Is there a mountain you wouldn't ski for free?

[loafer89]

Well the places that I listed I did not like and would not revisit for free because they where boring and uninteresting with paid admission, a free ticket would not entice me.

I do not think turning down free skiing makes anyone a better or worse person and it's all a matter of personal opinion.

 

[loafer89]

That’s quite a generalization and a bit harsh.

I agree with the above statement

 

[JimG.]

That’s quite a generalization and a bit harsh.

It's my opinion...and CERTAINLY alot less harsh than alot of the opinions I've read in here before.

Here's another one...I don't like these types of threads that set ski areas up for negative comments. Whatever someone's personal opinions, experiences, or preferences are, all ski areas offer something very positive for skiers...skiing.

 

[Greg]

Here's another one...I don't like these types of threads that set ski areas up for negative comments. Whatever someone's personal opinions, experiences, or preferences are, all ski areas offer something very positive for skiers...skiing.

Gotta disagree here, Jim. I think criticism is healthy. I personally have very few bad things to say about any ski area. I always find a way to enjoy the day depite what some might consider a crappy experience. Life's too short to get wrapped up in trying to frame every visit to a ski area as epic. Once you realize that, every experience is epic. But with that said, I don't have a problem with folks venting their frustrations with a ski area.

 

[JimG.]

Gotta disagree here, Jim. I think criticism is healthy. I personally have very few bad things to say about any ski area. I always find a way to enjoy the day depite what some might consider a crappy experience. Life's too short to get wrapped up in trying to frame every visit to a ski area as epic. Once you realize that, every experience is epic. But with that said, I don't have a problem with folks venting their frustrations with a ski area.

Hmmm...here's my angle:

We're here to promote these areas and keep them healthy and viable. No, that doesn't mean we have to bow down to them and hold our tongues when it comes to criticism. But I just don't see the need to generate threads that ask for negativity. To me, that defeats one of the purposes of this site and others like it. Unless your looking to drive traffic to NELSAP.

People are especially free with their negativity. It is just as likely that you'll hear that negativity spoken in a thread that is titled "Ski areas that you would like to ski for free". I'd bet half the responses would be negative and tell us all the reasons someone WOULDN'T ski the area for free.

I get cranky when I hear negativity...one reason I don't watch much TV or read newspapers. I apologize to HPD and loafer...didn't mean to tweak you guys. But it is how I feel.

Let's get back on topic.

 

[tree_skier]

Will someone please explain why anyone would sit at home instead of ski for a day?

Too boring? what a bunch of hogwash. This is probably from the same person who will sit on an exercise bike for an hour staring at a wall. If you feel that way why not try something different, take a snowboarding lesson, try tele, blades etc.. small areas are great for learning.

 

[JimG.]

Will someone please explain why anyone would sit at home instead of ski for a day?

Too boring? what a bunch of hogwash. This is probably from the same person who will sit on an exercise bike for an hour staring at a wall. If you feel that way why not try something different, take a snowboarding lesson, try tele, blades etc.. small areas are great for learning.

I'm going to try tele skiing at Thunder Ridge this season.

Because I'm too embarrassed to flail around trying to learn in front of my friends at Hunter.

 

[loafer89]

All the ski areas that I listed Save for Thunder Ridge (which was Big Birch when I skied it) I have visited several times and had poor snow conditions, terrible crowds, poorly operating/dangerous lifts. So I have given them fair judgement and do not feel the need to return for free or not.

I could also add Powder Ridge which was awful all three times that I visited and Januarys visit was the worst ever ski experience in 25 years of skiing. I would rather burn my money in the fireplace than give it to that place.

That being said I did not really hate any of the places, but more the operating management philosphy.

 

[ctenidae]

I would rather burn my money in the fireplace than give it to that place.

Good thing we're talking about a free ticket, then.

 

[JimG.]

I have visited several times...poorly operating/dangerous lifts. So I have given them fair judgement and do not feel the need to return for free or not.

I cannot fault you if you had bad experiences at a ski area during multiple visits. That's very fair.

And I would not ski for free for long at a ski area with dangerous lifts.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

We're here to promote these areas and keep them healthy and viable.

It's not why I'm hear. Even though I often sound like a Whiteface cheerleader I'm hear to chat with people who have the same interest in skiing that I do. I don't think if someone says they don't like ski area it will cause a whole lot of damahe to the area. We're critical with our dollar vote with other purchases we make and where those purchases are made I don't see why ski areas should be different.

I apologize to HPD and loafer...didn't mean to tweak you guys. But it is how I feel.

No need to apolgize to me for sure. I think a healthy forum needs some tweaking.

 

[riverc0il]

We're here to promote these areas and keep them healthy and viable. No, that doesn't mean we have to bow down to them and hold our tongues when it comes to criticism. But I just don't see the need to generate threads that ask for negativity. To me, that defeats one of the purposes of this site and others like it. Unless your looking to drive traffic to NELSAP.

i gotta disagree. i am not here to promote all ski areas and prevent all areas from going the way of NELSAP. i have been a long time follower of nelsap and don't like to see areas that have potential to be lost. but i maintain almost all of the NELSAP areas are lost for good reason. we can romanticize lost areas all we want, the reason most areas became lost is that people stopped skiing them. even the ones that went under due to over expansion and poor management continue to stay on the lost areas list because they are not viable areas to open back up such as crotched mountain, granite gorge, whaleback, haystack, snow valley, etc. who had buyers/owners that realized the area still had potential. a few areas truly are worthy despite being lost, but most areas got lost because of location, lack of snow, lack of terrain, accessability, transportation changes, movement away from local hills towards bigger resorts, etc.

i do, however, promote mid-sized areas that seem like they are on the brink. the black's, magic's, saddleback's, etc. of the world that have some amazing terrain but are often over looked. that said, you can scan the nelsap forums and see that i call a spade a spade when a pet favorite area of mine like magic doesn't make good business decisions. i don't think only seeing the world and discussing it through rose colored glasses is a good thing. look at business: if you never told someone how to improve and what their weeknesses are, they would never grow. if companies never got chewed out by customers that just decided to take their business else where without providing feed back, those companies could never address the problems.

in that light, it could be seen that we are doing ski areas a favor by posting the negatives (they are indeed reading) about our visits. this is not 'focusing on the negative' or being negative, but being honest and relaying real world experience. it is also providing factual information to other consumers in a "buyer beware" marketplace, which i think is a very important aspect of forums and what drove me to look for ski related message boards over half a dozen years ago (looking for trip reports). as long as experiences are posted as factual and experience based without emotional exageration, everyone can benefit from so called negative posts. the problem is when people start getting emotional about things.

besides, this type of thread says way more about the poster/forum member than it does about the ski areas being discussed. when someone presents an opinion that "you couldn't pay me to ski there," it instantly suggests either baggage or an extreme disposition to specific preferences. in either case, it is quite easy to dismiss such responses as such, mine included. i say i wouldn't ski kmart on the weekend for free most of the year with certain exceptions. but folks like andyzee et al are there every weekend having a blast. as long as people realize this is purely opinion based and different strokes for different folks is the rule, then it seems all good to me.

 

[JimG.]

i gotta disagree. i am not here to promote all ski areas and prevent all areas from going the way of NELSAP. i have been a long time follower of nelsap and don't like to see areas that have potential to be lost. but i maintain almost all of the NELSAP areas are lost for good reason. we can romanticize lost areas all we want, the reason most areas became lost is that people stopped skiing them. even the ones that went under due to over expansion and poor management continue to stay on the lost areas list because they are not viable areas to open back up such as crotched mountain, granite gorge, whaleback, haystack, snow valley, etc. who had buyers/owners that realized the area still had potential. a few areas truly are worthy despite being lost, but most areas got lost because of location, lack of snow, lack of terrain, accessability, transportation changes, movement away from local hills towards bigger resorts, etc.

i do, however, promote mid-sized areas that seem like they are on the brink. the black's, magic's, saddleback's, etc. of the world that have some amazing terrain but are often over looked. that said, you can scan the nelsap forums and see that i call a spade a spade when a pet favorite area of mine like magic doesn't make good business decisions. i don't think only seeing the world and discussing it through rose colored glasses is a good thing. look at business: if you never told someone how to improve and what their weeknesses are, they would never grow. if companies never got chewed out by customers that just decided to take their business else where without providing feed back, those companies could never address the problems.

in that light, it could be seen that we are doing ski areas a favor by posting the negatives (they are indeed reading) about our visits. this is not 'focusing on the negative' or being negative, but being honest and relaying real world experience. it is also providing factual information to other consumers in a "buyer beware" marketplace, which i think is a very important aspect of forums and what drove me to look for ski related message boards over half a dozen years ago (looking for trip reports). as long as experiences are posted as factual and experience based without emotional exageration, everyone can benefit from so called negative posts. the problem is when people start getting emotional about things.

besides, this type of thread says way more about the poster/forum member than it does about the ski areas being discussed. when someone presents an opinion that "you couldn't pay me to ski there," it instantly suggests either baggage or an extreme disposition to specific preferences. in either case, it is quite easy to dismiss such responses as such, mine included. i say i wouldn't ski kmart on the weekend for free most of the year with certain exceptions. but folks like andyzee et al are there every weekend having a blast. as long as people realize this is purely opinion based and different strokes for different folks is the rule, then it seems all good to me.

Well, that'll teach me to address a specific individual in a public forum. HPD and riverc0il, my comment about promoting ski areas was directed at Greg, not the forum in general. I'm well aware that you guys don't come here to promote ski areas (although HPD, I'm not so sure I believe that in your case with WF), and whatever reason you guys come here it's all good to me.

AZ does have paying advertisers who promote their ski areas or ski related businesses here, FYI.

 

[dmc]

Well for me personally - living and investing in a town that has a much maligned ski area and has suffered from that stigma.. I am INDEED promoting Hunter... But more from the angle of smashing the old stigmas so people will once again come up and ski and enjoy themselves in this funky little mountain town...

We need the mountain and all the people that come here... The mountain doesn't really need us.. But we need it...

If a person unfairly "disses" a ski area that's not cool.. Cause many ski areas have local economies attatched to them... And I know many business people up here that are on the brink of losing their businesses... We need everyone we can get right now.. And don't need people dragging up old negativity to make themselves look like they are better skiers...

 

[andyzee]

i gotta disagree. i am not here to promote all ski areas and prevent all areas from going the way of NELSAP. i have been a long time follower of nelsap and don't like to see areas that have potential to be lost. but i maintain almost all of the NELSAP areas are lost for good reason. we can romanticize lost areas all we want, the reason most areas became lost is that people stopped skiing them. even the ones that went under due to over expansion and poor management continue to stay on the lost areas list because they are not viable areas to open back up such as crotched mountain, granite gorge, whaleback, haystack, snow valley, etc. who had buyers/owners that realized the area still had potential. a few areas truly are worthy despite being lost, but most areas got lost because of location, lack of snow, lack of terrain, accessability, transportation changes, movement away from local hills towards bigger resorts, etc.

i do, however, promote mid-sized areas that seem like they are on the brink. the black's, magic's, saddleback's, etc. of the world that have some amazing terrain but are often over looked. that said, you can scan the nelsap forums and see that i call a spade a spade when a pet favorite area of mine like magic doesn't make good business decisions. i don't think only seeing the world and discussing it through rose colored glasses is a good thing. look at business: if you never told someone how to improve and what their weeknesses are, they would never grow. if companies never got chewed out by customers that just decided to take their business else where without providing feed back, those companies could never address the problems.

in that light, it could be seen that we are doing ski areas a favor by posting the negatives (they are indeed reading) about our visits. this is not 'focusing on the negative' or being negative, but being honest and relaying real world experience. it is also providing factual information to other consumers in a "buyer beware" marketplace, which i think is a very important aspect of forums and what drove me to look for ski related message boards over half a dozen years ago (looking for trip reports). as long as experiences are posted as factual and experience based without emotional exageration, everyone can benefit from so called negative posts. the problem is when people start getting emotional about things.

besides, this type of thread says way more about the poster/forum member than it does about the ski areas being discussed. when someone presents an opinion that "you couldn't pay me to ski there," it instantly suggests either baggage or an extreme disposition to specific preferences. in either case, it is quite easy to dismiss such responses as such, mine included. i say i wouldn't ski kmart on the weekend for free most of the year with certain exceptions. but folks like andyzee et al are there every weekend having a blast. as long as people realize this is purely opinion based and different strokes for different folks is the rule, then it seems all good to me.

Got Cliff notes? :roll:

 

[riverc0il]

Well, that'll teach me to address a specific individual in a public forum. HPD and riverc0il, my comment about promoting ski areas was directed at Greg, not the forum in general. I'm well aware that you guys don't come here to promote ski areas (although HPD, I'm not so sure I believe that in your case with WF), and whatever reason you guys come here it's all good to me.

AZ does have paying advertisers who promote their ski areas or ski related businesses here, FYI.

jim, this is cool for public discussion, i hope you don't take my response the wrong way and restrict such discussion to backcountry only. i realize your post was in response to greg, i think greg raised a good point, though. i realize AZ has paying advertisers, those fees help greg pay for the site and for all his hard work. doesn't mean we have to support the advertisers and i doubt greg would want us to censure our post accordingly either. that doesn't seem much in the spirit of why we and AZ are here.

Well for me personally - living and investing in a town that has a much maligned ski area and has suffered from that stigma.. I am INDEED promoting Hunter... But more from the angle of smashing the old stigmas so people will once again come up and ski and enjoy themselves in this funky little mountain town...

i like DMC's explanation of promoting. that is the angle i generally take when pimping certain mountains, more of a "spreading info and challenging stereo types", both positive and negative.

 

[riverc0il]

Got Cliff notes? :roll:

got ADD? :lol:

day off from work today and nothing better to do than type type type! i am most certainly the anti-sound byte of AZ, heh.

 

[JimG.]

jim, this is cool for public discussion, i hope you don't take my response the wrong way and restrict such discussion to backcountry only. i realize your post was in response to greg, i think greg raised a good point, though. i realize AZ has paying advertisers, those fees help greg pay for the site and for all his hard work. doesn't mean we have to support the advertisers and i doubt greg would want us to censure our post accordingly either. that doesn't seem much in the spirit of why we and AZ are here.

Last try:

I understand that folks are entitled to their opinions. I understand that Greg doesn't want posters to suppress negative opinions. I understand that advertisers expect some negative feedback.

I do not understand why it is necessary to SOLICIT negative opinions. Folks never need an excuse to spew negativity, it seems instinctive to alot of people.

This is my main issue.

 

[dmc]

I do not understand why it is necessary to SOLICIT negative opinions. Folks never need an excuse to spew negativity, it seems instinctive to alot of people.

As shown by these negative threads generating tons of posts...

 

[Greg]

As shown by these negative threads generating tons of posts...

I wonder if this thread would have spanned 6 pages in less than 24 hours if it was the middle of the ski season....