Your FAVORITE ASC Resort

[Vortex]

Sunday River is still the best IMO. I still thinks its best overall. Well from what I have I skied.

 

[skibum1321]

I still haven't been to the Loaf but by default that would make it my favorite ASC mountain. I can't stand Attitash or Mount Snow and Kmart is only good for early and late (which ASC seems to be ending). I haven't been to Sunday River in years and have no desire to go back.

I hope ASC meets a fiery death.

 

[snowmonster]

I vote for Sugarloaf (though if you follow the original poll question "if you could be close to one ASC resort," that would mean I would have to live in the middle of nowhere in Carabasset Valley, ME). Love its sheer size, the snowfields, the challenging terrain and the fact that there's hardly anybody there. On the downside, the drive can get to you and it's not like it's easy to persuade friends to make a day trip of it.

I understand both sides of the argument pro and con ASC. But, for folks like me who are just starting out their careers (and so don't have money to burn) but feel the need to be on the snow, make turns and somehow get to be an expert all-mountain skier, you can't beat the bargain you get on an ASC pass. $365 gets you 6 mountains anytime except the big holidays (and anyway, you're probably not skiing the ASC mountains on those days because it's either too crowded or you've got some family reunion to go to which precludes skiing). Perhaps they can just let some trails (or mountains like Pico) bump up and remain "wild things" so that they can also appeal to the purists who want and un-ASC like experience.

 

[Zand]

I've been to two- Killington and Mount Snow. Mount Snow, I have no desire to EVER go back to. 'Nuff Said. I liked Killington. It's my 3rd favorite area only to the 2 MRV areas. However, the first time I skiied it was in '03, so I don't know how it was like in the good ol days.

 

[eatskisleep]

Never skied any of the westerners but I would have to say Attitash. Killington is always too busy for my liking, SR is too spread out. Sugarloaf is far away. Mount Snow is err... mount snow. Haven't been to pico yet.

 

[kingslug]

I always hit the Canyons when in Utah. When it's good, its very good. The houses they build there are unbelievable. The newest one is 33000 sq.ft. going for around 30 million. The funny thing is how they have to tunnel through the 10 to 15 foot snowpack to get to them.

 

[kcyanks1]

I've only skied two: Steamboat (pre-ASC days actually) & Killington. Between the two, it's obviously an easy choice--Steamboat. But I still enjoy Killington. Not my favorite by any means, but it's in my top-5 in the east. I think if I visited a few more mountains that might not remain the case, but for now it is.

 

[MikeTrainor]

I really tend to stay away from ASC mtns. If I to chose it would either be pico or sugarloaf.

 

[SkiDork]

The reason to ski Steamboat is to catch the tree skiing on a powder day. Shadows & Closet on a bottomless powder day are amazing.

And when I went there I didn't know how to ski pow. Now I do, so I guess if I went back I'd have a much more enjoyable time.. Oh well...

 

[skiadikt]

steamboat is clearly the best of the litter. while for a western resort it may not have the most challenging terrain, like geoff says on a pow day, shadows & closet have some of the best tree skiing anywhere (lift served). great snow, bumps and enough steeps. seemed pretty well run the few times we went.

in the least, i'm kind of stuck with k. the only eastern asc resort i haven't skied is the loaf and that seems like many folks fave. prolly because it's the most 'western-like' mtn in the east and doesn't get crowded. but for me the ride from nyc is too much.

 

[skiadikt]

And when I went there I didn't know how to ski pow. Now I do, so I guess if I went back I'd have a much more enjoyable time.. Oh well...

yeah the ships would be a blast in there.

 

[loafer89]

For anyone who has not done the drive to Sugarloaf from New York/Southern New England, it's really not that bad. I did it solo two weeks ago for just a three day trip with my son in tow. It is not a short drive to be sure, taking about 7 1/2 hours, but that is how long it takes me to get to Stowe, Jay or Northern New Hampshire resorts.

The hardest part of the drive IMO is the 90 miles from the Maine turnpike to Sugarloaf, mostly on single lane roads with 40mph speed limits.

Once you get there you have an enormous mountain to keep you buzy for several days at least. Now that we are moving close to the MA border, Sugarloaf will be about 4 1/2 to 5 hours away and I plan to ski there two or three weekends next season at least.

 

[kcyanks1]

And when I went there I didn't know how to ski pow. Now I do, so I guess if I went back I'd have a much more enjoyable time.. Oh well...

I didn't (and probably don't) know how to ski deep powder well either, though I presume I'm a little better now. On one of my first runs was hiking up to Chute 2 (at the top my ski fell off before I even started going down--no clue what happened--and rolled down the Chute, but that's an aside). After the chute you end up in Flying Z -- there was lots of deep powder, and I really didn't know what to do

I skied Shadows though and loved it. Also had some powder, but not the way Flying Z did, and I didn't have any trouble. Conditions were fantastic, snowing every day but 1, but even with the new snow it was only Flying Z that had the difficult powder for me.