 miles outside the city. A mix of beginner, intermediate and expert levels, Park City Mountain resort boasts more than 114 trails, with an average yearly snowfall of 340 inches.
  
  
• Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia - Arguably the largest ski resort in North America, Whistler Blackcomb is also one of the most visited. Made up of two peaks, Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Peak, Whistler Blackcomb has more than 200 ski trails zig-zagging through the Fitzsimmons range. The 2010 Olympics divided all its ski and snowboarding events between the two peaks, so you're sure to ski over some history when you tackle this ski resort.
  
  
• Nakiska Mountain Resort, Alberta - Technically the 1988 Olympics were held in Calgary, but all alpine ski events were held at Nakiska on Mount Allan in Kananaskis County. A relatively small resort, Nakiska boasts only 64 ski runs, but you're almost always guaranteed good skiing. Nakiska is now an official training centre for Alpine Ski Teams around the world every year. Nakiska averages about 95 inches of snow per year, but has extensive snow-making abilities.
  
  
• Whiteface Mountain, New York - The first Winter Olympics hosted in the US were held in Lake Placid, New York, and were officially opened by Franklin D Roosevelt in 1932. Then in 1980, Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics for a second time. Whiteface Mountain, where the alpine ski events were held, stands to be one of the tallest mountains in the Adirondacks. Home to more than 22 miles of ski trails and 87 ski runs, Whiteface also averages more than 230 inches of snow per year.
  
  
• Squaw Valley, California - Averaging a whopping 450 inches of snowfall each year, Squaw Valley is the second largest ski resort in Lake Tahoe, and one of the largest in the United States, boasting more than 270 trails. In 1960, times when tensions between the US and Soviet Union were intense, the US threatened not to give visas to countries like China, Taiwan and Korea. Nowadays, there is plenty of Olympics memorabilia for visitors to see, including the plaque erected by Walt Disney on the Olympic flagpole.
  
  

Rounding out the list are some of the top Olympic ski destinations in Europe and one in Asia: Innsbruck, Austria; Sapporo, Japan; St Moritz, Switzerland; Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany and Chamonix, France. To read more about these destinations and Cheapflights.ca's complete list of Top 10 Places to Ski Like an Olympian, visit www.cheapflights.ca/travel/top-10-places-to-ski-like-an-olympian.

About momondo group
momondo group is an online travel media and technology company that is driven by the belief that an open world is a better world. The group now serves travel search and inspiration to over 13 million visitors a month -- plus 6 million travel newsletter subscribers -- via its Cheapflights (www.cheapflights.ca) and momondo (www.momondo.com) brands.

Skygate began the sourcing of complex air-travel data in 1992, while Cheapflights pioneered the online comparison of flight deals for users in 1996 and momondo launched meta-search in the Nordic countries in 2006. 

The Group has offices in London, Copenhagen, Boston and Toronto, with a consumer base across 16 core international markets but users all over the world.