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Ski Areas that People Love and Hate

bousquet19

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Messages
138
Points
16
Location
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
Back to the thread. I like and dislike Whitetail, PA (but the former greatly outweighs the latter, so I have a season's pass).

Likes:
  • HSQ moves skiers quickly up the mountain
  • Continuous slope from top to bottom (almost), without long runouts
  • Modern, attractive facilities well kept
  • They do snowmaking right. Grooming too.
  • Pass is good at all 3 Snowtime areas. Discounts at 12 others (Mountains of Distinction program)
  • Close to home!

Dislikes:
  • Unimaginative trails -- uniform width
  • Ditto for the layout -- short traverse, then boom down the fall line. Repeat on the next trail.
  • Conveys no sense of history, nature or place

Woody
 

WWF-VT

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 23, 2005
Messages
2,598
Points
48
Location
MA & Fayston, VT
I despise the courtyard itself. Ugh. Don't even get me going. It is too bad because I think the skier services building and cafeteria is a great building. Claybrook, that roundish bar, and that paved courtyard area where the heated pool is... that whole package makes me think I showed up at the wrong area every time. It just doesn't feel right to me, though that is obviously a VERY subjective statement. But I did want to say that if they hadn't built claybrook and just built the skier service building it would have been perfect from my eyes.

I might never have the money or desire to stay at Claybrook but the courtyard is actually well designed for multiple seasons and uses. On sunny spring days there is a band outdoors and they serve beers from the Timbers patio. I recall a few hundred people gathered there on a sunny Saturday in March. I just got back from a visit this weekend and they have flower and full vegetable gardens growing there in the summer. Yesterday there was a salsa band / dancing in the courtyard. In the dead and cold of winter it may just be a place to pass through to get to the lodge and lifts but i think its meeting its design purpose as a plaza for outdoor activities.
 

thetrailboss

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
34,258
Points
113
Location
NEK by Birth
I might never have the money or desire to stay at Claybrook but the courtyard is actually well designed for multiple seasons and uses. On sunny spring days there is a band outdoors and they serve beers from the Timbers patio. I recall a few hundred people gathered there on a sunny Saturday in March. I just got back from a visit this weekend and they have flower and full vegetable gardens growing there in the summer. Yesterday there was a salsa band / dancing in the courtyard. In the dead and cold of winter it may just be a place to pass through to get to the lodge and lifts but i think its meeting its design purpose as a plaza for outdoor activities.

Again, better than Les Otten's "fake town."
 
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