Saddleback Maine

[tnt1234]

I do have to say, in my high school years, I always went to Killington....what a shame. So many great trips with great friends, and we always went back to teh same place....

 

[KustyTheKlown]

I do have to say, in my high school years, I always went to Killington....what a shame. So many great trips with great friends, and we always went back to teh same place....

i've come to really like killington, and have particular respect to their consistent dedication to the early and late season game. but there was a period where i was very anti-killington, and resentful toward my own father (lol), who would take us to mount snow for MLK and killington for presidents week every year (this is such a first world complaint, fuck me), and didn't acknowledge that other places existed. when i was in college a friend's family had a house near saint johnsbury, and we based there and skied sugarbush, stowe, jay, burke, and smuggs for a week. and my life changed significantly and i was mad at my dad.

 

[Cobbold]

Right - CO and VT are the most popular ski destinations.

I don't think that proves they are the best. I, like you, don't think K-ton is the best, but it is the most popular.

See the difference?

I did not say killington was the best, annual skier visits makes Vermont the best, based upon those numbers. what Makes them more popular? Quality of the mtns, amount of annual snowfall, lifts etc, they are popular for a reason, Bostonians don’t drive thru nh to Vermont for no reason.

 

[jimmywilson69]

This thread is ruined...

Can we break out the what's best posts to their own thread?

Conditions look good DHS

 

[tnt1234]

i've come to really like killington, and have particular respect to their consistent dedication to the early and late season game. but there was a period where i was very anti-killington, and resentful toward my own father (lol), who would take us to mount snow for MLK and killington for presidents week every year (this is such a first world complaint, fuck me), and didn't acknowledge that other places existed. when i was in college a friend's family had a house near saint johnsbury, and we based there and skied sugarbush, stowe, jay, burke, and smuggs for a week. and my life changed significantly and i was mad at my dad.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I used to love the place....when Bear Mountain opened, skiing Outer Limits was just....fucking crazy! And I remember Wildfire and Devils Fiddel being super fun......And I was there once with my wife and friends during a huge dump and we skied....needles eye? I forget....one of the other areas....to death....it was a blast.

But the place takes you forever to get from A to B. Half the day is spent on....what's that trail? Great Northern? And some other kind of connector.....

I just never really knew there were other layouts, other ways to assess the mountain other than BIG IS GOOD.

Had a friend who had a place at Pico and that started opening my eyes. Everyone meets at the same base. No time spent trying to get to the lift you think you what to ski...oly to find out conditions suck on this side or whatever....


I went back of a day about 4 years ago after not being there in probably 15. And it felt really run down and weird. But it was a crappy season and snow quality was poor. Looked into Julio and Anarchy where were not skiable and can appreciate there is some real terrain there.

But we did ski Outer Limits!!! Just as scary as it was when I was 15! Bumps the size of Volkwagons and steep as balls!!!

 

[tnt1234]

I did not say killington was the best, annual skier visits makes Vermont the best, based upon those numbers. what Makes them more popular? Quality of the mtns, amount of annual snowfall, lifts etc, they are popular for a reason, Bostonians don’t drive thru nh to Vermont for no reason.

But it follows if skier visits is your metric to define best, K-ton is in fact the best.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

This thread is ruined...

Can we break out the what's best posts to their own thread?

Conditions look good DHS

there happens to be another saddleback thread on the front page, fortunately.

 

[Zand]

But the place takes you forever to get from A to B. Half the day is spent on....what's that trail? Great Northern? And some other kind of connector.....

I really hate to bite on this thread, but if any part of your day involves skiing either Great Northern or Great Eastern for any length of time, pick up a trail map and look at it for like 10 seconds.

If Sugarbush didnt have Castlerock and the woods off Paradise, Killington would be a better mountain terrain wise. You just actually have to, you know, ski the good stuff instead of traversing everywhere.

 

[tnt1234]

I really hate to bite on this thread, but if any part of your day involves skiing either Great Northern or Great Eastern for any length of time, pick up a trail map and look at it for like 10 seconds.

If Sugarbush didnt have Castlerock and the woods off Paradise, Killington would be a better mountain terrain wise. You just actually have to, you know, ski the good stuff instead of traversing everywhere.

Yeah, that totally sounds right to me. But I just don't think I ever got the hang of the place somehow despite skiing it a lot....I don't know...

I also think you are right re: SB and CR. But I prefer MRG, Stowe and Magic to K-ton, though in fairness, I just don't go to K.

My gun to head assessment would be Stowe is the best mountain in the east - that I have skied. Noting that the only time I skied Sugarloaf it was a terrible season, and the place was barely open and it pissed rain on us for a day. Place looks amazing, but we just didn't catch it.

 

[Zand]

Yeah, that totally sounds right to me. But I just don't think I ever got the hang of the place somehow despite skiing it a lot....I don't know...

I also think you are right re: SB and CR. But I prefer MRG, Stowe and Magic to K-ton, though in fairness, I just don't go to K.

My gun to head assessment would be Stowe is the best mountain in the east - that I have skied. Noting that the only time I skied Sugarloaf it was a terrible season, and the place was barely open and it pissed rain on us for a day. Place looks amazing, but we just didn't catch it.

Stowe is one I've never took the time to figure out, especially the side country. Went a few times in high school and only once since. Never had an epic pass and price keeps me away. Everytime I go I just lap Fourrunner and ski the woods.

My top 5 if 100% open with good snow is MRG, Jay, Smuggs, Bush, Cannon. K, Stowe, and Loaf the next 3.

Now that Saddleback is back open and on the Indy Pass, I think my top 5 will be changing!

 

[cdskier]

I did not say killington was the best, annual skier visits makes Vermont the best, based upon those numbers. what Makes them more popular? Quality of the mtns, amount of annual snowfall, lifts etc, they are popular for a reason, Bostonians don’t drive thru nh to Vermont for no reason.

Once again, popularity has nothing to do with being "the best". You left a rather big one off your list of popularity reasons...location relative to major population areas. VT has a much larger pool of people to pull from than NH or ME do. The NYC metro area alone represents over 20M people (and VT pulls from numerous other population areas as well). The Boston metro area is 1/4 of that. Boston people also don't all go to VT. Sure some definitely do go to VT, but some also go to NH and ME as well.

If Sugarbush didnt have Castlerock and the woods off Paradise, Killington would be a better mountain terrain wise. You just actually have to, you know, ski the good stuff instead of traversing everywhere.

I don't really agree with that. I still think even without CR, SB's terrain is a lot more interesting than K's (and I'm by no means a K-hater as I've had a lot of fun there over the years). Honestly I like the terrain at Pico better than K. I will qualify this as saying I have 0 experience with K's tree runs as when I last skied K that wasn't something I was into. So maybe that would tip the scales back in K's favor if I were to ski it now.

 

[jaytrem]

Hey, did you guys hear Saddleback is now on Indy!!! Will be sure to get there if I cancel my western trip.

When 99% of the people agree on something, is it worth the time to argue with the 1% that doesn't?

 

[deadheadskier]

No way!

Proximity to major population centers or access to great transportation has something to do with popularity?

What a novel business concept.

Hear me out, they should do a segment on this in College Business 101. Call it?!?!??

Location, location, location

 

[machski]

Based upon skier visits, Maine has less skier visits than New Hampshire, I have skied both Vermont and New Hampshire, for the whole package Vermont is better, if Maine was better than New Hampshire, skier visits would indicate that. If pico was 20 miles from killington, if Smuggs wasn’t next to Stowe, could go forever on that

WOW, you have to be joking. Yes Maine has fewer skier visits than NH but that is because until this year, it only had two real Ski Resorts in Sugarloaf and Sunday River (sure, they have Shawnee that operates daily and then a bunch of other small areas, many of which operate on a limited schedule) and while Saddleback is back and a bigger area, it isn't a whole resort deal yet.

NH has Waterville, Loon, Bretton Woods and Attitash that offer the full resort experience along with a bunch of other large and/or popular areas like Cannon, Wildcat, Cranmore, Sunapee, Ragged, Gunstock and others.

So is NH better than Maine for skiing? Certaily more variety in areas in NH, but the three big areas in Maine make a lot of NH pale by comparison. I would stack all three big ME areas on top of any overall list of NH/ME areas.

 

[ericapark]

aspen, breckenridge, telluride all definitely have that 'small urban city street grid' at the base of the lift vibes. begrudgingly i will say vail does too, but that's like epcot center - manufactured and fake.

whistler has the faux village vail style

park city is a pretty legitimate comparison to the colorado towns. jackson is a great town but it doesn't sit at the foot of the ski area.

but those towns are pretty much just expensive tourist trap restaurants and t-shirt shops where they have patchwork plaid shirt. not needed. I'll take kicking horse and shitty railroad pit stop Golden BC over all of it.

I agree with you that park city is legitimate and Breckinridge probably does double the skier visits. But the others are expensive

 

[deadheadskier]

 

[deadheadskier]

 

[jimmywilson69]

That place looks great!

 

[deadheadskier]

That place looks great!

Probably the greatest collection of old school Eastern trails of any mountain in New England. There's really only a handful of modern, wide and straight style trails. Everything else is nice and twisty with well over half the place ungroomed. Throw the massive amount of tree skiing on top and it's tough to beat for my tastes.

Now with a game changing HSQ, the place is pretty much perfect. A little bit shy on long, continuous vertical like a Stowe or Wildcat, but that's about the only criticism I have of the place and it's minor.

Hopefully if the place eventually sells out to a large corporate conglomerate, they don't fuck it up and turn it into another McSkiarea.

 

[tipsdown]

Probably the greatest collection of old school Eastern trails of any mountain in New England. There's really only a handful of modern, wide and straight style trails. Everything else is nice and twisty with well over half the place ungroomed. Throw the massive amount of tree skiing on top and it's tough to beat for my tastes.

Now with a game changing HSQ, the place is pretty much perfect. A little bit shy on long, continuous vertical like a Stowe or Wildcat, but that's about the only criticism I have of the place and it's minor.

Hopefully if the place eventually sells out to a large corporate conglomerate, they don't fuck it up and turn it into another McSkiarea.

Deadheadskier I would agree...sport on. As they push the ski boundary further east (lookers left) there is a lot of potential for even more continuous vertical. Under the current footprint, the terrain is naturally segmented across ability level which is also an asset...But when that happens, the place will be a near perfect East coast ski experience.