Largest resort in the East?

VTKilarney · Sep 4, 2014

St. Bear said:
While it takes two lifts to get to the summit of Whiteface, describing the mountain as chopped up is not accurate. They ran the Olympic down hill there. Twice.

That's definitely a fair comment. However, I did not mean to suggest that you can't ski the entirety of the vertical. Rather, I was referring to the patterns of recreational skiers and not FIS downhill racers. My hunch is that the vast majority of recreational skiers don't ski the entire vertical on most of their runs. I thought that this was more relevant since there are lots more recreational skiers than FIS downhill racers at Whiteface on any given day.

In any event, vertical that requires more than one lift to access, and takes the form of pods, is "chopped up" IMHO. Your standards may be different. It's certainly subjective.

MadMadWorld · Sep 4, 2014

I personally could care less about who is the largest. I actually dislike really big resorts so for me Sugarloaf, Killington, and whoever else can battle it out all they want while enjoy the smaller mountains where the vibe and skiing are far better.

St. Bear · Sep 4, 2014

VTKilarney said:
That's definitely a fair comment. However, I did not mean to suggest that you can't ski the entirety of the vertical. I was referring to the patterns of recreational skiers rather than FIS downhill racers. My hunch is that the vast majority of recreational skiers don't ski the entire vertical on most of their runs.

True. I would think that the majority of lower intermediates and below stay on the bottom half, and advanced skiers stay at the top.

VTKilarney · Sep 4, 2014

St. Bear said:
True. I would think that the majority of lower intermediates and below stay on the bottom half, and advanced skiers stay at the top.

That has certainly been my experience at Whiteface. And for the record, Whiteface is one of my all-time favorite mountains. I see it as Wildcat's bad-ass uncle. I have an affinity for more old-school trails rather than the mega-freeways at places like Stratton.

MadMadWorld · Sep 4, 2014

mbedle said:
Heres the rundown between the two:
Trails - Sugarloaf
Acres - Killington, but Sugarloaf claims the largest "developed" skiable acres. Not sure what that means.
Miles - Killington
Vertical - Killington claims the largest, but Sugarloaf claims the largest "most continuous" - which is true.
Lifts - Sugarloaf

So, with that said, they both appear to be right, in their own minds.

I think this is a pretty solid evaluation of mountains true vertical. They have Sugarloaf at 3 behind Whiteface and the Bush.

http://mountainvertical.com/best-skiing-east-coast-snowboarding.php

x10003q · Sep 4, 2014

VTKilarney said:
But again, vertical does not necessarily equate to "skiing bigger". The vertical at Whiteface is really chopped up. The summit quad at Whiteface is 1,830 vertical feet. But... the gondola is 2,456 vertical feet. So for those skiing the gondola, Whiteface does indeed ski bigger "vertical-wise" than Killington or Sugarloaf.

The WF gondola is a crappy lift to yoyo and it really a lift that serves nobody. For experts, all the good stuff is the top 1500 vertical of Little Whiteface ( the top of Gondola). The run below the midstation back to the gondola base is a long, boring run out. There is only 1 blue trail off the top (Excelsior) and it can become an icy, high speed highway with lots of people playing downhill racer on the way down. There is no green trail off the gondola:-o.

They have managed to install a Gondola that delivers people on terrain that is too tough for almost all green skiers and many blue skiers - exactly the people who want to use the gondola.

As much as I love Whiteface, the various blue and green level family members and friends I travel with have no desire to go back to WF.

VTKilarney · Sep 4, 2014

x10003q said:
The WF gondola is a crappy lift to yoyo and it really a lift that serves nobody.

Since it has been a long time since I have skied Whiteface, I was assuming that the Wolf Run and Wolf trails made skiing the gondola attractive to advanced skiers.

bigbog · Sep 4, 2014

VTKilarney said:
Another's opinions don't have to. It's completely up to you. But if people didn't share their opinions on this forum, it would be a very boring place.

Well I hope you enjoy your Biggest and Best type of marketing BS....but imho, there are often more interesting things to talk about, that's all.

BenedictGomez · Sep 4, 2014

bigbog said:
I love Killington's terrain....
I just could do without the maze of merges that the busy resorts have adopted, but then it makes traversing to the other end of the resort quicker, which would not be my priority if I had a say... They don't call it K-mart for nothing. ... I think if they cut off the traversing merges there and at the Loaf as well...it would be a ton more enjoyable experience instead of spending most of one's time watching for skiers entering.

I hadnt thought about this before, but I think Killington is the worst place I've ever skied in terms of merges, it felt like I was driving around NYC at times.

trackbiker said:
If we are talking the "East" like in the title of this thread and not New England, Whiteface has them both beat on vertical.

Yeah, and it's not even close.

You notice a major difference in how long your run is from the summit of Whiteface (assuming it's actually open) than other eastern resorts. Regardless though, Killington's real vertical is relatively puny compared to plenty of other eastern ski areas. Not even in the top-10.

VTKilarney · Sep 4, 2014

bigbog said:
Well I hope you enjoy your Biggest and Best type of marketing BS....but imho, there are often more interesting things to talk about, that's all.

I guess I'm not sure what your point is. Nobody here has suggested that you had to talk about this. Are you trying to dictate what others can talk about? Most people who are not interested in a conversation simply don't participate rather than acting condescendingly toward those that have expressed an interest.

VTKilarney · Sep 4, 2014

BenedictGomez said:
Regardless though, Killington's real vertical is relatively puny compared to plenty of other eastern ski areas. Not even in the top-10.

+1

Nick · Sep 4, 2014

Domeskier said:
You can keep your McSki Areas and their endless monotonous groomers and their billions served. I prefer quality over quantity. That's why, when I ski, it's Satan's Staircase or bust!

x10003q · Sep 4, 2014

St. Bear said:
While it takes two lifts to get to the summit of Whiteface, describing the mountain as chopped up is not accurate. They ran the Olympic down hill there. Twice.

There was no alpine skiing in the 1932 Lake Placid Olympics.

Smellytele · Sep 4, 2014

St. Bear said:
While it takes two lifts to get to the summit of Whiteface, describing the mountain as chopped up is not accurate. They ran the Olympic down hill there. Twice.

While the Olympics were held twice in Lake Placid, there was no alpine events the first time in 1932.

Nick · Sep 4, 2014

VTKilarney said:
I guess I'm not sure what your point is. Nobody here has suggested that you had to talk about this. Are you trying to dictate what others can talk about? Most people who are not interested in a conversation simply don't participate rather than acting condescendingly toward those that have expressed an interest.

Right. I said right in the OP that this is obviously driven by marketing.

VTKilarney · Sep 4, 2014

x10003q said:
There was no alpine skiing in the 1932 Lake Placid Olympics.

Well... they did have both a men's and women's downhill in 1980. ;-)

BenedictGomez · Sep 4, 2014

VTKilarney said:
In any event, vertical that requires more than one lift to access, and takes the form of pods, is "chopped up" IMHO. Your standards may be different. It's certainly subjective.

But you're wrong in that regard too, Whiteface's vertical is far and away #1 in the east, even with that definition (which I agree with).

x10003q said:
They have managed to install a Gondola that delivers people on terrain that is too tough for almost all green skiers and many blue skiers - exactly the people who want to use the gondola.

This is so true, the mismanagement is staggering. Not to mention, there's absolutely no point in taking the gondola given you can hit all the same terrain via Little Whiteface.

x10003q said:
As much as I love Whiteface, the various blue and green level family members and friends I travel with have no desire to go back to WF.

The lack of terrain for beginners and lower intermediates is a problem. Not only that, but several "Blue squares" at Whiteface would be Black Diamonds anywhere in New England, or at very least they have some legitimate diamond sections to them.

x10003q · Sep 4, 2014

VTKilarney said:
Since it has been a long time since I have skied Whiteface, I was assuming that the Wolf Run and Wolf trails made skiing the gondola attractive to advanced skiers.

They are fine runs but the Bear Double seems to serve Wolf and Wolf Run.:grin:

x10003q · Sep 4, 2014

BenedictGomez said:
This is so true, the mismanagement is staggering. Not to mention, there's absolutely no point in taking the gondola given you can hit all the same terrain via Little Whiteface.

The ORDA Board is stuffed with Lake Placid First members and they were pissed when Gore was getting a new Gondola to replace the original, 35 year old gondola. So they ordered themselves a new, expensive, useless gondola for Whiteface that fails to serve the people who really want to use it.

BenedictGomez said:
The lack of terrain for beginners and lower intermediates is a problem. Not only that, but several "Blue squares" at Whiteface would be Black Diamonds anywhere in New England, or at very least they have some legitimate diamond sections to them.

This is a big problem that many people like to ignore. The most recent example of this is the blue rated Wilmington trail off Lookout Mtn. This trail is loaded with some hairy drops with rock walls on the right and steep drop offs to the left (like Hunter). Make sure the snow is good before you bring your loved ones.:???:

BenedictGomez · Sep 4, 2014

x10003q said:
This is a big problem that many people like to ignore. The most recent example of this is the blue rated Wilmington trail off Lookout Mtn. This trail is loaded with some hairy drops with rock walls on the right and steep drop offs to the left (like Hunter). Make sure the snow is good before you bring your loved ones.:???:

Learned this the hard-way last year. Two-years ago we hit that trail in great snow conditions, and it was my intermediate gf's favorite trail.

So last year we go up there and it's night and day different. She was actually scared, which is not a good thing. She made it down without falling, but it took a while and needless to say we only skied the trail once given the conditions stunk. But that last steep section near the bottom is not "Intermediate" by anyone's standards with poor snow.

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