Killington

[finallyss]

Hello, I am a Michigan skier all my life. The only out of state place I have gone to is Breckenridge. I loved Breck, especially compared to Michigan. I am trying to decide to drive east ( cheaper than flying west ) and ski. Which would you recommend Killington or Whiteface or a different one? Thanks for the help, love viewing the forum.
Bill

 

[koreshot]

Depends on what you like to do. Weather and varied snow conditions aside:

Killington for dependable terrain openings, lots of terrain (though I don't really like it a while lot) and fun night life.

Sugarbush for great terrain, woods and choice (MRG is right next door) with low crowds and a quiet New England type of apres ski experience.

Stowe again great terrain, some slack country hiking for easy off piste turns, lots of steep runs. Great town and lots of stuff to do, pretty romantic, which is nice to keep in mind if bringing girl/wife.

Jay, Jay rocks in the woods. Challenging terrain, lots of good glades and steeps to play with. Amazing after a good snow, but if you like groomers and carving, you will pretty much hate this place. The groomers are pure ice usually, but all the snow gets blown into the trees.

Jay for challenge and glade skiing, Killington for a more relaible experience with lots and lots of choice with a fun night life is the way I see it I guess.

I am sure others will have any other suggestions, compared to some of the regulars I barely know the VT ski areas. Never been to Whiteface, but it seems like some people love it and others hate it.

 

[BeanoNYC]

What route would you be taking. It is feasible that you could hit Whiteface then head South east towards Killington and hit both, especially if your cutting through Canada. Or you can enter Vermont from Canada and hit Jay Peak on the way down to Killington.

 

[riverc0il]

you need to provide a little more information for what you are looking for in a mountain. what type of terrain do you like to ski? powder or groomers? do you like trees? price important? are you looking for night life or non-ski related activities?

if night life and non-ski activities are important, killington is an obvious choice. but you could stay in burlington and drive to places like stowe or sugarbush. if maximizing powder chances is important, look no further than jay. if you require the most open of opened groomed terrain, killington is a good option and i am sure whiteface ranks right up there as well, but several other great areas are in the area including sugarbush and stowe. lots of options, all depends upon your needs. i think sugarbush does the most amount of things right for the largest amount of people and has a lot of terrain, probably good to look at that option too.

 

[finallyss]

Thanks for the replies. I am going mainly for the skiing and boarding. Maybe a place to stay with an indoor pool. I would like the longest runs / biggest vertical possible for advanced / intermediate skiers & boarders.
Plan on skiing the full week of March 4th for 5 days. Bringing the wife and two collegekids. Any comparsion to Breckenridge? Hard to tell from websites and mountain stats. Trying to do a good trip as cheap as possible. Could take any route possible for best trip. Thanks

 

[riverc0il]

despite having never been out west, i think it is safe to say you won't find much comparison with the west on the east coast. but that isn't to say there isn't some fantastic skiing to be had. your desire to do this trip on the cheap kinda sideline my gut reaction to your response which was stowe for a first choice and sugarbush for a second choice. doesn't sound like you are looking for powder or trees so jay is out. killington advertises big vertical but you can't get more than 1600 verts from any one lift, mostly a lot less than that. so if you want big verts on every lift, killington not so much. even bush will require multiple lifts for the full vertical, but at least you can drop down over 2000 continuous verts every second run at the bush. with stowe you get a high speeder and gondi each accessing 2k vert with lots of great terrain and another high speeder accessing good beginner and intermediate stuff. but that ain't cheap. if you are going to drive all the way from michigan, what is an extra couple bucks to get the best experience possible? do some digging for good package deals with lodging, usually lift tickets are much cheaper with lodging included. if you are set on the cheap option, burke is considerably cheaper than the spine of the green options and there is always dirt cheap skiing in quebec in the eastern townships. if you come up through canada, i assume you might be heading in that general direction any ways?

first week in march is a safe bet for great conditions everywhere, early march is prime time so enjoy your trip where ever you end up going.

 

[Goblin84]

whiteface

Ive been skiing at whiteface the last 3 seasons. It is really nothing like out west (nothing in the east is). I really only like whiteface after a fresh fall. Besides that its icy as all hell (hence why my buddies and myself call it Iceface). But from what you said before your not really looking into glades kinda stuff.

I really love the town whiteface is in, Lake Placid has a lot of fun stuff around it. It is a pretty quiet romatic little town in the ADK.


all and all I say goto Sugarloaf, my favorite skiing in the east

 

[Newpylong]

If this weather continues, if you're going to find any decent terrain open its at K-mart....

 

[skicone]

There's nothing like the Olympic feeling of Lake Placid. Skiing the downhill run ( Skyward) and enjoying the bobsled and ski jumping events if they are scheduled. I've been to both Stowe and Whiteface ( Whiteface is less expensive) and I like both. Stowe creates more of an old-time New England feel but the family has more fun in Lake Placid.

 

[ski the trees]

In humble deference to all of the previous posts - many of which have some great info - GO WEST.

Especially this year.

 

[koreshot]

In humble deference to all of the previous posts - many of which have some great info - GO WEST.

Especially this year.

Heretic!

I would take a long drive to ski the steeps, deeps and trees in Killington over a 2 hour flight at some halfass resort like JH or Alta. Especially this year.

 

[bigbog]

.......

With all the snow you people out West are receiving.....you wanna come East and ski Kmart...:lol:
;-)..My bad, Michigan isn't quite that far west eh'!...but you can't be serious about coming 800+(?) miles EASTWARD to ski....

 

[riverc0il]

i was going to say fly west, but on a budget with a family... it is much cheaper to load up the car than get four round trip tickets. the difference of $60 vs. $600.

 

[finallyss]

You are making it sound like a waste of time to ski east. We want to ski something better than Michigan and 4 people out west is expensive for plane tickets ( close to $400 each ). We have no snow here as of today. The websites of the resorts in Vt. make it look like a good choice to drive there ( 3000 vertical drop - 3 mile long runs ). Is it worth driving 12 hours to ski 5 days in Vt.?

 

[koreshot]

You are making it sound like a waste of time to ski east. We want to ski something better than Michigan and 4 people out west is expensive for plane tickets ( close to $400 each ). We have no snow here as of today. The websites of the resorts in Vt. make it look like a good choice to drive there ( 3000 vertical drop - 3 mile long runs ). Is it worth driving 12 hours to ski 5 days in Vt.?

Vt is nice, well worth the 12 hour drive. I drive 8 to 9 hours from south jersey up to Stowe/Jay area at least 3 times a year so yeah, i think its worth it. Even with just my wife and I going, it is much cheaper to drive up than fly out west.

Have you given any thought to driving out to Denver instead? It should be around 18 hours to Den. I know 6 hours extra is quite a bit, and while a 12 hour drive can be done in one day, 16 hours might require two, but you will be getting far superior terrain and snow. Just something to think about I guess.

Have you skied Mount Bohemia in Michigan? I have heard that if there is snow, the place is comparable in challenge and size to Jay Peak, just very short vertical. They are closed right now though due to lack of snow.

 

[finallyss]

Mount Bohemia is a 10 1/2 hour drive for us. It is good skiing for advanced skiers. Steep & somewhat rough. Wife is looking for long intermediate runs. Wife also doesn't like the idea of a 20 hour ride to Denver. Still working on that one. Gotta keep everyone happy to enjoy the trip.Can you get a 2600 foot vertical drop and 2-3 mile long run at Jay or Stowe? Thanks for the help.

 

[koreshot]

Mount Bohemia is a 10 1/2 hour drive for us. It is good skiing for advanced skiers. Steep & somewhat rough. Wife is looking for long intermediate runs. Wife also doesn't like the idea of a 20 hour ride to Denver. Still working on that one. Gotta keep everyone happy to enjoy the trip.Can you get a 2600 foot vertical drop and 2-3 mile long run at Jay or Stowe? Thanks for the help.

I can now see how you arrived at the VT decision. If I were in your shoes, it would have made the same call. VT is reasonably close for a 1 day drive, it offers plenty of options for intermediate and advanced skiers and the ski towns have more character than most resorts out west do.

Based on your description of what your wife likes to ski, I would highly recommend that you do NOT go to Jay. Jay doesn't have much of a snow making system, they aren't very good at grooming runs, and the brutal wind takes all the snow off a lot of the runs making them very icy. Also, there is virtually nothing to do in the evening, with limited food options and a bar or two in the area.

If I had to pick one VT resort that blends quality intermediate, advanced and expert skiing, with long vertical and dependable snow + historic town and great dining and apres ski options, Stowe would be it. Stowe is on the expensive side though, so I don't normally ski/stay there.

If you don't mind driving a bit and want to explore more than one mountain, then Sugarbush might be a good call. It is ~30 minutes south of Stowe and ~60 minutes north of Killington. It is usually less crowded and less expensive than Stowe and Killington, but still has a good blend of skiing and dining/apres ski. Mad River Glen is right next door if you feel more adventurous - though with the snow we have been having this year, its iffy.

And at last we arrive at Killington itself. It really is Kmart, with dependable openings, sick snow making system and pretty aggressive snow makers, lots and lots of so-so terrain, pretty big, but sometimes interruped vertical. Lots of apres ski options all over the place. Kmart does pretty well in everything, but not great at anything. It doesn't have the soul or the challenge of some of the other resorts, but its still pretty darn good, especially for intermediates.

Oh yeah, I haven't checked the exact vertical numbers, but just about all major VT resorts will give you over 2000 vertical feet and a few mile long trails.

 

[millerm277]

I'd say you should go to K, especially if you are spending 5 days, you might want to consider going to Pico for a day or two as well. (Especially if you're up over a weekend).

K has probably some of the most dependable terrain you're going to find, and there is plenty for pretty much all ability levels. There are some boring/annoying trails (Great Northern is one example.), but it has a lot of terrain, and if we do wind up getting decent snow this year, there are some great semi-hidden trails to do. (South Ridge)

 

[RISkier]

You are making it sound like a waste of time to ski east. We want to ski something better than Michigan and 4 people out west is expensive for plane tickets ( close to $400 each ). We have no snow here as of today. The websites of the resorts in Vt. make it look like a good choice to drive there ( 3000 vertical drop - 3 mile long runs ). Is it worth driving 12 hours to ski 5 days in Vt.?

VT has great skiing and given your concerns about the costs of travelling with a family, I think it's definately worth considering. IMO, the biggest advantage of Western skiing is that weather and snow conditions are more consistent, though early March is generally prime time in the East. In VT, I'd probably take a close look at Killington, Sugarbush, and Stowe. I've never been to Sugarbush but many folks who participate in this forum sure seem to love it and in terms of extent, it certainly looks like it compares favorably with Stowe. Sugarbush is high on my "to visit" list. My take on Killington and Stowe, but do note that I'm biased towards Stowe: Killington has more terrain and more snowmaking; right now they have far more terrain open than Stowe or Sugarbush. Killington is spread out horizontally across several peaks and even though there is 3000+ vertical in total, it really feels more like a bunch of 1500 ft mountains. And I'm not that fond of the intersecting trails. Killington has the most active apres ski / late night party scene. So if that's important, Killington is the best option. The villlage at Killington is basically spread out along a strip and, IMO, lacks New England charm. Stowe has a continuous 2000+ ft of vertical off of both the 4-runner quad and the gondola and there aren't a lot of intersecting trails. Spruce peak, across the road has about 1500 ft and though it's often described as the beginner/low intermediate/family oriented part of Stowe, there is some fairly challenging terrain. Spruce faces South and our strategy has often been to ski Mansfield in the morning and then move over to Spruce when Mansfield goes into shadows in the afternoon. My wife and I love Stowe village. There are nice apres ski bars (Matterhorn and Shed), tons of really good restaurants, and the downtown area oozes New England charm. Stowe has very little ski-in/ski out lodging and the village center is several (6-8?) miles from the mountain, so you'r basically driving to the mountain everyday. The only late night party action of which I'm aware is the Rusty Nail, and I'm not sure how active that is during the week. Definately not a strong late night party scene. And, as noted, Stowe tends to be pricey so I think you could find less expensive lodging options at either Killington or Sugarbush. And lift ticket prices at any of these places are expensive, but the daily lift tickets at Stowe are outrageous. That said, we buy multi-day lift tickets in advance through the Vacation Rewards Program; a 5 or 6 day lift ticket purchased through that program costs about $39 / day and you get options of a daily 2-hour group lesson, a ski tune, a ski demo, and I think there is some option for free or reduced cost lift tickets for children. Look at the website for details. I'll also suggest that you check out a few online resources that I think are very useful in getting a better understanding of what you might expect at various resorts: This site has lots of information about resort statistics, snow conditions, and links to lodging, www.skisnowboard.com has detailed descriptions of many resorts including loding and dining suggestions, www.goski.com and www.skitown.com both give statistical descriptions of the resorts as well as user reviews. Have a fun trip!

 

[2knees]

you didnt mention when you were planning this excursion but if its anywhere in the near future, i would also recommend killington. At this point, most other resorts arent gonna offer enough open terrain to make a 5 day visit interesting. Forecasts through next week dont include any snowstorms, although there is something brewing for nye/nyd but it looks like a mixed bag.

killington is what it is. its big, impersonal and lacking any soul. but it does offer tons of snowmaking, a variety of routes down (considering the weather) and some decent length to their runs. Not like stowe or sugarbush in terms of truly skiable vert (when the weather is favorable), but more than enough to keep you interested.

If this is a trip for later in the season, assuming the weather does eventually turn, i'd seriously look at some other candidates. I think you'll find a more family oriented laid back feeling at other resorts.

ps, i'm not trying to bash killington, there seems to be alot of that, its just my opinion.