Home Mountain vs. New Experiences

As season pass deadline approaches, I was wondering what the consensus is on skiing days. Do you prefer the days you ski at your home mountain? Or do you prefer the days away on adventure (either visiting another ski area, doing a day of backcountry laps, or doing some other sort of skiing experience like XC, XCD, skijoring, whatever)? Does your answer change depending on snow conditions?

I think I prefer going to new areas. I like the novelty of exploring a new place, checking out new trails, seeing slightly different views. Obviously, there's a limit. I wouldn't drive past Gore to get to McCauley, even though I've wanted to check it out for a while now.

And I sometimes get the benefit of being shown fun spots in new places, which is my favorite kind of skiing. I really like it when people are excited about their mountain and love showing it off. I spend time exploring by myself, which is fun, too, but I definitely miss some choice spots when I don't know an area well (of course, "discovering" spots is fun too).

And my choice definitely depends on snow conditions. I like the home area on a powder day because I know my spots and I know exactly where to go. More than 2-3 days after fresh snow, it becomes routine again and I look to branch out to those other places and other activities.

I'm fighting the skiing is a rich man's sport so I buy the best price pass for the family and that's it for lift tickets for the season.

My boys are young and not ready for touring yet, and when they are, it would mean even more of an outlay for equipment.  So for us, down hill is at the home mountain and the rest is meadow skipping in the back 40 and that is it.

Although, I dislike "destination" resorts, I really do enjoy the travel experience.  In a good season, I ride 40 days at home.  Lapping chair 2 at Mission is fun, but like most fanatics, I also like a variety of terrain and scenery to keep things interesting.  Obviously, it also depends on the snow.  Last season was so bad, it wasn't worth the time or money, to drive and ride shitty snow in a different location.  I was perfectly dissatisfied riding shitty snow at home.  

Typically, the goal to find other large ski areas with small mountain vibes.  This year, I'll probably travel 6 times for snow.  First on the list is Turner Mtn in MT.  Some might say Whitefish is a better option for the drive, but I disagree.  This place looks like a Gem.

Nothing better than a new mountain that feels like home.

mattchuck2 wrote

 I spend time exploring by myself, which is fun, too, but I definitely miss some choice spots when I don't know an area well (of course, "discovering" spots is fun too).

And my choice definitely depends on snow conditions. I like the home area on a powder day because I know my spots and I know exactly where to go. More than 2-3 days after fresh snow, it becomes routine again and I look to branch out to those other places and other activities.

Pretty much this. Nothing like knowing where to find the stuff on even a powder Saturday. As we know, you have no friends on a powder day, so those new people you met over beers last night may be long gone after the first chair ride at Destination Mountain, and then, there you are, staring at a trail map, like a gaper, with all that snow getting cut.

It's always fun skiing at Mountain Creek, but you can only do so much on 170 acres and 1000 vertical.  I also ski Hunter almost weekly, so I effectively have dual home mountains.  Still, even with two home mountains, I just love to ski new places and see what's out there.  There's a ton more out there than MC and Hunter, so I like to experience it.  That's my take on things.

For powder days I agree with Mattchuck.  Nothing but Mountain Creek for me.  I know where to find untracked snow all day if it is midweek.  Everywhere else I just don't know where the secret stashes are.

I'm a complete Homer and can't stand to drive. 99% of my skiing is done at my home hill. Honestly I don;t care where I ski as long as I'm with my buds.

It's all good! I mix it up enough at the home hill (blue mountain pa) between bump runs, a bit of racing/training, family & social skiing and lodge/parking lot party shenanigans to keep it fun a few days a week.

A change of scenery is always nice too so its nice to have greek as a home away from home and we've been going there long enough to see some familiar faces and catch a few runs, a beer or two and some laughs with some great folks!

We'll also do a "destination" trip or two during the year along with the regular whiteface and gore (dippikill - wouldn't miss it for the world!) trips. The last few years these have been tied to mrs snowbunki's psia clinic schedule which is cool with me - I get to see some new places that may or may not be on my radar and explore a bit while she's in clinic.

we're due for a trip out west this, weve skipped the last two seasons.

if I lived where there was more snow I'd spend a lot less lift time and more time schwacking around on the bcXcd, its like mtb on skis!

There are a couple of places that I go to regularly, but I like variety.  Each year I try to get to at least one new ski center.  We live in NJ, don't have a second home anywhere, and I can't justify the cost of a season pass.  Although this year I'm sorely tempted for a pass to Mt van Ho.

mattchuck2 wrote

I really like it when people are excited about their mountain and love showing it off.

+ 1.  I loved going with River to Jay and really want to hit Smuggs with him (or anyone who knows it).

I dig Gore, but, maybe like noip, the lack of variety in my winter itinerary is due to the logistics of time, money and family.

No complaints, I dig winter and love being at our camp.

Take about 10 days of trips each season , enjoy skiing other areas ,BUT my home mountain is agreat day of skiing too. We still enjoy traveling and all that goes with it

I had a season pass at Jay for a few years. It was great. But exploring and novelty are much more important to me. Even when things are really really good, routine can make the great stuff seem not as good as when you first discovered it. I much prefer knowing most of the good spots at most of the great areas rather than knowing all of the best spots at one area.

But if I am at one of the three areas I know all the best spots, I most enjoy skiing those areas with folks that don't know those areas very well. You only get one first experience of discovery. After that, you can only recapture that feeling by seeing someone else experience it for their first time.

I tend to be a homer.  Personality wise and also at the stage in life I'm in with a family, etc. I understand what Riv is saying.....to quote Cat Stevens, the first cut is the deepest, etc. But, if you find a olace that gets in your soul and you have other homers to share that with, IMHO, you can find something new and exciting every day.  I love feeling the camaraderie when showing up alone but ending up never skiing a single run solo.   With that said, I love to explore and have been lucky to have skied at a good bunch of different resorts over the years some more than others but I have lots more on the to do list.  I especially love skiing somewhere new with a skier that really knows the place who can show me some special places not for the masses.

I ski the majority of my days at WF but like to get away out west over to VT here it there.  My son moves up to u14 this year which means more travel for races so I'll be skiing more all over the place in the future.

I like the flexibility to chase the storms. Sometimes conditions vary widely between the dacks, cats, southern and northern Vermont. This is definitely not the cheapest way to go but the quality of day is always good. The drawback to this is if conditions are so so I tend not to ski because I don’t want to shell out retail for a ticket. If I had a pass I would go lap the hill for a few hours. I get about 15-20 days in. I could ski gore and hickory all year. I like the familiarity of the mountains. You know just where to go

I love being at my home hill. It's like Cheers and on a Powder day you can get it done before the 11 o-clock crowd shows up.

I love exploring too, luckily with ski touring I get to do that all the time here. There are still so many lines I haven't skied yet, in fact there are many that probably no one has. Pioneering or at least the spirit of is really fun and exciting.

When I go to mountains I'm not familiar with I prefer to have a local friend take me around. I don't want to guess at where to go. This is what I love about visiting Snowbird, I have a couple friends on patrol that I just chase all day. That's one of the benefits of being a long time ski bum, you have connections in just about every corner. Chasing really good locals in new terrain is silly fun but sometimes a little scary.

I guess it's all good. If we didn't have ski touring here though and it was just what is inbounds I wouldn't be that stoked on my home hill, Snowbowl just doesn't have the really thrilling kind of terrain I love.

I work at my home mountain so that is 85% of where I am.  

I take one (like to take two) trips to the west, 2 longer trips up north to Gore/Kmart/WF etc per season, hit a few small areas around PA, Md nd Wv, then a few odd places here and there.  

Love new places or places I have skied before but new terrain is open.     Example:   I have skied Winter Green about 10 times, mostly early evening.     I need to be there during the day, when the blacks are open.    I hear they are good, they look good but no lights.      I need a business trip in the area at night, so I can play in the day.    Another example is Gore---I usually have young kids and ski with them.   Last year, I hit 18'' of powder alone with my buddy during a steeps and trees event.   YUM.