Ski Mag Resort Guide Predictions

[highpeaksdrifter]

Ski rags will start hitting your mailbox soon which means Top Resort Guide Lists and Gear Guides ( my favorite issue). I know a lot of skiers put little or no credibility in these lists, it’s all about who pays most for ads, posers vote, etc. With all their flaws I still enjoy reading them. Below is last seasons Ski Magazine Top 10 - Eastern Resorts. How about making a list of your prediction for this year from SKI and your personal list for what you think it should be as far as your personal taste. Not everyone has skied everywhere so listing by reputation is ok. I know it's time consuming, but some folks might like to do it.

2005/2006 - The top 10 resorts in the East according to SKI Magazine’s readers are:
1. Tremblant, Que.
2. Smugglers Notch, Vt.
3. Killington, Vt.
4. Sugarloaf, Maine
5. Holiday Valley, N.Y.
6. Whiteface Mountain, N.Y.
7. Stowe, Vt.
8. Okemo, Vt.
9. Sugarbush, Vt.
10. Stratton, Vt.

2006 – 2007 Prediction for SKI’s list:

1. Smuggler’s Notch
2. Stowe
3. Whiteface
4. Tremblant
5. Killington
6. Sugarbush
7. Sugarloaf
8. Okemo
9. Sunday River
10. Holiday Valley

HPD’s Eastern List

1. Whiteface
2. Stowe
3. Sugarbush
4. Jay
5. MRG
6. Smuggler’s Notch
7. Sugarloaf
8. Gore
9. Tremblant
10. Hunter

 

[AHM]

Pay no attention to rags like Ski and skiing

HPD: virtually embarrassing that you read such publications. I would think a "hard core" skier such as yourself would be a devout Coulior, Powder, Skier reader and would simply not comment about such pedestrian mags as those mentioned in your post. But since no one else has posted, I guess I list my eastern top ten: all about terrain and attitude (and in no particular order):

MRG, Jay, Stowe, Bolton Backcoutry, Lincoln back country, SB, Loaf, Cannon/mittersell (sp), Burke, Magic, Midd snow bowl. What many of these have is the sole of skiing. it is a concept discussed in the 2004 powder mag edition in which Mitchell Scott talks about " there is a place". When you read that article, he talks heavily about the sole of skiing. The area in the article, although not mentioned is Whitewater in Nelson. It is a small, 1300 vert place, but it is a huge hill, a sole of skiing kind of place. It'll never make the "public" mags, but as a ski area for hard core skiers ( and families) nothing is like WH20. I hope that you take the post pretty much tongue in cheek. Nonetheless, if you haven't skied WH2O, then its time to let your legs land in spokane and make the drive. Givin a lot of "all knowing tonight". Could be the brewskis, the vino, or the fact that I have just booked a private week at Sorcerer (www.sorcerer.com) and a week near Parc des Erin...............................so, interested in hitting Baffin, Narvik, or Bansko................AHM

 

[AHM]

make that www.sorcererlodge.com

 

[awf170]

HPD: virtually embarrassing that you read such publications. I would think a "hard core" skier such as yourself would be a devout Coulior, Powder, Skier reader and would simply not comment about such pedestrian mags as those mentioned in your post. But since no one else has posted, I guess I list my eastern top ten: all about terrain and attitude (and in no particular order):

MRG, Jay, Stowe, Bolton Backcoutry, Lincoln back country, SB, Loaf, Cannon/mittersell (sp), Burke, Magic, Midd snow bowl. What many of these have is the sole of skiing. it is a concept discussed in the 2004 powder mag edition in which Mitchell Scott talks about " there is a place". When you read that article, he talks heavily about the sole of skiing. The area in the article, although not mentioned is Whitewater in Nelson. It is a small, 1300 vert place, but it is a huge hill, a sole of skiing kind of place. It'll never make the "public" mags, but as a ski area for hard core skiers ( and families) nothing is like WH20. I hope that you take the post pretty much tongue in cheek. Nonetheless, if you haven't skied WH2O, then its time to let your legs land in spokane and make the drive. Givin a lot of "all knowing tonight". Could be the brewskis, the vino, or the fact that I have just booked a private week at Sorcerer (www.sorcerer.com) and a week near Parc des Erin...............................so, interested in hitting Baffin, Narvik, or Bansko................AHM

So Bolton and Lincoln back country are better than the presi's mr. all knowing AHM?

 

[deadheadskier]

2005/2006 - The top 10 resorts in the East according to SKI Magazine’s readers are:
1. Tremblant, Que.
2. Smugglers Notch, Vt.
3. Killington, Vt.
4. Sugarloaf, Maine
5. Holiday Valley, N.Y.
6. Whiteface Mountain, N.Y.
7. Stowe, Vt.
8. Okemo, Vt.
9. Sugarbush, Vt.
10. Stratton, Vt.

If that was last year

my prediction for this year

Tremblant
Smuggs
Whiteface
Stowe
Killington
Sugarloaf
Okemo
Sunday River
Stratton
Holiday Valley
Sugarbush

just a hunch

 

[riverc0il]

HPD: virtually embarrassing that you read such publications. I would think a "hard core" skier such as yourself would be a devout Coulior, Powder, Skier reader and would simply not comment about such pedestrian mags as those mentioned in your post.

right on AHM :beer: nice list brotha. i would most certainly add saddleback to that list as well, check it out if you haven't, it is right up your alley and in my new england top five for lift serviced. as a fellow couloir reader, i pretty much agree with your assessment. you won't see top ten lists in couloir. and to suggest voting based on reputation is exactly why these lists blow any ways, i would wager most SKI readers/voters haven't skied most of them so have no clue, let alone skied the places that are better than many on the annual top ten. this annual rag lists always makes me want to
uke:

So Bolton and Lincoln back country are better than the presi's mr. all knowing AHM?

i have a hunch that AHM may have only been referring to lift serviced? obviously that list is not complete if we start adding in non-lift service skiing. those areas will never appear in SKI magazine any ways. :lol:

important thing to remember about these lists is that they are not exclusively based on the things that matter to "skiers," but rather the whole picture based on "resort goers." food, vallet parking, lodging, apres, etc. all get taken into account... in many cases weighted more importantly than terrain. and many folks actually consider stratton and okemo to have better "terrain" than their northern neighbors. polls like this are all about taking an opinion of a very narrow minded readership. want to know who the readership is of SKI magazine? look at the ads. mostly (and this isn't across the board), SKI magazine readership are older, well to do folks that enjoy taking trips out west, and probably are not day trippers for those in the east. you can tell by their ads who their target audience is. likewise, if we took an AZ poll, the results would likely be slightly skewed results based on the demographics of AZ (greg, where are those stats? lol).

quite frankly, per my annual stance on this issue, SKI magazine can have its popularity contest and i think its great! my favorite areas i ski the most aren't on the list, and that means they get no free promotion and won't see an increase in traffic "just because" it was on some list. you know there are people out there that will ski certain areas just because they were "on the list." :roll:

 

[ctenidae]

I read gear porn. I'm not afraid to admit it.

 

[awf170]

i have a hunch that AHM may have only been referring to lift serviced? obviously that list is not complete if we start adding in non-lift service skiing. those areas will never appear in SKI magazine any ways. :lol:

Would you care to explain how Lincoln is lift served in anyway? Is there another Lincoln that I don't know about. I'm thinking about Lincoln in Fraconian notch with all the gullies with lots of vertical and stuff and possibly some gullies on the backside. With Bolton I assumed he was talking about the "real" Bolton mountain, the one to the north of the ski area.

 

[from_the_NEK]

Lincoln Peak at Sugarbush

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

HPD: virtually embarrassing that you read such publications.

I was afraid you'd disapprove. I hope this doesn't mean you are withdrawing your tour of SB's backcountry offer. I was gonna ask your boy Ghostrider to go too.

But since no one else has posted, I guess I list my eastern top ten:

Thanks

 

[awf170]

Lincoln Peak at Sugarbush

Ahh, yes. But then why wouldn't he just put that in with Sugarbush, or write sugarbush O.B? AHM, he is a tricky one...

 

[AHM]

HPD and Lincoln VT backcountry

By no means is the OB offer off the table. It's always on, just ask KM. You can bring him along or leave him home, your call. I think he enjoyed our last runs...........think he is dying to hook one of my non-eastern trips.

Whomever ask about the Lincoln BC. Although it is technically part of SB, the run leaves you far far from the area and unless you have planned the "cruise" home, it'll be a brutal walk. Since some are on to this, and this should be very obvious, the whole backside of the bush skis well. A word of caution here, it is easy to get lost here, very lost and it is a big amount of vertical (over 3000 ft). This means if you are gonna try this I would hike it for sure, understand both entrance and exit, as well as the terrain you will be covering. This will ensure the exit goes well and you get back to where ever you need to be. That goes for all outside the ski area skiing. Go hike it first, even though the tracks appear obvious, cus you never know what the guy before can get down.

As for Bolton, lots of interesting stuff away from the hill there.........................AHM

 

[AHM]

Austin...........

So Bolton and Lincoln back country are better than the presi's mr. all knowing AHM?

Presidentials are another whole ball of wax. The original post by HPD was about ski areas. I do not consider the Presidential backcountry to be a ski area. I will admit, I stretched it a bit, but the backcountry of LP and BV are significant in there adding some very prime terrain to each of these areas. Skipped the Washington etc for obvious reasons, such as SKI mag usually doesn't list the resorts that don't have lifts. Think the Presidentials absolutely rock, wish it wasn't 7 hours from my house. But doubt I will move closer, if I move closer to the hill.................that will be Nelson or Golden BC for the steep, deep, cheap, and incredible backcountry. Also, within reason (although not so for Rogers Pass--outside of Golden) bomber snow pack. For the adventurous ones out there, I'd check out Nelson and Golden BC. Pretty good vacation spots.AHM

 

[JimG.]

By no means is the OB offer off the table. It's always on, just ask KM. You can bring him along or leave him home, your call. I think he enjoyed our last runs...........think he is dying to hook one of my non-eastern trips.

Whomever ask about the Lincoln BC. Although it is technically part of SB, the run leaves you far far from the area and unless you have planned the "cruise" home, it'll be a brutal walk. Since some are on to this, and this should be very obvious, the whole backside of the bush skis well. A word of caution here, it is easy to get lost here, very lost and it is a big amount of vertical (over 3000 ft). This means if you are gonna try this I would hike it for sure, understand both entrance and exit, as well as the terrain you will be covering. This will ensure the exit goes well and you get back to where ever you need to be. That goes for all outside the ski area skiing. Go hike it first, even though the tracks appear obvious, cus you never know what the guy before can get down.....AHM

I've gotta do a PSIA re-up clinic this season and I always do the tree/steeps clinic at MRG.
If you're going to be around that area at that time (don't know for sure, usually late Feb/early March) I would truly enjoy a guided SB OB tour.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

I've gotta do a PSIA re-up clinic this season .

RU going to start teaching at Hunter again? What PSIA level are you?

 

[JimG.]

RU going to start teaching at Hunter again? What PSIA level are you?

No, I won't teach formally again until all my kids are older, but I want to keep my level III cert in the meantime and I really like the trees/steeps clinics anyway.

For the $125 or so I pay I get a 2 day MRG pass and a guide from MRG who shows us the goods far better than I would be able to do just by exploring around.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

I want to keep my level III cert in the meantime and I really like the trees/steeps clinics anyway.

Level III - I'm impressed, they don't just give those away.

 

[JimG.]

Level III - I'm impressed, they don't just give those away.

Ehhhh, no they don't. I had to fail a few times before they'd give it up.

 

[AHM]

Jim G

Late Fed early March is a tough time for me (that is a time I typically am skiing outside the east), however, if I am around I would gladly meet to ski and give you a "tour" I could always hook at MRG for the final run and we could ski back into SB North, pretty easy to do from MRG.Feel free to PM me once you know the schedule. I have not booked my Feb/March trips, just one in April so far.AHM

 

[awf170]

The original post by HPD was about ski areas. I do not consider the Presidential backcountry to be a ski area.

Yeah, I understand that now. Remember at first I thought you were talking about Lincoln in Franconia notch and Bolton Mt. not the ski area. Now I get that you were talking about lift assisted.