Ski Magazine Resort Ratings

[highpeaksdrifter]

Have these ratings ever influenced anyone when planning a ski trip? If so where did you go and is it what you expected based on the ski magazine rating?

 

[Talisman]

I have to say yes. Twenty years ago I saw the ratings for the UT resorts in LCC, BCC and PC all had easy airport access and decided to try skiing in UT partly based on the snow, terrain and access ratings. I was happy I did that.

 

[campgottagopee]

For me no. I'd much rather go to an area and decide for myself. I'll use a very simple example (only because I'm a simple person), I've seen a lot of movies where the critics have rated only 1-2 stars, and have enoyed them a lot. Same with various ski areas that I've visited. Maybe it boils down to "one mans junk is another mans treasure"????

 

[marcski]

I have to say yes. Twenty years ago I saw the ratings for the UT resorts in LCC, BCC and PC all had easy airport access and decided to try skiing in UT partly based on the snow, terrain and access ratings. I was happy I did that.

Yeah but the Mag's readership has surely changed, Alta was only 25th in this years top 50. Crazy wrong.

 

[AdironRider]

Jackson was dropped all the way to the mid teens just cause the tram isnt there....

 

[riverc0il]

Yes, I have to ski all the top rated resorts in the East. Ski Magazine and its readers get much respect from this skier. These mountains are definitely the best places to ski, be seen, apres ski, and shop at. I need slope side and I know the ratings take available lodging options into account. Couldn't live without my hot tub either, you know. The higher priced resorts tend to be rated very highly which is nice because I know top dollar buys quality. In the end, it is really all about relying on a reputable source to inform me where I should ski so I don't have to do any research or think for myself and figure out what best matches my needs. What I look for most out of the top rated resorts? Snow making and grooming baby, because dependable snow and corduroy are essential to my vacation and trip planning. See you on the high speed lifts at the highest rated resorts this winter!

:beer:

 

[snoseek]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Dude, you forgot to mention the shopping at stratton rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


O.K. so i'll admit i'm kind of altered this evening.

 

[bvibert]

Yes, I have to ski all the top rated resorts in the East. Ski Magazine and its readers get much respect from this skier. These mountains are definitely the best places to ski, be seen, apres ski, and shop at. I need slope side and I know the ratings take available lodging options into account. Couldn't live without my hot tub either, you know. The higher priced resorts tend to be rated very highly which is nice because I know top dollar buys quality. In the end, it is really all about relying on a reputable source to inform me where I should ski so I don't have to do any research or think for myself and figure out what best matches my needs. What I look for most out of the top rated resorts? Snow making and grooming baby, because dependable snow and corduroy are essential to my vacation and trip planning. See you on the high speed lifts at the highest rated resorts this winter!

:beer:

:lol: Took the words right out of my mouth, or fingers as, I guess, the case may be on an internet forum.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Yes, I have to ski all the top rated resorts in the East. Ski Magazine and its readers get much respect from this skier. These mountains are definitely the best places to ski, be seen, apres ski, and shop at. I need slope side and I know the ratings take available lodging options into account. Couldn't live without my hot tub either, you know. The higher priced resorts tend to be rated very highly which is nice because I know top dollar buys quality. In the end, it is really all about relying on a reputable source to inform me where I should ski so I don't have to do any research or think for myself and figure out what best matches my needs. What I look for most out of the top rated resorts? Snow making and grooming baby, because dependable snow and corduroy are essential to my vacation and trip planning. See you on the high speed lifts at the highest rated resorts this winter!

:beer:

Screw Jackson Hole...it was rated outside the top 10...I'm going to Deer Valet..

 

[Geoff]

Screw Jackson Hole...it was rated outside the top 10...I'm going to Deer Valet..

Deer Vally has really good skiing. It's loaded with the Bogner-clad affluent who only ski the groomers. That means the ungroomed terrain and the woods are totally ignored. Even better, they hand you an experts-only trail map that shows where all the tree skiing lives. At Snowbird, you're exchanging elbow shots with the Powder Nazis (I'm not making this up. It's happened to me a number of times on traverses when they drop a rope.) Alta has been ruined by far too much uphill capacity and it's no longer special. I kind of like eating gourmet food in the Deer Valley cafeteria and booting up in slate and natural stone splendor after a valet helped my pull my skis and boot bag out of the car. Mom used to have a season locker in the Snow Park lodge for a bunch of years. Carpeted. Oak butcher block benches. Nice wooden lockers with Air-Dry hoses so your boots and gloves are dry the next morning. Classical music coming from the sound system. A nice spot to sip your triple skim milk latte.

 

[snoseek]

Deer Vally has really good skiing. It's loaded with the Bogner-clad affluent who only ski the groomers. That means the ungroomed terrain and the woods are totally ignored. Even better, they hand you an experts-only trail map that shows where all the tree skiing lives. At Snowbird, you're exchanging elbow shots with the Powder Nazis (I'm not making this up. It's happened to me a number of times on traverses when they drop a rope.) Alta has been ruined by far too much uphill capacity and it's no longer special. I kind of like eating gourmet food in the Deer Valley cafeteria and booting up in slate and natural stone splendor after a valet helped my pull my skis and boot bag out of the car. Mom used to have a season locker in the Snow Park lodge for a bunch of years. Carpeted. Oak butcher block benches. Nice wooden lockers with Air-Dry hoses so your boots and gloves are dry the next morning. Classical music coming from the sound system. A nice spot to sip your triple skim milk latte.

As good as deer valley is on a powder day, i would always end up somewhere else because their storms totals are usually a fraction of other areas. I agree on alta not being special anymore, slow lifts were the key and Supreme is the only area to escape skier traffic. I like bcc along with the norther areas these days.

 

[St. Jerry]

Yes, last year Red Mountain Resort was ranked in the top 20 in Skiing magazine. I had never heard of it before and decided to do some inter-web searches on it. Turns out its one of those hidden gems and ended up skiing there a week last January. A bit of a pain in the @ss to get to, but a great mountain, expecially for tree skiing.

 

[KevinF]

Their resort rankings actually did influence my traveling decisions back in the mid-90s, before I had ever head of the "world wide web", let alone ski discussion forums.

I was living in Virginia at the time, and I would make trips (either with the local ski club or just with friends) to various areas in the north-east. Sure, I could get marketing materials from the areas themselves to see which were worth going to, or I could read the only relatively un-biased sources of info available -- Ski and Skiing magazines.

Now that I'm living here in New England, I head to the places that the resort rankings don't mention. :beer:

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I got the November issue today..I can't wait to read about Range Rover, Mountain Real Estate, and Happening ski town bars..woo hoo

 

[jimmer]

Yes, last year Red Mountain Resort was ranked in the top 20 in Skiing magazine. I had never heard of it before and decided to do some inter-web searches on it. Turns out its one of those hidden gems and ended up skiing there a week last January. A bit of a pain in the @ss to get to, but a great mountain, expecially for tree skiing.

agreed, red is a great place, when we were there, it hadnt snowed in a while so we had the place pretty much to ourselves, seems the locals only come out on powder days, like you say the tree skiing was awsome, never really skied any trails, only to get back too the lifts, great place.:beer:

 

[MadPadraic]

Yes, I have to ski all the top rated resorts in the East. Ski Magazine and its readers get much respect from this skier. These mountains are definitely the best places to ski, be seen, apres ski, and shop at. I need slope side and I know the ratings take available lodging options into account. Couldn't live without my hot tub either, you know. The higher priced resorts tend to be rated very highly which is nice because I know top dollar buys quality. In the end, it is really all about relying on a reputable source to inform me where I should ski so I don't have to do any research or think for myself and figure out what best matches my needs. What I look for most out of the top rated resorts? Snow making and grooming baby, because dependable snow and corduroy are essential to my vacation and trip planning. See you on the high speed lifts at the highest rated resorts this winter!

:beer:

I have to agree.:dunce: In fact, the three VT mountains I'm actively planning on visiting this year (Smuggs, Stowe, and Sugarbush) were the top three ranked VT hills. Not only that, but the hill I actually have a season pass to, Sugarloaf, is ranked number 6. My gosh, those Ski magazine readers really hate woods and steeps.
:beer:

 

[gladerider]

i plan my trips based on recommendations from my friends.

 

[Buckeye Skier 1330]

The ski rankings have been pretty helpful for our first few trips to the New England area. They give you somewhat of an idea of what to expect from each resort. This was all before we had access to the web. Some of the info wasn't lived up to by the resorts. Sunday River was always listed as top quality for snow. The year we went there it had warmed up and then gotten colder again. They could have really cranked out some manmade powder but they only made snow on 1 or 2 trails a night. That left us skiing a lot of granular at the resort with the "most reliable snow in the east". It described Sugarbush and Stowe pretty accurately, but you won't learn about a place like Burke if you just depend on the rankings.

 

[PA Ridge Racer]

I just read, in this year's resort guide, the article about the Adirondacks. Reading that has me even more pumped about heading up there. Although I never been to LP / WF - This article really helped me to visualize a place that I have been long overdue to visit. I think the article was called "A Ski in the Park". It was a great read.

 

[jaywbigred]

Deer Vally has really good skiing. It's loaded with the Bogner-clad affluent who only ski the groomers. That means the ungroomed terrain and the woods are totally ignored. Even better, they hand you an experts-only trail map that shows where all the tree skiing lives.

Agree. Bumps were surprisingly good in the middle of high-season in March. But mostly I noticed the lack of many aggressive skiers, which meant less sharing!

And the food is really really good. The beer sucks though.