Its been a pish poor winter over here so far. I live in Golden and have had season pass at Kicking Horse for the last 5 years. Last season was epic and this season has half the snow we had this time last year. Best Resort closest to Van is Mt Baker in the USA (Washington). Gets record snow most years. If you head east from Van, which you have to otherwise you'll be driving along the bottom of the ocean, the first not bad resort is Silver Star in Vernon. Further east sill, you have Kicking Horse which is good with massive backcountry, and Revelstoke which is ok with great glades. They are 7 hours from Van C and 1.5 hours apart. In the Kootenays you have Red Mountain, Whitewater and Fernie which are all good but are all having a horrible snow year. Prey for snow and for avi conditions to stabilise!! 

My vote goes to Fernie!  I've been there 3 times for hols since doing a couple of seasons there years ago and it pretty much rocks.  Way better vibe than Whistler for me and I love the terrain especially when you start exploring out wide.  The others mentioned are great too - haven't skied all of them but Kicking Horse has great terrain (think they might have opened up another bowl or even two since i was there?) and places like Whitewater are super cool with few lifts but great skiing.

Not skied anywhere other than Grouse Mountain (North Vancouver) - not bad for a city resort but not a patch on what the rest of BC has to offer.  It was all the time I had.  Want to go back though.  Anyway, a mate lives in Nelson she says - "Theres lots of snow at Whitewater but nothing fresh for 3 days. Cold (-10 in town this morning) and more snow in the forecast. . Went over to Idaho last week to Silver Mountain which was fun. Hill was very icy so reminded me of scotland!!"

Can't let this go without pointing you towards our Canadian Resort Guide - Team SkiMountain did a trip round a load of the resorts a couple of years back and we put the guide together then.  It was an awsome trip with loads of good skiing at all the resorts listed (they're pretty much all great).  We missed a few out - including the one North of Whistler you mention Dave - so we'll just have to go back sometime soon!  If you're into touring there is unlimited potential as well - specially if you head towards places like Rogers Pass which rocks!  As @snowfox mentioned there are also a few smaller resorts right next to Vancouver - Grouse, Cypress, and Seymore Mountains - they're all worth a visit especially if the snows good but definitely worth going further a field to the bigger resorts if you get the chance.

Awsome writeup @Captain Clawfoot, you're going to get some extra SkiMountain stoke awarded for that!  And perhaps hotel Kennedy needs a special mention in our Canada section - couldn't have done it without you after all, cheers!  I'll have to get on the case with the Asulkan write up  and maybe its about time for a return trip!! specially if its about to start dumping out there - keep me informed and I'll start working on the rest of the Team!

My impressions of Fernie and Kicking Horse pretty much match what you say there so I won't add too much more about those. Some thoughts on a few of the others though:

Revelstoke: some great trees and cool steep and tight drops over the backside.  Some really cool features and massive height loss. Not convinced about the town and suspect it can get pretty busy.

Whitewater: just outside Nelson I really liked the vibe here - only 2 or 3 lifts (though have they put a new one in now) but gives great access to alot of cool terrain including good trees and some great lines with a bit of a hike.

Red Mountain: despite the hype I wasn't super impressed with Red... I felt the terrain was a bit limited when compared with places like Kicking Horse, Fernie, Revelstoke etc.  Having said that lots of skiers would still get alot out of Red but for cool terrain and big lines I'd look elsewhere.

Note - I've moved the America /Europe snow debate to its own thread: Does snow alternate between America and Europe

If you enjoy massive lineups, frequent rain and heavy porridge snow, and don't mind actually fighting with thousands of pro skiers for first tracks after a storm, then Whistler is pretty good. Once you realise that there is much more to skiing in BC other than Whistler then its easy to understand why it doesn't even get a mention on this thread!! You can ski inbounds at some of the resorts mentioned above and get fresh tracks 3 or 4 days after a storm, and if you hit them on a weekday after a storm, chances are you will hardly cross a track. When you consider that these resorts also have massive backcountry that is completely accessible and totally uncrowded then Whistler doesn't even seem worth a mention.

Damn, TD beat me to the whistler = cham comment.  I think The Captain is being a little harsh but if you live in BC I can see why you wouldn't rate Whistler in comparison to what is on offer elsewhere.  Whistler is still pretty cool, massive mountain, lots of piste and worth a visit if you're over on the west coast, just probably wouldn't want to make a season of it.  They do have some nice heated bridges too for those cold walks home from the pub (or is that just a mixed-up alcohol fuelled memory of mine?!).