Help me decide where to go in 2022

[Tonyr]

A one bedroom at the Claybrook from December 26th to January 2nd is showing a price of $9600. The Warren Lodge has the Skylight Studio Suite (with a kitchen and 2 queens) going for $2100 during the same timeframe. Obviously the rooms are not an apples to apples comparison neither are the locations but I'd opt to save $7500 anyday over an experience at the Claybrook that is not $7500 dollars better than what you'd get staying at the Warren Lodge. This is coming from someone that has stayed at the Claybrook twice now so I'm not taking out of my rear end!

 

[Tonyr]

A one bedroom at the Claybrook from December 26th to January 2nd is showing a price of $9600. The Warren Lodge has the Skylight Studio Suite (with a kitchen and 2 queens) going for $2100 during the same timeframe. Obviously the rooms are not an apples to apples comparison neither are the locations but I'd opt to save $7500 anyday over an experience at the Claybrook that is not $7500 dollars better than what you'd get staying at the Warren Lodge. This is coming from someone that has stayed at the Claybrook twice now so I'm not taking out of my rear end!

Just to follow up, a one bedroom at the Killington Grand Resort from December 26th to January 2nd is 10k. (100% not worth it, the Claybrook during that same time period would be a WAY better choice but still not a better option than the Warren Lodge at $2100) If you did a one bedroom at the Killington Grand during the April 2nd to 10th timeframe it comes out to $3900 for that stay, a Claybrook one bedroom during the same timeframe is $5700 which is why I suggest visiting Killington in April. (aside from the resort having the most reliable snow conditions in the area at that time)

 

[ss20]

@Tonyr you seem to be the only member vehemently saying Sugarbush will have better conditions than Killington for Christmas week. If it's a traditional Christmas week of only snowmaking terrain Killington will have leaps and bounds more terrain open than SB. If it's a real lucky season with early storms both resorts will have lots of natural terrain open. There are very few scenarios where SB could have more terrain open than Killington. Much of their grassier natural terrain is low elevation, while the high elevation stuff is too rocky to be open/covered in December in all but the wildest of snow years. Killington on the other hand has a ton of grassy, natural terrain above 3000' (North Ridge, most of the Canyon, the top half of Snowdon, the top half of Needle's Eye/Skye Peak).

 

[Geoff]

Has anyone skied Snowshoe to understand what blue trail at Snowshoe is? Stratton has way more intermediate terrain than Killington and Killington has all the choke points where lower skill skiers can get run down like a dog.

 

[Shredmonkey254]

Having 10 years experience at Killington followed by the last 16 years at sugarbush, based on shopping for food, it is hands down 100% Sugarbush where you want to be. I want to move to the MRV solely for Mehurons Supermarket. Its one of the best anywhere. We love cooking in up there thanks to that store! As for terrain and crowds, i think you’ll find sugarbush to be the better choice. Unless there is a complete holiday meltdown, like ususal, then you'll probably enjoy the snowmaking capabilities at the big K more. So there is that.

 

[Tonyr]

@Tonyr you seem to be the only member vehemently saying Sugarbush will have better conditions than Killington for Christmas week. If it's a traditional Christmas week of only snowmaking terrain Killington will have leaps and bounds more terrain open than SB. If it's a real lucky season with early storms both resorts will have lots of natural terrain open. There are very few scenarios where SB could have more terrain open than Killington. Much of their grassier natural terrain is low elevation, while the high elevation stuff is too rocky to be open/covered in December in all but the wildest of snow years. Killington on the other hand has a ton of grassy, natural terrain above 3000' (North Ridge, most of the Canyon, the top half of Snowdon, the top half of Needle's Eye/Skye Peak).

No one is "vehemently" saying anything is better than the other, I love both places especially Killington as my son and wife learned how to ski there. Quite honestly both places conditions wise at the times Dexter wants to visit are probably not going to be great unless he gets lucky with the weather. From a value/convenience/experience perspective I feel Sugarbush is the better bet for a December trip and Killington is better for the April trip based on my experiences outlined above assuming he wants to stay near a lift at either place. Again it's all going to come down to how lucky he gets with the weather while he is at either place. With that being said, I'm not anywhere near the level you are ski sophistication wise so what would I know?

 

[cdskier]

@Tonyr you seem to be the only member vehemently saying Sugarbush will have better conditions than Killington for Christmas week. If it's a traditional Christmas week of only snowmaking terrain Killington will have leaps and bounds more terrain open than SB. If it's a real lucky season with early storms both resorts will have lots of natural terrain open. There are very few scenarios where SB could have more terrain open than Killington. Much of their grassier natural terrain is low elevation, while the high elevation stuff is too rocky to be open/covered in December in all but the wildest of snow years. Killington on the other hand has a ton of grassy, natural terrain above 3000' (North Ridge, most of the Canyon, the top half of Snowdon, the top half of Needle's Eye/Skye Peak).

Are we reading the same posts? I don't see anywhere that Tonyr said SB will have better conditions than K in December, never-mind "vehemently better" conditions. His reasoning for picking SB over K was based on crowds (which I think is probably pretty accurate).

I'd generally speaking agree that K has a better chance of having more terrain open Christmas week, but SB's historical stats are actually not too bad (but also show the high degree of variability). Here's the number of trails SB has had open on 12/26 in the past 10 years (and percent of open terrain that represented):

2011​	2012​	2013​	2014​	2015​	2016​	2017​	2018​	2019​	2020​
28​	111​	43​	80​	13​	78​	111​	96​	84​	24​
25.2%​	100.0%​	38.7%​	72.1%​	11.7%​	70.3%​	100.0%​	86.5%​	75.7%​	21.6%​

Would be interesting to compare K stats, unfortunately I don't have them.

 

[skiur]

No one is "vehemently" saying anything is better than the other, I love both places especially Killington as my son and wife learned how to ski there. Quite honestly both places conditions wise at the times Dexter wants to visit are probably not going to be great unless he gets lucky with the weather. From a value/convenience/experience perspective I feel Sugarbush is the better bet for a December trip and Killington is better for the April trip based on my experiences outlined above assuming he wants to stay near a lift at either place. Again it's all going to come down to how lucky he gets with the weather while he is at either place. With that being said, I'm not anywhere near the level you are ski sophistication wise so what would I know?

It's not luck in December, it's who can make more snow and K can make a lot more snow than sugarbush and have an elevation advantage.

 

[ss20]

We should just make a poll at this point

semi-joking

 

[Tonyr]

It's not luck in December, it's who can make more snow and K can make a lot more snow than sugarbush and have an elevation advantage.

Alright fair enough, if it's a bad snow year Killington will be the better option conditions wise in December but Killington will also probably be better conditions wise in April as well for the same reasons you mentioned above, what's your point? Dexter said that he may want to visit both places, I'm merely suggesting which place I think is better during either timeframe based on my experiences.

Killington over Christmas/New Years without a doubt is going to be more crowded than Sugarbush. Killington slopeside in April is a better value than Sugarbush...... or am I missing something?

 

[cdskier]

We should just make a poll at this point

semi-joking

At least this discussion/argument is skiing related!

 

[Shredmonkey254]

At least this discussion/argument is skiing related!

I thought it was about shopping for food!

 

[cdskier]

I thought it was about shopping for food!

In that case your earlier comment about Mehurons is quite on point! I can't tell you how many times being back in NJ since the winter I've said lately to myself, "Mehurons had such and such...why can't I find a grocery store around here that does too?"

 

[ss20]

At least this discussion/argument is skiing related!

We can debate which mountain had more restrictive C****-** measures but I'm censoring that word on this forum from now on!!!

 

[snoseek]

Are we reading the same posts? I don't see anywhere that Tonyr said SB will have better conditions than K in December, never-mind "vehemently better" conditions. His reasoning for picking SB over K was based on crowds (which I think is probably pretty accurate).

I'd generally speaking agree that K has a better chance of having more terrain open Christmas week, but SB's historical stats are actually not too bad (but also show the high degree of variability). Here's the number of trails SB has had open on 12/26 in the past 10 years (and percent of open terrain that represented):

2011​	2012​	2013​	2014​	2015​	2016​	2017​	2018​	2019​	2020​
28​	111​	43​	80​	13​	78​	111​	96​	84​	24​
25.2%​	100.0%​	38.7%​	72.1%​	11.7%​	70.3%​	100.0%​	86.5%​	75.7%​	21.6%​

Would be interesting to compare K stats, unfortunately I don't have them.

Thread drift, WTF happened in 2015?

 

[ss20]

Thread drift, WTF happened in 2015?

That was the season that went beyond "bad seasons".

IIRC Killington recorded 76" of snow the whole season. I remember Christmas eve here in CT was over 70 degrees and sun. I skied Mount Snow in mid-December there were 3 ways down total. My local ski hill in NY didn't open til January 8th-ish. I think the single at MRG operated a single-digit number of days. I remember skiing Okemo with my buddy with an unzipped light jacket in the middle of January...it was 50 degrees and slush bumps.

Need I say more? I think I've blocked out the rest.

 

[cdskier]

Thread drift, WTF happened in 2015?

That was the season that went beyond "bad seasons".

IIRC Killington recorded 76" of snow the whole season. I remember Christmas eve here in CT was over 70 degrees and sun. I skied Mount Snow in mid-December there were 3 ways down total. My local ski hill in NY didn't open til January 8th-ish. I think the single at MRG operated a single-digit number of days. I remember skiing Okemo with my buddy with an unzipped light jacket in the middle of January...it was 50 degrees and slush bumps.

Need I say more? I think I've blocked out the rest.

Yea...it was pretty bad. Season total snowfall at SB was 156" that year. As of Jan 1, they had a whopping 28"! Just looked back through some of my photos and it was pretty ugly. Numerous photos from mid-season where you can see no snow below the base of SB. I remember hiking over to Castlerock the first weekend of March because I was worried it would be my last chance to ski it that season (and I was right as it was closed by the following weekend even for hike access). SB was 100% open only a grand total of 19 days that season.

 

[boston_e]

That was the season that went beyond "bad seasons".

IIRC Killington recorded 76" of snow the whole season. I remember Christmas eve here in CT was over 70 degrees and sun. I skied Mount Snow in mid-December there were 3 ways down total. My local ski hill in NY didn't open til January 8th-ish. I think the single at MRG operated a single-digit number of days. I remember skiing Okemo with my buddy with an unzipped light jacket in the middle of January...it was 50 degrees and slush bumps.

Need I say more? I think I've blocked out the rest.

Yup that season was brutal. I remember going for a run outside on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in shorts and a t-shirt and sweating like it was summer. At the start of winter break, Killington had such little snow that the only true beginner slope was shuttling people buy bus through the vale lot to access great northern.

On the humorous side of things, I still laugh at the patch skiing snow report that MRG released:

 

[Hawk]

More and more we can't rely on what happenen in the past. Things are changing. Maybe take a gamble on Christmas and get a powder week. You never know.

 

[parahelia]

I am an experienced skier. My kids are 14 and 10, with the older one able to ski black slopes but the younger one preferring to stay on blue. So far the kids have only skied at Snowshoe in WV (older kid skis the black slopes in Western Territory confidently). I have only been to the Northeast once (Smuggs in 2003) and I wanted recommendations for next season.

We have the Ikon pass (no blackout dates) so we'd want the resorts where we can use them.

We live outside Washington DC, and would probably drive to the destination. The chief contenders that take Ikon are Stratton, Killington, and Sugarbush.

One issue is that one kid has celiac and has to eat gluten free, so I'd need a condo with a kitchen and access to grocery stores that sell GF food. For this reason, we never eat out when we're skiing and I don't care about restaurants and night life at the resort.

We'd want to go the week after Christmas (Dec 26 to Jan 2) - which of the above places usually have good snow at that time?

Was also thinking about kid's spring break (April 2 to 10) - was wondering how good the snow was in New England that late. Usually Snowshoe is closed by then.

Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated, TIA!

Agree with the sentiment of VT for the Dec. break. The big resorts there have the guns to recover best from the not-uncommon wet events then.

However, for the early April break, consider Sugarloaf in Maine if your drive tolerance permits. It consistently has good coverage well into April. Its closing date (usually early May) is often more crowd-driven than conditions-driven. It’s got something for everyone, especially experts, and the crowds are much less than VT. Have happily received many a sunburn on long April days there. And the woods are often doable well into the month because of the northern latitude and exposure.