I know we're a few months into the season, but its never too late right?

This thread exists for people to post their opinion of places they've been this year and to report the conditions. I think this will be helpful to everyone that likes to go skiing. So post where you've been and what you thought of the place regarding conditions, features, weather, etc.

- Okemo, VT 3 weekends ago and it was fairly good. Really freaking cold (probably 0 at summit) but the conditions were pretty good and it snowed for the few hrs of the day. None of the hard diamond runs were open but this was one of the first weekends since the temperatures finally got low so it was expected.

- Stratton, VT 2 weekends ago and it was really good! I hadn't been there since I was 5-6 and didn't remember anything. Not all their double diamonds are open yet, but some of the glade areas are and they are a lot of fun. Temperatures ranged from 10-20 and the slopes weren't all that crowded. Conditions were also pretty good, not much ice.

I figure this is a better Lounge thread (as opposed to ST) b/c a lot of people arrange trips around skiing, as opposed to making it a competition thing.

2/6/2007 1:51:55 PM

Where's the best closest place to go? I've never been before but I've always wanted to go and finally got some friends to commit this year.

2/6/2007 2:06:34 PM

Snowshoe, WV is the only decent place to go that's an easy enough drive to make an enjoyable weekend trip (or better yet, long weekend trip) from Raleigh.

__________________________

What are good options for places to ski if I fly into Denver/Boulder/Colorado Springs? How far away are Steamboat and Telluride, and are there better options (particularly since it will just be a weekend trip)?

I don't have enough fuel to make it to Salt Lake City (from Pensacola). I don't think I'll have the fuel to make Cheyenne, either.

[Edited on February 6, 2007 at 2:23 PM. Reason : asfdasd]

2/6/2007 2:10:16 PM

TKE-Teg

how long does it take you from NYC to get to these mountians?

I live in DE now and jonesin for a weekend trip. Thinking that it may be worth the extra hassle to not go to the poconos and get something relatively decent for an east coast hill.

2/6/2007 2:19:07 PM

went to mammoth mountain, california over the weekend (6-7 hour drive from here). conditions were pretty terrible, compared to typical years. there were a lot of dirt patches, i guess they've only gotten like 60 inches this season. i still had fun since i don't consider myself all that great or picky, but it would have been nice to have more powder. there was entirely too much ice/dirt/rocks. also was a tad warm in the day.

also went to big bear mountain, california a couple weeks ago, it was pretty typical for that place. lots of groomed man made snow.

2/6/2007 2:26:44 PM

i'll be moving to pretty near Whistler in 2-3 months. i wonder how long their season typically lasts?

2/6/2007 2:27:47 PM

duke, from the denver airport, IIRC

Aspen (snowmass) ~ 4 hours.. you can hop a ride with a chartered van for not much money, but its a rough ride up in the back of a van with like 10 people and gear. its not much scratch, but its a hassle. i usually use a charter service and have a private driver. my favorite time however, got picked up at denver, and flown via helicopter to the aspen airport. that was hot. its nice to know the right people there, to get things like that on the comp.


Steamboat ~3.5 hours can't remember how i got there, think it was a chartered excursion with driver or something.


but, you could just fly into the aspen airport, and be 30 minutes from the villiage.

2/6/2007 2:33:02 PM

Winterplace (Ghent/Flat Top, WV) - went here 2 weekends ago, conditions were ho hum. It's snowed a lot more in WV since there (it's snowing here right now), so I assume it's better now. Definitely has mostly man-made snow, though, but if you don't mind that it's pretty fun.

Going to Timberline the first week in March since "College Days" start then and it's $17 lift tickets, should be a good time.

Oh, and then I'm doing everything possible to relocate to Raleigh

[Edited on February 6, 2007 at 2:47 PM. Reason : .]

2/6/2007 2:46:55 PM

ah, forgot about Aspen.

they have a long enough runway...i'll have to see if they have military contract fuel (i doubt it). they're also further away than Denver/Colorado Springs, which are probably already right on the edge of how far I can take this jet on 2 legs.

2/6/2007 2:47:27 PM

Breckenridge is probably the best/closest to Denver. Not as far as Aspen, etc. Breckenridge is like $80 day lift tick but the place is huge. many runs and long ones too. Close to Breck but not as big (or expensive) is copper mountain (has lots of condos etc right at base you can stay in) and Arapahoe Basin. (decent but have to catch bus ~15 mins from nearest lodging place- can't remember name). Breck is a real small town type thing but has a good free bus system that shuttles you to/from slopes. I would highly recommend it if it is in your price range. Otherwise Copper mtn and A-basin are OK.

2/6/2007 3:42:06 PM

pilgrimshoes, It takes about 3 1/2 hrs from the Upper East Side of Manhattan to get to the base of those resorts. (FYI both those resorts are southern VT).

2/6/2007 5:43:38 PM

^^ Copper, sadly, is also $81 per day.

but discount coupons are far more abundant. There's a few one day $47 lift ticket coupons for copper in the denver area entertainment book this year.

2/6/2007 5:46:17 PM

TAKE ME WITH YOU

2/6/2007 6:56:32 PM

Park City, Utah [Sundance Film Festival]
Canyons - nice place, lots of blues, couple terrain parks
Snowbird - almost all blues and blacks, not my favorite place

Aspen, Colorado [Winter X Games]
Snowmass - overcrowded, snow was alright
Buttermilk - even during x-games, slopes were great, no lines, could ride down and check out the x-games at the bottom of the mountain for lunch

2/6/2007 7:24:28 PM

Aspen/Snowmass are nice....expensive and a bit crowded though


Steamboat is my place of choice when i can go....
they get the most snow
crowds arent too bad unless you go during xmas
it's about 4 hours from denver and the drive can be spooky if it's really snowing hard....specially over the last pass into the town...i think it's called rabbit ears pass or something

2/6/2007 10:39:54 PM

Anyone ever been to Telluride? Im thinking about going there next

2/6/2007 11:16:19 PM

tww ski trip? i'm in.

2/7/2007 12:16:54 AM

I wish i was going skiing this weekend, but I am not

2/7/2007 1:14:13 PM

I am, but to the not very exciting wintergreen...

but snowshoe the week after

and breckenridge in march.

2/7/2007 1:25:58 PM

I'm going to Northstar @ Tahoe next weekend. Snow has been scarce around Tahoe this year but they are expecting a lot the next week or so finally..

I went to Heavenly at X-mas and it was good then but it snowed the whole time I was there so that is to be expected.

2/7/2007 1:49:37 PM

I'm down for a ski trip this weekend

who wants to go?

2/7/2007 2:09:37 PM

Went to Whitetail (PA) friday for Night Skiing. Might make it up to Snowshoe in a couple weeks.

2/7/2007 2:20:32 PM

BTTT, skiing this weekend, people?

2/8/2007 9:29:54 AM

Quote :

"I am, but to the not very exciting wintergreen..."

I went to Wintergreen last weekend. Friday night skiing was pretty good, felt like 80-90% non ice on most of the green and blue stuff I was on. Lines weren't too bad, anywhere from 1-5 minute wait.

Saturday was a little bit of a different story. Got out on the slopes around 10:30, very crowded, and by lunch it seemed like all of the blue and some of the main black runs were getting pretty icy. The only thing I would have considered nice by this point was the double black upper cliffhanger which wasn't getting that much traffic. For me, being an average to slightly above average skiier, it was easier to ski this slope with the powder on it than it was to ski one of the narrow blues that had a lot of ice on it.

Our Saturday was cut short when the best skier in our group went down (none of us saw it because he was too far ahead) and managed to get a concussion and a partially separated shoulder. It takes about 45 minutes to get to UVA hospital from Wintergreen in case anyone is wondering.

I think skiing in the Alps spoiled me.

2/8/2007 3:44:06 PM

I've always taken issue with them calling that a double black. hell, i wouldn't call anything at wintergreen more than a blue.

the only legitimate double black in the southeast is lower shay's at snowshoe, and even then it depends on if they make it bumpy or not.

2/8/2007 4:14:20 PM

Probably a liability thing in the US that they don't rate the slopes more accurately.

I skiied http://www.hintertuxergletscher.at/en/ in December. In Austria, it's blue, red, black in increasing difficulty. I was having a crappy ski day (I think it was from being lazy for a few months + high altitudes + 9 months since the last ski trip) and after learning I couldn't handle even a moderate red, decided I was just going to have to hang out on a blue all day (trail 12, just to the right of TUXER GLETSCHER) http://www.snow-forecast.com/pistemaps/Hintertux_pistemap.shtml

and it definitely had 2 slopes in it that were as difficult as Upper Cliffhanger.

2/8/2007 4:25:32 PM

I'm trying to get some time off later this month to head out to Park City, which has + conditions right now, for a long weekend.

It's looking pretty good right now at Tahoe but I'm a bit bummed about the lack of good snow there this year. At Thanksgivign I went and the slopes werent' even open yet. I'm not going to be out here for more than 2-3 years (until grad school is done) and this is one winter that turned to crap ski-wise already.

Hopefully Northstar is good next weekend.

[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 4:29 PM. Reason : x]

2/8/2007 4:29:33 PM

Quote :

"hell, i wouldn't call anything at wintergreen more than a blue. the only legitimate double black in the southeast is lower shay's at snowshoe, and even then it depends on if they make it bumpy or not."

agreed on all counts, except that I don't think that Lower Shay's would be a double black at many places out west. it might be a more difficult than average black diamond if it's bumpy, but it's not THAT bad. I'm likely to bust my ass on it, but it's not like it's totally and completely beyond my ability. I've been on stuff out west that I just could flat out not effectively ski.

2/8/2007 6:08:19 PM

^the difficulty of Lower Shays is navigating the moguls at a fast pace. Obviously its not that hard if you take 5 minutes to get down it, lol.

[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 7:34 PM. Reason : j]

2/8/2007 7:34:47 PM

^^ it all depends on the day. there are times when it can be as tough as legit double blacks (such as honeycomb canyon at solitude, but without the cliff on your left), when the moguls get to be as large as volkswagens, but i've only seen it like that twice. other times, it's just been flat, which is kinda boring, and other times they're smaller bumps, which is fun, but not all that tough.

2/8/2007 8:22:30 PM

One week from sunday I'm going to fly down to Warsaw, Poland and then drive to northern Slovakia for a week of skiing. I can't wait as this will be my first time skiing slovakia.

2/8/2007 9:41:12 PM

i'll stick with snowboarding

2/8/2007 9:56:17 PM

^^ Richard, I hate you and the awesome places you get to ski.

2/8/2007 10:06:17 PM

Bobby, this is just a lucky trip. My professor has to go to chicago to an international conference so we magically get a 2 week break from school. We were debating between skiing in northern sweden near norway or slovakia. Slovakia is cheaper and it gives some of us a chance to visit friends in poland.

2/9/2007 6:18:23 AM

heading out to snowshoe in a couple of hours

This is just an appetizer for Breckenridge next month.

2/16/2007 1:43:58 PM

Heading off to NorthStar in 4+ hrs! It's warm here today on the Bay (60s) but I'm told the conditions are + at Tahoe right now..

[Edited on February 16, 2007 at 1:50 PM. Reason : x]

2/16/2007 1:50:24 PM

damn, i feel like such an amateur in this thread. Although, In fairness I am - only snowboarded once. At Heavenly in Tahoe and had a blast.

Going to Beech and Sugar this weekend and its' supposed to be 2-4 inches of snow and cold as balls. Should be fun...I know that these mtn's are prolly like playgrounds to you serious skiiers at best, but for me I'm lucky to stay on my feet all the way through a green.

Can't wait! Rented a cabin w/ a hot tub, taking the fiancee.

2/16/2007 2:10:02 PM

for all you NC skiiers, its snowing in the high country on sat

2/16/2007 4:03:48 PM

having friends that live in both Aspen and Breck is a definite bonus

2/16/2007 7:58:59 PM

anyone ever skiied Taos or anywhere else in New Mexico?

I want to take a jet out there, but the airplane I'm training in now has kinda short range. New Mexico is the only skiing (other than NC or something) that is in range from Pensacola.

2/17/2007 2:16:36 PM

I've been in northern Arizona and it was still really good. Not a great as is Utah or Colorado but miles ahead of most places on the east coast

2/17/2007 4:25:38 PM

just got back from winterplace, wv this weekend...unbelieveable day trip up there. easy access and clear roads and you can be up there in 4 hours. no ice..only fresh powder.

2/19/2007 10:13:09 PM

^ You picked the best possible weekend to come.

We've had tremendous fresh snowfall over the past 2 weeks (in WV)...I hope the temps hold it down for 2 more weeks for when I hit up Timberline at the beginning of March

2/20/2007 11:17:33 AM

yeah, snowshoe was amazing this weekend as well.

The drive back had me extremely glad to have gotten 4x4.

took us 4 hours to get from snowshoe to I-64. cars were getting stuck in the snow left and right... saw a few trucks lose control. 4x4 + downhill acc control + skid control = no problem. what's up with WV not salting I-64? We didn't have clear roads until we hit I-77.

It was by far the best snow i've had on the east coast.

2/20/2007 11:27:36 AM

BD what make/model vehicle?

2/20/2007 11:36:51 AM

'04 4runner SR5

2/20/2007 11:45:55 AM

Crap, we were gonna go up to WV this past weekend, but decided to save our money. Now we're planning on going this weekend, but it's getting warm!

2/20/2007 11:47:54 AM

^ Nah, come on up. This weekend will be prime too. It won't have had time to melt off, yet you'll be skiing in 40-50 degree temps most of the day so you won't freeze to death. Best possible scenario.

2/20/2007 11:53:58 AM

going to killington in a week and a half......

THey just got close to 2 feet this past weekend so hopefully it will dump again before I go.

2/20/2007 12:11:06 PM

^^yeah it just refreezes every night giving you plenty of ice, fun.

^I'll be up there the 2nd weekend of March myself, can't wait.

2/20/2007 1:13:27 PM