I came in this thread to mention Big Emma - I don't know of any other green trails with an airable headwall! (memory is 10 years old on that one, I may be talking about a section that intersects Barry Barry Steep and technically not part of Big Emma). Snowbird in general did not seem inflated in marked difficulty - I once looked over Great Scott and thought it would be a good place to put an elevator shaft..
Of the places I go normally:
I thought Bretton Woods was in general very very overrated in difficulty all over the mountain, although not to say the place is worthless or anything - its actually a very nice relaxing place to ski lower angle trees (except the lift structure is nonsensical). Attitash seems overrated because they groom almost everything (although their groomers are pretty darn steep sometimes, like Upper/Middle Ptarmigan).
Cannon's trail ratings seem pretty fair, with maybe an occasional lapse, like for Middle Cannon Bypass and Paulie's Extension being black when imo they seem kinda blue.. Although with Cannon, difficulty is very conditions-dependent (stay off that shiny blue stuff)!
Mad River Glen is the hilarious one - as far as I've experienced, anything there marked blue would be marked black at most other places I've been, and anything marked black would either be double black, roped all season, or unmarked. Not that I've been all over that mountain (I think I've taken maybe 15 runs there total, and 10 of them have been down various sections of Paradise). Ferret is a funny one - for a traverse, its actually pretty nuts! And very fun! It's black probably because it dumps into a black, but someone used to blues at most resorts would probably find themselves a little flustered getting through it. I feel like someone totally uninitiated might get into some trouble there, but probably be able to get themselves out with nothing but a funny story.
I just started going to Sugarbush this season, but IMO it looks pretty fairly marked. They're not too generous with the doubles, and Castlerock is pretty gnarly and warrants the black/d-black. The marked trees are just 'zones' which is cool, as I believe glades are kind of in their own category of difficulty and best measured by surrounding trails and tree density..
I think that a lot of times trails get marked up for being narrow. That makes me sort of sad, because the challenge in a narrow trail IMO is a bit in your head, as you don't tend to take up a whole football field regardless of your ability. I guess at most places a narrow trail gets ruined pretty quickly also, from quads dumping 4 people every 3 seconds onto the hill.
Of the places I go normally:
I thought Bretton Woods was in general very very overrated in difficulty all over the mountain, although not to say the place is worthless or anything - its actually a very nice relaxing place to ski lower angle trees (except the lift structure is nonsensical). Attitash seems overrated because they groom almost everything (although their groomers are pretty darn steep sometimes, like Upper/Middle Ptarmigan).
Cannon's trail ratings seem pretty fair, with maybe an occasional lapse, like for Middle Cannon Bypass and Paulie's Extension being black when imo they seem kinda blue.. Although with Cannon, difficulty is very conditions-dependent (stay off that shiny blue stuff)!
Mad River Glen is the hilarious one - as far as I've experienced, anything there marked blue would be marked black at most other places I've been, and anything marked black would either be double black, roped all season, or unmarked. Not that I've been all over that mountain (I think I've taken maybe 15 runs there total, and 10 of them have been down various sections of Paradise). Ferret is a funny one - for a traverse, its actually pretty nuts! And very fun! It's black probably because it dumps into a black, but someone used to blues at most resorts would probably find themselves a little flustered getting through it. I feel like someone totally uninitiated might get into some trouble there, but probably be able to get themselves out with nothing but a funny story.
I just started going to Sugarbush this season, but IMO it looks pretty fairly marked. They're not too generous with the doubles, and Castlerock is pretty gnarly and warrants the black/d-black. The marked trees are just 'zones' which is cool, as I believe glades are kind of in their own category of difficulty and best measured by surrounding trails and tree density..
I think that a lot of times trails get marked up for being narrow. That makes me sort of sad, because the challenge in a narrow trail IMO is a bit in your head, as you don't tend to take up a whole football field regardless of your ability. I guess at most places a narrow trail gets ruined pretty quickly also, from quads dumping 4 people every 3 seconds onto the hill.
