Where to move a skiing family in NY?

Danzilla wrote

Gonna bump this old post back up to the top.  We decided on Saratoga.  We are going to rent for at least a year to make absolutely sure that we end up in a house we are going to stay in for a long time.

I'm officially a single digit midget.  Five days till the moving truck comes to whisk our earthly possesions northward.  Wish us luck!

 grew up there and fam still lives, so i visit often.  u will love it.  where are you moving from?

Welcome Dz...Saratoga is a fun town anytime of year.  Don't forget the free beer...I mean samples at the Brewery   9 Maple is one of the best places in town, but there are many to choose from and we are only an hour from Gore and a bit over two to Mad River...Whiteface, Kmart and most of the south-central Vermont areas are less than two.  The wife and I came here and rented for a little over a year to check it out...that was over 26 years ago...

Danzilla wrote

Gonna bump this old post back up to the top.  We decided on Saratoga.  We are going to rent for at least a year to make absolutely sure that we end up in a house we are going to stay in for a long time.

I'm officially a single digit midget.  Five days till the moving truck comes to whisk our earthly possessions northward.  Wish us luck!

Single digit midget?

Don't expect you to be checking the forum with so much going on but I do wish you the best.  Good luck Danzilla and family.  Been fun watching it on Facebook.

Congrats on the decision to move north.  Once you move half way i suspect that you'll decide to keep going and really live in the mountains.  Saratoga is nice but its still the suburbs.  If you want to live a ski life live it- keep going north.

ausable skier wrote

Congrats on the decision to move north.  Once you move half way i suspect that you'll decide to keep going and really live in the mountains.  Saratoga is nice but its still the suburbs.  If you want to live a ski life live it- keep going north.

I think this is the problem. You can never be close enough. I'd imagine that even if I was a 5 minute drive from the mountain, I'd still be looking for slopeside.

Great choice and good luck with the move. Being so close to North Creek is life changing.

Congrats on the move, Danzilla.

Saratoga looks like a sweet place to live. Not a ski town, so that just means way more going on. And you couldn't be closer to so many areas. Ridiculous. Hope it works out for ya.

ausable skier wrote

Congrats on the decision to move north.  Once you move half way i suspect that you'll decide to keep going and really live in the mountains.  Saratoga is nice but its still the suburbs.  If you want to live a ski life live it- keep going north.

You know, skiing isn't everything, believe it or not. I tried that slopeside thing one winter, and, man, does it get empty living around a bunch of ski bums after a while. My ex wife had a great way to describe the people who live on the beach all the time (sorta the same thing) - "Sand for brains".

First I agree with everybody who digs Saratoga. I’ve lived in the Capital District area all my life and I think Saratoga is the best place. Benny is right that skiing isn’t everything; however, it’s a big thing for the majority who post here. No place is perfect for everyone, but for me a ski town has the most of the things that are important to me.

Snow for brains.

Benny Profane wrote

My ex wife had a great way to describe the people who live on the beach all the time

How does your ex wife describe you?

Oh snap. Hopefully, good in bed.

What's wrong with a little drive? Hell, living in Saratoga, If I got up at 6, which isn't that bad, make at stop at Uncommon Grounds for a mocha and bagel thing, and i was one of the first in the parking lot at Gore. When I got home, I had Saratoga. I liked that. Just buy an IPod and plug it into your car stereo, because radio sucks up there.

Thanks everyone for the welcoming and props.  We have been talking about doing this move for at least 4-5 years.  We started out looking at Burlington but for a variety of reasons we prefer Saratoga.  There is certainly more to it than just skiing.  If it was just about that I would be moving to Sandy, UT or Steamboat or Breck or Tahoe, etc. etc.  This is an overall quality of life move for us.  We have been living in NJ/NY metro area for 8+ years and we are done.  Saratoga is the right mix of everything for us.  Its all about balance.  I wouldn't consider it a suburb - its the city in the country after all.  In short there is more than enough "stuff" going on but not so much to make it a pain in the ass to do it.  

Benny - thanks for the recommendation on 9 Maple.  I've heard of it but haven't been there yet.  I see it in my near future.

Harv - I used to go to sea as a merchant marine.  First thing you did when you got on the ship was mark a calendar with a countdown from your sign on day to your expected last day.  Everyone on board knew exactly how many days they had left.  "Jimmy, how many days you got left?  Man I got 51 and a wake up how bout you?  Man I got 9 days left.  I am a single digit midget (aka a short timer)".  I am sure they say the same thing in prison.  In fact we used to joke about it - "going to sea is like going to prison except the food is worse and the company is too".  Man I miss that shit:)

OK - back to preparation.  See you suckas on the other side.

ausable skier wrote

Congrats on the decision to move north.  Once you move half way i suspect that you'll decide to keep going and really live in the mountains.  Saratoga is nice but its still the suburbs.  If you want to live a ski life live it- keep going north.

Don't intend to speak for Danzilla, but to give a flatlanders pov.  For Gore skiers based in NJ - Saratoga is much closer than half way to the mountain. For someone from Northern NJ it can drop the distance from ~220 miles down to under 60.  That's a huge difference.  For me I could play it by ear and decide on Friday night to ski Sat and/or Sun or not at all.  No packing, no planning, less gas, no tolls.  If the family wants to sleep in, you're off skiing solo - no biggie.  I'd get 60 days a year if I lived in toga and probably 3x as much powder.  

Granted all of that is true, if they'd moved to North Creek.

The difference is all the rest of it. More people live downstate, and there are reasons for that. One reason -  it's easier to find jobs. I'm in awe of locals who can put it all together and make it work in the mountains - it takes a hell of a lot of creative ingenuity to make it work.

There are other reasons too - access to all kinds of things that population centers have that rural areas lack.  Most of those things don't mean much to me, but they matter to a hell of a lot of people.

Mountains vs Flatlands - like every choice in life - is a trade off.  If you really like, want, need the upside of living in the flatlands, choosing a place like Saratoga, close to the foothills is a pretty good option for many.

ausable skier wrote

Congrats on the decision to move north.  Once you move half way i suspect that you'll decide to keep going and really live in the mountains.  Saratoga is nice but its still the suburbs.  If you want to live a ski life live it- keep going north.

I moved most of the way and then headed back half the distance. As others have said, there are other things to consider. It is all about lifestyle, culture, and people. It isn't all about skiing (unless you really want it to be) for most people. Both places I moved have left me completely lacking in social connection for lack of people that share my interests and perspective. You gotta find the spot the meets all of your needs as a person, not just your outdoor passion. For some, that just might be slopeside, an access road, or a ski town. For some it might be a big city weekend warrior style. Others might prefer varying shades of the space in between. I don't think I'd do well in living "a ski life" to the exclusion of my other interests.

I think just positioning yourself within an hour of your chosen playground is a massively great way to have it both ways. Basically, if you feel like you would be "sacrificing" something big to move into a ski town, it probably isn't a great idea.

I was thinking about a few things that made Saratoga more attractive for me than living in North Creek or over in Vermont near Killington or some other hill.
The first is shoulder seasons. Nothing more empty to me than the low snow into mud season around a ski hill, as it closes. You moved up there to be in the outside world, but, there's nothing to do outside. Then, of course, right after that is black fly season, when you can kiss off playing in the mountains if you don't want to become insect food. That lasts until July. Nuthin' to do, except maybe kayak and fish, and I have no interest in either. Fall is nice, but then you're waiting until mid December for real snow.
Second is the road biking. The mountains, both east and west (USA), kinda suck for that. Few roads, and, since there are few roads, they get overused by all vehicles, including trucks, through harsh winters, making for lousy surfaces and near misses. I once biked from Keene to Lake Placid and around back to Keene, and, I'll never do that again. Furgetabout Vermont. I don't know why that state gets so many touring bikers, with such lousy roads, and tons of dirt roads. But Saratoga and Washington counties have hundreds of miles of nicely paved roads free of traffic, far from flat, and, if you drive a little west, miles more into the Mohawk valley.

And, did I mention the women? Ski towns have few. Saratoga, many.

Living in a ski town means not having to deal with most of people around you rooting for a warm winter.

It means skiing at lunch for a few hours because it snowed, its sunny or its just a wednesday.

It means knowing what that crap eating grin on other townies face is after a good day

it means not driving an hour plus each way to the hill from a place like saratoga.

it means not living anywhere near a big box retail store - i see this as a positive if you don't you won't understand this at all

my entire family is an all in skiing family - this is what we live for and when we go on vacation we usually go skiing somewhere else.  I gave me kid a choice between going to Disney or Colorado.  He said lets go powder skiing.

In the summer I'm a dedicated golfer.  A membership for any of the golf courses in LP is under $1000 - in Saratoga it's 5 times that or more.

Unless you want to own a tourism business or work in someone elses you need to bring a job with you but in today's economy that is much easier to do than in the past as telecommuting becomes more common.

I'm a skiing 1% er.  This blog and forum are for the skiing 10% maybe 5% but my level of commitment is much more than that.  If you think Saratoga is a ski town you ain't in the 1%.  To me Saratoga is North Jersey North -nice but about 100 miles too far south.

 ^^^^^ WOW..you're sooooooo much cooler than me  

ausable skier wrote

Living in a ski town means not having to deal with most of people around you rooting for a warm winter.

It means skiing at lunch for a few hours because it snowed, its sunny or its just a wednesday.

It means knowing what that crap eating grin on other townies face is after a good day

it means not driving an hour plus each way to the hill from a place like saratoga.

it means not living anywhere near a big box retail store - i see this as a positive if you don't you won't understand this at all

my entire family is an all in skiing family - this is what we live for and when we go on vacation we usually go skiing somewhere else.  I gave me kid a choice between going to Disney or Colorado.  He said lets go powder skiing.

In the summer I'm a dedicated golfer.  A membership for any of the golf courses in LP is under $1000 - in Saratoga it's 5 times that or more.

Unless you want to own a tourism business or work in someone elses you need to bring a job with you but in today's economy that is much easier to do than in the past as telecommuting becomes more common.

I'm a skiing 1% er.  This blog and forum are for the skiing 10% maybe 5% but my level of commitment is much more than that.  If you think Saratoga is a ski town you ain't in the 1%.  To me Saratoga is North Jersey North -nice but about 100 miles too far south.

The douche is very strong with this one, Luke.

Aus whether you know it or not your are the brunt of jokes between the locals when you go to the Country club or the local pub.  Like so many transplants in my community trying to fitin. Whenever you speak or type you give away your downstate snob attitude.  Thirty years in the mountains still won't rid you of that.

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