Ski Magazine Top 20 Eastern Ski Areas

I personally thought it was but again I did not ski everything out east.  I did ski all of the top 5 and number 9 (JP) on the list.  If it isn't what is?  Are you thinking MRG or something else?

Claude

I can see Whiteface being part of a legitimate discussion regarding best expert terrain in the east, but hands down best?

WF has the the vertical and sustained steeps covered.  However, IMHO it lacks the glades and bumps that make some of the VT resorts great expert playgrounds.  Sure, if you add in the Slides it pushes Whiteface way up, but given how seldom that terrain is available I don't think it should be part of the comparison.

JTG4eva! wrote

I can see Whiteface being part of a legitimate discussion regarding best expert terrain in the east, but hands down best?

WF has the the vertical and sustained steeps covered.  However, IMHO it lacks the glades and bumps that make some of the VT resorts great expert playgrounds.  Sure, if you add in the Slides it pushes Whiteface way up, but given how seldom that terrain is available I don't think it should be part of the comparison.

Exactly. Even on its best day is it hands down the best? I don't know, Stowe has the alpine which compares nicely to the Slides if you aren't lazy and all the notch stuff, so I'd call that a wash. And then most of the trails are just wide steepish boulevards. They're fun. I'll ski them. But I don't find them to have tons of character. I don't know if I'm Cloudspin or Skyward, Mackenzie or Empire exactly. Same with the glades.

Whiteface is cool because it's a huge ass mountain and it's very scenic, but this is definitely different in my mind than being "an experts hill".

On a good snow day and both resorts fully open, I'd rather ski Hickory than WF as an expert, for instance.

Hi ml242:

I am from Ontario and have skied WF at least two dozen times.  So far its my favorite place out east.  When people ask me if they should go there the first question I ask them is if they are least a good intermediate skier/snowboarder.  If they so no I recommend something else because lets face it unless you ski the steep stuff then WF does not have a lot of options for you. To me that makes it more of an expert mountain then lets say Tremblant that would have lots of options for the beginner/low intermediate skier.  

Claude

I guess, but just because it doesn't have easy stuff from the top doesn't make the hard stuff but the best in a 1000 mile radius automatically.

I can't picture ever wanting to ski Tremblant on a big weekend, especially if I wasn't good enough to zig around everyone. Float like a butterfly or get squashed like a bug!

Agreed.....there is a difference between saying WF is one of the 'most difficult' mountains in the east, which it is, and saying it has the best expert terrain, IMHO.

WF's % of beginner terrain is low, you better be a solid intermediate if you really want to explore.  That makes it a more difficult mountain than most.

However, for "experts" it may not have the  same variety or character as a MRG, Stowe, or even Sugarbush.  

Empire is one of my favorite trails anywhere.  However, it's just one trail, whereas Sugarbush has a whole pod (Castlerock) of those kinds of trails.  MacKenzie is a great bump run.  However, it's the only WF trail consistently bumped up, whereas MRG has a half dozen+ fields full of VW Bugs off the single.  Skyward and Cloudspin are great steep trails, but the Front FOUR at Stowe are just as impressive, maybe more so.

All things considered WF is where many of us choose to ski, and there is great expert terrain, but hands down best in the east is a tough sell if we are being objective.  Of course agreeing on a single resort that is better....that could be a challenge?

The first and only time I've skied Tremblant so far was last spring.  It's almost the size of Killington in terms of acreage, but it's not as sectionalized, so the runs are longer and you ski the entire vertical at once.  The conditions weren't great the weekend I was there (freeze thaw), but the weather was just about perfect with full sunshine.  The place can get really crowded and it's hard to avoid some long waits, particularly on the North Side.  I can see how it got #1 with SKI Magazine, mainly for the resort aspect.  I go to college about 3 hours from there, so I'll try and ski it at least once this year.

I think whiteface deserves to be ranked pretty high. If I'm making the list, it'd be Killiington smuggs, WF, sugarbush and MRG but I've somehow never skied jay or Stowe so I think I need to fill in the holes in my resume. Need to spend about a week in northern VT I think, plus a couple days for magic and suicide six. So many mountains - so little time. I think Plattekill deserves an honorable mention too.

Brownski, if you haven't skied at Jay or $towe you truly owe it to yourself to do so.

Absolutely agree. I'm very much a day trip kind of guy. Last year I resolved to expand my horizons and actually got the Champlain Valley ski card with that in mind but it wasn't the year for it I guess. I made my money back on the card but it didn't work out how I wanted it to.

Camp, I thought you hated $towe.  

Personally I think the pitch of WF and the diversity of its expert terrian gives it the edge and the Slides put it over the top.  skyward, Cloudspin, empire, Mac, the Run run pod, Hoyt's and LOB all are very different trails that feel and skis different for experts.  

Stowe has the front 4 but not much more except glades.  Killington has some good steeps but they are short and crowded  in comparison.  Tremblant is flat.  Smuggs has great expert terrian but laps take forever due to the slow lifts.  Sugarbush is probably the closest to having as much or more expert terrian and the diversity of how it skis.

Coach Z wrote

Stowe has the front 4 but not much more except glades.

Are you are making a distinction between Stowe and Mansfield?

I don't think you can except glades when you are talking about expert terrain.
 
What is the effect of a legit 350 inches of snow? In an average season how many acre-days are accessible to experts at Stowe? How does this compare to other mountains?

These lists are silly.  It's all personal preference.  

What about Sugarbush and Stowe's snowfall totals compared to Whiteface?   You're talking about a 90-100" difference.

Sno I thought you hated the Ski Bowl?

Ski Magazine...........:)

Stowe crushes almost every mountain in the East for diverse expert terrain imho. There are stacks of glades, creek beds, bump runs, hike to treeline stuff, fast steep cruisers and then....the Notch which has some serious couloirs, some that require repels and mountaineering skills. Aren't most of the "expert" runs at Whiteface groomed regularly and have snowmaking?

Combine Stowe and Smuggs as one (they are basically connected) and you have arguably the biggest and most bad ass skiing in the East.

Harvey wrote

Sno I thought you hated the Ski Bowl?

I don't hate it in terms of the terrain itself.  Never have and never will.  The way it was rolled out and the fact that it's never open is what I hate with a burning passion.  I also hate the miles long traverse to get in.

You guys want to leave it the way it is because no one else would get to it and you can have it to yourselves.  I want it to operate in the most efficient way that will benefit most of the customers.  No matter what is done at the Ski Bowl, it will never become as crowded as the main mountain, so why are you concerned if more people use it?

Hate isn't a word that should be used casually imho. It's like giving in to the Dark Side.

snoloco wrote

You guys

Please define this group.

As for me, I never said I was against what is inevitable.

You said the land should not have been acquired, the trails should not be cut, the lift should not be installed unless the Bowl could be fully built out, all at once.  

I disagree. Increments are better than no progress.  Gore had no snowmaking in 1964. By your logic Gore would not, should not exist today because it wasn't possible to do it all at once.

It isn't possible to do everything at once with ski resort expansions and never will.  They need to be done incrementally, but the terrain and infrastructure put in place needs to be fully functional right away.  The Ski Bowl was not.  

Fully functional means that the lift should be open on a consistent full time basis and all connecting trails, plus at least one full run off the lift covered without help from nature.  Pipeline was never designed to be a ski trail and doesn't have snowmaking, so although they might make snow on the Ski Bowl terrain, you can't get there rendering it useless.

BTW, the connector trail from Burnt Ridge should of been the FIRST thing that was done.  Here we are 7 years later still hoofing it around the Pipeline traverse and base area and they do nothing but blow it off and make excuses every single god damn year.