Saddleback Maine

[Edd]

Ouch.

 

[jaytrem]

Arrived to Rangeley last night for what we were hoping was three days of skiing. Looks like we need to find an alternative for Thursday.

$25 Thursdays at Black!

 

[Cobbold]

Never skied Maine, Sunday River/ sugarloaf are 6 hour drives from my house, Now with Waterville valley on the pass, i can hit that on the way to saddleback and I have the mountain collective, I can also hit sugar loaf, I know this will cause a lot of swearing, but their is a reason Vermont has the most skier visits in New England, they have the best mtns, just like Colorado has the most skier visits, they have the best mtns, until recently Vermont was number two in the country for skier visit, just recently passed by Utah.

 

[cdskier]

Never skied Maine, Sunday River/ sugarloaf are 6 hour drives from my house, Now with Waterville valley on the pass, i can hit that on the way to saddleback and I have the mountain collective, I can also hit sugar loaf, I know this will cause a lot of swearing, but their is a reason Vermont has the most skier visits in New England, they have the best mtns, just like Colorado has the most skier visits, they have the best mtns, until recently Vermont was number two in the country for skier visit, just recently passed by Utah.

I'm not sure I agree with that reasoning for having the most skier visits in New England. Some of the resorts in VT that have the highest skier visits in the state aren't even the best mountains in VT, so clearly "best mountain" is not a major determining factor in skier visit numbers. I've never skied Maine either, but Saddleback and Sugarloaf both look like mountains I would absolutely love and probably put at or near the top of my "best mountains" list if I skied them. The problem is they are just too far away. They're both 7+ hours from NJ and even 4+ hours from my VT condo.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

lol @ colorado having the best mountains in the west. that's funny. you're funny, man.

colorado in general, and places like mount snow and okemo, have the highest skier visits because they are easy to travel to and cater to gaper tourists from major population centers. quality of skiing has jack shit to do with it.

 

[Killingtime]

Never skied Maine, Sunday River/ sugarloaf are 6 hour drives from my house, Now with Waterville valley on the pass, i can hit that on the way to saddleback and I have the mountain collective, I can also hit sugar loaf, I know this will cause a lot of swearing, but their is a reason Vermont has the most skier visits in New England, they have the best mtns, just like Colorado has the most skier visits, they have the best mtns, until recently Vermont was number two in the country for skier visit, just recently passed by Utah.

Sunday River is a fun place. Its worth the drive. Been to Sugarloaf once and the conditions were not the best and half the mountain was closed, but looking forward to going back. Now with Saddleback on the Indy its just more incentive to get back there.

 

[slatham]

Bad timing after the great news of being added in Indy Pass effective immediately.

 

[Cobbold]

lol @ colorado having the best mountains in the west. that's funny. you're funny, man.

colorado in general, and places like mount snow and okemo, have the highest skier visits because they are easy to travel to and cater to gaper tourists from major population centers. quality of skiing has jack shit to do with it.

I disagree, just swung thru Jackson hole, grand tarraghee, sun valley, big sky, granted it was mid December, and each Mtn but tarraghee was only half open, but the snow, the towns, the views don’t equal Colorado experiences, never been to Utah or ca yet, but from my experiences Colorado is tough to top, and the skier visits confirm it

 

[KustyTheKlown]

so you skied a bunch of superior mountains early season with no snow, and haven't even bothered with utah or tahoe or british columbia (and BC is the best skiing, snow, terrain in north america), and you state conclusively that colorado is best? you don't even have the experience to support that opinion. and the main point is that skier visits doesn't equal best skiing. that's ludicrous. mcdonalds makes the best food in america! most diner visits! southern colorado is great when you get off the beaten path, but i-70 is fucking worthless. popular tends to equal bad, expensive, and annoying to deal with.

 

[cdskier]

I disagree, just swung thru Jackson hole, grand tarraghee, sun valley, big sky, granted it was mid December, and each Mtn but tarraghee was only half open, but the snow, the towns, the views don’t equal Colorado experiences, never been to Utah or ca yet, but from my experiences Colorado is tough to top, and the skier visits confirm it

Why do you think skier visits is a metric that represents who is the best? Quantity/volume is not necessarily equal to quality. (that's like saying fast food chains are better than local independent burger joints simply because they sell more burgers).

 

[ThatGuy]

I’d rather ski Whistler-Blackcomb or Revelstoke than any major resort in CO that comes to mind. CO is easy access due to the I-70 corridor and so many Epic/IKON resorts, thats going to lead to higher visitor numbers alone. But visit numbers definitely don’t equal quality, if that were the case Mt. Snow, Stratton and Okemo would be the best of SoVT.

 

[jaytrem]

most diner visits! southern colorado is great when you get off the beaten path, but i-70 is fucking worthless.

I not sure anybody enjoys "off the beaten" path more than me. But I wouldn't go that far. Just gotta time things right. Did a Ikon trip out there last year with the kids and it was great (other than getting crazy sick). Didn't really deal with lines at all. But yeah, in my opinion, nothing beats interior BC.

 

[Cobbold]

I’d rather ski Whistler-Blackcomb or Revelstoke than any major resort in CO that comes to mind. CO is easy access due to the I-70 corridor and so many Epic/IKON resorts, thats going to lead to higher visitor numbers alone. But visit numbers definitely don’t equal quality, if that were the case Mt. Snow, Stratton and Okemo would be the best of SoVT.

Hate to break it to you but they are

 

[Cobbold]

L

so you skied a bunch of superior mountains early season with no snow, and haven't even bothered with utah or tahoe or british columbia (and BC is the best skiing, snow, terrain in north america), and you state conclusively that colorado is best? you don't even have the experience to support that opinion. and the main point is that skier visits doesn't equal best skiing. that's ludicrous. mcdonalds makes the best food in america! most diner visits! southern colorado is great when you get off the beaten path, but i-70 is fucking worthless. popular tends to equal bad, expensive, and annoying to deal with.

last time I checked bc wasn’t part of the United States, but the Colorado resorts I skied at aspen, vail, snowmass, beaver creek, Breckenridge and keystone for snow, views, amenities, lifts, town. I haven’t seen anything to top that, although when I get out west, I do get homesick for New England Mtn views

 

[KustyTheKlown]

whatever man. glad people think like you do. keeps the riffraff away from the mad river glens and revelstokes of the world. enjoy your faux european alpine villages.

 

[Cobbold]

whatever man. glad people think like you do. keeps the riffraff away from the mad river glens and revelstokes of the world. enjoy your faux european alpine villages.

Two mtns in Vermont I don’t get all for different reasons, killington and mad River Glen, Glen has a very off putting vibe for a visitor, and I don’t go for that reason and others which would take to long to explain, killington is the worst Mtn in the northeast maybe the country but they do 900k skier visits, so that kinda proves my point, customers go to where they have great experiences, mad River glen is a micro ski area that probably does 50k skier visits,

 

[jaytrem]

whatever man. glad people think like you do. keeps the riffraff away from the mad river glens and revelstokes of the world. enjoy your faux european alpine villages.

A few friends went to Revelstoke last year. Said it was much more crowded than when we went 10+ years ago. Guess the word is out. I noticed the same thing at Kicking Horse a few years ago. Guess the huge expansions at both places are paying off.

 

[cdskier]

Two mtns in Vermont I don’t get all for different reasons, killington and mad River Glen, Glen has a very off putting vibe for a visitor, and I don’t go for that reason and others which would take to long to explain, killington is the worst Mtn in the northeast maybe the country but they do 900k skier visits, so that kinda proves my point, customers go to where they have great experiences, mad River glen is a micro ski area that probably does 50k skier visits,

I'm very confused by so much of what you're saying here.

What about MRG is off-putting? I thought the vibe there was incredible when I visited. First time there and I felt like I had been a regular there forever with how friendly and welcoming everyone was.

And if you're saying K is the worst mountain yet still has high skier visits, doesn't that DIS-prove your point about high skier visits being attributed to places having the "best mountains"?

 

[KustyTheKlown]

no sense nonsense in this thread.

 

[deadheadskier]

Not sure how one can claim that VT has better mountains than Maine having never skied there.

If Sugarloaf were in Southern VT it would be the busiest ski area in New England. Sunday River as is typically finishes top 5 in skier visits in the East