Most Intimidating Trails

[MadMadWorld]

Since some are intimidated by skiing under a lift with people watching I'm surprised no one has mentioned black diamond under the summit quad at Mt. Ellen yet.

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I am a Black Diamond fan but it isn't all that technical. There aren't many places where you have to pick a technical line or have to air it out like Liftline at Smuggs or Redline/Black Magic at Magic. I would say Castlerock Liftline is probably more intimidating than BD for that reason IMO.

 

[Zand]

Bump because somehow I missed this before...

Interesting to see Rumble on here so many times... I've skied it in many different types of conditions and I found its toughness to be very overrated. It's not that steep and theres no mandatory drops or anything. I think Castlerock Liftline is much more intimidating both when looking at it and while skiing it... lots of ledges all the way across the trail, steeper than Rumble, not very wide, and a large audience.

I finally built up the courage to ski Face Chutes right at the end of March this past year. Conditions were excellent and soft so it wasn't so bad, but I can't imagine skiing it with any kind of ice on the rocky part. That snowfield after the initial drop is the best 500 feet of skiing I've ever done. Honestly CanAm is the most intimidating trail to me at Jay... steep and always a sheet of ice by noon. Even Jet can get to that point.

Killington's steeps never really intimidated me (although I've never skied Ovation or Vertigo on a bad day). I've only skied the Fiddle once though... it was in the spring and the bumps were enormous. It really kicked my ass and changed how well I thought I skied bumps haha. The trail itself wasn't that bad, but the bumps were just out of this world. I imagine that's how OL used to be.

Ripcord at Mt. Snow got me pretty good once. I watched some kid tumble down the entire thing and decided hey why not go try it lol. Very icy day... I thought my edges were going to slide out the entire way down. Pretty harrowing experience.

I skied Goat at Stowe on a day when most of the place was on windhold... actually got blown over a few times on the trail on my way down. Extremely steep and tight... should've just bailed into the woods. The most intimidating trail at Stowe to me was National at 3 pm on a Saturday... break out the ice skates.

Lastly, Cannon Tramline is something that I've skied once and am not sure if I want to ski again. Just not worth the risk to me of hitting one of those cliffs the wrong way. The day I skied it there wasn't even much, if any, mandatory air as the snow was very deep, yet it was still absolutely nuts. If the snow is good enough for Tramline to be open, it's just more of an excuse to go enjoy Kinsman right next door which is perhaps my favorite glade in New England.

 

[skiNEwhere]

Not a specific trail but criteria. Steep I do not mind. Narrow I do not mind. But Steep and Narrow? Major pucker factor, especially when the trail is so narrow or rocky you can't turn your ski's perpendicular to the slope enough to slow down or stop. The only way down is to somewhat straightline it until the trail (usually a chute though) opens up, but gain a lot of speed and risk injury in the process, or to go slow the whole way by resorting to ski school basics and make a pie and look like a complete n00b. I've tried slowing down by initiating a turn early, but this only works to a certain extent

 

[canobie#1]

I gotta say for killington: Vertigo head wall when it's groomed. They should NEVER groom that head wall! It is way too steep and narrow so the first people of the day push all of the snow down it making it shear ice. I have problems on that stupid trail every time they groom it. Devils Fiddle, Double Dipper and Ovation are also up there too.
Other trails that scare me are rumble, paradise and Top Cat (Wildcat mtn) on bad days.

 

[dlague]

Bump because somehow I missed this before...

Interesting to see Rumble on here so many times... I've skied it in many different types of conditions and I found its toughness to be very overrated. It's not that steep and theres no mandatory drops or anything. I think Castlerock Liftline is much more intimidating both when looking at it and while skiing it... lots of ledges all the way across the trail, steeper than Rumble, not very wide, and a large audience.

I finally built up the courage to ski Face Chutes right at the end of March this past year. Conditions were excellent and soft so it wasn't so bad, but I can't imagine skiing it with any kind of ice on the rocky part. That snowfield after the initial drop is the best 500 feet of skiing I've ever done. Honestly CanAm is the most intimidating trail to me at Jay... steep and always a sheet of ice by noon. Even Jet can get to that point.

Killington's steeps never really intimidated me (although I've never skied Ovation or Vertigo on a bad day). I've only skied the Fiddle once though... it was in the spring and the bumps were enormous. It really kicked my ass and changed how well I thought I skied bumps haha. The trail itself wasn't that bad, but the bumps were just out of this world. I imagine that's how OL used to be.

Ripcord at Mt. Snow got me pretty good once. I watched some kid tumble down the entire thing and decided hey why not go try it lol. Very icy day... I thought my edges were going to slide out the entire way down. Pretty harrowing experience.

I skied Goat at Stowe on a day when most of the place was on windhold... actually got blown over a few times on the trail on my way down. Extremely steep and tight... should've just bailed into the woods. The most intimidating trail at Stowe to me was National at 3 pm on a Saturday... break out the ice skates.

Lastly, Cannon Tramline is something that I've skied once and am not sure if I want to ski again. Just not worth the risk to me of hitting one of those cliffs the wrong way. The day I skied it there wasn't even much, if any, mandatory air as the snow was very deep, yet it was still absolutely nuts. If the snow is good enough for Tramline to be open, it's just more of an excuse to go enjoy Kinsman right next door which is perhaps my favorite glade in New England.

Nice summary and I agree with you you on all counts!

 

[steamboat1]

I gotta say for killington: Vertigo head wall when it's groomed. They should NEVER groom that head wall! It is way too steep and narrow

Steep yes, narrow no.

 

[Zand]

Ahh... how could I forget MRG? I finally skied Paradise for the first time this year. I was actually helped out by the fact that 3 12 year olds went down before me which helped my confidence a lot lol. They wanted me to huck the waterfall first, so I did. Not too bad of a drop as the snow was deep. Past that, just a typical steep glade, not much different than Everglade at Jay. Very fun trail. A few parts got very steep and required a quick scan to make sure the line looked good. Otherwise, I'd consider Chute, Liftline (especially) and the Liftline under Sunnyside more intimidating for the same reasons as Castlerock: way more ledges, drops, steeper, narrow, and a large audience.

I think Flyway at Sunapee is the most intimidating trail I've been down though. Nothing worse than navigating through hordes of people doing random things. Can't believe they named the base area a trail lol.

 

[AHM]

As one said, it depends on how you ski them............

For all the difficult trails listed, one way to consider how intimidating or difficult they are is to ask: Can you ski them non stop. Once you attempt the difficult trails non stop the game changes. Take BD at Sugarbush. Ski it non stop and you'll find there is certainly some potential for getting out of control, same goes for Rumble. If you ski it off the Men's T and take the initial air you need to quickly get things under control for the first turn......then there is the big rock and that should be always mandatory (right side is actually best). As for the K, not so much. Jay's Face chutes non stop or MRG paradise when skied non stop definitely provide ample challenge. As you ramp up the speed the danger & intimidation factor goes way up. While I do not find really any of them intimidating, many are game on when skied non stop..........and a whole lot of fun.

As for intimidating, I always find the runs I have taken on Dodge's drop to always be skied cautiously. The margin for error is so limited and the ice bulge in the middle requires a lot of negotiation. Thinking about them all just gets me amped for the season.

 

[quiglam1]

Rumor and Lies at Gore.

 

[St. Bear]

Not a specific trail but criteria. Steep I do not mind. Narrow I do not mind. But Steep and Narrow? Major pucker factor, especially when the trail is so narrow or rocky you can't turn your ski's perpendicular to the slope enough to slow down or stop. The only way down is to somewhat straightline it until the trail (usually a chute though) opens up, but gain a lot of speed and risk injury in the process, or to go slow the whole way by resorting to ski school basics and make a pie and look like a complete n00b. I've tried slowing down by initiating a turn early, but this only works to a certain extent

This, in a glade, is really my #1 intimidation. Not being able to see beyond 1-2 turns, while gathering speed, is terrifying to me.

 

[C-Rex]

I found the Face Chutes at Jay intimidating not because they're steep but because they funnel into supper tight trees that are really hard to navigate if you don't know the right path. Everything above is that much more sketchy since you don't have a nice open runout which makes speed control really important.

Although, I have to say nothing I've done in the East has made me pause like the bowls at Breckenridge did when I was there. This was mainly due to conditions. The cover was thin with lots of exposed rocks and debris fields at the bottom of the steeper sections. The snow was wind packed styrofoam so everytime I tried to check my speed my board would skip and chatter and threaten to come out from under me. Not a good feeling in a "no fall" situation. I was also not used to the steep rollover at the top. Not being able to see what was 5 or 6 feet in front of me when dropping in while knowing all those hazards were there was pretty intimidating.

 

[MadMadWorld]

I found the Face Chutes at Jay intimidating not because they're steep but because they funnel into supper tight trees that are really hard to navigate if you don't know the right path. Everything above is that much more sketchy since you don't have a nice open runout which makes speed control really important.

Although, I have to say nothing I've done in the East has made me pause like the bowls at Breckenridge did when I was there. This was mainly due to conditions. The cover was thin with lots of exposed rocks and debris fields at the bottom of the steeper sections. The snow was wind packed styrofoam so everytime I tried to check my speed my board would skip and chatter and threaten to come out from under me. Not a good feeling in a "no fall" situation. I was also not used to the steep rollover at the top. Not being able to see what was 5 or 6 feet in front of me when dropping in while knowing all those hazards were there was pretty intimidating.

I agree completely. And I think that applies to a lot of resorts out west.

 

[C-Rex]

I think downhill mountain biking has numbed me a bit to steep stuff. On a bike, even mildly steep trails feel vertical due to being a couple feet off the ground and in a forward leaning position. So if I'm on a board, with my feet only a few centimeters off the ground, and can lean back toward the hill it feels way more comfortable by comparison.

Ugh, this thread is making me jones really bad for some riding. I'm dying to tear up some technical terrain and throw some high speed, knuckle draggin turns!