What is your home mountain in 18/19?

And why?

I'll be at Magic.  I Iove the culture there and the terrain is challenging.  Plus it is just over an hour away, unless I get stuck behind Sunday drivers.  The new partnership with WEQX is the cherry on top.

Caberfae Peaks,  Cadillac,Mi
This is my home hill because of the $99 weekend season pass. I drive around 3hrs one way to get there and there are much smaller hills only an hour from me,but the only seasons passes they offer are 7 day a week passes for $400 and up to ski a 250"-300" hill. Being in metro Detroit I have to take what I can get.

Don't have one.  I don't buy season passes - I haven't in many, many years.

My kid situation doesn't allow me to take a whole day to go skiing very often, so no point in a pass, and I don't think I'll do too much lift-served skiing this year.

I usually sneak out and ski for a few hours when there's natural snow in my secret spots.  If I go lift-served, I like to make a trip somewhere nice, like Gore.

Once my kids are old enough to ski that might change though - probably next year?  Maybe Bristol will be our home mountain as it is free for them to ride the magic carpet.  There's also a cheap rope tow hill with snowmaking that is much closer to home.  It's more expensive, but still pretty cheap.  Not sure what route we'll go... less driving will probably be the option though if we can afford it.  At any rate, once that happens, I don't think I'll do much actual skiing, just sliding around with the kids on green runs.

Plattekill is my home mountain. But, I plan to ski a whole bunch of different places this winter.

As for the why... Similar reasons to Saratogahalfday. Great terrain, people and vibe, fun, empty and quiet slopes. And, IMHO, it has the best terrain within 2 hours of our home.

Gore for me. Mainly due to being the biggest mountain in close proximity to having a place to crash in the ADK's on the weekends. Gore is also somewhat day trip-able for when I don't have a place to stay at just under 3 hours each way, but I try to limit those trips to early/late season when we temporarily close up our place for a few months between the summer and winter seasons.

Although there are places closer to me in CNY, I get very bored very fast skiing them. After going to college in NH and living near Boston for 7 years, I got spoiled having my pick of which big VT, NH, or ME mountain to go to each weekend and chase the snow. Gore is the closest big mountain to scratch that itch. On top of that, I love glade skiing, and Gore has some of the best in the east when it's all open.

Home.



I live here for the weather, the town and the forest, you can’t move here if skiing reliable powder is your main goal but when it’s good it’s pretty darn ok. Sure, it’s not Jackson Hole but the community at the area is like family, I love em and the place reminds of the Cheers theme song. :D

I bought season passes at Plattekill this year for all the same reasons Marcski said. I’m usually more of a nomad but having the max pass last year made me miss Plattekill. I figure my wanderlust can be indulged with some trips to Magic and Bolton Valley. Both of them are hills I’ve never been to but I’m curious about and part of the Freedom Pass .

I’m not sure I agree with the implied definition of “home mountain” though. To me it always meant where you come from as a skier, where you learned and developed your skills. So for me Jiminy Peak will always be my home mountain even though I don’t get there very often nowadays and my kids home mountain will always be Mount Peter in Warwick.

Still think of Massanutten (4 hrs from house in NC) as the home mountain, although not getting a season pass this winter.  Partially because I qualify for senior rates.  But mostly because I'm skiing a lot out west and in the northeast.  Not going to be home for either holiday weekend in Jan and Feb.

Recently I've been skiing more days at Alta than anywhere else, but all late season.

I had moved around a lot for a while and lived in mountain towns that have a home hill for the last 24 years. Before that I lived 5 miles down the road from Craigmuer in New Jersey since I was 10 or so years old so my definition is the hill in the town you live in. After 16 years being on the same home hill I’ve come to realize that there’s something much more intimate when you stick around for a while and become an intricate part of the community. It’s family, it’s people that got your back through the thick and thin and you become the place like a strand of the woven fabric that makes it what it is. This, for me has become much greater than the actual act of skiing. I love skiing, it’s cool as shit but alone it’s  no where near as special as being completely immersed in the culture and scene of a local ski hill.

raisingarizona wrote

I had moved around a lot for a while and lived in mountain towns that have a home hill for the last 24 years. Before that I lived 5 miles down the road from Craigmuer in New Jersey since I was 10 or so years old so my definition is the hill in the town you live in. After 16 years being on the same home hill I’ve come to realize that there’s something much more intimate when you stick around for a while and become an intricate part of the community. It’s family, it’s people that got your back through the thick and thin and you become the place like a strand of the woven fabric that makes it what it is. This, for me has become much greater than the actual act of skiing. I love skiing, it’s cool as shit but alone it’s  no where near as special as being completely immersed in the culture and scene of a local ski hill.

Wow - that's the nicest post I think I have read here since forever.

PeeTex wrote

raisingarizona wrote

I had moved around a lot for a while and lived in mountain towns that have a home hill for the last 24 years. Before that I lived 5 miles down the road from Craigmuer in New Jersey since I was 10 or so years old so my definition is the hill in the town you live in. After 16 years being on the same home hill I’ve come to realize that there’s something much more intimate when you stick around for a while and become an intricate part of the community. It’s family, it’s people that got your back through the thick and thin and you become the place like a strand of the woven fabric that makes it what it is. This, for me has become much greater than the actual act of skiing. I love skiing, it’s cool as shit but alone it’s  no where near as special as being completely immersed in the culture and scene of a local ski hill.

Wow - that's the nicest post I think I have read here since forever.

Seriously +1

Awe shucks, thanks boys. I meant it! :D

This is year 23 or 24 of being a Bristol passholder, so I'd say this is our home mountain. 32 miles from our house makes it a no brainer and in terms of lifts, snowmaking, vertical and facilities it's by far the best option in NYS west of the Adirondacks and Catskills. Our daughter learned to ski there and now our grandkids are. We bought the Ikon pass this year (MAX pass last year) so we will be doing trips to NE and a western tour, but Bristol is home base.

Brownski wrote

I’m not sure I agree with the implied definition of “home mountain” though. To me it always meant where you come from as a skier, where you learned and developed your skills.

I agree.  For me, that's Jay.  It's where my parents rode the Queen's Highway t-bar teaching me starting when I was five.  I'm surprised they are able to walk upright.  It's also where every year, usually with a cold, wet rain outside, I was on cloud 9 when I grasped the warm, freshly laminated pass (or employee ID) and held it until it turned stone cold.  For me, site of some of the best days of my life and, on the flip side, some learning moments.

I have three home mountains this year and all are based to some extent on proximity. I have season passes to each:

Plattekill, closest thing to me that is awesome.
Gore, very close to our cabin. Plus I believe there is no mountain closer to me, that is better, for me. Magic is a close second.
Our woods, very close to our cabin, 120+ inches a year, I always get first tracks.

What’s going on with the poachers?

You can’t have 3 home mountains bro. Pick one.
Also: what’s going on with the poachers? Your public wants to know

DUDE. I can totally have 3 home mountains. Who says no?

If I have to pic one I'll have to say our home woods.  Get the most days there, and it's closest to "home."

I'll find a place to post that story, not in SHD's cool thread.

D.B. Cooper wrote

I agree.  For me, that's Jay.  It's where my parents rode the Queen's Highway t-bar teaching me starting when I was five.  I'm surprised they are able to walk upright.  It's also where every year, usually with a cold, wet rain outside, I was on cloud 9 when I grasped the warm, freshly laminated pass (or employee ID) and held it until it turned stone cold.  For me, site of some of the best days of my life and, on the flip side, some learning moments.

That’s awesome. I’m still jealous of you guys that learned to ski from your parents when you were kids.