National Geographic lists out Top 25 Ski Towns

xwhaler said:

Best place is actually over in Oquossoc on the shores of Mooselook. Bald Mountain Camps does a very nice job in a great setting if you are there for a sunset dinner. Gingerbread House is decent.
I'm actually going to be in Rangeley this Sunday. Looking at 45th Parallel which is a new BBQ joint attached to the Saddleback Inn.
Forks in the Air Bistro is also new, I haven't been but reviews are solid.

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Thanks. I posted this in another thread recently, but I've never been there in the summer. I'm guessing that makes the town pop a bit more.

xwhaler said:

Fair enough. I happen to think Rangeley is quite nice.....certainly better than Rumford, Skowhegan, Madison, Kingfield, etc.
Nestled in amongst the lakes and mountains, there are some very impressive properties on both Rangeley and Mooselookmeguntic. 2 golf courses in town as well.....to me Rangeley is the nicest pure town (ski town or otherwise) North of Portland and west of the coast.

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I absolutely loved the aesthetics around Saddleback/Rangeley and would greatly enjoy skiing Saddleback again. Had a sensational couple of days there in Mar 2012, but I'm not sure Rangeley makes the cut for this discussion.

I've been at or very close to almost half the towns on the list and a number of nice places not on the list. Let's face it, the whole concept is very subjective and a reasonable person/avid skier could make a fantastic life at any of these places. I've not been to many of the top North American list makers like Whistler, Banff, Jackson, Ketchum, Telluride, Whitefish, etc, but OF THE PLACES I'VE VISITED, on the list or off, here are the standouts.

Breaking places down to three groups:

a. Towns with immediate proximity to slopes (within ~1 mile),
Aspen, Vail, Park City, Steamboat, Stowe, North Conway, South Lake Tahoe. Of those Aspen is my fav because of killer ski terrain and a very cool if trendy/expensive town.

B. Towns with close proximity to slopes (within ~30 minutes):
Bend, Santa Fe, Taos, Lake Placid, Frisco, Burlington. Probably would pick Taos from this group, again great ski terrain, very unusual culturally. The population threshold between a town and a city gets fuzzy for this discussion.

C. Cities with close proximity to slopes (~30-60 minutes);
SLC, Quebec City, Reno, Denver, Ogden. It's hard not to pick SLC because of the extreme proximity of great terrain to a major city, but I really like the others for various reasons such as QC and Burlington for their beautiful settings and history.

The friggin' Alps is a whole other category. Absolutely packed full of nice towns and big time ski areas around every bend of the road. You could spend a lifetime exploring Alpine ski towns/areas. There are so many and often very historic. For Alpine towns on the list, I have been to Zermatt and Saalbach (similar and very near Kitzbuhel). I also spent a week in Salzburg skiing nearby mtns. Salzburg, although much smaller, is on par with QC and other big cities for culture and history. I've also been to Interlaken/Grindelwald (not on list) in the famously beautiful Jungfrau region of Switzerland. Garmisch is also epically gorgeous and I love German meat and potatos food. Besides some shorter ski or business trips, my wife and I took the trains around much of the Alps back in the summer of 1983 for 25 days. Insane amount of great skiing and cool towns in the Alps with scenery that blows away the Lower 48. Absolutely insane.

Yea, I was only making the point that among Eastern Ski towns I think Rangeley at least deserves a mention in the Top 10.
Realistically, there are not that many Eastern ski towns (I'm only familiar with New England so not considering NY or anything in PA or Mid Atlantic)

Off the top of my head on what the Eastern ski towns are. I used 10 min drive to skiing as a barometer and town must have food/lodging and some type of downtown area.
NH
N Conway, Lincoln, Waterville Valley (though this may get muddied between resort vs town), Jackson, Henniker

ME
Rangeley, Kingfield, Camden, Bethel

VT
Ludlow, Burlington, Burke, Newport, Manchester

I've probably missed a bunch too.

xwhaler said:

NH
N Conway, Lincoln, Waterville Valley (though this may get muddied between resort vs town), Jackson, Henniker

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For me, the only ski-towns we have in NH are Lincoln and N Conway. Jackson is more of a beautiful town with access to skiing. Henniker is just a college town that has a ski area there. There is no ski-vibe in the town...


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Ski town = beautiful setting, quick access, dangerous lack of diversity in the economy, laughable lack of racial diversity, horrendous male/female ratio. You know.....paradise!

Savemeasammy said:

For me, the only ski-towns we have in NH are Lincoln and N Conway. Jackson is more of a beautiful town with access to skiing. Henniker is just a college town that has a ski area there. There is no ski-vibe in the town...


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I agree on all but Jackson is a ski town just happens to be a cross country ski town

BenedictGomez said:

Lack of restaurants, lack of shopping, lack of bars and nightlife, lack of ancillary activities (compared with many other ski towns), etc.... It's just way too small to be a top-25 ski town.

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There are plenty of restaurants/bars but agree there is little shopping and nightlife. Don't know what u mean by ancillary activities, but I guess that's true. Mrv is for skiing. Isn't that what it means to be a ski town? If you want shopping go to Stratton.

witch hobble said:

Ski town = beautiful setting, quick access, dangerous lack of diversity in the economy, laughable lack of racial diversity, horrendous male/female ratio. You know.....paradise!

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Good post!

HowieT2 said:

Mrv is for skiing. Isn't that what it means to be a ski town?

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By that definition there are well over 1000 ski towns in the world. You honestly believe that by some definition Waitsfield/Warren makes a top-25 on the planet list?

I'm not even certain it's a top-5 in ADK/New England, but I'll leave that judgement to those who've skied the east in its' entirely more than I have.

For skiing, vibe, and eating, yeah I do. Don't really think of much else in winter and the other stuff attracts the unwanted masses.


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xwhaler said:

Are you suggesting Rangeley is not very nice? Or do you have it ranked outside the Top 10? Or both?

Rangeley typically doesn't get the press it deserves I dont think or its snowmobile centric reputation holds skiers back from making a trip up...theres more going on there one would think. Movie theatre, bowling alley, restaurants, hotels etc. all right downtown and the little village of Oquossoc also nearby.

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Whoa a movie theater AND a bowling alley. People really don't know what they are missing.

Oh wait yeah they do, facilities you can find anywhere.

xwhaler said:

Yea, I was only making the point that among Eastern Ski towns I think Rangeley at least deserves a mention in the Top 10.
Realistically, there are not that many Eastern ski towns (I'm only familiar with New England so not considering NY or anything in PA or Mid Atlantic)

Off the top of my head on what the Eastern ski towns are. I used 10 min drive to skiing as a barometer and town must have food/lodging and some type of downtown area.
NH
N Conway, Lincoln, Waterville Valley (though this may get muddied between resort vs town), Jackson, Henniker

ME
Rangeley, Kingfield, Camden, Bethel

VT
Ludlow, Burlington, Burke, Newport, Manchester

I've probably missed a bunch too.

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Maybe 3 of them are within 10 minutes

liftopia just put out their list of the top 3 most livable ski towns in the West

http://www.liftopia.com/blog/wests-...&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=20140825_blog

I had know idea there was a town at the base of Alta.

deadheadskier said:

I had know idea there was a town at the base of Alta.

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+1

xwhaler said:

I'm actually going to be in Rangeley this Sunday.

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http://www.therangeleyinn.com/tavern/

Lobster sounds good.

deadheadskier said:

liftopia just put out their list of the top 3 most livable ski towns in the West

http://www.liftopia.com/blog/wests-...&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=20140825_blog

I had know idea there was a town at the base of Alta.

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Alta? What are they thinking?

Durango would be pretty nice though.

steamboat1 said:

Maybe 3 of them are within 10 minutes

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The NH ones are all with 10 mins of skiing -
N Conway, Lincoln, Waterville Valley (though this may get muddied between resort vs town), Jackson, Henniker

snoseek said:

Alta? What are they thinking?

Durango would be pretty nice though.

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Durango isn't bad town wise but the ski area is nothing great compared to the other areas in the state

Smellytele said:

Durango isn't bad town wise but the ski area is nothing great compared to the other areas in the state

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Oh I hear you there. Just like that area for other reasons....closest real deal skiing would be Silverton or Telluride.

Honestly if I was loaded I think Telluride would be the one, that place is perfect year round.

snoseek said:

Alta? What are they thinking?

Durango would be pretty nice though.

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Alta. Funny. :lol: The author has never been there and has only looked at it online. I say that because Alta has less than 400 people living there year round. And the median home price is in the seven figures easily. A bedroom community for SLC? Really? Granted that some folks work up there and live in dorms, but to expect to live there is not realistic. A good example of knowing what you're talking about before posting an article.