MAX vs MCP?

[snoseek]

Wildcat has the exact criteria I'm looking for in a classic New England ski hill. Fast lift, decent snowmaking, long season, almost zero crowds and those sweet, long top to bottom trails. That's not mentioning the fun stuff.

 

[dlague]

It's getting harder and harder to ski a classic New England ski mountain.

For me it started when they began fretting about all the classic New England trees in the middle of trails, what would the insurance company say, remove them all so it's all western-style wide open.

Then places like Stratton went from cherishing their original Austrian-cut trails to bringing in wide-swath-cutting bulldozers to flatten and homogenize trails to go full-bore Mountain Dew snowboarder then progressing to full-on New York/New Jersey real estate crowd versus skiing, and then jacking up the day ticket prices to unjustifiable-for-their-now-boring-terrain levels to keep all the locals and day tripper riff raff out. Now forever ruined - they can now keep it.

One by one these classic New England vibe places fell for 'development' and 'improvement'.

Some classic places with a true New England feel still exist, but are getting more and more rare, where on bad days I feel their days are also numbered - unless the people who cherish them band together to protect them like MRG did and does.

Then on really bad days - when I feel something as being the (unfortunately continual) "last straw" that the natural inherent qualities about yet another mountain I liked have been slowly 'developed' away - I console myself by reminding myself that the backcountry still exists, they have not ruined that yet, and to get back to my non-lift-service "skiing uphill is still skiing" XC and telemark roots to restore one's sanity and connection to nature by "natural" skiing a natural hill in natural snow in natural New England...

Wow you are way over thinking this stuff! Don't get me wrong I was bothered by the changes Jay Peak made but it is what it is. I personally like skiing most anywhere and wide runs, narrow runs and anything in between are not something that bother me. I would rather see a resort change than go out of business or flounder.

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[Duncanator24]

Teleskier is not wrong though, it's definitely a rare thing to find "classic new England skiing". Grooming, snowmaking, and real estate development definitely have a hand in that. But thats where the money is so it only makes sense. You still have places like Mad River Glen and many other small mountains to get that fix though. The improvements of faster lifts are nice but I agree that everything else is just bloat and excess to the hobby. But the majority wants all that crap so that's just how it is.

 

[abc]

I just can't get too worked up about the changes to the mountain though.

For all the resort skiers, it's all a matter of degrees. Lift, grooming, thinning of the glades, snowmaking, all are altered state of the mountains. Where does one stop?

Even "classic New England trail" had been cut, and may even be groomed. Just different width and layout.

Real purists would probably stick to the back country, after all.