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Hunter VS Mt Snow

kingslug

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Dec 30, 2005
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Hunter is 2 hours away , Mt Snow around 3 ish...so... Tired of Hunter but is Mt Snow worth the extra hour. Havent been there in a while but they seem to get more snow.
 

KustyTheKlown

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Mar 1, 2013
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Brooklyn
happy to stay at platty belle and windham during my limited time in the cats
happy to ski literally anywhere else in Vermont.
 

camberstick

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Dec 6, 2014
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Mount Snow is some of the best skiing for the least amount of driving you can do ,imo. It's not steep or challenging really but it is a fun Mountain for a day trip.
 

crank

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Mar 3, 2005
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I find Hunter's terrain marginally more interesting but haven't been to either hill in a few years. Skied both a lot a long time ago, just prefer other places.
 

asnowmobiler

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Jan 22, 2016
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Jim Thorpe, PA.
It's not worth it to me to drive the extra hour plus all the time, but it is worth it to do once in a while to mix things up with my Peaks Pass.
The lodge is so much nicer, Hunters lodge is a dump with a bar that overlooks the parking lot(who's bright idea was that?)
 

cdskier

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Mount Snow is some of the best skiing for the least amount of driving you can do ,imo. It's not steep or challenging really but it is a fun Mountain for a day trip.

Depends where you're coming from. For me Mt Snow is about 3.5 hours, so I don't really consider that a day trip distance. If I lived closer I could see it though. Catskills are 2-2.5 for me, so those are my choices for day trips (with Platty being 2.5 hours and my first choice as long as conditions allow).

If I'm going to drive an extra hour from the Cats to somewhere else, I'd personally probably pick Gore. That's about the same distance as Mt Snow (although obviously if we're looking at only Peaks resorts then this choice is irrelevant).
 

tnt1234

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Sep 12, 2014
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Yeah, I just did Hunter and Snow back to back...It's probably worth the extra drive if there is a lot of new snow. North face area is pretty big and would be fun with good coverage.

Nothing very steep and all the front trails are basically the same, but even with marginal coverage we found it fun for a day. There are some decent glades here and there, and four different faces to explore....I;d do it after some snow.

We were midweek, so can't speak for the crowds.
 

ss20

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Jan 13, 2013
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A minute from the Alta exit off the I-15!
This forum is savage...

Ripcord is legitimately steep, albeit short. The general comparison I've heard/agree with is it's a shorter and narrower version of Outer Limits at K. Plus it faces north and they groom it just a handful of times each season so its usually glacial till mid-March. Jaws and Little Steep are also pretty good diamonds, and both are natural snow. Good trees on the North Face next to Oylimpic, very long. There's other stuff on the map and off-the-map if you look hard enough. If you look at the Main Face on a trail map you'd assume it's flat and groomed. However there are some nice pitches to it and I've always enjoyed skiing it. The runs are very long. They leave a lot of terrain ungroomed. Outside of Magic its the least grooming you'll find south of Killington. On a typical weekday with everything open they'll groom 50-60% of their terrain, a little more on the weekends. It's a good mix. Crowds are bad on the weekends on the express lifts but nothing else really has a wait. Long John and Cascade/Canyon get mobbed but its easy to find a quaint trail if you take something ungroomed or out-of-the-way.

I daytrip there 5-8 times a season and it's 3 hours for me. If you're coming up 91 and the weather is nice get off in Greenfield and you'll save 5-10 minutes long as you don't get stuck behind someone.
 

skifree

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Oct 16, 2012
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I enjoy mt snow. no pucker factor except ripcord on certain days. a few wood options.
agree with greenfield exit.
 

GregoryIsaacs

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Dec 18, 2017
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Completely agree with this assessment. I find that the people who bring the "i'm too good for this" attitude just have no idea where to ski and blindly stick to the most crowded areas. But hey the more haters on this site, the emptier the trees are for people like us.

hmm empty trees..... something you wont find at the larger "more extreme" mountains.
 

danimals

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Jan 5, 2014
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Hunter is 3.5 from me and snow is 5 flat. I usually see how I feel once I near the hunter exit on thruway, because if I’m still caffeinened up and have a few podcasts left to listen to I’ll make the Trek to snow.

Snow has one of my favorite trails ever. Not steep but narrow and twisty, natural only. I think it’s called uncles, not sure. The north trails at snow are legitimately fun. Sun brook is a nice break too.




Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone
 

sankaty

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Joined
Mar 11, 2006
Messages
226
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Location
Central CT
I've tried to adopt the skiing mantra of a friend of mine:

If the skiing isn't up to your standards, lower your standards.

I love the trees at Snow. They are not super challenging, but most winters there are many days with fluffy turns wire-to-wire. Plus, there are almost always a few fun bump runs on the North Face when most of the rest of S VT is groomed. In spring, when much the trees have melted out, Stratton has been groomed to death, and Magic is too thin, the North Face of Snow is almost always a reliable spot for corn bumps.

I've never been to Hunter, so can't compare.
 

Smellytele

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Jan 30, 2006
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Right where I want to be
It is the weekend crowds there that I just can not handle. The north face lifts are old and slow. The main face is boring. I can have fun there but there are just so many better places to ski that I can't justify it. I can get to so many mountains further north in about the same time Cannon, Killington or a little more (~30 min) Burke,Wildcat, MRG, Sugarbush, Stowe. I understand that those further south aren't as lucky and I am glad they have a place to go.
 
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