SKI Magazine Top 10 Lists East: Reader Resort Survey

[WWF-VT]

http://www.skinet.com/ski/node/101620/list

Let the debates begin. At least you can see all of the different criteria used though you may not care about them.

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

Explain to me how Killington was 2 they didn't even rank in the top 10 in half the lists....and they have non skiiing things to thank for even making it. And the stuff they did rank in are the non skiing activities. Sorry to pick on Killington, but just showing how this list is funky.

Is this last years list or something?

In the 18 catagories for example Sugarloaf made the lists more often and scored higher.

Oh well, just super bored at work, these lists mean nothing just good for some friendly banter.

 

[snowmonster]

Stowe is nowhere near the top? They seem to be in a lot of other categories but are nowhere on Overall Satisfaction. Same for Sunday River.

There are certain categories that a resort can do nothing about because it's really a question of geography/location, i.e., scenery and accesibility. What I find odd is how a resort can be in the top 10 one year and nowhere the next. For example, two years ago Wachusset was in the top 10 for accesibility then, this year, nowhere. Did they move the mountain away from Route 2? These surveys are fun to read but should be regarded as entertainment rather than fact.

 

[WWF-VT]

Last year Sugarbush was # 3 in the East, this year #13. From the "review":

Two big mountains, 300 or so annual inches of snow, terrain to match any ability, heart-of-Vermont scenery and a skiing heritage that stacks up against almost anything on the continent. So why is the Bush ranked No. 13? Accessibility (No. 18 )and lack of nightlife (No. 16) are perceived as negatives. But despite its fancy new base facilities (hotel, restaurant and the East’s new best slopeside bar, the Castlerock Pub), Sugarbush remains a classic Vermont “skier’s mountain”: No. 4 for Terrain, No. 6 for Challenge, No. 6 for Overall Satisfaction. As one reader rightly puts it: “It’s a very cool place to be.”

I guess this years "voters" had trouble driving to the Mad River Valley and figuring out what to do at night

 

[4aprice]

Hey Camelback made the list. Not sure I'm happy about the catagory but its there. I'd vote for it to be top ten in one other catagory too. Apres Ski. The main lounge at Camelback rocks with pretty good live music on Saturdays. Starting at 4:00 the place hops till 7:00, then people move on to Barley Creek Brewery on the access road or down into several places in Tannersville. In spring they open the outside grill and bar on the deck that were built for Camelbeach but useful to the ski operation also. I've been to a lot of places east and west and I feel CBK ranks high in that catagory.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

What's strange to me is WF has dropped down quite a bit the past 5 years or so on Ski's Top 10 list, yet WF has made major improvements over that time. I don't think any area rated ahead of them has added a terrain expansion (Lookout Mt.) like WF has.

 

[Geoff]

The "Snow" list is nonsense. The top resorts should all be in the Vermont 250"+ snow belt. Jay, Stowe, Smuggs, Mad River, Sugarbush, KMart. KMart goes last because it gets too much traffic and is the farthest south so most prone to get thaws. Those should be followed by Sugarloaf & Wildcat. Then Okemo and Stratton. You might slide Bolton or Burke in there somewhere. How can a ski area like Sunday River possibly get on the list when it doesn't even see 150" of snow? Snowmaking and grooming is no substiute for natural snow.

I also don't get Cannon on the "Challenging Terrain" list. Sure, it's challenging relative to Loon but it should be more like somewhere in the bottom 3 on the list. MRG doesn't make the list at all and should be in the top 3. Sugarbush is ranked far too low. Compare Steins, Ripcord, or anything at Castlerock to Cannon.

For weather, I don't see how south-facing Bromley doesn't make the list. I'd think that resorts that sprawl and have lifts that are out of the wind would get the higher rankings. When a Sugarloaf is on wind hold, you can run a lot of lifts at a Sunday River or a Killington. Resorts that sprawl have southeastern-facing terrain that softens in March and April as well as north-facing terrain that holds snow.

 

[riverc0il]

I also don't get Cannon on the "Challenging Terrain" list. Sure, it's challenging relative to Loon but it should be more like somewhere in the bottom 3 on the list. MRG doesn't make the list at all and should be in the top 3. Sugarbush is ranked far too low. Compare Steins, Ripcord, or anything at Castlerock to Cannon.

Are you serious? For challenging terrain only, I would take Cannon over Bush (but that is counting off map as well as on). Something at Cannon compared to Castlerock? Taft to Middle Hard, easily. That certainly is no Rumble but far better than Middle Earth or Castlerock Run and I would easily take Tramline compared to the Castlerock Liftline. Cannon does not quite have as much depth and shear quantity of expert terrain compared to Sugarbush, but I think it matches up very well with any trail at the Bush save for Rumble which is in a class by itself. You can debate the specifics but to dismiss Cannon out of hand as not deserving a spot on a list of challenging areas is pretty suspect.

Dudes... this is a "reader survey" for freaking SKI Magazine. Don't take it too seriously. How many subscribers to SKI Magazine do you think ever ski at a place like Mad River Glen. For snow, a good percentage, perhaps a majority, of SKI Magazine readers probably care more about snow making than natural snow. The ability to book a trip months in advanced and have good conditions is king and way more important than natural snow to this demographic. The poll is a reflection of the readership which can change year to year as some year to year swings in the poll show. I can understand making light of these silly polls on their terms but I can not understand taking them seriously on your terms.

For example, regardless of my opinion about Cannon's excellent terrain offerings, a lot of SKI Magazine's eastern base is Boston area based which is skewed more towards NH and ME due to location and accessibility. Cannon is only two hours away from Boston and is the most challenging area people can easily day trip to so a lot of Boston area skiers don't get to places like Stowe, Bush, MRG, Smuggs, etc. so Cannon would rank high comparatively... not because thems the facts but by default of demographic choices. A long time ago, I fell into that crowd and skied Cannon regularly but only got to Vermont once or twice a year at best.

These reader survey's say less about the mountains than they do about the magazine's readership so it is best to view the results of these surveys with that in mind. And not take them seriously whatsoever.

 

[Geoff]

Are you serious? For challenging terrain only, I would take Cannon over Bush (but that is counting off map as well as on).

I find this pretty funny.

 

[deadheadskier]

Put me in the same camp as Rivercoil regarding Cannon and that comes from only skiing there once last season for the first time in 20 years while having skied Sugarbush at least a dozen times in the past ten.

Physically, the mountain is as steep and gnarly as any resort mountain in the east save for Mt. Mansfield. Only reason it isn't consistently talked about as one of the best mountains for experts in the East is because of lack of snowfall. I would suspect the reason it is ranked so high on the list this year is because above average natural snowfall for the past three seasons has enabled people to ski lines they haven't skied in years.

As this is a survey, there's no way to tell if people base their opinion on just on map stuff or include off map stuff as well. I agree it's a sham that MRG is not top 3. If I had to rank the east based on what I know for overall expert opportunities, it would be as follows (Gore & Whiteface absent only because I've never been)

1. Stowe
2. MRG
3. Smuggs
4. Cannon
5. Jay
6. Sugarbush
7. Sugarloaf
8. Magic
9. Killington
10. Saddleback

 

[riverc0il]

I find this pretty funny.

How so? How much have you skied Cannon? There are parts of that mountain that are more unrelenting than anything around save for some of the steep top to bottom shots at Stowe. It is also home to some of my favorite tree runs... trees that put MRG and Jay to shame. If Cannon got twice as much natural and was in the snow belt that NoVT is in, people would look at the mountain quite different, IMO.

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

The "Snow" list is nonsense. The top resorts should all be in the Vermont 250"+ snow belt. Jay, Stowe, Smuggs, Mad River, Sugarbush, KMart. KMart goes last because it gets too much traffic and is the farthest south so most prone to get thaws. Those should be followed by Sugarloaf & Wildcat. Then Okemo and Stratton. You might slide Bolton or Burke in there somewhere. How can a ski area like Sunday River possibly get on the list when it doesn't even see 150" of snow? Snowmaking and grooming is no substiute for natural snow.

I also don't get Cannon on the "Challenging Terrain" list. Sure, it's challenging relative to Loon but it should be more like somewhere in the bottom 3 on the list. MRG doesn't make the list at all and should be in the top 3. Sugarbush is ranked far too low. Compare Steins, Ripcord, or anything at Castlerock to Cannon.

For weather, I don't see how south-facing Bromley doesn't make the list. I'd think that resorts that sprawl and have lifts that are out of the wind would get the higher rankings. When a Sugarloaf is on wind hold, you can run a lot of lifts at a Sunday River or a Killington. Resorts that sprawl have southeastern-facing terrain that softens in March and April as well as north-facing terrain that holds snow.

Jeff I always enjoy your post and tend to go along with you, however I would strongly disagree with you in terms of your "snow" persepctive. I would argue Saddleback and Sugarloaf have better snow quality then alot of Vermont moutains, not quanity. What good does and inflated 280" of snow when it is immediately followed by rain or a thaw..something Sugarloaf and Saddleback see far less.

But as stated before, I could really care less about these things, but they are fun to debate and give me something to do on a Saturday morning while watching Sox Talk or at work and bored out of my mine.

 

[from_the_NEK]

SKI Mag is such a joke. THey don't even have Burke listed in their Vermont Resorts section! Even Ascutney is there. http://www.skinet.com/ski/resorts/east-coast/vermont?page=0%2C0

 

[skiadikt]

yeah i'm wondering if this isn't last year's list since k mentions in the k insider that they were # 6 in the SKI mag poll.

http://insider.killington.com/

The No. 2 Skiing Magazine ranking comes on the heels of a No. 6 ranking in the East by SKI Magazine and a top-ranking as Favorite Eastern Ski resort by the 3,500 readers of Snoweast magazine.

 

[bvibert]

I'm surprised that more people don't agree with the results, this is very unusual.

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

Put me in the same camp as Rivercoil regarding Cannon and that comes from only skiing there once last season for the first time in 20 years while having skied Sugarbush at least a dozen times in the past ten.

Physically, the mountain is as steep and gnarly as any resort mountain in the east save for Mt. Mansfield. Only reason it isn't consistently talked about as one of the best mountains for experts in the East is because of lack of snowfall. I would suspect the reason it is ranked so high on the list this year is because above average natural snowfall for the past three seasons has enabled people to ski lines they haven't skied in years.

As this is a survey, there's no way to tell if people base their opinion on just on map stuff or include off map stuff as well. I agree it's a sham that MRG is not top 3. If I had to rank the east based on what I know for overall expert opportunities, it would be as follows (Gore & Whiteface absent only because I've never been)

1. Stowe
2. MRG
3. Smuggs
4. Cannon
5. Jay
6. Sugarbush
7. Sugarloaf
8. Magic
9. Killington
10. Saddleback

Are you serious with Cannon at 4? I have skied there many many times and while it does have some tough terrain there is no way it is over Sugarloaf and the new and improved Saddleback, Sugarbush and perhaps Killington........also I would disagree with Smuggs as well.....Smuggs should not be in the top 5.

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

How so? How much have you skied Cannon? There are parts of that mountain that are more unrelenting than anything around save for some of the steep top to bottom shots at Stowe. It is also home to some of my favorite tree runs... trees that put MRG and Jay to shame. If Cannon got twice as much natural and was in the snow belt that NoVT is in, people would look at the mountain quite different, IMO.

And if the Queen had balls she would be King, your point?

 

[deadheadskier]

dead serious - counting off the map stuff. I said overall expert opportunities. On map stuff, my list would be different, but Smuggs would still be in the top 5.

Madonna Liftline could very well be the most gnarly on map trail in the east. You count the back bowls and stuff along the ridge between Madonna and Sterling.......far more challenging terrain than I've seen / skied at Sugarbush and Killington

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

dead serious - counting off the map stuff. I said overall expert opportunities. On map stuff, my list would be different, but Smuggs would still be in the top 5.

Madonna Liftline could very well be the most gnarly on map trail in the east. You count the back bowls and stuff along the ridge between Madonna and Sterling.......far more challenging terrain than I've seen / skied at Sugarbush and Killington

Are you serious, was in reference to Cannon not Smuggs, I just threw Smuggs in there as a sidenote.

 

[deadheadskier]

Are you serious, was in reference to Cannon not Smuggs, I just threw Smuggs in there as a sidenote.

yep I knew that. I suppose I could have defended my stance on Cannon more directly. My opinion is not based on what's on the map. That said, the tramline looks more gnarly than just about anything at Sugarbush, Sugarloaf or Killington.