Snow East Magazine Reader Choice Out

[bigbog]

The lists have some head shakers, of course. I like Rangley but I find it hard to believe that it would receive more votes than North Conway. To get that result you'd have to only poll people north of Portland....but then there's Lake Placid at #1.

Think there are probably more deer wandering over the town line, on a daily basis, than those from away...;-)

 

[billski]

This is a prime example of either a poorly designed or poorly executed survey. A good survey takes a lot of work and brains to yield useful results. A survey with inadequate sampling size and control will also yield poor results (i.e., stacking the deck with respondents.) A random survey must be controlled, not set free to the internet.

 

[riverc0il]

This is a prime example of either a poorly designed or poorly executed survey. A good survey takes a lot of work and brains to yield useful results. A survey with inadequate sampling size and control will also yield poor results (i.e., stacking the deck with respondents.) A random survey must be controlled, not set free to the internet.

The problem with any of these surveys is twofold. First, selection is limited to readership of the periodical or website conducting the survey. So you will see regional or preference biased based on self selection.

Second, almost every single responder is going to have limited experience to draw upon. In other words, in a "best of" survey that includes every ski area in the Northeast, it would be ideal that responders would have at least skied every area once to be able to properly compare them. If you have only skied 10 or 20 mountains, those ski areas are generally going to be the ski areas you respond with because that is the limit of your experience.

You get into further bias when you simply factor in the type of person willing to even respond to this type of survey. I suspect many more knowledgeable skiers and riders justly know these surveys are bunk and do not bother contributing. So your most knowledgeable demographic likely has the least amount of influence.

Even the survey being done on AZ in another thread will show demographic bias. I can almost guarantee you that Sundown is going to will for best under 1100'. Granted, I have never skied Sundown but I have skied Black Mountain in NH. And I bet any one that has skied both Sundown and Black Mountain would say that Black Mountain is the better mountain of the two. But due to AZ demographics, Black is unlikely to win that category (if it even places at all in favor of other CT centric smaller areas).

 

[deadheadskier]

and by similar standards, I voted for Black, Mt. Abram and Pat's Peak for the under 1100 category as I have not skied Sundown.

Hard to say whether I would like Sundown more than Black. Season long consistency trumps 'best conditions' when I partake in such surveys. As someone whose favorite surface is bumps when powder/trees are unavailable, Sundown might offer a product I'd enjoy more days out of a given season than Black.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

I've seen this mag around and according to the masthead it's located in Ramsey, NJ. Making a profit as a ski/board magazine let alone a fairly new magazine would be hard but it's nice to see it. It's currently pretty low budget but that might be a plus. I don't know enough about who reads it but a readers survey does at least generate a thread here on AZ.

Unless alot of snowmobilers took the survey. I too can't put Rangely over North Conway. as a better destination town either. Rangely is busier in the summer than many ski towns in the east but not North Conway. Most skiers at Saddleback stay up on the mountain although there is a fairly new motel just as your headed out of town towards Saddleback. Will Rangely grow as Saddleback grows, it's happened before.

 

[thetrailboss]

Sunday River best Grooming/snowmaking, thoughts?

I'd agree.

 

[billski]

The problem with any of these surveys is twofold. First, selection is limited to readership of the periodical or website conducting the survey. So you will see regional or preference biased based on self selection.

Second, almost every single responder is going to have limited experience to draw upon.

Which is precisely why nobody should take any "reader's choice"-anything seriously.

The magazine is a give-away at shops, resorts, etc. "Subscriptions" are generally outside the main business model. It's revenue is advertising and one of its main values is a strong distribution system. This is why it was so easy for me to get on a drop-ship list for my club.

Years before Al Gore invented the internet and some of you guys were being pushed around in strollers, there was be a magazine with this same business model, "Ski America." It had one edge up on the others, it offered discount lift tickets to about 100 different areas. I bought many, many tickets by sending a check in the mail and waiting a month for fulfillment. It worked for me quite handily.