Steepest by State

[millerm277]

The headwall is short, but the headwall of Rumor is far steeper than anything I skied at Hunter, which includes K27 and I think everything on Hunter West except the Westway/44. Lies is also steeper than anything at Hunter, I believe.

I may have to check it out...

But, as this thread is about overall steepness, Hunter is the best in NY in my opinion...just because, while it doesn't have anything that is really steep, everything is at least somewhat steep, not much in easy runs.

 

[kcyanks1]

I'd still debate that. I have enjoyed all 3 of my days at Hunter, 2 this year. While it has been 15 years since I skied Bellearye and I've never skied Windham or Plattekill, I do expect Hunter is the best in the Catskill region/within day-trip distance of NYC. But I'd think that the Hullabaloo and Lower Steiling are also be in line with Hunter's trails, and Hawkeye probably isn't any easier than Hunter's single diamonds.

Whiteface also compares well to Hunter, IMO.

 

[jerryg]

Interesting how the old marketing ploys of Sunday River and the rest of the former ASC resorts have been forgotten. I was discussing this with a friend last weekend at Sugarbush.

When I was a Kid I thought whiteheat and Mount Snow's north face were the most terrifying places in the world.

Now I would suggest:

NH Cannon
ME Sugarloaf
VT Stowe

Ha ha! While White Heat is not a very steep trail in it's totality, the marketing that Otten came up with (More than 15 years before ASC) was genius. He knew it wasn't the steepest, longest, and widest lift served trail in east, but he knew he could avoid such a misstatement by proclaim the "Steepest longest widest, lift-served trail in the east" and everyone ate it up.

As for Mt. Snow's north face, you were only fooling yourself there.

Steepest mountain in the east, overall - Sugarloaf!

 

[tjf67]

I think in overall steepness, Hunter wins for NY. The entire west side is made up of solid double blacks, and a couple blacks. The main mountain is diamond only except for belt parkway, down to midstation, and from there it is still pretty steep.

You need to stop drinking the Jersey water. Get up to the dacks and ski the face. Hunter does not compare
Gore has rumor which has a really steep pitch skiers left over the knob which is steeper than anything hunter has.

 

[millerm277]

You need to stop drinking the Jersey water. Get up to the dacks and ski the face. Hunter does not compare
Gore has rumor which has a really steep pitch skiers left over the knob which is steeper than anything hunter has.

As I said before...since the thread is about overall steepness, in my opinion Hunter wins, because almost everything is somewhat difficult. Gore, from what I can tell from their map, may have some serious steeps, but they also have a lot of beginner and intermediate trails as well, so overall, they aren't as steep as Hunter.

 

[kcyanks1]

As I said before...since the thread is about overall steepness, in my opinion Hunter wins, because almost everything is somewhat difficult. Gore, from what I can tell from their map, may have some serious steeps, but they also have a lot of beginner and intermediate trails as well, so overall, they aren't as steep as Hunter.

You are entitled to your opinion. From your posts, though, it appears that you haven't skied Gore or Whiteface. I agree that the trails at Hunter are longer than Gore, and might have sustained pitches for longer than Gore. But Gore has a number of trails that are as steep and some trails steeper than what is at Hunter. IMO, Gore beats Hunter. I understand the case you are making for Hunter, but if you haven't skied Gore, you might want to be slightly less convinced of the case

Also, I believe you are discounting Whiteface as well, especially when you consider the argument you are making for Hunter. Rumor and likely Lies have Whiteface beat for headwall steepness, but if you want to talk about %-expert and sustained pitches, Whiteface has Gore beat, as the majority of the mountain off of the main lifts (Cloudspitter Gondola, Little Whiteface chair, Summit Chair, and Mountain Run chair) are expert. So Whiteface has a similarity to Hunter in that respect, except Whiteface offers much more vertical, so the trails are steeper for longer. Upper Cloudspin and Skyward might be steeper than many of the double blacks at Hunter or at least as steep.

So based on my experiences at all three (Hunter, Gore, Whiteface), I'd put Hunter 3rd. I'd probably stick Whiteface first basically because of your logic, while noting that the Gore has the trails with the steepest headwalls (Slides aside, though Rumor I think might be steeper than Slide 1 at least, but far, far shorter).

 

[Newpylong]

NY is a tough call... Gore has the steepest individual trails. Nothing at Whiteface or Hunter compares to Rumor or Lies, but the remainder of the mountain is fairly tame away from the Straightbrook area. Not sure about Whiteface, I didn't see anything at all there with a serious pitch outside of the Slides... Hunter might take the cake overall, it's basically a rock with some trails on it... although nothing is overly steep, the whole place has solid pitch.

 

[kcyanks1]

NY is a tough call... Gore has the steepest individual trails. Nothing at Whiteface or Hunter compares to Rumor or Lies, but the remainder of the mountain is fairly tame away from the Straightbrook area. Not sure about Whiteface, I didn't see anything at all there with a serious pitch outside of the Slides... Hunter might take the cake overall, it's basically a rock with some trails on it... although nothing is overly steep, the whole place has solid pitch.

Gore has some steep stuff off the High Peaks chair that probably compares favorably to anything at Hunter (Hullaballoo and Lower Steilhang), but the steep sections are even shorter than what is off the Straightbrook chair. Aside from not getting the snow that VT gets, my big gripe with Gore is that the trails, especially the good parts of the trails, are so short. The Straightbrook area, IIRC, is only in the mid-700s vertical, and I think the high peaks chair is similar or less (the good parts of the trails are certainly less). The runs are just too short.

As for Whiteface, while I agree that the trails aside from the Slides aren't "serious[ly]" steep, I don't think anything at Hunter really is either. Hunter has a disproportionate amount of > intermediate level trails, but so does Whiteface. I think in that respect they are very similar, and when you consider Whiteface's vertical, it should win.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Too bad this site does not have all the resorts. http://3dskimaps.com/ The terrain is color coded by steepness.

Unless you guys want to spend hours looking over a topo of each resort your arguing about no one can really say which mountain is overall the steepest. Keep pissing away if you want tho . :wink:

 

[kcyanks1]

Too bad this site does not have all the resorts. http://3dskimaps.com/ Unless you guys want to spend hours looking over a topo of each resort your arguing about no one can really say which mountain is overall the steepest. Keep pissing away if you want tho . :wink:

That site would help but it wouldn't even solve it.. I think everyone has agreed and/or conceded that Gore may have trails with the steepest sections, but we are looking unfortunately (or fortunately, since it's easier to argue since no one is right ) at something more abstract. Maybe we can come up with a formula like average pitch of all the trails, though I wouldn't want to be the one to compute it

 

[Newpylong]

Too bad this site does not have all the resorts. http://3dskimaps.com/ The terrain is color coded by steepness.

Unless you guys want to spend hours looking over a topo of each resort your arguing about no one can really say which mountain is overall the steepest. Keep pissing away if you want tho . :wink:

Lol good point. "No this is steeper," "NO THIS IS WAY STEEPER", "no way".