Vertical, pitch, terrain or snowfall?

[Moe Ghoul]

Being from vertically challenged Poconos, lotsa vertical. Less lift time. If they have that, they prolly have terrain, and if I'm on the hill there's gonna be snow. I can ski in crud with lotsa vertical. Some terrain needs decent conditions for me to consider skiing it.

 

[eatskisleep]

To me, most good terrain is steep, but most steeps wouldn't qualify as good terrain. So I say terrain, if I can only pick one, then snowfall is a close second.

 

[mattchuck2]

Okay, here's my thinking on this:

Can't be snowfall, because if that were the case then we'd all be skiing in the Tug Hill Plateau area of New York (where lake effect snow can dump 150" in only a few days). Meatheads proved that Snow without terrain gets old pretty quick.

Can't be Interesting Terrain because you can have all the narrow new england style trails or open western bowls you want, but if the pitch is 20 degrees, then that's not going to help you out very much on a powder day.

Can't be vertical drop because of the following reason: Elevation change between St. Louis and Denver is 5,280' (approximately), corresponding to a 5,280' vertical drop. Nobody would want to ski that "mountain", though.

So, by default, the answer is Steep Pitch of trails.

Unless you are assuming that all of your "interesting" terrain has a steep pitch, in which case I call shenanigans on the question and pick Interesting Terrain.

 

[skimore]

Okay, here's my thinking on this:

Can't be snowfall, because if that were the case then we'd all be skiing in the Tug Hill Plateau area of New York (where lake effect snow can dump 150" in only a few days). Meatheads proved that Snow without terrain gets old pretty quick.

No terrain...have you skied Tug Hill. After a lake effect dump, boring it ain't. There is terrain to be had and I have some of my best days on the Plateau. I've had multiple days in row skiing waist deep snow with no competition. I'd rather lap some 300-400ft shots in 3ft of untracked all day than fight the masses where by 10am it's toast.

 

[powderman]

It can't be snowfall these days. Maybe if it were 1960, it would, but with snowmaking, a good portion of the terrain can be open even when there isn't natural snow. It can't be vertical either. I love high verticals, but it's really about the skiable experience itself, and how does a vertical influence the skiable experience? It also can't be steep terrain. Jiminy Peak has steep terrain, but nothing is interesting there which is why I don't like it there. Catamount on the other hand, has only one steep trail, but the overall terrain is more interesting than Jiminy's terrain which is why I like Catamount more than Jiminy. With that just said, interesting terrain is the winner.