Best and Worst of 2013

[ss20]

trail(s)?
lift(s)?
mountain?
food?
dining?
Whatever it is, was it the best or the worst?

I'll start with this one:
Best Lift: Bluebird Express. Sorry, the comfort is well worth the lack of extreme terrain.
Worst Lift: Smuggler's Notch Village Lifts. I'm waiting 10 minutes for a 15 minute lift that takes me to a 10 minute traverse, to another 10 minute line and 15 minute lift??? Terrain is worth it, but next time I'm taking the shuttle to Madonna.

Worst ski area: Thunder (Blunder) Ridge. I could walk up faster than this lift! My backyard has more vertical.

 

[ScottySkis]

Best was A zone ski trip to the Bush, snowy weekend and skiing the side county the whole hill was amazing. Worse was when I was sick at Elk, not Elk faults, Scott's fault, great winter especially after X- Mas to the end if spring has been great.

 

[andyzee]

I haven't skied much this season, only 18 days so far so can't give much feedback. However, best for me was Killington going back to their old mentality. Hope to see June skiing and some more days on my counter.

 

[Conrad]

I kind of feel weird saying this, but the best ski area for me was Sunday River even though I have gotten up to Sugarloaf more than any other season in my lifetime.

 

[Cornhead]

Has to be Sugarloaf during the AZ Summit, 15" and no one else could get there...the "AZ curse" is dead! Had a really awesome season, tiny little Snow Ridge was awesome with a foot of powder. I, and the other twenty people there, had a blast! And yes Scotty, Sugarbush didn't suck either.

 

[Bostonian]

Best of the Season: Taking the first run down Trigger with a little fluff on top floating down the mountain at Gunstock!


Worst of the Season: Ending my season prematurely after the fall, concussion and black out...

 

[steamboat1]

Best of the season was a weekday powder day at Pico at the end of Jan.

Worst of the season was breaking my ankle & blowing out my ACL at Stratton in the beginning of Feb, still have a hard time walking to this day.

Still managed to get 14 days in.

 

[snowmonster]

I kind of feel weird saying this, but the best ski area for me was Sunday River even though I have gotten up to Sugarloaf more than any other season in my lifetime.

Nothing weird about that. Sunday River is an excellent ski area. I think a lot of the crap SR takes is from the "corer than thou" skier-set. SR has everything: steeps, groomers and parks. As far as I am concerned, their glades are terribly underrated.

As for the rest of the question, I'd rather focus on the best:

trail(s)? On-piste: Rogue Angel or Excalibur at Sunday River -- long uninterrupted cruisers; Off-piste - a certain glade cut by locals at Sunday River =)

lift(s)? Single Chair at MRG -- iconic chair that accesses great terrain

mountain? East: Stowe; West: Alta

food? East: Le Massif de Charlevoix; West: Deer Valley

dining? Mariposa and Fireside Dining at Empire Canyon Lodge, Deer Valley - Probably, the best dining in ski-dom.

 

[57stevey]

Best: days when my daughter's fibro eased up enough for her to join me.
Worst: not enough of those days.

But I hit really good conditions on almost all of my ski days, upgraded my equipment, did better in the trees, no complaints.

 

[ceo]

Bests:
- Brackett Basin after 9" fell the previous night.
- Sugarbush after 15" and still snowing. Best ski day I've had in a long time.
- Realizing how much better shape I'm in from bike commuting 2-3x/week. Noticed this particularly on Kinsman Glade.
- Watching my son steadily become a better skier.

Worsts:
- Not actually getting out there until early February. Made up for it though.
- Skidding off the road and ending up with a 175-mile tow truck ride home after the aforementioned epic Sugarbush day.

 

[bdfreetuna]

trail(s)?
Best - Summit Glades at Pico
Worst - Lower Limelight at Okemo.. an ice rink packed like sardines

lift(s)?
Best - whatever gets me to the top
Worst - Magic Red Chair the day it broke down and I was stuck on it

mountain?
Best - Magic and Berkshire East delivered the best days this season without taking all my money. Jay was great too.
Worst - Stratton and Okemo close 2nd

food?
Best - packing a sandwich
Worst - Jiminy Peak $12 tuna wrap

Overall bests were discovering Magic and skiing it several times. Getting back to Berkshire East and having some great powdery days there. Got a decent amount of woods skiing in this season and improved my mogul technique.

Worst: Spending all my money so by mid-March I was struggling to ski at all. I hit it hard early season and had to slow down during the prime.

Also getting free AZ pass to Jay was a big BEST and really topped off my season.. couldn't have swung it otherwise.

 

[darent]

best season in a while, just hit it perfect this season, didn't ski much but had fresh snow at every venue, skied the week at sunday river before the AZ summit and had freshies for the last two days, and then went to the summit and all there know what we had, the sugarbush gathering was another snowy occasion. flew out to oregon in april to ski with my son and skied a dump at mt hood to end the season.

 

[abc]

Best: any day I was out there skiing
Worst: don't have any

 

[The Sneak]

Best:
3. BEast 3/23/2013. 100% open, 40 F or so. Trees and liftline skied amazingly.
2. Sugarbush Dec 27 with 2 ft or so of snow. First run down Steins. Final run came face to face with an unhappy moose!
1. Brighton Utah, early March. Snowed all day, temps in the 20s, powder in the trees all day.

Worst:
3. Wa closing day april whatever 2013. I always get sad and wish I'd stayed the entire day instead of doing 12 runs, drinking a beer and leaving.
2. Life getting in the way of me skiing since Wa closing day, despite repeated emphatic pledges to ski deep into the spring
1. Missing AZ summit yet again

 

[bzrperfspec77]

Best Ski Day - Toss up here... Stratton in February with my 68 year old father where they just a touch of fresh snow. We got there first thing and were almost first chair. It was a long day but a good one. Not sure how many more days I have skiing with him. Then there was my Sugarloaf trip in January, the 2nd weekend brackett basin was open. By far the best skiing I've done, but it was tough with the crowd I was with. Fun times.

Worst Ski Day - Magic in late January, early February when they barely had snow. Thats not saying it wasn't good, but it was tough because a lot was closed and I had a lot of stellar days this year! What they had open was a lot of fun and by the afternoon rolled around the snow started softening up. Definetly on my hit list for next year during a snow day.

I didn't get out as much as I wanted, but this year I get an extra week vacation so I'll be saving those days for skiing. I hit Killington in early November so I will hopefully be hitting Killington next weekend (5-18) to save those tickets as basically a 6 month ski season!

 

[Nick]

Best ski day ... hard to say. Probably Magic in December or the Loaf during the summit. The snow was less scrapy at Magic so I'd have to throw the edge there. All days were awesome though this year.

Worst; none really. Even Wachusett was good but if I had to pick it was the most boring just because it's a smaller hill even though the snow was mostly awesome this year.

 

[skiadikt]

I haven't skied much this season, only 18 days so far so can't give much feedback. However, best for me was Killington going back to their old mentality. Hope to see June skiing and some more days on my counter.

am i really agreeing with andyz ;-) yep killington's rebirth to me was the best (and most surprising) thing that happened this season.

my other best would be just how damn good this season was. the best 208" i ever skied. think i was 30 out of 30 in great days. the past 2 weekends were nothing short of spectacular.

 

[octopus]

best
a really weird day at stratton that started off with rain and ended up with powder and empty trails. an epic trip that started off with a week at sunday river and ended up with a az first tracks weekend meet up at the loaf.

worst
damaged my board in some pow. thats it( and fell down in king pine)

 

[podunk77]

"Worst" seems kinda strong, but my least pleasant ticket-buying experience was going alone to Crotched on a 2-for-1 day and having to wait a half hour for another single to show up at the ticket counter. In contrast, my best ticket-buying experience was going alone to Sunapee on a 2-for-1 day and being sold an individual half-priced ticket with no problem ("You didn't come here to wait!" replied the cheery ticket seller when I told her of my Crotched experience).