Can you believe that Gore made top 10

For best snow in the east?!? Wow

http://www.skinet.com/ski/galleries/resort-guide-2014-best-snow-quality?brn=ski&src=email&date=010614&lnk=image

Why didn't Snow Ridge make the cut?

Jay Peak shouldn't even be on this list much less #2.  It made WF seem powdery even on its worst days when I went.  It felt like a skating rink.  Hunter not in there?!  Give me a break.  Their snow conditions are light years ahead of anybody else that I have been to, except maybe on a powder day.  These lists should reflect what the ski areas are capable of doing without help from nature.  All mountains could be just as good if they got 3 foot snow storms all the time.  HUNTER RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

snoloco wrote

Jay Peak shouldn't even be on this list much less #2.

Sorry you didn't have a good day when you visited Jay. When Jay is bad, it is really bad. But if you don't think Jay belongs in the top three for best snow in the east, then you don't have enough experience with Jay to judge. Unless you are evaluating groomed terrain only and not counting ungroomed and woods, then I'll buy it.

riverc0il wrote

snoloco wrote

Jay Peak shouldn't even be on this list much less #2.

Sorry you didn't have a good day when you visited Jay. When Jay is bad, it is really bad. But if you don't think Jay belongs in the top three for best snow in the east, then you don't have enough experience with Jay to judge. Unless you are evaluating groomed terrain only and not counting ungroomed and woods, then I'll buy it.

I visited on March 31 and April 1, 2012 to finish up that horrible season.  That season sucked so bad and started so late and ended so early that I do not like to talk about it much anymore.  It was Jay Peak or one lift and one trail at Killington.  We went to Jay Peak.  Any eastern mountain should be able to deliver an at least halfway decent ski experience on snowmaking and Jay Peak couldn't deliver.  As a result, we will never go back.  We enjoyed ourselves, since a bad day on the slopes is better than none at all, but there are far better mountains that are way closer.  The conditions were golf ball sized ice chunks over boilerplate.  It was like this all day on both days.

snoloco wrote

I visited on March 31 and April 1, 2012 to finish up that horrible season.  That season sucked so bad and started so late and ended so early that I do not like to talk about it much anymore.  It was Jay Peak or one lift and one trail at Killington.  We went to Jay Peak.  Any eastern mountain should be able to deliver an at least halfway decent ski experience on snowmaking and Jay Peak couldn't deliver.  As a result, we will never go back.  We enjoyed ourselves, since a bad day on the slopes is better than none at all, but there are far better mountains that are way closer.  The conditions were golf ball sized ice chunks over boilerplate.  It was like this all day on both days.

 
No one is putting much effort in  snowmaking on April 1st.......someone put something in your Froot Loops

skimore wrote

 No one is making snow on April 1st.......someone put something in your Froot Loops

They actually attempted to make snow earlier that week but, it was not cold enough, so they actually made ice.

Jay Peak, best moguls in the trees on the East!

Nice to see some Hunter love.

p.s. I kid about Jay. I think that list is all over the place though. Bretton Woods?

The author obviously lives in suburban Boston. Besides, the best snow is at Mt. Peter. After the thaw they had the whole area surfaced with edgeable pow all day. Granted, not a lot of acreage but they said best SNOW.

snoloco wrote

skimore wrote

 No one is making snow on April 1st.......someone put something in your Froot Loops

They actually attempted to make snow earlier that week but, it was not cold enough, so they actually made ice.

 
So lets hear how they should make snow when its not cold enough

This is funny This Thread has really deteriorated over a cheesy survey.  Jay Peak is the number one in snow quality and Snow Ridge is number two...only because of vertical. I think Snow Ridge gets more annually.  Kudos to the Gore Snowmakers!
Any mountain can suck on any given day...you just happened to be there on the wrong day
A lot of people like Stratton

Not sure if it's just me but I can't get that site to load.

Also not sure of the method used for ranking. I assume it's a poll?

If you surveyed the members of this forum I bet 30% would rank Jay at the top for snow.

I mean quantity is quality right?  Any time it snows where you are and rains every where else, you've got the best snow.

Hey RIver, or anyone, who would be the top 3? Jay, Smuggs?

I guess you could factor in wind.

I was at Monarch, Co. once when they had as much snow as in that picture. Snowcat on the back side too.

Gore has a problem with elevation and, therefore, length of season. Killington usually has another month in the trees.

snoloco wrote

I visited on March 31 and April 1, 2012 to finish up that horrible season.  That season sucked so bad and started so late and ended so early that I do not like to talk about it much anymore.  It was Jay Peak or one lift and one trail at Killington.  We went to Jay Peak.  Any eastern mountain should be able to deliver an at least halfway decent ski experience on snowmaking and Jay Peak couldn't deliver.  As a result, we will never go back.  We enjoyed ourselves, since a bad day on the slopes is better than none at all, but there are far better mountains that are way closer.  The conditions were golf ball sized ice chunks over boilerplate.  It was like this all day on both days.

should have stayed at mountain creek,as an eastern mountain with snowmaking they should have delivered a halfway decent experience.

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A poll by a Bostonian OR a New Yorker!  As I sit here by my woodstove in the city of Buffalo with a winter storm raging out my window that will leave me, by 8 am tomorrow morning, 18-24 inches of powder in my driveway to shovel (thank god for 14 year old boys!), my humble little family ski area 30 minutes to the south will receive 2-3 FEET of snow by the time the storm ends.  That will bring this little area up to almost 120 inches of snowfall this season.  Unfortunately, that abysmal and evil rainstorm that swept through the NE came shortly after they received 6 feet of snow in seven days.  Sad times indeed.  But the truly good snow is another 40 minutes beyond in Holiday Valley (Ranked #5 in the east in the Ski Mag readers poll).  They truly put on a snow making show.  Full coverage, on mountain sensors and the entire system is operable through a smart phone.  They open Thanksgiving and go until April.  The year of no snow a few back I skied there after Gore had shut down for the season.  Not to mention nearly all of the lifts are high speed so they get you up the hill.  

What snow are we talking about? Machine made, Okemo and Sunday River are superb. Natural snow, I've had amazing days at Jay Peak, better than most of my trips out west (I've also had horrible days at Jay, but that's just the way the chips fall). I've been very lucky when I go to Whiteface, but we all know that it can suck really bad. Killington machine made snow turns to ice faster than anywhere else, but Killington diehards swear it's the best. I've been at Vail when one day it's been unskiable boilerplate, but the next day, with just a little bit of new snow, it's great.

Wherever you are, a lot of natural snow is great, r@in and ice are not. Gore makes nice snow, but it's a different world when we get enough snow for all the glades to be open. The same is true for every other ski area.

I've skied at Jay a few dozen times. About 75% of those days were awesome powder days.

The icy days suck everywhere.

Gore has good snowmaking, as does Okemo.

But for natural snow, Snow Ridge wins hands down, but it is not on anyone's radar but us Central NY folks.

Anyone going on Weds?

120 inches of natural manna from heaven!

Gore also made #7 for best lifts.  That made me laugh, considering the current lift situation.

Harvey wrote

Hey RIver, or anyone, who would be the top 3? Jay, Smuggs?

I would need some qualifications to give my opinion on "best snow". Natural only? Also man made? Most consistent (not Jay) or always exceptional even when natural isn't there?

If you are just talking quantity of natural, it is Jay, Stowe, Smuggs for the east.

Jay's problem is the mountain sucks when it is wind blown and no natural in the woods or recovering from a thaw or rain storm. So the mountain isn't consistent. But there are so many times that only Jay gets snow and no one else, sometimes not even Mansfield gets some of the sneaky stuff that Jay gets. So you can't beat Jay if you can get there when it is fresh and aren't locked into groomers. I would never suggest Jay to someone that didn't ski trees, though. There are so many better places for groomers only, in general and in terms of snow quality.

Smuggs snow is sneaky. I might just not have enough experience, though. But I'm always surprised by how much they get. It isn't as much as Mansfield or Jay, though. And Stowe is going to have far better groomer only days than either Jay or Smuggs.

These lists are kinda silly so I can't really suggest a list of best areas for snow. But I also think its silly to not admit Jay is one of the three best eastern areas for natural snow, especially if you aren't locked into groomers. There is a lot of opinion in these lists, but there are also some unquestionable best of best areas. Mostly these types of lists are ultimately flawed by lack of specification, lack of qualification, and most of all lack of experience with a diverse amount of areas.

I mean, gee whiz, you can put Whiteface as number 1 if you only skied there on a day the slides are open with perfect snow. Goodness knows that has been my only experience with Whiteface so far.

There is another qualification... how about spring corn snow? Some areas are better than others due to aspect and quality of bump lines and availability of terrain with good snow and what not.

There are a lot of ways you can go with this type of topic.

poindexter wrote

Gore also made #7 for best lifts.

Where was this list?