Anyone like Bristol?

[Frank101]

Hey,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with Bristol Mountain. Coming from Toronto it is only a 3 hour drive compared to 7 or 8 minimum unless I head to Whiteface at around 5.5.

What do you guys think?

 

[Skimaine]

Not too bad. I have skied there a couple of times in the last 2 years while visiting western NY. Good lift infrastructure. Nice mix of trails. 1200 feet of vertical with basically no run-out. It is kind of a day-trip mountain. You can ski all of it twice in a day. You would be bored beyond two days.

Consider hitting Holiday Valley and the private hill right next to it (forgot the name). Not as much vertical but a much larger resort (sort of like a small version of SR). Nice village.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Holimont and Holiday Valley are about 750 vert -- very small

 

[tjf67]

Hey,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with Bristol Mountain. Coming from Toronto it is only a 3 hour drive compared to 7 or 8 minimum unless I head to Whiteface at around 5.5.

What do you guys think?

If you are going for a weekend whiteface is worth the extra amount of time on the road. Bristol is OK nothing to write home about. I have skied all the big hills in the East and am partial to Whiteface.

 

[Smellytele]

Thought you meant Palin.

 

[Skimaine]

Holimont and Holiday Valley are about 750 vert -- very small

Holimont. That's the place. It is private, but can be skied during the week. Weekends you need a member. Both areas are vertically challenged, but they do well with what they have.

 

[campgottagopee]

Hey,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with Bristol Mountain. Coming from Toronto it is only a 3 hour drive compared to 7 or 8 minimum unless I head to Whiteface at around 5.5.

What do you guys think?

Hell yes, any place that has snow and you can ski on it is cool by me. I used to ski Bristol while in college and had a blast...enjoy

 

[jaja111]

Bristol, Holimont, Holiday.... they all have their own appeal to different tastes for different days.

Bristol is the gym. With a HSQ (2 in fact, running the second on weekends only(?)) you can get a ton of runs down the vertical and actually tire yourself out. I like it for its proximity to me (30 minutes) on weeknights to get a fix.

Holiday Valley is the amusement park. The vert is nill, but the terrain variety is unmatched in this corner of NY. Multiple HSQ's keep you entertained the whole time. Its a wide hill with a heck of a lot to offer. I like it for weekend skiing for the variety of trails + some trees.

Holimont is the park, the quiet park. Its gorgeous and offers very nicely manicured trails. No HSQ, but it never bothered me. Very nice family atmosphere too. I like it to relax. Great day for a few beers tailgating in the lot and everyone's got a smile on their face. Not too many noobs either. I'd be there more if it wasn't private.

Bristol can get a bit crowded as people are bottlenecked horribly at some points on the hill. HV gets crowded just because it is crowded rather than bottlenecks - everyone wants to ski there. Holimont is not usually crowded being that its only weekday access without a membership (boocoo $$$), and if it is slightly crowded it doesn't showup in the liftlines as there are so many lifts spanning the hill.

Then there's Swain, Kissing Bridge, Greek Peak towards Syracuse.... I can't say anything bad about Swain as I learned to ski there.... but if you're driving from the other side of the pond... yeah, skip them.

 

[billski]

I learned to ski at Swain when phys ed was still a requirement at RIT. 600 feet of vertical best suited for beginners progressing to intermediate. About 20 mins further than Bristol. I graduated to Bristol. Bristol is a lot more hyper than Swain, which is more laid back, from what I recall.

It was 1976-8, so bear with me. Bristol as as jaja11 described, the "gym". Lots of straight shot fall line runs on approximately 1000 vertical feet. Big night skiing operation. It's only 160 acres of skiable area, so you're gonna be up close and personal. Pulls it's crowd from Ra-cha-cha.

Are you looking to day trip? A day there would be OK.
But If you're gonna multi day, you may get bored quick, depending on your level.

Something to think about - Kissing Bridge and the resorts south of Buffalo, east of Lake Erie get a pounding of snow and might be a tad closer for you. They are uber-small verts, with KB having the most with 700 verts. Think this - ever ski pow? Want to learn/practice? Go there when they get a dumping, which is weekly, and they never have time enough to pound it all down. For me, that would probably be how I would mix things up. You'll be just as tired, maybe more after a day of pow at 700 feet vs. 1000-1200 of fall line groomers.

Cockaigne, a whopping 430 vertical, reportedly gets 275" annually and I wouldn't doubt it one bit. I remember skiing there one night after work and the problem was, the snow was so deep the hill didn't have enough pitch to move you!

 

[jaja111]

.....Go there when they get a dumping, which is weekly, and they never have time enough to pound it all down........

You'd be surprised how fast they mash it. Its a common complaint. HV and Holimont have been good on a handful of trails, but every other place's mentality is that deep snow is a hindrance to their profits because it discourages beginner to intermediate skiers. Sad fact unless you're there at that moment when its dumping so hard there's lightning and thunder. It will get to knee deep quite fast. Be willing to push your luck at the edge of trails, under lifts, in the trees, etc. when its like that.

But yes, as billski says, the winner from getting puked on by Lake Erie are by far any place south of Buffalo. Swain gets some, and Bristol is usually too far inland for the lake effect bands to reach.

 

[billski]

You'd be surprised how fast they mash it. Its a common complaint. HV and Holimont have been good on a handful of trails, but every other place's mentality is that deep snow is a hindrance to their profits because it discourages beginner to intermediate skiers. Sad fact unless you're there at that moment when its dumping so hard there's lightning and thunder. It will get to knee deep quite fast. Be willing to push your luck at the edge of trails, under lifts, in the trees, etc. when its like that.

But yes, as billski says, the winner from getting puked on by Lake Erie are by far any place south of Buffalo. Swain gets some, and Bristol is usually to far inland for the lake effect bands to reach.

bummer. I must have always gotten lucky. It was winters of 78 and 79. Drive home from work was hairy at least 2-3 nights a week. Any weather wonks know?
Blizzard of 78 sucked. I was homebound for two days, it was gigantic solid lead drifts of snow that would stretch for hundreds of yards.
.

 

[jaja111]

bummer. I must have always gotten lucky. It was winters of 78 and 79. Drive home from work was hairy at least 2-3 nights a week. Any weather wonks know?
Blizzard of 78 sucked. I was homebound for two days, it was gigantic solid lead drifts of snow that would stretch for hundreds of yards.
.

Did you ski in that Blizzard? Locals tell me the '78 blizzard wasn't what they would call snow in downtown Buffalo. It blew in from off Lake Erie in a windstorm and fell like a sand storm, leaving everything crippled because it was so extraordinarily hardpacked. Absolutely absurd situation. Great story, that you'd think would have been made into a movie by now, found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Blizzard_of_1977

 

[billski]

Did you ski in that Blizzard? Locals tell me the '78 blizzard wasn't what they would call snow in downtown Buffalo. It blew in from off Lake Erie in a windstorm and fell like a sand storm, leaving everything crippled because it was so extraordinarily hardpacked. Absolutely absurd situation. Great story, that you'd think would have been made into a movie by now, found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Blizzard_of_1977

No, I skied all through that winter, but was home visiting my folks near Rochester when it struck. The drifts in the roads entirely covered the cars that were abandoned. We could not get out for two days - the county closed all the roads and banned travel, not that anyone could anyways. The drift were like solid walls of snow, there was no pushing them. The state had to bring in multi-auger blowers mounted on large dump trucks. It would take 2-3 hours to clear a mile of road. We had one person stay with us and the farmer next door had 10 at his house, as people had to abandon their cars.

Very few people at the time had X-C gear. Our little hick town of farmers got around by snow machines. The county sheriff went house to house by snow machine checking on everyone. No phone service, but we did have electric, which is what let us manage so well.

After the first day, I was going stir crazy and just went for a walk, down to the corner store about a mile away. The snow still whipped your face much worse than anything I've ever experienced skiing. I walked on top of abandoned cars.

For the most part, the blizzard was a pretty mundane experience.

 

[Huck_It_Baby]

Last Novemeber I had 2 days in MID-November of knee deep powder at Holiday Valley. Always lots of early season lake effect at HV before Lake Erie freezes up....Snow quality here is almost always going to be better than Bristol.

Bristol has decent vert and lots of secret glades if you know where to go (wink wink) but not a ton of natural snow and many thaws through out the season. Management is more than a bit touchy about people going into the trees looking for pow.

I live in Rochester and unless there has been a recent dump in the Bristol hills I opt to drive the extra 1.5 hours to HV over Bristol anytime I ski locally.

 

[Frank101]

thanks for all the suggestions.

The main reason I was thinking Bristol is because it had the extra 500 feet vertical compared to Holiday Valley.

From what I've been reading however, I think I may just stick with Holiday Valley as it's closer to home, closer to the Casino and as most are saying has better snow.

 

[catskillman]

Hell yes, any place that has snow and you can ski on it is cool by me. I used to ski Bristol while in college and had a blast...enjoy

What College ?

 

[campgottagopee]

What College ?

Houghton College---even had our own slopes---Houghton Slopes!!!!

 

[catskillman]

I used to ski there often - just wondering if we were at the same college.

 

[jaja111]

Last Novemeber I had 2 days in MID-November of knee deep powder at Holiday Valley. Always lots of early season lake effect at HV before Lake Erie freezes up....Snow quality here is almost always going to be better than Bristol.

Bristol has decent vert and lots of secret glades if you know where to go (wink wink) but not a ton of natural snow and many thaws through out the season. Management is more than a bit touchy about people going into the trees looking for pow.

I live in Rochester and unless there has been a recent dump in the Bristol hills I opt to drive the extra 1.5 hours to HV over Bristol anytime I ski locally.

+1 from another Rochestarian... however I have paid for that drive on a few trips, not necessarily with being in a ditch, but at least with an additional hour of driving in 40 yard visibility. The past seasons its seemed a major lake effect dumping opens most of the mountain down there.

 

[180]

I have skied both Holimont and Bristol. Both have a few bump runs and if the weather cooperated there is plenty of off piste. Don't get caught because they love the excitement of hauling you in to the manager which happened to me at Holimont.