When the lights come on ..Who is the Best

[Greg]

I wish you had been there when there was more snow - that trail is awesome after a few feet of natural! Maybe if Al Gore uninvents global warming, we'll get more snow again!

Bah. As long as the trail is mostly white, I'm cool. That's another great thing about the Beast; the willingness to open the natural trails where most other places would never consider it. Take Liftline at Jiminy for example. Almost never open, but often times skiable. In contrast, take our small AZ outing this year at the Beast. A patroller noticed us scoping Grizzly while he was farting around with a "Closed" sign. He finally called over, "You can ski it if you want, but it's ugly." He skied around via UMASS and waited for us at the bottom. After hitting it, I skied over to him and said, "Your definition of 'ugly' is far different than mine." Mostly powder right along the trees. Cool that he let us hit it and made sure we all made it down. I'm all about thin cover...

 

[Newpylong]

Bah. As long as the trail is mostly white, I'm cool. That's another great thing about the Beast; the willingness to open the natural trails where most other places would never consider it. Take Liftline at Jiminy for example. Almost never open, but often times skiable. In contrast, take our small AZ outing this year at the Beast. A patroller noticed us scoping Grizzly while he was farting around with a "Closed" sign. He finally called over, "You can ski it if you want, but it's ugly." He skied around via UMASS and waited for us at the bottom. After hitting it, I skied over to him and said, "Your definition of 'ugly' is far different than mine." Mostly powder right along the trees. Cool that he let us hit it and made sure we all made it down. I'm all about thin cover...

Haha totally. Liftline in late March was rockin' at Jiminy, but closed. No one cared though and skied it anyway... they def. are way too conservative when it comes to opening up runs. Of course, they wouldn't want one of their model Tony's getting hurt by some corn snow. They've turned wuss when it comes to moguls too, but we all know that.

 

[Greg]

They've turned wuss when it comes to moguls too, but we all know that.

My biggest gripe as well.

 

[mattchuck2]

I find Jiminy to be boring and stupid . . . Every run is groomed to death. West is the same way, but at least there feels like there's a little character to the place. Wachusset is decidedly lacking in soul as well . . .

Every night skiing resort (that I'm familiar with) caters to high school/junior high school groups that come up on weeknights. They give them an hour lesson, then set them free on the mountain. Trails are groomed because they believe that will lessen the chance of injury, when in reality, the opposite is true. Groomed trails encourage reckless, irresponsible speed. Also, there is not as much skill needed to ski groomed trails as there is bumps or powder.

I wish there was a MRG type area for night skiing (although I guess it would be kind of hard to light the trees).

 

[madskier6]

I say Mont Ste. Anne rocks anything else in the east for night skiing. It's usually quiet (mostly an illusion due to the vastness of it's offerings) and you can ski a different freshly groomed run every run. They have so many trails lit you also need not ski the same run twice in a typical evening. In addition to Mont Ste. Anne, 45 mins away is Stoneham, which, in the absence of Mont. Ste Anne, would be a contender for the night skiing champion of the east. You can ski it on the same multi-day ticket that you ski Mont Ste. Anne. 8)

You are probably right. I've heard great things about Mont Ste Anne. My neighbor, who loves night skiing, raves about it & does an annual trip there. I'm dying to try it some day.

The problem with Ste. Anne for most people is its distance from most population centers in the Northeastern U.S. I would definitely have hit it by now if it wasn't an 8 hour plus drive for me from the Springfield area. That is just too long of a drive for me to take my wife and children on a trip. They sometimes bitch when we drive 3 plus hours to the Northern Green Mts. Therefore, while it may be a great mountain, not a lot of people in the U.S. get to go there regularly because of the driving distance.

Now, if there was an outing with just a bunch of hard core skiers, I'd gladly suck up the 8 hour plus drive & head for Ste Anne. I've heard the snow is great & the views of the St. Lawrence River are breathtaking, I'm told.

 

[snowman]

Yup, I hear ya on the drive. The thread was "who's the best in the east when the lights come on" though, and well, they're the best. "Who's the easiest to get to when the lights come on" would be an entirely different story. The views are indeed awesome at Mont Ste. Anne (even at night) and it's neighbor up the road Le Massif. I did not mention Le Massif as we were talking night skiing, and they do not have night skiing. Quebec City is a stellar area to stay in for 5 star hotels at reasonable rates and 100's of restaurants and clubs to choose from. Based there, you can ski 3 world class mountains within a 45 min drive. I think lift tix were cheap too, about $52 CAD for a full day last year which is about $49 USD. Night skiing was only 20 something CAD. As to the out of the way location, they don't really depend on anyone coming from more than an hour away, they have a massive local skier base in the Quebec city region (skiing is much more deeply entrenched in French Canadian culture). Tourists are just icing on the cake.