Now that Sunday River in Maine has opened, it's time to predict which ski area will open first for lift-serviced skiing/boarding in the Mid-Atlantic for 2010-11.

Vote for one. Poll closes 11:59 a.m. on November 10.

Thinking snow,
Woody

...whoa, whoa, whoa, easy...I haven't even started my annual which MID -A resort is going to blow first/who blows the hardest thread yet...

I gurantee it will be a NC resort unless someone else has changed their thinking

Flawed, NC is not Mid-Atlantic. So I'll go with Snowshoe or Seven Springs with a nod to the 'shoe.

http://www.answers.com/topic/mid-atlantic-states
I think the map of the Mid Atlantic is flawed & we should drop NY out of the pic & add NC...New york Mid Atlantic??..Fo-get-about it!
& anyway the general thinking here at DC Ski has always been that NC is part of the MA..Soooo..NC will be the 1st!!!!

It has always puzzled me that NY is considered mid A. The "North Country", Plattsburgh to Watertown and northward, is one of the coldest areas in the lower 48. I once was at Whiteface when it was -48. That's ambient, not wind chill. My car wouldn't start but when going there I always carry a 100 ft. extension cord and a 100 W heat lamp. After an hr. of that under the hood it started and I could go to the mtn. for a few runs. It warmed up to -10 by early afternoon. The NY/Canada border above the Adirondacks is 45 degrees north, just like VT. It would be laughable to call VT mid A.

I guess this is a long winded way of saying that it makes more sense to me to include NC in the mid Atlantic and drop NY.

Where would you place Holiday Valley, Holimont, and Peek and Peak (to name a few) in Western New York or Tuxedo Ridge, Hoilday Mountain, and Mt. Peter in Southern New York? All are a lot more geographically located in the Mid Atlantic than North Carolina?

What about Cloudmont, Alabama or Ober Gatlinberg, Tennessee? I'll concede that the Southern resorts are covered here on DCSki but to call anything south of West Virginia Mid-Atlantic just is not so. I don't really care, just saying.

The words and groupings are older than the Eisenhower highway system and older than airplanes.

To reach Albany, a Boston ship has to sail 2+ degrees south and 2+ degrees west to the middle (well, northern middle) of the Atlantic seaboard at NYC then up the Hudson. Hence NY state = Mid Atlantic state.

I'd have to agree. Anything south of Cape Hatteras is /southern/ Atlantic seaboard.

Comprex settles it!..since hatteras is at 35.22 north & ski beech is further north at 36.22 north along with Sugar mtn,they should be in the MA zone..wait a minute, cataloochee could be south of that...let me ck..

BINGO...Cataloochee is at 35.59 north!...MA all..

If we go with latitude as defining the southern border I still see no satisfactory resolution of the northern boundary of the mid A. I'd be inclined to go with the NY/PA border, but even that puts most of CT and RI and part of MA in the mid A. Having grown up in MA that would be unacceptable on an absolutely visceral level, kind of like living in Yankee country.

My father-in-law owned property in upstate NY and we would go to his summer house on a beautiful lake for vacations. How far north you ask? When we went to the city, it was Montreal, about an hour's drive away. So, while I understand the historical argument cited above, it still doesn't make sense to me that NY is considered a mid A state.

I understand your point Denis. I feel the same when some try to classify Pittsburgh as a Mid-Western city. I'm sure if you asked the NC locals if they were MA ski resorts I'm sure they would feel the same.

There are bragging rights involoved with some very expert resort staffs and some very sophisticated snowmaking. There was always a competition with Seven Springs, Hidden Valley, WISP, and Snowshoe. And it is that competition that is good for everyone. They will be on top of it. Expert staffs trumps management.

Doesn't THAT line go through Morgantown WV?

EDIT:

I've got Denis' back on this one.

It ain't just geography. Culture plays a part (as does weather and mebbe ski area vertical.) New England is a well-defined geographic boundary (though with flatlander versus highlander versus Moose country cultural differences, but a lot more similarites with each other than with DC.) To me, Northeast throws in New Yawk and even New Jersey. (Tri-state area of CT, NY and NJ, though no one wants to own up to NJ. I can see the argument of South Jersey being thrown in with Philly and Delaware.)

From a skiing perspective, Mid A = VA, MD, WV, and PA. Southeast = NC, AL, etc. Snowshoe is both Southeast and Mid A, and I don't really give a crap about it. Northeast = NE + NY and NJ, since any slider worth their salt in NJ would head north.

Ohio et al = Mid West.

Occam's Razor clarification to my previous rambling post.

If they regularly show Subaru commercials on local TV with a Subie plowing through a snowbank, it's the Northeast.

If they mention snow and FEMA in the same sentence (last winter excepted), it's the Southeast.

Anything in between, it's the Mid Atlantic.

How come nobody includes Delaware in the Mid atlantic?

Cultural for sure but we need Boarders!..If you take the tip of Maine down to Key biscayne,FL it looks as if DC is the center point. If you use Comprexes hatteras as the southern Boarder & since no one is wanting to add NC in the Mid atlantic even though it falls in the latitude zone then I propose a 45 degree line from Hatteras heading NW where it pretty much crosses over the shoe. This would leave winterplace,WV in the SE.
On the northern side start another 45 degree line from Downtown NY city which heads up to the point of the PA boarder that angles down from its straight line boarder with NY putting the Catskills out of the MA.
Draw a line (give or take) from Elk mountain,PA down to 7 Springs & then down to SS & Voila..The Mid atlantic!

Winter is getting closer ...

Good points, star.

And to those who hijacked the thread I love discussions of geography but was simply using the list of DCSki.com areas.

Two NC areas are open today: Sugar and Cataloochee. Areas in the Mid-Atlantic sensu stricto are firing up but not yet open. We'll see who wins that competition.

Thinking snow,
Woody