Ski areas with the most "soul"

[AdironRider]

of soul music, tower of power's front man once said (paraphrased) "soul music is just like a bank... if you don't put nothing in, you can't get nothing out." the way i see it, soulful ski areas are very similar, they require you to invest something of your own soul into them to fully appreciate the soulful experience of the area. anyone can show up to any of these areas, ski them for a day, and never touch the soulful aspects of the ski areas mentioned. in some cases, i think soulful could be counterintuitive from that perspective. magic could actually lack soul from that perspective because it hasn't had much put into it, it is run down. great terrain and old school, but is that soul? mad river glen has soul not just because of the terrain and character... but the people.... the people! cannon is the same. look at the front five from I-93... that isn't soul. soul are the people bellying up to the bar three times a week in the peabody lodge sharing stories and planning sorties and explorations for the off season... the same folks that bring their family their because they want their family in on the special atmosphere cannon offers. that is part of the soul of cannon many might not think about. up and coming revitalized ski areas like ragged and especially saddleback have a lot of soul in my book proving not only that areas can make huge infrastructure improvements and still have soul... but actually have soul because of them. something about an awesome base lodge that fits the surroundings perfectly that contributes to the soul of a ski area. it is more than the trails, though wide groomed boulevards that lack any character what so ever would quickly discredit many ski areas, imo. what invest part of yourself into a ski area that is no different than any other? there needs to be something special and history counts here. trails and terrain are important, but if you are talking soul, lets talk about history.. lets talk about people... lets talk about areas that people have invested their souls into, that is what creates a soulful experience.

Hey whats with the lack of capital letters and one big lump of a post. Is this your new steeze?

 

[AHM]

The areas where people have invested their soul...........

If we go down Riv's line of thinking, this would be my choices:

East: Sugarloaf. Nowhere in the east are the people who invested their souls more evident than the 'loaf. With pics of Amos Winter and the chain gain crew cutting the access road and winter's way. That is total soul. Without Amos, no loaf, an icon in eastern skiing that has remained high quality since conception.

West: Alta, Taos, and Mammoth. Each were built by visionaires who threw their whole lives and families into the creation of their idea of what a ski area should be. Each today remains a major destination hill and with a true cult following.

Canada: Red and Whitewater. Few places can possess the history and souls of each of these hills. Whitewater with its dirt access road, minimalistic wooden base lodge san phone, with the ridge that is Ymir peak and Red with its heritage as a home to Canadian ski champions, the heart and soul of Rossland and the 360 degree terrain that packs a serious punch.

Great idea for a thread............

Bill Putnam is another icon of the sport possibly not well known here, but if you look, Putnam was a giant.

 

[riverc0il]

Hey whats with the lack of capital letters and one big lump of a post. Is this your new steeze?

i never use capitol letters. guilty as charged on the lack of formating paragraphs... it was a stream of consciousness post and i didn't want to break up my train of thought to properly format.

don't like the way i write? don't read my posts. won't hurt my feelings. and for the record, i think "steeze" is one of the dumbest words going these days.

 

[Greg]

Gesundheit.

 

[AdironRider]

Chill out man, I was just giving you a little shit.

 

[mattchuck2]

Whiteface is perhaps the least soulful mountain in New York.

The lack of slopeside lodging does not a soulful mountain make. Whiteface has too many high speed lifts, too many gapers, and too much ice to be considered soulful at all. Plus it has a coffee cafe in the base lodge. A coffee cafe? With Wifi Access????? That just reeks of people selling their soul at $3.50 a cup.

The mountain dives further down the soul scale because of the ridiculous number of people who take a vacation to Lake Placid to go bobsledding, ice skating, etc, and then go to Whiteface because it's the next thing on the agenda. It's the same group of idiots who goes to Disney World and maps out their route to Epcot Center, MGM Studios and the Magic Kingdom ("First we'll hit splash mountain, then Pirates of the Carribean . . .")

Whiteface has it's fair share of good skiers to be sure, but that in and of itself doesn't make a mountain soulful.

The correct answer to the question of which mountain has the most soul in NY is indeed Plattekill . . . but only because Hickory is closed until further notice.

 

[C2H5OH]

must agree on Platekill in NY

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Sundance, UT
Grang Targhee, WY
Powder Mountain, UT

I would pick Snow King over GT, at least the resort with the most soul in Teton County, Wy. Locally owned, locally skied for many years. Home of highly respected Bill Briggs(first man to ski the Grand) ski school.

GT hasn't been locally owned(currently owned by a member of the Gillett family who developed Vail) for years, been working thru(2 owners) the permit process for years to expand and build condos.

Vail Resorts in the past few years has bought up icon major valley resorts over the hill in JH including operating one of the big fancy new hotels in Teton Village...very strange thing.

In Maine I would go with Mt Abram.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Whiteface is perhaps the least soulful mountain in New York.

The lack of slopeside lodging does not a soulful mountain make. Whiteface has too many high speed lifts, too many gapers, and too much ice to be considered soulful at all. Plus it has a coffee cafe in the base lodge. A coffee cafe? With Wifi Access????? That just reeks of people selling their soul at $3.50 a cup.

The mountain dives further down the soul scale because of the ridiculous number of people who take a vacation to Lake Placid to go bobsledding, ice skating, etc, and then go to Whiteface because it's the next thing on the agenda. It's the same group of idiots who goes to Disney World and maps out their route to Epcot Center, MGM Studios and the Magic Kingdom ("First we'll hit splash mountain, then Pirates of the Carribean . . .")

Whiteface has it's fair share of good skiers to be sure, but that in and of itself doesn't make a mountain soulful.

The correct answer to the question of which mountain has the most soul in NY is indeed Plattekill . . . but only because Hickory is closed until further notice.

I guess it depends on how you define soulful.

Too many high-speed lifts? We have 2.

Too many gapers? There’s never too many of any type skier at WF cause it’s never crowded relative to other mountains.

Too much ice? Way to take the standard cheap shot. Is it too icy compared to Gore where you ski? On SKIADK the Gore regulars are always bitchin about how they don’t make enough snow. On the WF side they’re always praising the snow tribe and all the snow they lay down.

Coffee cafe? So what? They took a small area which use to be the snow sports desk and turned it into a place where people could have a cup of coffee with a nice view.

Your Disney comparison was actually clever; although, total bullshit.

Disney is crowded, WF is not. Disney is fake, people have been coming to Lake Placid for winter recreation since the late 19th century. WF Mountain was officially opened on January 25, 1958. Let’s not forget about the 2 Olympics they where pretty real.

We do get tourist who come to the area for a winter vacation and some of them come over to WF to try out a day or 2 of skiing. We don’t ridicule them as gapers we welcome them. Why wouldn’t families like to come the a place like WF/LP where there’s a lot to do? Why wouldn’t any ski area encourage new people to the sport?

The tourist influx is mainly during Xmas and Pres. Weeks. Even then 3,500 to 4,000 people are a huge crowd for WF. On must Saturdays in the winter there are under 2,000 skiers and riders.

If your definition of soulful is a mountain that for whatever reason hasn’t made improvements over the years and tried to make a better skiing/riding experience for it’s customers then I guess WF is out. If that’s your definition you might as well through little West Mountain in there as soulful. There terrain is mostly unchallenging, but hell so is Gores.

 

[goldsbar]

I'd vote for neither Hunter nor Whiteface.

The most soul award for NY goes to Plattekill.

By far!

 

[C2H5OH]

and in VT my vote goes to Ascutney.

 

[AHM]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

HPD wrote: If your definition of soulful is a mountain that for whatever reason hasn’t made improvements over the years and tried to make a better skiing/riding experience for it’s customers..............

HPD: some areas just don't need to make changes (Whitewater) and for others, those changes wreck the place: Fernie was ruined by the expansion. The terrain was skied long before the expansion. While for others, the improvements really add to the hill--Alta-Bird expansion has made for a huge, high quality hill.

For WF I am not so sure it meets Riv's definition in terms of the soul of the folks who built it. WF is such a giant, with LP, the Olympic venues etc, I think the "soul" might be lost. But, toss a dump on the slides, and the soul of Whiteface becomes evident. Run your boards on the Men's or Women's DH (as I had the luck to in the preolympic DH of 1980), and the place is drenched in soul.

So, soul can be different from skier to skier. Some like it grungy others like it slick (no pun to WF here). In the end, soul is what you make of it. For you it is WF, for me a its a bit more like Riv's definition...............

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

i personally like mountains with rustic lodges and trails that come back to a main base, classic New England trails (Bromley/Smuggs/MRG/Bush) all have a great feel and vibe....i like mountains that havent been commercialized (Killington/MS/Stratton etc) Maybe as a business owner I feel the draw to give my biz to the smaller guys, like the local hardware store rather than Homer....

 

[mattchuck2]

I guess it depends on how you define soulful.

Too many high-speed lifts? We have 2.

Too many gapers? There’s never too many of any type skier at WF cause it’s never crowded relative to other mountains.

Too much ice? Way to take the standard cheap shot. Is it too icy compared to Gore where you ski? On SKIADK the Gore regulars are always bitchin about how they don’t make enough snow. On the WF side they’re always praising the snow tribe and all the snow they lay down.

Coffee cafe? So what? They took a small area which use to be the snow sports desk and turned it into a place where people could have a cup of coffee with a nice view.

Your Disney comparison was actually clever; although, total bullshit.

Disney is crowded, WF is not. Disney is fake, people have been coming to Lake Placid for winter recreation since the late 19th century. WF Mountain was officially opened on January 25, 1958. Let’s not forget about the 2 Olympics they where pretty real.

We do get tourist who come to the area for a winter vacation and some of them come over to WF to try out a day or 2 of skiing. We don’t ridicule them as gapers we welcome them. Why wouldn’t families like to come the a place like WF/LP where there’s a lot to do? Why wouldn’t any ski area encourage new people to the sport?

The tourist influx is mainly during Xmas and Pres. Weeks. Even then 3,500 to 4,000 people are a huge crowd for WF. On must Saturdays in the winter there are under 2,000 skiers and riders.

If your definition of soulful is a mountain that for whatever reason hasn’t made improvements over the years and tried to make a better skiing/riding experience for it’s customers then I guess WF is out. If that’s your definition you might as well through little West Mountain in there as soulful. There terrain is mostly unchallenging, but hell so is Gores.

Here's another example of how threads on this forum go:

1. Someone starts a thread about which mountain in the east has the best (blank)
2. HPD declares that Whiteface has the best (blank)
3. Someone refutes the statement, usually by mentioning the (true) claim that Whiteface is too icy to have the best (blank)
4. HPD lays out a point by point retort to the post by making audacious claims like "it's never crowded relative to other mountains"
5. HPD makes sure at the end of his post to insert a side comment making fun of the home mountain of the person who dared question that Whiteface was the best (blank)

 

[SkiDog]

Here's another example of how threads on this forum go:

1. Someone starts a thread about which mountain in the east has the best (blank)
2. HPD declares that Whiteface has the best (blank)
3. Someone refutes the statement, usually by mentioning the (true) claim that Whiteface is too icy to have the best (blank)
4. HPD lays out a point by point retort to the post by making audacious claims like "it's never crowded relative to other mountains"
5. HPD makes sure at the end of his post to insert a side comment making fun of the home mountain of the person who dared question that Whiteface was the best (blank)

I just fell off my chair at work from laughing soo damned hard at this post.....really...THANKS for the laugh...it made my day...



M

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Here's another example of how threads on this forum go:

1. Someone starts a thread about which mountain in the east has the best (blank)
2. HPD declares that Whiteface has the best (blank)
3. Someone refutes the statement, usually by mentioning the (true) claim that Whiteface is too icy to have the best (blank)
4. HPD lays out a point by point retort to the post by making audacious claims like "it's never crowded relative to other mountains"
5. HPD makes sure at the end of his post to insert a side comment making fun of the home mountain of the person who dared question that Whiteface was the best (blank)

Here's an example of how MC2 works: He lays out some strong opinions (which I like cause he never boring), but then he gets bent when I take a shot back. What's up with that, are you above reproach?

As far as #5 goes what I said about Gore was mild to what you said about WF.

Other guys, DMC and Jimmy G. come to mind, defend their turf all the time, why can't I?

I'm thinkin you set me up for this with your first post am I right? ;-)

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

I just fell off my chair at work from laughing soo damned hard at this post.....really...THANKS for the laugh...it made my day...



M

Dang, I quess SkiDog doesn't like me. That makes me sad. :sad:

 

[SkiDog]

Dang, I quess SkiDog doesn't like me. That makes me sad. :sad:

No way dude....I meant no offense towards you at all really...I just thought the analysis was funny.......I honestly thought it was all in good "fun".... ;-)

No offense meant AT ALL....no from me anyway...

M

 

[wintersyndrome]

East: 'bush

Colo: Nothin beats A-Basin on the Fourth of July

 

[SkiDog]

East: 'bush

Colo: Nothin beats A-Basin on the Fourth of July

A-Basins got the most soul in CO...IMHO...

M