Difference between East and West skiing

Don't want this to be same old "we're better than you because" thread. Outgrowth from Season in Review thread, looking for input from people who ski both East and West a lot, especially those who lived and skied in one region and moved to the other. What are some of the most noticeable differences to you with respect to terrain, ski technique, slope layout, infrastructure, weather, snow, grooming, people, etc? In other words, what are some of the obvious and perhaps not-so-obvious qualities that define how skiing in the Eastern and Western US differ from each other?

A few quick thoughts from me and I'll try to post more later if there is interest in this topic.

Weather, I have more ski days out west (~70) in last two years, than previous 50 years altogether. I am still learning how to dress for western skiing. Light, light, light. Fewer underlayers, thinner outer shells. 40degs out west fells like 55 or 60 in the East.

Snow, a good day is a good day no matter where, but snow surfaces are generally better out West. Part of this is that in the West I'm in vacationer mode and able to enjoy when a powder day arises. In the East I'm usually stuck in suburbia when powder hits local mtns and don't ski them until it's gone or crowded on next weekend. Surprisingly, spring skiing is a bit more equal in fun factor between east and west. Really warm day out west turns recent snow to bubble gum. When spring temps hit firm eastern snow it stays fairly fast skiing.

People and technique: my son (lives in Utah) says good eastern skiers are highly technical, good western skiers are highly tactical. I need to explore that topic more with him, but what I see is easterners can get down the tightest lines, tightest glades, zipperline bumps, maybe run gates better. Good Western recreational skiers can do a lot of that too, but seem to be better at letting it rip over big lines, fewer turns and conserving energy on open terrain so they can do lots of verttical without stopping. They look at the big picture better. And no doubt experienced at some special terrain like chutes and cliffs and huge open bowls that we don't see in the East unless you ski Tucks for two months every spring.

Blah blah blah. What do some of you think?:wink:

I don't get why this in the non-skiing forum. You're talking about skiing . Should be in the skiing forum.

Ok I will bite! I posted a summary of this in another thread

IMO,
everything feels bigger, while much has to do with acreage it also has a lot to due with being above tree line. Also 400-800 acre ski areas are considered small where back east that is considered a decent sized ski area. In fact 90% of the NE ski areas are below 700 acres and 70% of western resorts are greater than 700 acres.

the snow is natural (for the most part), many western resorts have less snow making capacity than most of the larger New England ski areas for example vail has about 460 acres or so and loveland has about 160 acres as compared to Okemo which has over 650 acres. Percentage wise New England ski areas have way more snow making capacity. As we know MM often gets laid down with lots of moisture and freezes creating that boilerplate that we all love.

powder seems dryer (except with spring storms), New England sits at lower elevations that gets more adversely affected by changes in temp or precipitation. Often systems in the case of Nor'Easters bring in wet snow as compared to dry snow that flies at higher elevation and stays dry over the mountain ranges.

above tree line chutes are thrilling and in some case intimidating, I think due to the more open spaces and the more jagged peaks and in many cases steeper pitch at least for me seem daunting and I ski them with trepidation in some cases and do not even attempt them. In the east, I have skied many steeper lines but even in the east that are some crazy lines that I would not consider but they are different.

bump trails are longer, a while ago there was a thread about the longest vertical without runouts with expert skiing. There are many areas where the bump runs start of the lift and end right before it and the bumps are easier to ski - not scaped off.

views are exhilarating - I love the views of peaks as far as one can see. I liked them in the Alps, Banff and here in Colorado. Now the views of New England mountains are equally beautiful but softer due to being below tree line for the most part. New England mountains often ofter views that are flatter in appearance like from Cannon north or from Jay Peak or Sugarloaf where it seems like you can see forever.

With all of that, I think New England ski areas are more quaint except got the larger ski areas. Many of the trails have tighter lines and are narrow with many turns which is very cool which I do not see here as much. Highway congestion is a thing around here especially on I-70 which I rarely find in New England at least from where I lived. New England also offers a wide variety of ski areas 50 or so that provide many options within a 2 hour centered radius (that being Concord, NH). In Colorado, there are like 27 ski areas very far apart but Summit County has a nice concentration. While this is changing, the pass options in the West appear to be better priced. However with the Peak Pass and even the Max Pass those options are improving. Lift ticket pricing well it is nut out here for the most part. This next season will, more than likely, be the first time where multiple mountains will charge over $100. Out here that is all too common for a walk up rate. I love New England skiing because it is different, but I enjoy trying new places and experiences.

There are places like Keystone where runs are like NE resorts on steroids (wide through trees) and they are an example of a place with bump runs that take the wind out of you (altitude may have a lot to do with that). Speaking of Keystone, the day we skied there the conditions were considered crappy by the locals and we thought that they were amazing - firm yes but due to eastern influence, we got up on edge and carved it up. Keystone has been dissed on this board by a few but at close to 3000 acres, good bump runs, and cat skiing in the higher elevation I will take it any day.

This year I will ski a Epic Local Pass and some 4 pks for Loveland and in Colorado alone at Breck, Vail, Beaver, Keystone, A Basin and Loveland we will have more than 15,000 acres of skiing which is more than all ski areas in VT NH and ME combined. Will I ski it all, no but I will ski as much as I can. The ski areas here have a lot more people but spread them out better IMO.

SkiFanE said:

I don't get why this in the non-skiing forum. You're talking about skiing . Should be in the skiing forum.

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He did not want to get jumped on?

SkiFanE said:

I don't get why this in the non-skiing forum. You're talking about skiing . Should be in the skiing forum.

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Yeah and it should not be in the Skiing Forum because it is not "Northeastern Skiing"

A few years back we did have a discussion, as mods and later with the public, about what to do about "skiing" topics not based in the Northeast. The consensus was allow it to be in he Northeastern Ski Room because we did not want to fracture the site into smaller pieces. The slippery slope argument. Our board has done very well over now 13 years that I have been involved because we did not fracture it up too far. A lot of other places have too many sub-forums that dilutes the attention and traffic. Sounds like folks want to change it. We're always open to proposed changes. Perhaps a "West Coast" room, an "International" room, etc. might be in order. However, look at the Hiking Board (dead) and the Biking Board (largely dead).

My take - while I use my same equipment East and West and I'm sliding downhill on white, frozen water, other than that it's like trying to compare apples to oranges instead of apples to apples

Some other differences:
West: cheap season passes, high daily rates.
East: expensive season passes (but getting better), cheap daily discounts abound esp at smaller places.

Acreage: no doubt lots more acreage at Western resorts. You can pick countless lines down some of the huge open bowls. Lots more situations where you are skiing partially tracked snow/crud. I find it's usually pretty easy to escape crowds, even at mega resorts, by heading towards high terrain and going far from base areas for example at places like Breck, Vail, PC.

Here's a weird one and perhaps more of a personal problem? In the East you can go ski for a weekend and then lick your wounds and recover all week and do it again next weekend. Visiting the West on vacation there is an imperative to get the most out of your trip and ski intensely for a full week. As an older person I find myself pushing beyond my comfort level, both in fatigue and terrain difficulty. I like to push, but not to the point where it stops being fun.

Along with last thought, there is no substitute for convenience/proximity. Good Eastern skiing that you can frequently get at close to home beats infrequent great skiing that is an expensive plane ride away and beyond your budget.:razz:

Alot of the time skiing is better early season back east due to superior snowmaking.

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The chairlifts out west exacerbate my acrophobia, claustrophobia and agoraphobia. So does skiing above the tree line. I'm kind of surprised I ever make it out of the house, really.

OK, here goes. I've been skiing out west now six years; living out here for five. That said, I've been skiing since 1990 so I have spent 6 of my 26 years out west.

There are big differences between east and west coast skiing. I am very fortunate that I learned to ski, and spent the bulk of time, out east. I say that because the conditions are vastly different. The weather really makes eastern skiing. We get powder, cement, icing, rain, warm temps, cold temps, varying temperatures (some WIDE spreads too in a short amount of time). East coast skiing really can be quite tough. I recall a few years back a buddy of mine was working at a local paper in Jackson, Wyoming and she called me up to give her some "ski terms" that westerners probably had not heard of. My phrases: starched corduroy, boilerplate, death cookies, glass, white ice, dust on crust, etc. She got a lot of great responses.

The terrain out east is generally narrower, more crowded, thinly covered at times, and more difficult in terms of condition. As such, I skied pretty technical and also skied slower. You also look for lines anywhere--no matter how tight the line. With the exception of Tuckerman, the Presidentials, Sugarloaf, Mansfield, and Whiteface, all skiing is below treeline. There are no real bowls per se except for the Presidentials. Views are generally treed in except for straight ahead. There is also no altitude sickness, but there is frostbite.

I first skied out west in Tahoe in March 2010. We skied Homewood and Squaw Valley. Things are much more open out here. You don't have to get too high to find open terrain with few (if any) trees. Snow generally is deep. Pitches are very steep. You have more elbow room and you can ski fast. You can get into trouble really fast out here. We have avalanche within open resort areas. Elevation is significant and weather at the top can be brutal and differ greatly from the base. We don't have thaws midwinter.....or rain after a certain point.

It took me a while to get used to the pitch and open terrain. Where you have trees to obscure what you are skiing and to act as reference points, you don't have that in a lot of places and you can really get confused/psyched out. Especially if it is cloudy or snowing.

Our conditions out here depend more on when we get fresh snow. We need it to refresh things instead of snowmaking, grooming, or anything else really. Depths out east tell you generally how good the skiing will be and where you can go. Out here it really only means how much to expect open.

Yes, we do have crowds at lifts and on various trails and places, but you generally can find your own lines and space. In fact, I find things that are tighter and narrower than others will find. On our first trip to Alta my wife was scouting out tree lines that others passed by. And they were not that tight. Folks were heading to the open bowls. In the east it is more a cluster to get to the limited open skiing areas on a powder day; out here there is more room to spread out.

I am a much better skier thanks to being an eastern skier. I understand weather, technical skiing, how to use my edges, how to read subtle changes in terrain, how to find a good line, and how to ski in variable conditions. If you can ski well back east you can ski anywhere.

Altitude.
Acreage.
West = more snow/powder
East = more snowmaking/ice
Vertical: More big mountains out west. We have a few in the east that reach 3k. There are a few out west that reach 4k. But you have to go to Europe to get really, really big vertical drops.
Temps - not really, hey it's winter and things are cold everywhere. Yes there are places out west that are usually fairly mild. Tahoe for example. However Montana and Jackson Hole can be well below 0 and Summit County CO gan ski pretty darn cold as well.
Cowboy hats and boots in the west. Uggs in the east. Sorels everywhere.
More Kincos out west.
More pick-up trucks out west. More Beamers and Audis in the east.
More ski towns in the west with more/better local public transportation.

There is no location (not even the top of Mt Wash) or day of the year in the east where you can say with real certainty that it will not be 50 degrees while dumping 2" of rain. That is part of our reality, and not so much for the intermountain west.

I can't speak for all of the west but the temps are pretty stable in Colorado. I'd guess that temps in the low to mid 20's are the norm between peak ski season in late December to early March. While we do get extreme colds occasionally, it's rare and usually only limited to negative single digits.

I've seen temps get down to -30 at killington. And then 2 weeks later it's 50 degrees.

So I would say there are less fluctuations in temps in the west, while the east can be more volatile.

I will say I've seen more die hard skiers in extreme temps in the east than west. I skied Breckenridge on a Saturday (when it's usually packed) and it was only about 8 degrees, and I was able to ski directly onto each lift. 8 degrees on the east coast does not seem to cause a mass exodus

Good point and why 14-15 was so good in the east despite less than spectacular snow totals in the mountains. We went two months straight with temps below 32 in ski country

In the east I tore up my shoulder. In the west I tore up my knee. It's easier to get home with your arm in a sling than on crutches.




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Well some what different ideas to go through about skiing,. Thank you for sharing ideas.

MargitRobinson said:

Well some what different ideas to go through about skiing,. Thank you for sharing ideas.

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