My personal if not a little biased opinion would be to go for Utah. I am in downtown salt lake and i can get in my car and drive for 30 minutes and be at any of seven or eight ski resorts, many of which are nationally ranked, and very highly for that matter. while kevbo raises a good point about global warming (and our season did start later than normal here) if you think you want to run that risk then go for it. The Utah mountains are also used for many off-season activities, including hiking, mountain biking, and camping. I actually work in a building that is on the Bonneville trail, so you really don’t have to venture far to get to a good hiking or biking trail. The other strong point is that there is a large airport here and there is direct service from several major cities, although the airport is on the other side of the city from the mountains.