Ski the East...or not?

[ghughes20]

I ski most every weekend in SoVT. I have a place there and my son is in a weekend program. I also try to get out west for 1 - 2 trips a year. One guys trip and maybe one family trip. This year I'm heading to Winter Park with my son, and Steamboat with the guys - all on the IKON pass.

I love skiing out west, but I love VT just as much. I wouldn't give up either. When I was a kid, skiing in VT was like the pinnacle for my family and I. I grew up in NJ (still live there now), and was usually skiing the Poconos or Vernon Valley / Great Gorge (yes, I'm old). Mt Snow was amazing compared to Big Boulder.

I still love the cold, icy, fast, occasional powder that you get in the east. Sure, the occasional rain sucks and it's no fun driving home when it's snowing on a Sunday night, but I will never give up on skiing in the east. As I get older, I'll just do it more mid-week, and avoid the crowds.

 

[Jully]

Time in the air vs in a car is near the same. Actual travel time is anything but. Traffic in and out of Logan along with security lines can be insane.

There's a huge pain in the ass factor with flying. That's the number one reason I haven't bothered to head out west in years.



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Give Logan's security another chance. Zand is right, lines are mega short these days. https://www.wcvb.com/article/securi...t-are-fastest-in-the-nation-tsa-says/25564586

Traffic is a different story though...

As a 20 something living in Boston directly (40 minutes on public transit to Logan) I've considered what Hawk's role model does. SLC flights are under a good bit under $250 round trip if you buy in advance and the ski bus is free with an ikon/cottonwoods season pass. If you really aggressively follow the guidelines for vehicle reimbursement at 50 cents per mile, it's $150 round trip to Wildcat/Sunday River.

Get TSA pre check and the amount of time you are stuck standing in line/traveling to the airport isn't bad at all. I'd rather spend 5 hours working/watching tv on a plane than 3 hours driving too.

Of course I don't actually do this because, while sound in theory, that many red eyes would probably kill me, and I like seeing my SO/friends. The fact that I absolutely love Wildcat and would really struggle to give it up helps with the jealously I get when Snowbird gets 80" of snow in 7 days.

 

[Jully]

I mitigate this as much as possible by intentionally selecting small airports if possible. The difference is dramatic. Cant do that with some locations (SLC for instance), but if you can, it's worth an extra $40 etc.... per ticket.

I love SLC and even places like Hayden compared to DIA for this reason. Midway>O'Hare in Chicago is another big one too.

I'm torn when you sacrifice direct v. transfers for smaller airports though. Connecting through Newark or JFK just for better parking or security is a tough pill to swallow.

 

[deadheadskier]

Contrast that against driving, when all of those hours you have to keep your eyes on the road. While flying, you can actually just sleep while on the plane!

I often fly back on a red eye. Go straight to the office. Fresh as a daisy.

Hate the flying experience with a passion.

I'd much rather spend my time driving any day of the week.

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[deadheadskier]

Give Logan's security another chance. Zand is right, lines are mega short these days. https://www.wcvb.com/article/securi...t-are-fastest-in-the-nation-tsa-says/25564586

Traffic is a different story though...

As a 20 something living in Boston directly (40 minutes on public transit to Logan) I've considered what Hawk's role model does. SLC flights are under a good bit under $250 round trip if you buy in advance and the ski bus is free with an ikon/cottonwoods season pass. If you really aggressively follow the guidelines for vehicle reimbursement at 50 cents per mile, it's $150 round trip to Wildcat/Sunday River.

Get TSA pre check and the amount of time you are stuck standing in line/traveling to the airport isn't bad at all. I'd rather spend 5 hours working/watching tv on a plane than 3 hours driving too.

Of course I don't actually do this because, while sound in theory, that many red eyes would probably kill me, and I like seeing my SO/friends. The fact that I absolutely love Wildcat and would really struggle to give it up helps with the jealously I get when Snowbird gets 80" of snow in 7 days.

I'm on the way home to Logan as I type from a business trip to Cancun. I could literally avoid Logan (all of Boston actually) for the rest of my life and be very pleased with that outcome.

If I must fly it is almost always Manchester, but the timing just didn't work out this trip.

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[Vaughn]

If I was stuck in a city this would be my play. Southwest flys to SLC from Boston. You can't get from Boston to VT for much less once you pay for gas and wear and tear on your car (Boston to Sugarbush round trip and the IRS rate would cover you for like 320 bucks). You fly enough and you get a buddy ticket for free.

This is a bizarre comp though - sure it takes 3.5 hours to get to SB from Boston but again you can get to all of the NH areas for a shorter drive as well as the southern VT areas.

 

[cdskier]

This is a bizarre comp though - sure it takes 3.5 hours to get to SB from Boston but again you can get to all of the NH areas for a shorter drive as well as the southern VT areas.

Plus the cost factor changes drastically when you start to consider the possibility of multiple people. The car/drive cost is the same whether there is 1 person in the car or 5. Flights on the other hand are per person.

Additionally...the IRS rate is rather ridiculous in my opinion (not that I complain when I have to drive to one of my other offices for work and get reimbursed for mileage).

Even if the costs were the same, I'd still rather drive 5 hours every weekend rather than take a flight every weekend.

 

[abc]

Hate the flying experience with a passion.

I'd much rather spend my time driving any day of the week.

While I don’t “hate” driving, I hate the time I wasted driving. HATE it with a passion! I felt I’m shortening my life by all those hours!

 

[WWF-VT]

Average drive time from my house just west of Boston to Sugarbush is 3:15

Family time in the car with my kids as they grew up - priceless.

 

[deadheadskier]

While I don’t “hate” driving, I hate the time I wasted driving. HATE it with a passion! I felt I’m shortening my life by all those hours!

Yeah, no drive to a ski area has ever annoyed me as bad as flying mishaps can.

This business trip case in point.

Friday, up at 4AM to make it to the airport in time for an early flight. Get to the airport, flight departure delayed. Delayed not because of weather but because FAA rules require a specific rest period for the crew that got in late the night prior. Delay in Boston caused missed connection in Atlanta. Sit around for an extra 90 minutes for the next flight. Puts us into Cancun as some weather hit. Have to circle the airport for 90 minutes. Get on the ground. 2 hour line to get through customs.

Fast forward to today. Plane leaves Cancun late for no specific reason. I get to Fort Lauderdale. Race as fast as I can through customs, then back through security and onto my connection. Missed connection due to no fault of my own. Stuck in Fort Lauderdale for the night with nothing but the clothes I'm wearing, my company paying $225 for a hotel room to use for literally 7 hours until I get back in a taxi at 4AM to take a flight home. (Hopefully)

Never had a drive to a ski area in New England screw me so badly as either my flying experience Friday or today.

I'll take the comforts of my vehicle with my own schedule, my own tunes, not sharing space with rude strangers, being able to stop whenever I want for something to eat or use a bathroom larger than a phone booth every single time over air travel.

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[abc]

no drive to a ski area has ever annoyed me as bad as flying mishaps can.

I’ve had my share of flight delays. Fly enough, that’s bound to happen. Just statistic. But it doesn’t bother me.

For one thing, I can work anywhere.

So, stuck at airport? Pull out my laptop, or even just the iPad. I’m in business! Not quite as efficient as in the office with 3 monitors, but I can work on stuff that don’t need a nig screen.

Have to get a hotel room? No biggie. Sure, it may bring additional expense which I don’t like. But the time was either for sleeping or swimming or gym, whatever I would have been doing that time of day anyway. No time wasted.

The only thing I can help is when the plane circled for hours, whocj happened in a recent flight. Yeah, I was borderline stir crazy. But it never happened for that long, not that I could remember.

Contrast that with getting stuck on roads on a friday rush hour trying to get to a ski resort in a snow storm turning a 5 hr drive into a 10 hr drive? No thanks. I’ll gladly take a leak in a phone booth on a plane!

 

[deadheadskier]

I don't live where there really is much of a rush hour and I also don't live 5 hours from where I prefer to ski. I live 2 hours away. In the worst conditions it's never taken longer than 3.5 hours.

I work remotely too, so yes I can and do work when delayed with air travel.

I also have a 3 year old just starting to ski and a two month old. That ups the ante tenfold on air travel headaches. Nevermind the cost.

End of the day, I don't really care what others prefer nor should they care what I prefer.





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[abc]

It’s amazing how different our preference are! Even in such narrowly defined sphere as downhill skiing!

Isn’t this world a fascinating place?

 

[Piste_inyoFace]

My 2 cents— 3 days at vail is 460$. Killington midweek pass 489$ plus tax. ��

When I priced out a trip earlier this season it would of cost me almost 2k for 5 day trip to ski 3 days. I can’t do that. Maybe one day I’d love to but for now I’ll take my killington season pass & day trips in the Catskills over that.

 

[crazy]

My 2 cents— 3 days at vail is 460$. Killington midweek pass 489$ plus tax. ��

When I priced out a trip earlier this season it would of cost me almost 2k for 5 day trip to ski 3 days. I can’t do that. Maybe one day I’d love to but for now I’ll take my killington season pass & day trips in the Catskills over that.

It obviously depends on location, but you could do unlimited skiing at Stowe (with blackouts), Okemo (no blackouts), up to 10 days at Vail, for under $700 by buying a pass.

 

[Jully]

I'm on the way home to Logan as I type from a business trip to Cancun. I could literally avoid Logan (all of Boston actually) for the rest of my life and be very pleased with that outcome.

If I must fly it is almost always Manchester, but the timing just didn't work out this trip.

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If it was more or equivalently convenient for me to fly out of Manchester or Portland I'd do it every time as well.

I don't live where there really is much of a rush hour and I also don't live 5 hours from where I prefer to ski. I live 2 hours away. In the worst conditions it's never taken longer than 3.5 hours.

I work remotely too, so yes I can and do work when delayed with air travel.

I also have a 3 year old just starting to ski and a two month old. That ups the ante tenfold on air travel headaches. Nevermind the cost.

End of the day, I don't really care what others prefer nor should they care what I prefer.





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Can't argue with anything you've said here. Family and to a lesser extent simply non-skiing friends really make super frequent trips out west less appealing to me. There's something nice about being able to audible a free Sunday or not skiing at all for a weekend to make time for something urgent. While possible with flying too, it usually costs you a bunch.

Flight delays and traffic delays both infuriate me, but I completely agree that the average traffic delay is much less severe than the average flight delay. This is from the perspective of something driving from Boston to Maine and NH primarily.

 

[Jully]

Plus the cost factor changes drastically when you start to consider the possibility of multiple people. The car/drive cost is the same whether there is 1 person in the car or 5. Flights on the other hand are per person.

Additionally...the IRS rate is rather ridiculous in my opinion (not that I complain when I have to drive to one of my other offices for work and get reimbursed for mileage).

Even if the costs were the same, I'd still rather drive 5 hours every weekend rather than take a flight every weekend.

Your point about costs/person is a good one. I'm always thinking in terms of one person in the car personally, but definitely not the case or even the norm for most of us.

The IRS rate I agree is bananas (hence why I used the term "aggressively" when I brought it up haha).

When the drive extends beyond 3.5 hours, I get squeamish. No matter how awake I am to start the drive, I get real sleeping by hour 4. Absolutely to each their own though. The VT mountains would be in a lot worse shape financially if everyone was like me.

 

[ironhippy]

I'm more of a cyclist than skier so take this for what it's worth.

When the skiing is bad, the fat biking is normally really good. I'm lucky enough to live near (30 min max drive) 7 different fat bike areas, 5 of them are groomed with machines, the other 2 with snow shoes. That's not counting the thousands of miles of ski doo trails that I can reach from my back yard.

 

[mfi]

My greatest anxiety with flying is loss of luggage and skis..that can really mess up a trip. That being said it has only happened once on a trip to Tahoe...but I still hate the wait at the luggage pickup..praying that at least my skis made it. Flying to resorts in this country is not too bad, especially Utah where you can ski the same day. BC is another story. 18 hours from the time I left my house to the resort. Air Canada is a bit of a mess..but the trip was worth it. 5 hour drives aren't too bad if you stop at least once, and you have another driver. Stowe is a t least a straight shot up with very little VT crawling at 30mph. Having a truck with snow tires gives me no worries, except for the cars with no season tires crashing in front of me in a storm.

 

[VTKilarney]

Count me in the camp of people who believe that flying is a bigger burden than driving. You have to get to the airport ahead of time, wait for your plane, fly, wait for your skis, wait for your shuttle... etc...

You also can't be nimble when flying - at least if you book the tickets ahead of time. If SLC is having a bad year, too bad. You are locked in.

I have a lot of respect for people that make numerous trips out west each year, but it's not something that I would be interested in, especially since I live three hours (with no traffic) from an airport with a direct flight to SLC.