It's Boyne in a landslide victory!

[Vortex]

How about acknowledging this....
The beast is getting its ass kicked in terrain expansion since being slightly beaten for 1st to open.
Killington 62 acres open
Loon 97
Okemo 115
Mt snow 117
Sunday River 122

looks like they still have the most open terrain.

9:36 am 11/21/14--
Update: 2 inches on the ground and the snow is coming down! The Beast is already home to the most skiing and riding terrain in the East and right now it's also home to ideal snowmaking weather; which means we'll be dropping ropes on a whole lot more terrain as we head into the weekend and Thanksgiving week.

Open Trails:	17
Open Lifts:	4
Miles of Skiing:	6
Acres of Skiing:	60
Surface Conditions:	Machine Groomed/ Packed Powder
New Snow 24 hours:	2.0"

.

Looks like many opened up a bunch of terrain today. Many will open more tomorrow.
Boyne has been aggresive and I think it pushed other resorts. Everyone wins.

 

[C-Rex]

I just can't imagine being so defensive of a ski area. I mean, did Killington save his life or something? There's no denying it's a great place and always has been/always will be in the top tier of eastern resorts, but why so much dedication? It's a virtue to appreciate and love what you have, but refusing to admit it's faults and shortcomings is truly idiotic and deflates the credibility of anything valuable (even if rare) that he may say. Oh well, like the esteemed philosopher, Ron White, once said, "You can't fix stupid."

 

[dlague]

I just can't imagine being so defensive of a ski area. I mean, did Killington save his life or something? There's no denying it's a great place and always has been/always will be in the top tier of eastern resorts, but why so much dedication? It's a virtue to appreciate and love what you have, but refusing to admit it's faults and shortcomings is truly idiotic and deflates the credibility of anything valuable (even if rare) that he may say. Oh well, like the esteemed philosopher, Ron White, once said, "You can't fix stupid."

People defend sports teams, products etc. - Maybe for HS - Killington is his team. I do not get it either - we have favorites but not committed to one resort. Boyne certainly is bringing it! Considering the warm October we had, I am impressed overall with the number of resorts that will be open this weekend!

 

[Highway Star]

How about acknowledging this....
The beast is getting its ass kicked in terrain expansion since being slightly beaten for 1st to open.
Killington 62 acres open
Loon 97
Okemo 115
Mt snow 117
Sunday River 122

Here is video from Loon last weekend:

While it looks really good up top, the lower half looks like they just painted the center of trail with a strip of snow. So half of the trail's width doesn't have enough snow to actually ski on, and there are long stretches of questionable coverage. But obviously they are claiming the acreage for the entire trail.

Snowdance at Mt. Snow is like 300ft wide.....is its entire width open right now? ROFL!

Killington, on the other hand, has very good coverage.

 

[joshua segal]

I'm starting to sound like an apologist for Killington. They don't need me to be. Their skier-day numbers speak for themself. I want to restate that Killington still has a "location" advantage over all the other areas being discussed - and by virtue of that, they are drawing bigger crowds than anybody else. Snow has a finite lifetime, so Killington is faced with having to resurface more than other areas.

There are two major strategies for snow making: maximize open acreage, recognizing that you won't make it through a thaw; or bury the trails before moving on to open new terrain. It appears that Killington has done the latter, which is why they have been the only ones able to stay open continuously since Nov. 3.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Here is video from Loon last weekend:

While it looks really good up top, the lower half looks like they just painted the center of trail with a strip of snow. So half of the trail's width doesn't have enough snow to actually ski on, and there are long stretches of questionable coverage. But obviously they are claiming the acreage for the entire trail.

Snowdance at Mt. Snow is like 300ft wide.....is its entire width open right now? ROFL!

Killington, on the other hand, has very good coverage.

Ok fair point genius.Then lets go with miles.
K 6
Loon 7
SR 8
You say what now?

 

[steamboat1]

Ok fair point genius.Then lets go with miles.
K 6
Loon 7
SR 8
You say what now?

This....guess who.

We expect to have 20 trails open, with 2,000 vertical feet of top-to-bottom skiing & riding on over 6 miles of terrain.

 

[steamboat1]

This too.

Snowfall
Last 24 Hours: 6-10"
Last 72 Hours: 10-20"
Last 7 Days: 13-23"
Season Total: 32"

 

[jerryg]

I'm starting to sound like an apologist for Killington. They don't need me to be. Their skier-day numbers speak for themself. I want to restate that Killington still has a "location" advantage over all the other areas being discussed - and by virtue of that, they are drawing bigger crowds than anybody else. Snow has a finite lifetime, so Killington is faced with having to resurface more than other areas.

There are two major strategies for snow making: maximize open acreage, recognizing that you won't make it through a thaw; or bury the trails before moving on to open new terrain. It appears that Killington has done the latter, which is why they have been the only ones able to stay open continuously since Nov. 3.

And as stated before, SR decided to close for those four days, they decided to do it long ago and do so every year. They're coverage was wall-to-wall and had others trails totally covered that they opted to allow to cure. They had already opened first and knew they would be first t2b, which is to say that they got the publicity they wanted for mid-season bookings. Being open the middle of that week would not have changed anything. If K had the numbers to support running two lifts and however many employees for those particular midweek days - good for them, but SR knew that they wouldn't, and thus chose not to bleed the money. However, if they wanted to be open, they easily could have been.
Realistically, K HAS to get more terrain open faster than anyone now because Joey is coming and bringing everyone. They get more and should get more skier traffic based on their location - of course, but Boyne still punked them out this year. K has to do the same resurfacing every other year, but still manages to open additional terrain faster than this year. SR also has to resurface, especially given the amount of race teams that show up. It is what it is. It doesn't mean one ski area is better than the other. That's totally subjective.

 

[joshua segal]

And as stated before, SR decided to close for those four days, they decided to do it long ago and do so every year. They're coverage was wall-to-wall and had others trails totally covered that they opted to allow to cure. They had already opened first and knew they would be first t2b, which is to say that they got the publicity they wanted for mid-season bookings. Being open the middle of that week would not have changed anything. If K had the numbers to support running two lifts and however many employees for those particular midweek days - good for them, but SR knew that they wouldn't, and thus chose not to bleed the money. However, if they wanted to be open, they easily could have been.
Realistically, K HAS to get more terrain open faster than anyone now because Joey is coming and bringing everyone. They get more and should get more skier traffic based on their location - of course, but Boyne still punked them out this year. K has to do the same resurfacing every other year, but still manages to open additional terrain faster than this year. SR also has to resurface, especially given the amount of race teams that show up. It is what it is. It doesn't mean one ski area is better than the other. That's totally subjective.

Some days I wish there was just a "like" button on this forum. Nice posting jerryg.

 

[chuckstah]

I just finished up a nice day at Loon. 15 trails, 7 miles and 100 acres. Tomorrow will be 20 trails, 10 miles and 137 acres conservatively from what I was told by patrol. Wall to wall coverage and at least 6 top to bottom routes. Don't know what other places will have, but this worked out well for me. Everyone enjoy the turns where ever you can make them this weekend!

 

[joshua segal]

I just finished up a nice day at Loon. 15 trails, 7 miles and 100 acres. Tomorrow will be 20 trails, 10 miles and 137 acres conservatively from what I was told by patrol. Wall to wall coverage and at least 6 top to bottom routes. Don't know what other places will have, but this worked out well for me. Everyone enjoy the turns where ever you can make them this weekend!

Loon has a great snow making plant. We are at the time of the season when terrain is opening so quickly on a day-to-day basis that it is hard to keep track of it all. Killington too is reporting a huge increase in open lift, open mileage and open acreage for tomorrow - and I suspect the other major players in the industry are too.

 

[steamboat1]

Stowe won't even have this open tomorrow (Gondolier). Who needs snowmaking?
Pic from today.

 

[machski]

With the exception of the mechanical on the Kanc, Loon was amazing on Saturday. Unbelievable how fast they have added terrain and how much of it was wall to wall. The full 2100 vert was open and lower flume while not full width was a blast on the soft powder and whales. 5 trails open all the way to the base and they were full coverage and width.

 

[Vortex]

With the exception of the mechanical on the Kanc, Loon was amazing on Saturday. Unbelievable how fast they have added terrain and how much of it was wall to wall. The full 2100 vert was open and lower flume while not full width was a blast on the soft powder and whales. 5 trails open all the way to the base and they were full coverage and width.

Was not bad a little North either. :-D

 

[deadheadskier]

I give K a ton of credit for the quality of the product they have right now. Substantial base and wall to wall coverage on just about everything open. Middle and Lower Skylark had a bit of dirt showing up on the trails, not really bare spots, just loose dirt, but that was really it. Everything else was perfect.

Getting the SS lift and Canyon lift open and at the price they offer skiing is the turning point for me each fall when K takes the lead in this "competition." 50% off through December 14th except for this weekend. $32 for yesterday was a great deal.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Well after the Beasts big expansion this weekend,4 areas still have more acres and miles with Loon almost double on both those counts.What you say HS?

 

[joshua segal]

Well after the Beasts big expansion this weekend,4 areas still have more acres and miles with Loon almost double on both those counts.What you say HS?

It's nice that there are so many good choices. Once you get to 8 to 12 miles of open terrain, I think the issue is more about the quality of terrain that an individual enjoys at a particular area. IMO, the contest is over and there is plenty of business to go around.

 

[deadheadskier]

I doubt sikskier even cares, he's a Cannon skier.

He's just throwing it in the face of HighwayStar as HS is the biggest K homer going to the point of putting every other ski area down in the east save for Stowe.

 

[MadMadWorld]

It's nice that there are so many good choices. Once you get to 8 to 12 miles of open terrain, I think the issue is more about the quality of terrain that an individual enjoys at a particular area. IMO, the contest is over and there is plenty of business to go around.

Nice spin!