Loveland Ski Area is a local hill with surrounding backcountry. But the area itself is never crowded and sits right on the continental divide, so it gets storms from both regions. Incidentally, there are a lot of powder days there. Cheap, awesome area.

Breckenridge is crowded on the weekends, but it’s a ghost town during the week. It’s my favorite area along with Loveland, though I suppose you kind of have to know where to go since it’s pretty big. The bowls are just great, nice and steep, and really just any kind of run you can think of.

Winter Park’s back mountain (called Mary Jane) is also another local favorite. It’s pretty undeveloped, it’s got a great "foresty" feel to it, and lots of really long mogul runs.

I guess it depends what you like. I really dislike Beaver Creek (too touristy, bad snow, bad crowd), ABasin is pretty small, Vail could be good or bad in mid december. Copper’s just meh. Boarders love Keystone, big terrain park.