How You Choose Where You Ski?

[highpeaksdrifter]

How do you prioritize when you decide where you ski?

Is it?

Ticket Price
Terrain
Snow conditions
Travel Time - Distance
Lifts
Crowds, as in lack of
Après
Family friendly
Lodging
Size, as in number of trails, vert, acres
Parks
Other

 

[Moe Ghoul]

For day trips: Travel Time - Distance (Poconos), Snow conditions if it snows I'll drop any plans and ski that day. My rule of thumb is if I spend as much time driving as I do skiing, it ain't worth the ride.

For Club trips out west: Places I haven't skied or haven't skied in the past 5+ years.

For extended stays in the NE: Terrain ,Snow conditions, Size, as in number of trails, vert, acres

Apres and lodging are rarely a consideration for me. I need clean, safe and warm. anything more is a bonus. I can have fun drinking beers in a parking lot or blowing a wad at nite on the town. It's the company you keep that makes it a good Apres, imo.

 

[hardline]

for me its simple:
durring most of the season when i have to work its proxcimity.
then the rest of the time its snowfall and terrain so end up at the places that have both this year
stowe
revelstoke
utah

 

[deadheadskier]

It used to be all about terrain and snowfall to support it when i was younger.

Today, convenience and value are equally as important to me. Sucks getting older with changing family and financial responsibilities Well, that's not true. I would never trade my life now for my ski bum days, but I've learned to appreciate just getting out there when I can even if it isn't at Stowe with two feet of fresh in the woods.

edited to add, take my season plans for next season. Tenney wouldn't rank anywhere in my top 25 places I would choose to ski at in New England.....but, it's the closest 1000+ vert to me and the pass was $99. I'm sure I'll ski there 6 to 8 Saturdays when the conditions at most everywhere else within a easy day trip would be crap and ultra crowded.

 

[campgottagopee]

For me it's all about travel. I ski Greek Peak 90% of my season and the other 10% is split between Whiteface and Gore. Not a big travel guy but when I do it's up to Smuggs/Stowe.

 

[powderman]

It's 80% about terrain, crowds, and snow. It's 20% about travel time, ticket prices and lifts.

 

[kcyanks1]

Rough order:

Terrain
Snow conditions
Size, as in number of trails, vert, acres
Travel Time - Distance
Crowds, as in lack of
Lifts
Ticket Price
Après
Lodging
Family friendly
Parks

Just to add: I'm including all of HPD's categories except "Other" whether or not they matter to me.

 

[hardline]

It used to be all about terrain and snowfall to support it when i was younger.

Today, convenience and value are equally as important to me. Sucks getting older with changing family and financial responsibilities Well, that's not true. I would never trade my life now for my ski bum days, but I've learned to appreciate just getting out there when I can even if it isn't at Stowe with two feet of fresh in the woods.

edited to add, take my season plans for next season. Tenney wouldn't rank anywhere in my top 25 places I would choose to ski at in New England.....but, it's the closest 1000+ vert to me and the pass was $99. I'm sure I'll ski there 6 to 8 Saturdays when the conditions at most everywhere else within a easy day trip would be crap and ultra crowded.

getting old does suck but it doesn't mean you have to spend any less time on the snow. you just can't be a bum.

 

[MRGisevil]

Skiing's expensive! I'll be honest, the biggest factor in where I ski on the weekend is what resort is having an AE Ski Club day. After that vibe/terrain/snowfall or making/price/wheremyfriendsaregoing all tie for second.

 

[riverc0il]

Conditions - Trees (Terrain) - Distance - Verts - Price

 

[dmc]

Proximity to NYC... Terrain...

 

[darent]

east coast- travel time + conditions
west- places I like with great shuttle service or short drive time

 

[deadheadskier]

getting old does suck but it doesn't mean you have to spend any less time on the snow. you just can't be a bum.

....I would tend to disagree and I'm sure many on this board with children would agree with me.

 

[hardline]

....I would tend to disagree and I'm sure many on this board with children would agree with me.

children do make things tough but i don't have any kids i know about so i am good for awhile.

 

[deadheadskier]

children do make things tough but i don't have any kids i know about so i am good for awhile.

I don't either. In my case it's more relationship driven, which I'm fine with. J doesn't ski, which okay and she's very supportive of my passion for the sport. However, if I skied every single day off all winter, blew off joint financial obligations for personal ski vacations etc like I used to do when younger and single, there probably would be problems.

I say this, but I've explained to her my goal of skiing one more day than I did prior every year for the rest of my life. We'll see how that pans out when we have kids :lol:

 

[hardline]

I don't either. In my case it's more relationship driven, which I'm fine with. J doesn't ski, which okay and she's very supportive of my passion for the sport. However, if I skied every single day off all winter, blew off joint financial obligations for personal ski vacations etc like I used to do when younger and single, there probably would be problems.

I say this, but I've explained to her my goal of skiing one more day than I did prior every year for the rest of my life. We'll see how that pans out when we have kids :lol:

at least she seems to understand for the monent. for me my future mrs. hardline will have to be into snow. its just one of the things i am not willing to short myself on.

 

[mondeo]

Bumps.

And by bumps, I'm referring to moguls, not post whoring.

Beyond that, the search for a little variety. Variety in bump runs, of course, but variety nonetheless.

 

[Moe Ghoul]

at least she seems to understand for the monent. for me my future mrs. hardline will have to be into snow. its just one of the things i am not willing to short myself on.

Maybe one of the french models'll be part Inuit. Bring a little seal blubber as bait to flush her out.

 

[deadheadskier]

at least she seems to understand for the monent. for me my future mrs. hardline will have to be into snow. its just one of the things i am not willing to short myself on.

....I used to feel the same way and actually dumped a few girls back during my ski bum days that I thought were cramping my style. Then I met J. Can't help who you fall for. Lucky for me, we met during summer; things might have been different had we met during winter :lol:

 

[kcyanks1]

Rough order:

Terrain
Snow conditions
Size, as in number of trails, vert, acres
Travel Time - Distance
Crowds, as in lack of
Lifts
Ticket Price
Après
Lodging
Family friendly
Parks

Just to add: I'm including all of HPD's categories except "Other" whether or not they matter to me.

I guess I actually do have to add an "other" -- I joined a ski club last year, and a good amount of my weekend skiing will probably be through the club. So I go where they go, essentially. However, I chose to join the club in very large part because they go to places that I like -- Sugarbush, Mad River, and Stowe are the most common destinations. And of course, I like those mountains based on my criteria above.