Hey all. I find myself in a very strange situation. I was supossed to ski tigne in france but they have zero snow at the base and a smaller one at the top the seven springs. This year i wanted to experience the east after skiing alta colorado and way to much snowshoe. I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and assume Vermont is the best place considering resorts are so close to Burlington. But after reading  all of Jim’s articles I realized that Vermont is probably ust the most crowded and expensive. The cats may be a good bet ( if NYC resides to go and ski the pocono’s and mnt creek). What resort do you thing would be the least crowded and best snow. 

Ant

Im a big fan of gore mountain in North Creek NY, skiied it alot when i was in college on Long Island. Its further north then the cats resorts, but Gore has a ton of terrain. If you like blue crusiers and/or trees then its the place for you.  Even when gore is packed it spreads out really nicely and when i have skiied there MLK weekend the only line was the gondola. Only thing i would add though is there is not a lot of options there in north creek. It is a no frills ski area. Hunter, Windham in the cats can both get pretty crazy. Never have skiied Platte or Belleayre.

I did a day at Plattekill a day after a snowstorm last season for the first time.  Lots of fun!  More than one way to take the entired 1000 ft vertical in one ungroomed run.  I assume it's open daily during the holidays.  Normally only open Fri-Sun or right after a snowstorm.  Doubt it ever gets that busy since it's harder to reach and has no lodging close by.  Belleayre will be more crowded than Gore because it's closer to NYC.  Gore is a lot bigger than Belleayre.  Definitely easier to get away from the crowd at Gore.  It's a short drive to Warrensburg, or even Lake George if you don't want to stay in North Creek.

Here's a late season trip report for Plattekill with pics from NYSkiBlog:

http://nyskiblog.com/closing-day-plattekill-2014/

i'm a human reccomendation engine today.  

Its been a better year so far for northern new england.... so if crowds your primary issue then think saddleback - its not as far as it seems :)  if you don't like it you only have to drive about an hour to sugarloaf.  both fab.  

anyone else ?  make my day.  

When do you want to go?  People who have kids in school (been there, done that) are limited in when they can go, and often go at Chistmas.  Christmas skiing anywhere is a crap shoot.  It could be great, or terrible.  It is a real downer to lay down Money months in advance and have poor conditions.  Some fine choices have been mentioned, Gore, sugarloaf, Saddleback.  Haven't been to the latter but friends love it.  However Maine is a looong drive from DC.  I'd look at Burke mtn. VT.  Never been there but it's reputation is good terrain and no crowds.  It easily accessible off I-91.  So is Jay Peak, an excellent mtn that gets big crowds of montrealers on holidays and Canadian school vacation.  Avoid those and Jay is great.  There are no good east west roads in northern New England so you pretty much have to go thru Boston to drive to the Maine areas.  Don't know about you but I hated driving the I95 corridor.  

sure, go ahead and be practicle about the driving.  you're killing me.  its an adventure to drive 6 hours through the dark maine woods at night in a snowstorm, everyone should try it once.  watch out for snowplows.

pagamony wrote:

sure, go ahead and be practicle about the driving.  you're killing me.  its an adventure to drive 6 hours through the dark maine woods at night in a snowstorm, everyone should try it once.  watch out for snowplows.

I'll be skiing Sugarloaf on Christmas Eve!  Parents are in Bangor and it's an easy, non-stop flight from National.  

It's also not that expensive to fly there.  I figure fueling the car three times each way at $40/pop plus tolls plus food (it is a 12 hour drive, with no traffic and weather) is easily over $300 for one person.  Flying makes much more sense if you're on your own.  

We found some cheap-ish tix to Burlington. We planned to get a room further east. We were wondering if that could work so we could go to mrg smugga Stowe pico and maybe jay for the trills aswell as killington. Does this seem possible? Ski cntr says its 40 mins to Stowe from Burlington.  One thing is see tain Stowe is gonna be packed so is killington. What about Mad River?

Any of those over the holiday are going to be busy (from say, 12/26 to Sat. 1/3). Especially with the decent start to winter that Vermont's had. I've never done MRG over a Christmas holiday but I've been there on MLK and President's. It'll be busier, but the single controls the on hill traffic and the vibe always helps it along. Just be sure to get a spot in the parking lot. It's quite small. 

Mt Ellen at Sugarbush next door might be another good bet for good terrain and authentic Vt vibe. Stowe will be packed (and $$) but great terrain. Jay is worth the drive. Perhaps check out Bolton Valley. It's closest to Burlington. More of a day hill. I've never done Killington - me and Jersey guidos don't mix. ;-)

PS if you stay in/near Burlington, Whiteface becomes a possibility. The only lift accessed avalanche control terrain in the East!

Antoine wrote:

We found some cheap-ish tix to Burlington. We planned to get a room further east. We were wondering if that could work so we could go to mrg smugga Stowe pico and maybe jay for the trills aswell as killington. Does this seem possible? Ski cntr says its 40 mins to Stowe from Burlington.  One thing is see tain Stowe is gonna be packed so is killington. What about Mad River?

Burke Mountain is good and should not be as crowded.

Don't forget Smuggler's Notch in Vermont. They have been getting good snow (28" last week) and were open top to bottom. They have some seriously challenging, old school terrain (FIS, Freefall, Black Hole, Shakedown) with lots of tree skiing. Great place with reasonable lift ticket prices

In a freak snow storm tigne received around 2 feet of snow. Thanks for all your input. Probably going to take a trip to the places that you suggested during February.

WOW....am I the only one that is trippin on Antoine?....wuzzz up...  dude..I was thinking u r some really young dude with a really huge imagination like i had at a young age...staring at mountains..just enough savings from my Mcdonalds work to plan a trip to liberty or really thinking large with a trip to the Alpps...then u post that some friggin place in France is a little snow shy..ur tired of Co and need some strange with a fix in Vermont..oh..dont worry for me..france got a dump..heading out first class in the AM!......
Antoine..thought that was a great african american name...now i know better....francois...je maple andre...WOW...

You might find what you are looking for closer... See my ski report on Plattekill in the Catskills. It's like Vermont skiing but, closer.  I think you will love the place. Also, if you ae up in Vermont - look at PICO, Bolton or MRG.   Smaller resorts, big feeling but, smaller lifts, options and you can find runs that will be hard as nails too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmm3w6PX_Ho

Catskill Heaven - Ski report for 12/13 - 12/14

A change of weekend plans allowed us to check out a mountain we have heard great things about. That mountain you ask is Plattekill Mountain which is located deep in the heart of the Catskills in Roxbury, New York. 

Plattekill Mountain is often referred to as the Mad River Glen of the Catskills and is known to offer the most varied terrain for skiers and boarders within 3 hours of New York City. 

For years we opted to ski more convenient mountains like Hunter and Windham or at times drive longer and further North to other ski areas; sadly and always passing this mountain up. This time, our opportunity came and we decided to make the drive and too see if this mountain would feel and ski like Mad River Glen, which is arguably one of our most favorite mountains in the East. 

Upon our arrival we were greeted by all the staff and right away we felt at home. This place was inviting to all and the mountain though not the biggest, offered some nice looking, steep and long face runs and you could see there were many trails stemming off them. One run could become 3 when you count all the glades and bike trail that you are allowed to ski (at your own risk). 

After two full days of skiing, meeting some of the coolest and hardcore skiers, teles-skiers, boarders in the New York City area, we would say hands down, this is the best mountain to ski in the Catskills, followed by Belleayre then Hunter following with Windham. 

This is a ski mountain and not a resort. There is nothing fancy about the mountain but, it has so much more charm than many of the other places we have visited. Belleayre has that feeling too. 

Naturally this is our opinion and we love Hunter and Windham too, though I will say that with all the years of my skiing at these mountains, we have not ever been greeted and accepted and incorporated into the family the way Plattekill has. A very close second would be Belleayre in the same area. 

We hope you like our video. This place to us was "Almost Heaven". 

Thanks for posting. Definitely on my to-do list.

Bill