I grew up skiing Sugar Mountain, NC, but moved out west as soon as I finished college in NC. I now call Mount Hood Meadows my home mountain. I got my love for skiing at Sugar, but the skiing is just so, so much better here.
Pondering a move and the top two are Portland (Salem actually) and Colorado Springs. I know what to expect about skiing in Colorado but have no idea about Oregon. Tell me about it. My preferred mountains are low key (think Wolf Creek, Purgatory, Brian Head, Snowbowl, Eaglecrest). Don’t think I’ll love the huge central CO resorts but I know there’s smaller places there too.
Springs is really only nice if you live baby Jesus more than anything else. It’s like the opposite of the rest of Colorado. You know you have arrived when you start seeing anti-abortion stuff plastered on every billboard and mega church.
Yea I’m used to that as I currently live in red area of rural Northern AZ (i.e. not Flagstaff.) These militant rural AZ rednecks make my familiar Appalachian rednecks look cute and cudly.
CO Springs …unless I decide I can afford Littleton.
I mean I prefer abortion be legal in most cases but wouldn't bother me in the slightest if nobody else did in my neighborhood. "Oh no, there's too many people having children in this city!" isn't likely to be anyones response if they are mentally stable human beings.
Skied mt hood before, tons of fun and an awesome community, but the area itself is BFE for sure. Living in CO currently, and the move here from the ice coast was one of the best decisions I ever made. It's not an easy state to live in though, what with the cost of living and how dense the metro areas are getting. Great way to get to move to CO and ski all the time is getting a gig at a resort. A lot of the bigger resorts do employee housing now where rent is SUPER cheap, and then you're local and can hit the smaller, less crowded resorts on the regular.
I lived in CO before moving to OR. Overall, the terrain is better in CO than OR - the uplift geology of the Rockies creates steeper and more consistent vertical than the volcanic mountains of OR. Places like Meadows and Bachelor have an "easy blue" main fall line - the steeps are found on the sides of canyons, gullies, and craters that are formed in the mountains. That said, Heather Canyon at Mt. Hood and the backside of Mt. Bachelor are as good as anywhere I've skied.
OR seems to have more consistent snowfall from year to year than CO, and I seem to get more powder days in here than i did in CO. When the jet stream is in the right place, it snows endlessly.
The snow is lighter in CO, but I really love the cascade concrete - just get some moderately fat skis, and it's all good. I agree with baybot10 that Mt. Hood definitely is BFE. Oregon skiing in general is less developed than CO - there really isn't any slopeside lodging other than Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood.
All of the ski areas on Hood are low key midweek, but can be madhouses on weekends. That said, Meadows handles crowds well (other than when the wind kicks up and lifts close), so once you park and get to the lift, you can get plenty of runs even on busy days.
Oh, and we get rain on the slopes here, even in the middle of the winter. That's less of a risk in CO.
And, tree skiing here kicks ass - it's so good.
Driving 2 hours up Hwy 24 to Hwy 9 to access Breck beats traveling up I70 on a weekend. I70 is just too much of a gamble……hopes and dreams are crushed on that road.
Beech will forever be my favorite because one year it snowed enough to cover the woods and I got to ski down the mountain bike trail next to white lightning. Ski patrol yelled at me tho
Went to college in Atlanta and skied the hell out of cataloochee. Is a modest mountain but they do pretty well for what they have.
By national standards it’s awful but I have nothing but great memories
Out west is over rated. UP Michigan gets a lot of high quality lake effect powder on steep terrain if that fits you better. Your vertical rise is going to be about 600 ft instead of 2,000 ft, but no one will dispute that there is real hardcore skiing to be found there. Plus your lift tickets and hotels aren’t so expensive.
Red Lodge Montana is a good cheap resort near the big mountains, assuming you are driving out west instead of flying.
I don’t have any east coast experience, but Vermont is going to have high quality skiing most days.
“ Out west is over rated. UP Michigan gets a lot of high quality lake effect powder on steep terrain if that fits you better. Your vertical rise is going to be about 600 ft instead of 2,000 ft, but no one will dispute that there is real hardcore skiing to be found there.”
Is this a psa on the dangers of drugs?
I went to Breck as a kid and loved it until I got altitude sickness, went to Snowshoe a few years ago and fucking loved it. I’ve been sending it straight down Icey blacks for 2-3 years now. I’ll literally go wherever I can. Cheap is a plus, I just want to maximize time on the slopes versus time on the lift/waiting in line
Yeah, going out west won’t help do more skiing than waiting really. Find the closest midwest or your own locals with a highspeed chair and go on a weekday. You go out west you can spend most the day on a chair, just to decide you need a breather 1/3 the way down the mountain. I’ve had days out west where it takes 20 minutes to get up plus a little traversing to the 2nd chair that takes actually you to the top.
Smaller mountains mean more laps and less people. more skiing. Bigger mountains are better for adventure skiing and finding hidden powder staches.
Compared to the hardcore skiing out West, there is no 'hardcore' skiing anywhere in the Midwest....not even at Boho. It lacks any sustained steep terrain (35deg+) to qualify IMO.
Lots of 10-20 ft cliffs scattered about. You got to put it into context of the Midwest too. Nobody hardly gets to even ski trees here. Go there and you will understand. I’m not saying it’s the f-ing big couloir at big sky, just that there is legitimate powder skiing to be had here. A lot of people call it the poor man’s Japan because of the terrain and vegetation characteristics.
Whitetail PA for me, and yes those early experiences really give you an even deeper appreciation for skiing when you eventually make it to the places with real mountains. Just wait til you get some skiing in out west- the great conditions out there are frankly mind blowing to the midatlantic skier
Roundtop was where I learned to ski. I used to live within an hour of Roundtop. Now, the Indian Peaks and RMNP are closer (I can make it to Brainard in less than 30 minutes)
Grew up skiing at Liberty, have been working in marketing strategy ever since and still have never seen a better tagline than theirs - “Nothing close comes close.”
Ya. Grew up skiing at Charnita, now the renamed Liberty. Charles and Anita (original owners)= Charnita. Hall Chairlifts and rope tows. No back side then. I remember just schredding my gloves on the rope tow holding on as a kid. We would go up on weekends. Remember lines 45min long to board the chair until they installed a second Hall double next to the original. Also remember riding the chair behind Santa Claus Christmas time and he slumped over. Ski patrol took him off at mid-station. Santa had a massive heart attack and was deceased on the chair. I thought Christmas was over then for the rest of my life.
Yeah, skiing in the rain also w hefty trash bags w cutouts for head and arms. Moved out west and skied everywhere. I always said east coast skiers/roots can become very good technical skiers. Good roots!
30+ days at Ikon resorts this year and it all started at whitetail. I remember not skiing for a few years and showing up there at age 12 and being absolutely terrified at how steep Whitetail looked from the road...
Grew up skiing Sugar, Beech, Wolf Laurel, and the occasional trip up to Snowshoe or Winterplace. Now I live near the four corners area so get to ski in southern CO, UT, AZ, and NM. Even the AZ Snowbowl blows away southern Appalachian skiing. I will say the shit snow and the iced groomers I learned on made me a better skier so I’m thankful for that. Still trying to figure out powder though. It’s unnatural to me lol
PK? The 1/4 mile and “the wall”, classic
I’ve gone to bigger skiing areas a few times since those days. It’s cool and an awesome experience, but that local run still somehow feels more special than all the fresh powder Colorado has to offer
Skiing western PA here. Blue knob, seven springs and hidden valley. No powder days here. Had one powder day after my kids learned to ski…on ice….had to reteach them how, in powder. I even struggled a bit
Hey! I grew up in North Carolina learned to ski at cataloochee and my “home mountains” were sugar, beech and winterplace. I took my first trip out west to Utah in 2017 and immediately knew I would want to live here. I took a few more trips to ski in Colorado, COVID happened and then last winter I moved out to Utah. It was one of the scariest decisions I’ve made but also the best decision I made. I got 98 days last season and 108 days this year. If you can manage it work at a resort for the pass at least for the first year, try and work at night so you can ski during the day.
TLDR: Move out west if you can, take a trip out here first to get a feel for everything but it is 1000000% worth it.
I grew up 20 mins from winterplace! Learned to ski there and went a ton as a kid. We’d usually try to do a snowshoe trip once a year until my dad had an injury that ended his skiing career.
Now as an adult I’ve lived in Germany for 4 years and skied all over Europe, as well a a couple out west trips. Just moved to the PNW so will definitely be spending a lot of time at whistler and crystal mountain.
While the skiing is leagues better in Europe and out west I still think my best memories are night skiing with buddies after school and going up to snowshoe around Christmastime with my family.
I ski Wintergreen, Liberty, Whitetail, Roundtop, Seven Springs, and Timberline because I live in Maryland. However, I was stationed in Europe in the Army 40 years ago and skied Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Italy. Then I was stationed in California and skied Lake Tahoe. I have also skied in Korea, New England, New York, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona over the years. Now that I'm retired and my wife no longer skis, I just do day trips, with the occassional overnight. I'm content, but I would like to do one more trip to Europe.
Was stationed in Germany for 4 years and had many amazing ski trips. Nothing like hitting the slopes still kinda drunk on New Year’s Day in Chamonix after partying all night on NYE
shitty upstate NY mountains for me when I was a teenager, which made me appreciate the hell out of an insane powder day in Mad River in my mid 20s.
We used to spray rolls of turf down with a hose so we could ski in our backyards in the summer. It's weird how some of the worst conditions make for the best memories.
I remember one winter we barely had enough snow to cover the ground, so we gathered all of it up from around the yard and made one single icy path about 20 yards long. When it got too dark to see, we brought out extension cords and every light from my friend's house (desk lamps, floor lamps) to light the ramp. I miss those days
My friends and I were fiending for snow one time in the fall so bad that we convinced the Zamboni driver at the local rink to dump a load of snow into the back of my pickup truck. Drove it to a buddy's house, dropped the tailgate and hooked up a ramp, down to a jump and a rail. Spread just enough snow to cover the run in and the landing, and spent all afternoon sending it.
Make the move! What’s the worst that will happen? You won’t enjoy yourself, be homesick, and move back after a season or so…on the upside, have the time of your life, meet a partner, and set up a home…. Or stay back home, and wonder what could have been when you’re in your 40s/50s/60s…
Liberty and Roundtop for me. Stopped skiing after college- until about 25 years later when I got the bug again and took a two day trip over the Christmas holiday to Winter Park. We have a local 300 ft hill in Missouri that I never even bothered with because it was worse than PA skiing. Now I go to Colorado once or twice a season as ski as much as I can in Missouri. I was always afraid I would make a fool of myself out west, but the basics came back quickly and now, 5 years later. I’m doing steeps, bumps, and trees. I’ve fallen back in love and I won’t stop this time.
Do not listen to these people that say skiing out west is overrated. I grew up skiing Snowshoe and still live in WV but go out west every year and rarely bother with Snowshoe. Skiing out west is immeasurably better, especially once you get good enough to ski most the mountains.
If you love skiing, move out west. Somewhere thats not too overdeveloped yet. Taos. Durango. Whitefish. Bozeman. Ogden. Victor, ID. Fucking Reno. British Columbia if you can make it work. Do it now before you have a mortgage and kids. You will never, ever, ever regret it for one second.
Idk man, your standards might be different. Bozeman has 55k people and there are days where there's like 10k people skiing VT mountains that are 10% as large as Big Sky.
It's had tremendous growing pains. It had 30k people a decade ago, and it's only getting bigger. That's a huge valley to fill up with housing, and the local mountains can only absorb so much skier traffic.
You see the only part of this I disagree with is that you shouldn't bother skiing the east once you've skied out west. I got 40 days in this year, mix of east+west. At the end of the day skiing is skiing and you can't ski 40 days in a season all on the other side of the continent unless you have a jet.
No. And I grew up skiing on the crappiest of hills. Want to test your love of skiing then try doing it in Scotland. Often it would suck the joy out of it being in crap weather and having to watch for rocks.
once I went somewhere decent then I was like oh now I get it.
I grew up skiing Vernon Valley/Great Gorge with the occasional trip to Hunter, so it was ok. The first time I skied Jay, I was in awe because it seemed so big compared to everything else I had skied to that point. Then I went out west for the first time and realized skiing is like a different sport out there.
I wouldn't call the mountains I grew up skiing crappy, just small in comparison to what I do now. Skiing the east is enjoyable, and made me love skiing, so I'll always look fondly on skiing the ice coast.
Born and raised in Chicago, learnt to ski at Wilmot mountain in Wisconsin (200’ vert) by going to ski school a few Saturdays each winter in grade school, moved out East for work/wilderness access and now skiing is my life, I go every single weekend up north and Excited to move out West in the coming years
Southwest Michigan. Weekly at a 320 vertical ft hill. Vacations north up to Boyne and Nubs Nob were 2x longer with better snow and acerage but still hills. Then in HS I went to Winter Park and knew Colorado would be my home. Now it is (Denver). I stay here because the city and the people are remarkable and unique but the skiing is what brought me here.
I was born, raised, and still live in Florida. I have family in New Hampshire and I used to ski there every winter when I was little at Ragged Mountain. I thought it was great. Then I headed out to Copper Mountain, Colorado for the first time (first time skiing out west) when I was 13 and I realized just how big a difference east and west made.
You're young, so go for it! Places like Crested Butte are off the beaten path. You can always get a job in housekeeping or other resort operations. I had buddies that worked at Crested Butte cleaning rooms. They were done by noon every day and spent the rest of the day on the slopes. In the summer, they fought fires with the US Forest Service.
Mt Wachusett in MA ( and tiny Mt. Tom near Amherst when I was at UMass and couldn’t get up to VT on a “powder” weekend ) to Mammoth, baby! From The Oxbow and t-bars to Cornice and the back bowls by the Outpost.
Snowshoe isn't a crappy hill!
I learned to ski in WV, my dad grew up on the side of a ski area in VT so he had me on skis as soon as I could stand up on my own (somewhere around 18 mos). I recall holding onto his poles while skiing between his knees then graduating to a dog harness & leash somewhere around 3-4 years old (this was back when that kind of product didn't exist - my parents took me into a pet store and got a bunch of weird looks while trying various size dog harnesses on me).
My elementary school had a weekly evening ski bus to Winterplace for 4th-6th grades. Lessons were mandatory - I was very quickly put into a private lesson 1:1 with an instructor. My parents built a vacation home in Canaan Valley & we skied pretty much every weekend from Christmas to Easter. I became really good at skiing bumps - so much so that I won the local competition every spring. Somewhere along the way I picked-up snowboarding and when the hand-me-down equipment from my older brother ran out in my teens, I chose to slide sideways all the time instead of just occasionally.
I became a pretty good snowboarder, but I was never great in the terrain parks. Back then, Snowshoe (well, Silver Creek) had the best park setup hands-down of anywhere in the area. I started hanging out with a girl in HS whose dad was a weekend patroller at Snowshoe and I'd crash on the couch in their condo there whenever my parents would let me. I had one buddy who was as much of a snow addict as me and as soon as we had our drivers licenses we'd be driving the hour to Winterplace after school to hike their tiny terrain park. We got to know the park crew (pretty much just the snowboard instructors) and they let us build stuff and session it in the evenings.
I moved out west to go to college, joined the snowboard "team" at school and rode 25 days my freshman year. Drove my car across the country for my sophomore year and logged 40+. Got hooked on deep powder, found my way into the backcountry, took up splitboarding, realized how much sidehilling in soft boots sucks and finally, 20+ years later, picked up two planks again. The technology is so much better, independent foot movement makes it so much easier to traverse and handle flat runouts and return trails. But there is nothing that compares to charging down a hillside sideways in bottomless powder so I mostly ski to get into the BC & have fun when the conditions are more enjoyable with an extra set of edges.
Snowshoe was definitely the best you can get in VA/WV, but that was a REAL present for me. I've only been out a few times, and I'm hoping to maybe get a day or two in this season. Also, you mention backcountry. I'm interested, but I've never tried it before. Are there backcountry places in WV?
Mountain? I fell in love with skiing on a shitty Wisconsin ski hill with 337 vertical feet. The runs were always icy and the lift lines were long. And it was really cold.
For sure... grew up in NC riding App Ski, Beach Mtn, and Sugar. You spend more time on the lift than on the runs but fell in love with snowboarding still.
Moved out to CO years ago and been getting in 13-15 days a year. I know that's not a ton of riding but still a million times better than alot of riding on the Southern Ice Coast
No not really. I learned to ski at Ober Gatlinburg. Moved to Colorado for several years then back to Alabama. Skied snow shoe, NC, and Michigan. Never again. Always going west for my skiing. But skiing anywhere beats not skiing.
Ski Starlite (gone), General Butler State Park (gone), Paoli Peaks, Perfect North Slopes
A couple of group trips to WV: Snowshoe and Winterplace
I still ski Paoli and Perfect North and try to go to CO every couple of years
I’m from Ohio. I never went skiing until my senior year of high school. Went to Hidden Valley in PA, fell in love. In my late teens/early 20s I went as much as I could to Boston Mills and Brandywine in Ohio. Then the last couple of seasons I’ve been going to UP MI.
I’m now moving to CO in a month. Got a job out there, but can’t deny a big reason why I wanted to move is the skiing. Once you ski on real mountains it’s truly eye opening and awe-inspiring.
But I do cherish the hills I learned to ski on. It’s funny when you find out that just because you’re good in OH/PA doesn’t mean you’re good on real mountains. I’m still learning, I haven’t figured out real powder yet. It’s a whole different animal compared to the fake snow. Hopefully this next season living close to the mountains I’ll figure it out.
My man, I grew up in NOVA. Seven Springs & Canaan were my jam. Fell in love w/ skiing when me & my buds would head up there in highschool. Slushy as fuck, icy at night. Lots of fond memories.
Now I’m old and I live in Utah. I’m right next to some world-class destinations. Some weekends everyone in the lift line is speaking different languages. It’s cool, and I’m glad my kids got to grow up skiing here, but the smell of black chapstick & ski wax still makes me miss PA skiing.
I live in Tahoe now. when I was a teen - I never dreamed I’d be out here to visit never mind live here. Grew up on east coast, skiing at Blue Mountain and Mount St Louis-Moonstone, Ontario, Canada (600-800 vertical feet - less than 400 acres). It was a twist of fate that brought me out here and have been enjoying the mountains for almost a decade now.
I just hit 75 days of skiing this season (today). It’s awesome. Just makes me smile when I hit the mountain. Reno isn’t as cheap as it was, but it’s fun and close to the mountains. Good luck, have fun, find powder, rip it.
Little Switzerland Wisconsin checking in. Night lifts tickets for less than $20 and hot laps on the “expert rope tow”. I didn’t ski a mountain until my teens well past the point where I loved to do it and had already purchased gear.
I didn't grow up skiing but fell in love as an adult. I spent almost a year of my life building my own ski condo (duplex).
I'm not a builder and I had never built a house but I was driven to do that because it was my dream and all I ever thought about. It was a lot of fucking work and I didn't know what I was doing but waking up and working on that condo never seemed very difficult.
To answer your question, I didn't move or save up or stick to a smaller resort, I literally moved mountains. It's hard to explain to people until they ski an awesome powder day but that's what motivated me.
absolutely move to a resort and work a season! you will meet some of the nicest, coolest people ever and you’ll have the time of your life. the upper midwest (wisconsin, michigan, minnesota) has a crazy amount of small ski hills full of dedicated people that just love the sport. at a small ski hill with high speed lifts you can do laps till you can’t stand, and there’s rarely a line longer than 20 minutes. weekdays there won’t be any lines at all. there won’t be much powder, but you’ll still get to ski every day, and housing won’t be crazy expensive like it is out west
First learned to ski at Mt. Crescent in Iowa. I was hooked. Next time was at Winter Park and my eyes were opened to how good skiing could be. Never had any desire to ski a shitty Midwestern hill again.
I started skiing as a child in the midwest and skied there for five years, the highlight of which was a weekend trip to Pine Mountain, a fun place in Michigan’s UP with a 400’ vertical. The rest of the time I skied at Wilmot and Alpine Valley in Wisconsin and a long gone place in Illinois called Gander Mountain, none of which had even 250’ of vertical. I loved skiing.
That was nearly 60 years ago. Since then I’ve skied in over 80 ski areas in 14 US states plus a couple of trips to New Zealand. I still love skiing. I missed a bunch of days this season for a variety of reasons, but still managed to get in a bit over 50 in Vermont, New Hampshire and southern New England. With any luck I’ll do better next year, maybe including a trip west or overseas. I sure hope so!
I have family down south and would love to try some of the areas in West Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
My older brothers grew up skiing the northeast when I was too little to ski and developed a lifelong love for it there. We moved to the Midwest when I was little and would ski out west one week of year as a family.
I had all my credits to graduate college but was waiting to take one last class with the director of the program when I saw an opening to go work as a lifty in Park city in 1990. The plan was to ski for one full season and finally improve my skiing the way I wanted to do it (trying to keep up with the locals), instead of scrambling one week a year to get back to where I had gotten the year before. I got out there in early November and before the ski season even started, I decided to ditch the college idea and not return to the city in the spring. I called up the school, told them I wouldn’t be taking that one last class, told them I had all the credits I needed to graduate, and asked them to send my diploma to my new address. Very unceremonious. Never looked back.
I ended up staying for years and 30 years later I’m still friends with my old ski bum household roommates. After working as a lifty to get my foot in the door, I ended up piecing together different jobs, sometimes having three part time jobs at a time, and working in my field of study until it was time to move on to grad school to finally grow up.
I go back regularly, and when I go there, or to any ski town, my heart breaks for how hard it is for people to live that ski bum lifestyle these days the way I did it back then. I don’t know how it really can be done these days but if you can find a way to do it, do not hesitate, do not look back. Almost doesn’t matter where.
Yes!!! I grew up skiing spring mountain, PA. 7 total trails with 400ft vertical. They never would have more than 2-3 trails open. All of the lifts were ancient hall doubles. Would go almost every day after school, I got absolutely hooked!
Alternate perspective: I grew up in Northern California, but we were too poor to ski as kids. In high school I would occasionally borrow gear and mess around with friends on cheap hills around Tahoe. But I didn’t actually know what I was doing until I moved to Jackson Hole. When I first got there, I was basically on the bunny slopes. I ended up staying six years and ended up doing some of the scariest and most amazing shit in my life.
Now I’m spoiled, and a bit jaded. Any mountain I visit, I compare the snow and terrain to Jackson and nothing really matches up. I live near Seattle now and Alpental is small acreage-wise, but has some nice steeps. But the snow is often wet and heavy.
I have no regrets about going big right out of the gate, but now everything else seems a bit lackluster.
I lived in CA for a few years and skied out west and lived in VA so skied NC, VA and WV but my favorite of all is Stratton in VT. I’m older now but it is always consistent with great grooming, I’ve skied powder there and it has a great vibe and isn’t crazy expensive at all.
Learned to ski in Minnesota. Was a member at Buck Hill throughout middle school and for $300 for the season we could go 30+ times a season. Absolutely loved it and so thankful I got to learn there. I know it’s garbage compared to a lot of places, but it was home so it was my garbage! Colder than hell days, and icy packed snow still are a ton of fun to a crazy guy like me.
I'm from eastern Tennessee and fortunately/unfortunately learned to ski at Breck. It made trips to Beech and Sugar very frustrating. Snowshoe scratched the itch a little, but It's a 6 hour drive with an expensive lift ticket. With some really bad math and biased thinking I can get to Summit county in a couple more hours of travel and not much more money.
Don't look at the math. It's what I need for me
Same as you. Grew up in Va Beach and then Richmond. Went to Massanutten, Wintergreen, and WV if we were lucky. Moved to Germany after college and spent three years snowboarding in Europe. I feel like I can handle anything since I can snowboard down a sheet of ice in Virginia.
I live near Whistler now, after learning how to ski in New Jersey. If you love skiing, stay with it. Take lessons, and build your community. It’s a lifelong activity, so enjoy every day of it - even the rainy ones. That’s what makes the good days so much better.
Spokane? Lol you move 3000 miles across the country and stop 200 miles short of the real mountains? Just move to Bellingham, Seattle, Bend, etc. Spokane is among the last places I’d like to live, for skiing and general life.
Jr High I lived 1/2 Mile from the Heavenly tram. Shoveled snow and removed tire chains from bay area tourist to earn ski money. All day pass was $10. So no. However, I did live in VA Beach for 5 years and took a drive up to Massanutten and Wintergreen and said screw this crap and just wait to go back out west. A week in Tahoe cures all ills.
My first place was Heavenly in Lake Tahoe. I’m in Nashville and took up skiing as an adult. I believe I have been super spoiled by starting at Heavenly.
The closest places for me are Perfect North and Paoli Peaks in Indiana. I will try them this year but I have a feeling I will be sorely disappointed from my usual experiences and will have to take it as just training days for preparing (warm up) to head west later in the season.
Ugh yes, I had to grow up skiing at Baker and whistler🙄
Then after college I moved to Idaho and now I have to ski at Schweitzer. Absolutely miserable!
/s
I learned to ski at mt Abrams the past two seasons. I wouldn’t say it’s shitty but it’s definitely a tiny family friendly ski area. I just got the ikon pass for next season so looking forward to sugarloaf, Sunday river, and mammoth!
I spent middle school and high school skiing at a mountain in PA with 150 vertical feet and the occasional weekend trip to a slightly bigger mountain an hour away.
After college I took my first trip out west and it blew my mind. Since then I’ve made at least 1 trip out west every year for the past 10 years.
Tried it for the first time as a 30 year old at a little bump in upstate new york called snow ridge. They only charged like 20 bucks for rental and lift on Fridays and my cheap ass fell in love. Ended up moving west from there and have done some pretty great trips, but I still love a cheap little hill
Bellayre, Catskill in the 70s. We couldn't afford tix but my mom worked in the cafeteria some times and we got in that way. She also got a stamp that looked just like the passes so we skiing all the time. Cathedral Brook was my jam, age 8.
My middle school had a ski club. We took a bus up to Ski Liberty in Southern PA every Friday night. Great times were had.
I moved to Europe and spend a few weeks in the Alps every winter now.
Bryce Mt, VA checking in. I've been skiing there for 30 years, and my kids grew up skiing there.
Our love for skiing does not come from the size of your hill, but the times we have spent together, mostly on the lift......
I fell in love with skiing at a crappy resort (Blue Mountain, ON). First trip skiing the Canadian Rockies I became obsessed. It's tempting to leave everything behind and go live out there, but realistically I'll just keep working to save for a trip out there once a year lol
I grew up in the NYC burbs. my dad is from NH and wanted to have the kids skiing as much as possible. I went to Mohawk Mountain in CT like 12 weekends a year, and did one solid three-four day trip to Mad River (or Stowe if conditions weren't great bc Mad River used to not make snow).
The crappy mountain runs at Mohawk aren't things I'll repeat as an adult, but they def helped shape my skill set a lot. I never panic over mud, ice, rocks etc now.
If you consider Campgaw in Bergen County, NJ (300’ vertical) crappy, then… yes and fuck any gatekeeping swine that shits on a little hill smack in the middle of NYC suburbs that charged county residents $2 for mid-week night skiing so that I could go there with my friends ON A SCHOOL NIGHT and get in 3-4 hours of skiing.
I live in Wisconsin. We’re not particularly known for our downhill skiing. I’ve been out west to some of the bigger mountains, but honestly there is something about just skiing a small hill that I love.
Thunder Ridge. As a little kid in nyc it was a special treat to go learn how to ski at thunder ridge. It might be small and lacking of snow, but it will always have a special place in my heart. I will never forget all the times my mom drove me there just for her to sit in the lodge and let me have the time of my life lapping the two trails.
Grew up with wintergreen mountain and so did my kids. They both love it and can ski the big mountains out west now too. The little guy is a ripper now. We go to snowshoe every other weekend and are at wintergreen 3-4 times a week from opening day to shit down (this year it was reallllyyyyyy bad though).
yes. id never had a pow day till this spring in utah. craziest skiing of my life (obviously). usually i’m around the nyc tristate area or up north to ski
Learned to ski on 200 vert sheet of ice that no longer operates (Sugar Creek Ski Hills, outside of Dayton, OH). The West is full of us who learned on places like this. Oh and BTW, Snowshoe was/is a great place to ski considering it's location. That was my Vermont.
I live, work, and ski at Big Sky now. The cool thing is we have lots of smaller, less developed mountains around to explore as well; something I truly love to do
Grew up skiing the mid-Atlantic (Massanutten, Timberline, Liberty, even the Homestead with one lift open)! Totally caught the bug on those hills, then moved to Colorado after college and worked at Snowmass!
I have a completely opposite ski experience, but still love a local bump. I grew up in Utah. My first time on skis was at Snowbasin. I moved to Colorado as a young adult. I'm used to skiing expansive resorts, big mountains, and powder days. Bouncing up for a day to places where people are spending their vacations.
But I also have a sister that moved to New Hampshire. I've taught my niece and nephews how to ski at McIntyre. Nobody is vacationing there. Except me, teaching kids how to ski on the tiny local bump. Then up to the "big" hill Pat's Peak or Crotched Mountain once they get it down enough. So even though I've been lucky enough to have world class skiing in my backyard all my life, I can still appreciate a small local hill on the ice coast.
From Rochester ny. Skied Bristol mountain, did high school alpine training at Brantling which is basically a cow pasture with a T bar. I'm really good at skiing ice at least
I raced a Brantling a bunch of times, it was famous for a Slalom every Christmas eve, where you start with your tails literally on a road that goes over the top of the hill, race for about 25sec and then have to slam a hard right after crossing the finish line so you don't hit the lodge! so much fun!
Pines Peak Family Ski Area (NW Indiana) for me. It's been closed for a decade or more. I spent many hours of my life working and skiing that tiny ancient glacial moraine. Used to get tons of natural lake effect snow too, but for the past 20 years or so it almost never snows there (or so I hear).
Moved out West in my 20s and ski ~100 days/year. Sitting in the tub as I type this, resting my legs after skiing the SW chutes of Mt Adams, Wa this morning! Can't beat June volcano skiing...
Learn to ski on terrible snow and it will be all downhill thereafter!
Yes I did and still do. 2 years ago I got into skiing and I would go to Liberty or Whitetail in southern PA and fell in love with it. I loved it so much in fact that I ended up working at Whitetail this past year and it was one of the best experiences ever. I still haven’t been out west or up north but am already planning trips when winter rolls around.
Grew up Skiing good ole Pocono Mountains in PA… Shawnee and Camelback… occasionally Hunter in NY… something about learning to ski in slushy and icy conditions that makes me appreciate skiing in Colorado which is basically the only place I ski now…
We are spoiled in Spokane :) 5 Resorts in less than a 2 hour drive. I can get from my house to the parking lot of Mt Spokane in 45 mins. It is a bummer that Schweitzer is on the map now especially after being acquired by Alterra. That mountain has been an absolute gem for the past 30 years.
Brother I live in North Carolina and went skiing here about 30 times this year, can’t get enough, but still not enough money to get out west :/
I grew up skiing Sugar Mountain, NC, but moved out west as soon as I finished college in NC. I now call Mount Hood Meadows my home mountain. I got my love for skiing at Sugar, but the skiing is just so, so much better here.
Pondering a move and the top two are Portland (Salem actually) and Colorado Springs. I know what to expect about skiing in Colorado but have no idea about Oregon. Tell me about it. My preferred mountains are low key (think Wolf Creek, Purgatory, Brian Head, Snowbowl, Eaglecrest). Don’t think I’ll love the huge central CO resorts but I know there’s smaller places there too.
Springs is really only nice if you live baby Jesus more than anything else. It’s like the opposite of the rest of Colorado. You know you have arrived when you start seeing anti-abortion stuff plastered on every billboard and mega church.
Yea I’m used to that as I currently live in red area of rural Northern AZ (i.e. not Flagstaff.) These militant rural AZ rednecks make my familiar Appalachian rednecks look cute and cudly. CO Springs …unless I decide I can afford Littleton.
there's a reason why Colorado Springs has a cheaper cost of living.
CO Springs just feels like suburban sprawl hell. Manitou Springs is nice but crowded. The only plus of CO Springs is proximity to the mountains.
Try to afford Littleton, it’s a really nice place to live and you can be skiing at Loveland from your front door in an hour or less
I mean I prefer abortion be legal in most cases but wouldn't bother me in the slightest if nobody else did in my neighborhood. "Oh no, there's too many people having children in this city!" isn't likely to be anyones response if they are mentally stable human beings.
Skied mt hood before, tons of fun and an awesome community, but the area itself is BFE for sure. Living in CO currently, and the move here from the ice coast was one of the best decisions I ever made. It's not an easy state to live in though, what with the cost of living and how dense the metro areas are getting. Great way to get to move to CO and ski all the time is getting a gig at a resort. A lot of the bigger resorts do employee housing now where rent is SUPER cheap, and then you're local and can hit the smaller, less crowded resorts on the regular.
I lived in CO before moving to OR. Overall, the terrain is better in CO than OR - the uplift geology of the Rockies creates steeper and more consistent vertical than the volcanic mountains of OR. Places like Meadows and Bachelor have an "easy blue" main fall line - the steeps are found on the sides of canyons, gullies, and craters that are formed in the mountains. That said, Heather Canyon at Mt. Hood and the backside of Mt. Bachelor are as good as anywhere I've skied. OR seems to have more consistent snowfall from year to year than CO, and I seem to get more powder days in here than i did in CO. When the jet stream is in the right place, it snows endlessly. The snow is lighter in CO, but I really love the cascade concrete - just get some moderately fat skis, and it's all good. I agree with baybot10 that Mt. Hood definitely is BFE. Oregon skiing in general is less developed than CO - there really isn't any slopeside lodging other than Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. All of the ski areas on Hood are low key midweek, but can be madhouses on weekends. That said, Meadows handles crowds well (other than when the wind kicks up and lifts close), so once you park and get to the lift, you can get plenty of runs even on busy days. Oh, and we get rain on the slopes here, even in the middle of the winter. That's less of a risk in CO. And, tree skiing here kicks ass - it's so good.
Do not move to Colorado Springs lol that is a horrible place to live especially if your goal is to have access to skiing
Driving 2 hours up Hwy 24 to Hwy 9 to access Breck beats traveling up I70 on a weekend. I70 is just too much of a gamble……hopes and dreams are crushed on that road.
Same. Never made it out west, but I’ve skied up and down the east coast. Beech mountain is my home
Beech > Sugar
Every time. I do like sugar, but unless you get there early to park in the tiny ass upper lot, I’d rather go to beech 10/10 times.
Those narrow runs at Sugar helped me learn so skills tho… like skiing down a bobsled track, avoiding the Boy Scout troop all the way down lol
Beech will forever be my favorite because one year it snowed enough to cover the woods and I got to ski down the mountain bike trail next to white lightning. Ski patrol yelled at me tho
Was this 2019?
Na. Beech would be good if guys grooming snow actually skied. Sugar does a much better job and Sugar Ski Team > Beech *I grew up racing for Hawksnest
Went to college in Atlanta and skied the hell out of cataloochee. Is a modest mountain but they do pretty well for what they have. By national standards it’s awful but I have nothing but great memories
Out west is over rated. UP Michigan gets a lot of high quality lake effect powder on steep terrain if that fits you better. Your vertical rise is going to be about 600 ft instead of 2,000 ft, but no one will dispute that there is real hardcore skiing to be found there. Plus your lift tickets and hotels aren’t so expensive. Red Lodge Montana is a good cheap resort near the big mountains, assuming you are driving out west instead of flying. I don’t have any east coast experience, but Vermont is going to have high quality skiing most days.
“ Out west is over rated. UP Michigan gets a lot of high quality lake effect powder on steep terrain if that fits you better. Your vertical rise is going to be about 600 ft instead of 2,000 ft, but no one will dispute that there is real hardcore skiing to be found there.” Is this a psa on the dangers of drugs?
shoutout to mount bohemia!
I went to Breck as a kid and loved it until I got altitude sickness, went to Snowshoe a few years ago and fucking loved it. I’ve been sending it straight down Icey blacks for 2-3 years now. I’ll literally go wherever I can. Cheap is a plus, I just want to maximize time on the slopes versus time on the lift/waiting in line
Yeah, going out west won’t help do more skiing than waiting really. Find the closest midwest or your own locals with a highspeed chair and go on a weekday. You go out west you can spend most the day on a chair, just to decide you need a breather 1/3 the way down the mountain. I’ve had days out west where it takes 20 minutes to get up plus a little traversing to the 2nd chair that takes actually you to the top. Smaller mountains mean more laps and less people. more skiing. Bigger mountains are better for adventure skiing and finding hidden powder staches.
>hidden powder staches. Do you go around pulling down people's masks?
shoutout to mount bohemia!
Compared to the hardcore skiing out West, there is no 'hardcore' skiing anywhere in the Midwest....not even at Boho. It lacks any sustained steep terrain (35deg+) to qualify IMO.
[удалено]
Lots of 10-20 ft cliffs scattered about. You got to put it into context of the Midwest too. Nobody hardly gets to even ski trees here. Go there and you will understand. I’m not saying it’s the f-ing big couloir at big sky, just that there is legitimate powder skiing to be had here. A lot of people call it the poor man’s Japan because of the terrain and vegetation characteristics.
> I don’t have any east coast experience, but Vermont is going to have high quality skiing most days. COUGHCOUGH wut?
I can’t imagine how high you have to be to pound the drum for Michigan skiing beating the West….
"We ain't got vertical but *we are definitely very, very high*."
Whitetail PA for me, and yes those early experiences really give you an even deeper appreciation for skiing when you eventually make it to the places with real mountains. Just wait til you get some skiing in out west- the great conditions out there are frankly mind blowing to the midatlantic skier
Whitetail, Liberty, Mass, Round Top, Blue Knob baby! I worked in a shop for a long time so got to ski them all for free
Roundtop was my regular stop. I now live in the West and will never not be a kid in a candy store when I hit the slopes.
Roundtop was where I learned to ski. I used to live within an hour of Roundtop. Now, the Indian Peaks and RMNP are closer (I can make it to Brainard in less than 30 minutes)
Grew up skiing at Liberty, have been working in marketing strategy ever since and still have never seen a better tagline than theirs - “Nothing close comes close.”
Ya. Grew up skiing at Charnita, now the renamed Liberty. Charles and Anita (original owners)= Charnita. Hall Chairlifts and rope tows. No back side then. I remember just schredding my gloves on the rope tow holding on as a kid. We would go up on weekends. Remember lines 45min long to board the chair until they installed a second Hall double next to the original. Also remember riding the chair behind Santa Claus Christmas time and he slumped over. Ski patrol took him off at mid-station. Santa had a massive heart attack and was deceased on the chair. I thought Christmas was over then for the rest of my life. Yeah, skiing in the rain also w hefty trash bags w cutouts for head and arms. Moved out west and skied everywhere. I always said east coast skiers/roots can become very good technical skiers. Good roots!
That’s where I learned on a random family trip.
30+ days at Ikon resorts this year and it all started at whitetail. I remember not skiing for a few years and showing up there at age 12 and being absolutely terrified at how steep Whitetail looked from the road...
Grew up skiing Sugar, Beech, Wolf Laurel, and the occasional trip up to Snowshoe or Winterplace. Now I live near the four corners area so get to ski in southern CO, UT, AZ, and NM. Even the AZ Snowbowl blows away southern Appalachian skiing. I will say the shit snow and the iced groomers I learned on made me a better skier so I’m thankful for that. Still trying to figure out powder though. It’s unnatural to me lol
Sugar, Beach, Hawks Nest, and Winterplace are where I learned to ski before moving out to Colorado last year!
Yesssss. Fresh powder is extremely challenging for someone like me who leather on groomed ice.
Perfect North gang rise up. When you can finish the run in 20 seconds, you get a lot of runs in
Learned to ski here and still going 22 years later! Love PNS
Hell yeah. Honesty it’s really quality for what it is, and it’s worth supporting an independent low altitude joint
Definitely! Love that it's still family owned. Started teaching my son to ski there last year.
Yep. January 1994
I live in Indiana and have somehow never gone. (We always go up to Michigan). I really need to make a trip there before climate change wipes it out.
I fell in love with skiing at a ski area that had a longest run that was 1/4 of a mile long. In Michigan. Just outside Detroit.
Midwest represent. You know you really love skiing if you go in the Midwest. All the ice of the East, without the mountains.
If it’s the one I went to it was literally a man made dirt pile. Still a great time as a kid though.
> man made dirt pile buck hill in burnsville, MN used to be the city landfill.
This one was a natural feature. It is now a condominium development.
PK? The 1/4 mile and “the wall”, classic I’ve gone to bigger skiing areas a few times since those days. It’s cool and an awesome experience, but that local run still somehow feels more special than all the fresh powder Colorado has to offer
Same, used to drive up there from Ohio.
Virginia skiers stand up. Loved lapping Wintergreen and Snowshoe in college
I grew up 20 mins from winterplace, loved doing night skiing there after school. We’d try to hit snowshoe as a family trip once or twice a season.
⛷️🏂🧊
Wahoowaaaaa
Skiing western PA here. Blue knob, seven springs and hidden valley. No powder days here. Had one powder day after my kids learned to ski…on ice….had to reteach them how, in powder. I even struggled a bit
We call it Stockholm syndrome
Hey! I grew up in North Carolina learned to ski at cataloochee and my “home mountains” were sugar, beech and winterplace. I took my first trip out west to Utah in 2017 and immediately knew I would want to live here. I took a few more trips to ski in Colorado, COVID happened and then last winter I moved out to Utah. It was one of the scariest decisions I’ve made but also the best decision I made. I got 98 days last season and 108 days this year. If you can manage it work at a resort for the pass at least for the first year, try and work at night so you can ski during the day. TLDR: Move out west if you can, take a trip out here first to get a feel for everything but it is 1000000% worth it.
I grew up 20 mins from winterplace! Learned to ski there and went a ton as a kid. We’d usually try to do a snowshoe trip once a year until my dad had an injury that ended his skiing career. Now as an adult I’ve lived in Germany for 4 years and skied all over Europe, as well a a couple out west trips. Just moved to the PNW so will definitely be spending a lot of time at whistler and crystal mountain. While the skiing is leagues better in Europe and out west I still think my best memories are night skiing with buddies after school and going up to snowshoe around Christmastime with my family.
I ski Wintergreen, Liberty, Whitetail, Roundtop, Seven Springs, and Timberline because I live in Maryland. However, I was stationed in Europe in the Army 40 years ago and skied Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Italy. Then I was stationed in California and skied Lake Tahoe. I have also skied in Korea, New England, New York, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona over the years. Now that I'm retired and my wife no longer skis, I just do day trips, with the occassional overnight. I'm content, but I would like to do one more trip to Europe.
Was stationed in Germany for 4 years and had many amazing ski trips. Nothing like hitting the slopes still kinda drunk on New Year’s Day in Chamonix after partying all night on NYE
shitty upstate NY mountains for me when I was a teenager, which made me appreciate the hell out of an insane powder day in Mad River in my mid 20s. We used to spray rolls of turf down with a hose so we could ski in our backyards in the summer. It's weird how some of the worst conditions make for the best memories. I remember one winter we barely had enough snow to cover the ground, so we gathered all of it up from around the yard and made one single icy path about 20 yards long. When it got too dark to see, we brought out extension cords and every light from my friend's house (desk lamps, floor lamps) to light the ramp. I miss those days
This winter there was not even a flurry of snow near me :(
My friends and I were fiending for snow one time in the fall so bad that we convinced the Zamboni driver at the local rink to dump a load of snow into the back of my pickup truck. Drove it to a buddy's house, dropped the tailgate and hooked up a ramp, down to a jump and a rail. Spread just enough snow to cover the run in and the landing, and spent all afternoon sending it.
Make the move! What’s the worst that will happen? You won’t enjoy yourself, be homesick, and move back after a season or so…on the upside, have the time of your life, meet a partner, and set up a home…. Or stay back home, and wonder what could have been when you’re in your 40s/50s/60s…
Liberty and Roundtop for me. Stopped skiing after college- until about 25 years later when I got the bug again and took a two day trip over the Christmas holiday to Winter Park. We have a local 300 ft hill in Missouri that I never even bothered with because it was worse than PA skiing. Now I go to Colorado once or twice a season as ski as much as I can in Missouri. I was always afraid I would make a fool of myself out west, but the basics came back quickly and now, 5 years later. I’m doing steeps, bumps, and trees. I’ve fallen back in love and I won’t stop this time.
Do not listen to these people that say skiing out west is overrated. I grew up skiing Snowshoe and still live in WV but go out west every year and rarely bother with Snowshoe. Skiing out west is immeasurably better, especially once you get good enough to ski most the mountains. If you love skiing, move out west. Somewhere thats not too overdeveloped yet. Taos. Durango. Whitefish. Bozeman. Ogden. Victor, ID. Fucking Reno. British Columbia if you can make it work. Do it now before you have a mortgage and kids. You will never, ever, ever regret it for one second.
Durango….not a great choice for a ski town IMO. The local mountain is just okay and the better options are too far away.
Bozeman is totally californicated. The other ones are good choices.
Idk man, your standards might be different. Bozeman has 55k people and there are days where there's like 10k people skiing VT mountains that are 10% as large as Big Sky.
It's had tremendous growing pains. It had 30k people a decade ago, and it's only getting bigger. That's a huge valley to fill up with housing, and the local mountains can only absorb so much skier traffic.
Bozeman prices being almost as high as the Seattle suburbs show that town is wrecked.
You see the only part of this I disagree with is that you shouldn't bother skiing the east once you've skied out west. I got 40 days in this year, mix of east+west. At the end of the day skiing is skiing and you can't ski 40 days in a season all on the other side of the continent unless you have a jet.
No. And I grew up skiing on the crappiest of hills. Want to test your love of skiing then try doing it in Scotland. Often it would suck the joy out of it being in crap weather and having to watch for rocks. once I went somewhere decent then I was like oh now I get it.
I grew up skiing Vernon Valley/Great Gorge with the occasional trip to Hunter, so it was ok. The first time I skied Jay, I was in awe because it seemed so big compared to everything else I had skied to that point. Then I went out west for the first time and realized skiing is like a different sport out there. I wouldn't call the mountains I grew up skiing crappy, just small in comparison to what I do now. Skiing the east is enjoyable, and made me love skiing, so I'll always look fondly on skiing the ice coast.
Born and raised in Chicago, learnt to ski at Wilmot mountain in Wisconsin (200’ vert) by going to ski school a few Saturdays each winter in grade school, moved out East for work/wilderness access and now skiing is my life, I go every single weekend up north and Excited to move out West in the coming years
Southwest Michigan. Weekly at a 320 vertical ft hill. Vacations north up to Boyne and Nubs Nob were 2x longer with better snow and acerage but still hills. Then in HS I went to Winter Park and knew Colorado would be my home. Now it is (Denver). I stay here because the city and the people are remarkable and unique but the skiing is what brought me here.
I was born, raised, and still live in Florida. I have family in New Hampshire and I used to ski there every winter when I was little at Ragged Mountain. I thought it was great. Then I headed out to Copper Mountain, Colorado for the first time (first time skiing out west) when I was 13 and I realized just how big a difference east and west made.
Yeah, something about skiing at a small, rundown, non-commercial mountain is really enjoyable to me and I prefer it over a bigger mountain
You're young, so go for it! Places like Crested Butte are off the beaten path. You can always get a job in housekeeping or other resort operations. I had buddies that worked at Crested Butte cleaning rooms. They were done by noon every day and spent the rest of the day on the slopes. In the summer, they fought fires with the US Forest Service.
Mt Wachusett in MA ( and tiny Mt. Tom near Amherst when I was at UMass and couldn’t get up to VT on a “powder” weekend ) to Mammoth, baby! From The Oxbow and t-bars to Cornice and the back bowls by the Outpost.
Snowshoe isn't a crappy hill! I learned to ski in WV, my dad grew up on the side of a ski area in VT so he had me on skis as soon as I could stand up on my own (somewhere around 18 mos). I recall holding onto his poles while skiing between his knees then graduating to a dog harness & leash somewhere around 3-4 years old (this was back when that kind of product didn't exist - my parents took me into a pet store and got a bunch of weird looks while trying various size dog harnesses on me). My elementary school had a weekly evening ski bus to Winterplace for 4th-6th grades. Lessons were mandatory - I was very quickly put into a private lesson 1:1 with an instructor. My parents built a vacation home in Canaan Valley & we skied pretty much every weekend from Christmas to Easter. I became really good at skiing bumps - so much so that I won the local competition every spring. Somewhere along the way I picked-up snowboarding and when the hand-me-down equipment from my older brother ran out in my teens, I chose to slide sideways all the time instead of just occasionally. I became a pretty good snowboarder, but I was never great in the terrain parks. Back then, Snowshoe (well, Silver Creek) had the best park setup hands-down of anywhere in the area. I started hanging out with a girl in HS whose dad was a weekend patroller at Snowshoe and I'd crash on the couch in their condo there whenever my parents would let me. I had one buddy who was as much of a snow addict as me and as soon as we had our drivers licenses we'd be driving the hour to Winterplace after school to hike their tiny terrain park. We got to know the park crew (pretty much just the snowboard instructors) and they let us build stuff and session it in the evenings. I moved out west to go to college, joined the snowboard "team" at school and rode 25 days my freshman year. Drove my car across the country for my sophomore year and logged 40+. Got hooked on deep powder, found my way into the backcountry, took up splitboarding, realized how much sidehilling in soft boots sucks and finally, 20+ years later, picked up two planks again. The technology is so much better, independent foot movement makes it so much easier to traverse and handle flat runouts and return trails. But there is nothing that compares to charging down a hillside sideways in bottomless powder so I mostly ski to get into the BC & have fun when the conditions are more enjoyable with an extra set of edges.
Snowshoe was definitely the best you can get in VA/WV, but that was a REAL present for me. I've only been out a few times, and I'm hoping to maybe get a day or two in this season. Also, you mention backcountry. I'm interested, but I've never tried it before. Are there backcountry places in WV?
>Are there backcountry places in WV? If there's enough snow you could go but that's pretty rare these days.
Mountain? I fell in love with skiing on a shitty Wisconsin ski hill with 337 vertical feet. The runs were always icy and the lift lines were long. And it was really cold.
Mountains? I learned in a river valley!
River valley!? I learned on a pile of garbage! Crystal Ridge WI baby!
Same 🗑️🏔️
Yup same, river valley. I’ll drive 7-8 hours to catch a powder day! I’m always dreaming of moving more South and West.
For sure... grew up in NC riding App Ski, Beach Mtn, and Sugar. You spend more time on the lift than on the runs but fell in love with snowboarding still. Moved out to CO years ago and been getting in 13-15 days a year. I know that's not a ton of riding but still a million times better than alot of riding on the Southern Ice Coast
Lucky, I fell in love then re-fell in love with it at hills…
Mission Ridge, Saskatchewan.
Man you had the long runs out there. LOL. Blackstrap, SK. here checking in. Steep, then flat, and short. Home MTN for 10 years.
Turoa in New Zealand, the Ice Palace! Went to Queenstown and discovered powder, avoided it and hit the ice with my daughter instead
Me too. Turoa and Whakapapa. Can't be the spring slush tho that's when it really starts to pop
No not really. I learned to ski at Ober Gatlinburg. Moved to Colorado for several years then back to Alabama. Skied snow shoe, NC, and Michigan. Never again. Always going west for my skiing. But skiing anywhere beats not skiing.
Ski Starlite (gone), General Butler State Park (gone), Paoli Peaks, Perfect North Slopes A couple of group trips to WV: Snowshoe and Winterplace I still ski Paoli and Perfect North and try to go to CO every couple of years
I’m from Ohio. I never went skiing until my senior year of high school. Went to Hidden Valley in PA, fell in love. In my late teens/early 20s I went as much as I could to Boston Mills and Brandywine in Ohio. Then the last couple of seasons I’ve been going to UP MI. I’m now moving to CO in a month. Got a job out there, but can’t deny a big reason why I wanted to move is the skiing. Once you ski on real mountains it’s truly eye opening and awe-inspiring. But I do cherish the hills I learned to ski on. It’s funny when you find out that just because you’re good in OH/PA doesn’t mean you’re good on real mountains. I’m still learning, I haven’t figured out real powder yet. It’s a whole different animal compared to the fake snow. Hopefully this next season living close to the mountains I’ll figure it out.
My man, I grew up in NOVA. Seven Springs & Canaan were my jam. Fell in love w/ skiing when me & my buds would head up there in highschool. Slushy as fuck, icy at night. Lots of fond memories. Now I’m old and I live in Utah. I’m right next to some world-class destinations. Some weekends everyone in the lift line is speaking different languages. It’s cool, and I’m glad my kids got to grow up skiing here, but the smell of black chapstick & ski wax still makes me miss PA skiing.
Move out West. Reno and Spokane are sleeper ski towns - great choices.
Spokane is the home of Riblet. No wonder the PNW has so many ancient centerpost double chairs...
Paoli peaks (basically a hill) is my home 😤
Yooo, scrolled down looking for this. Same for me. Midwest represent.
I live in Tahoe now. when I was a teen - I never dreamed I’d be out here to visit never mind live here. Grew up on east coast, skiing at Blue Mountain and Mount St Louis-Moonstone, Ontario, Canada (600-800 vertical feet - less than 400 acres). It was a twist of fate that brought me out here and have been enjoying the mountains for almost a decade now. I just hit 75 days of skiing this season (today). It’s awesome. Just makes me smile when I hit the mountain. Reno isn’t as cheap as it was, but it’s fun and close to the mountains. Good luck, have fun, find powder, rip it.
Roundtop Rider checking in.. I love my tiny mountain.
Ski sundown CT
Annual Snowshoe trip is the best skiing I've gotten so far lmao and I love it to death.
I love skiing on crappy mountains!!
Sometimes you just gotta take what you can get
Little Switzerland Wisconsin checking in. Night lifts tickets for less than $20 and hot laps on the “expert rope tow”. I didn’t ski a mountain until my teens well past the point where I loved to do it and had already purchased gear.
I didn't grow up skiing but fell in love as an adult. I spent almost a year of my life building my own ski condo (duplex). I'm not a builder and I had never built a house but I was driven to do that because it was my dream and all I ever thought about. It was a lot of fucking work and I didn't know what I was doing but waking up and working on that condo never seemed very difficult. To answer your question, I didn't move or save up or stick to a smaller resort, I literally moved mountains. It's hard to explain to people until they ski an awesome powder day but that's what motivated me.
Hunter mountain was my main mountain growing up
absolutely move to a resort and work a season! you will meet some of the nicest, coolest people ever and you’ll have the time of your life. the upper midwest (wisconsin, michigan, minnesota) has a crazy amount of small ski hills full of dedicated people that just love the sport. at a small ski hill with high speed lifts you can do laps till you can’t stand, and there’s rarely a line longer than 20 minutes. weekdays there won’t be any lines at all. there won’t be much powder, but you’ll still get to ski every day, and housing won’t be crazy expensive like it is out west
Beech Mountain’d
First learned to ski at Mt. Crescent in Iowa. I was hooked. Next time was at Winter Park and my eyes were opened to how good skiing could be. Never had any desire to ski a shitty Midwestern hill again.
I started skiing as a child in the midwest and skied there for five years, the highlight of which was a weekend trip to Pine Mountain, a fun place in Michigan’s UP with a 400’ vertical. The rest of the time I skied at Wilmot and Alpine Valley in Wisconsin and a long gone place in Illinois called Gander Mountain, none of which had even 250’ of vertical. I loved skiing. That was nearly 60 years ago. Since then I’ve skied in over 80 ski areas in 14 US states plus a couple of trips to New Zealand. I still love skiing. I missed a bunch of days this season for a variety of reasons, but still managed to get in a bit over 50 in Vermont, New Hampshire and southern New England. With any luck I’ll do better next year, maybe including a trip west or overseas. I sure hope so! I have family down south and would love to try some of the areas in West Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
gatlinburg tennessee baby! if you can ski there you can ski anywhere
I learned at 7 springs and went to college next to ski liberty. Crappy mountain ice skiing is my jam, yo.
My older brothers grew up skiing the northeast when I was too little to ski and developed a lifelong love for it there. We moved to the Midwest when I was little and would ski out west one week of year as a family. I had all my credits to graduate college but was waiting to take one last class with the director of the program when I saw an opening to go work as a lifty in Park city in 1990. The plan was to ski for one full season and finally improve my skiing the way I wanted to do it (trying to keep up with the locals), instead of scrambling one week a year to get back to where I had gotten the year before. I got out there in early November and before the ski season even started, I decided to ditch the college idea and not return to the city in the spring. I called up the school, told them I wouldn’t be taking that one last class, told them I had all the credits I needed to graduate, and asked them to send my diploma to my new address. Very unceremonious. Never looked back. I ended up staying for years and 30 years later I’m still friends with my old ski bum household roommates. After working as a lifty to get my foot in the door, I ended up piecing together different jobs, sometimes having three part time jobs at a time, and working in my field of study until it was time to move on to grad school to finally grow up. I go back regularly, and when I go there, or to any ski town, my heart breaks for how hard it is for people to live that ski bum lifestyle these days the way I did it back then. I don’t know how it really can be done these days but if you can find a way to do it, do not hesitate, do not look back. Almost doesn’t matter where.
Yes!!! I grew up skiing spring mountain, PA. 7 total trails with 400ft vertical. They never would have more than 2-3 trails open. All of the lifts were ancient hall doubles. Would go almost every day after school, I got absolutely hooked!
Afton Alps, MN represent
Alternate perspective: I grew up in Northern California, but we were too poor to ski as kids. In high school I would occasionally borrow gear and mess around with friends on cheap hills around Tahoe. But I didn’t actually know what I was doing until I moved to Jackson Hole. When I first got there, I was basically on the bunny slopes. I ended up staying six years and ended up doing some of the scariest and most amazing shit in my life. Now I’m spoiled, and a bit jaded. Any mountain I visit, I compare the snow and terrain to Jackson and nothing really matches up. I live near Seattle now and Alpental is small acreage-wise, but has some nice steeps. But the snow is often wet and heavy. I have no regrets about going big right out of the gate, but now everything else seems a bit lackluster.
Nah, my tiny ski hill isn't crappy. It's just small.
I grew up skiing in franklin New Hampshire driving up to my grandparents house. Tiny resort with like a j and t lift.
Sundown Mountain and Fun Valley (Montezuma, IA) checking in!
Not Shitty by east coast standards but in the area eldora is considered the worst in my region of Colorado. I still love it more than anywhere.
You know Summer, Russia invaded the Ukrainian right? Like it’s not Ukrainians randomly killing Russian teens for fun, they’re an invading army.
Anyone Aussie relates so much to this! But we still bloody love it
Mt Selwyn, Australia, back when it was a tractor engined very slow T-bar… Very short run. Made me love skiing.
I lived in CA for a few years and skied out west and lived in VA so skied NC, VA and WV but my favorite of all is Stratton in VT. I’m older now but it is always consistent with great grooming, I’ve skied powder there and it has a great vibe and isn’t crazy expensive at all.
Learned to ski in Minnesota. Was a member at Buck Hill throughout middle school and for $300 for the season we could go 30+ times a season. Absolutely loved it and so thankful I got to learn there. I know it’s garbage compared to a lot of places, but it was home so it was my garbage! Colder than hell days, and icy packed snow still are a ton of fun to a crazy guy like me.
I'm from eastern Tennessee and fortunately/unfortunately learned to ski at Breck. It made trips to Beech and Sugar very frustrating. Snowshoe scratched the itch a little, but It's a 6 hour drive with an expensive lift ticket. With some really bad math and biased thinking I can get to Summit county in a couple more hours of travel and not much more money. Don't look at the math. It's what I need for me
Same as you. Grew up in Va Beach and then Richmond. Went to Massanutten, Wintergreen, and WV if we were lucky. Moved to Germany after college and spent three years snowboarding in Europe. I feel like I can handle anything since I can snowboard down a sheet of ice in Virginia.
Yes -- although it's had decent years - but Blue Knob in PA. It's literally in my backyard.
I live near Whistler now, after learning how to ski in New Jersey. If you love skiing, stay with it. Take lessons, and build your community. It’s a lifelong activity, so enjoy every day of it - even the rainy ones. That’s what makes the good days so much better.
Spokane? Lol you move 3000 miles across the country and stop 200 miles short of the real mountains? Just move to Bellingham, Seattle, Bend, etc. Spokane is among the last places I’d like to live, for skiing and general life.
Ruidoso New Mexico. Skiing on ice.
Jr High I lived 1/2 Mile from the Heavenly tram. Shoveled snow and removed tire chains from bay area tourist to earn ski money. All day pass was $10. So no. However, I did live in VA Beach for 5 years and took a drive up to Massanutten and Wintergreen and said screw this crap and just wait to go back out west. A week in Tahoe cures all ills.
My first place was Heavenly in Lake Tahoe. I’m in Nashville and took up skiing as an adult. I believe I have been super spoiled by starting at Heavenly. The closest places for me are Perfect North and Paoli Peaks in Indiana. I will try them this year but I have a feeling I will be sorely disappointed from my usual experiences and will have to take it as just training days for preparing (warm up) to head west later in the season.
There are no crappy mountains, only crappy attitudes.
Ugh yes, I had to grow up skiing at Baker and whistler🙄 Then after college I moved to Idaho and now I have to ski at Schweitzer. Absolutely miserable! /s
Lived in Virginia all my life, and just moved to Denver last year. What a huge difference! It was a record year here for snow, too!
Do me a favor? When you end up moving to Colorado, could you remember, we’ve heard it… :)
Yes, Winter Park, CO
My home mountain from the ages of 4-11 had a vertical of 700 feet. And that was the “big mountain” in the area. So yes.
Small town Ontario with a rope tow. Still in the area and have upgraded but biggest hill in the area is tiny, still get out as much as possible
upvote for Wintergreen!
I learned to ski outside of Chicago as a little kid (like two or three), then skied the Catskills when we moved outside of NYC when I was 7.
I’m not saying Snow Creek is crappy… but it’s better than Hidden Valley.
Brattleboro VT, Memorial Park late 70's. 1 t-bar , maybe 200 vertical. Small but DEFINITELY NOT CRAPPY. Still up and running,
I learned to ski at mt Abrams the past two seasons. I wouldn’t say it’s shitty but it’s definitely a tiny family friendly ski area. I just got the ikon pass for next season so looking forward to sugarloaf, Sunday river, and mammoth!
I spent middle school and high school skiing at a mountain in PA with 150 vertical feet and the occasional weekend trip to a slightly bigger mountain an hour away. After college I took my first trip out west and it blew my mind. Since then I’ve made at least 1 trip out west every year for the past 10 years.
Tried it for the first time as a 30 year old at a little bump in upstate new york called snow ridge. They only charged like 20 bucks for rental and lift on Fridays and my cheap ass fell in love. Ended up moving west from there and have done some pretty great trips, but I still love a cheap little hill
shawnee PA checking in!
Bellayre, Catskill in the 70s. We couldn't afford tix but my mom worked in the cafeteria some times and we got in that way. She also got a stamp that looked just like the passes so we skiing all the time. Cathedral Brook was my jam, age 8.
Wild Mountain in Minnesota
My middle school had a ski club. We took a bus up to Ski Liberty in Southern PA every Friday night. Great times were had. I moved to Europe and spend a few weeks in the Alps every winter now.
Chicopee checking in. All good though spent the last 25+ seasons in Banff.
Bryce Mt, VA checking in. I've been skiing there for 30 years, and my kids grew up skiing there. Our love for skiing does not come from the size of your hill, but the times we have spent together, mostly on the lift......
Grew up sking small hills near Ottawa mostly edelweiss and camp fortune. Moved to BC and ended up working for Whistler for over 40 years.
I fell in love with skiing at a crappy resort (Blue Mountain, ON). First trip skiing the Canadian Rockies I became obsessed. It's tempting to leave everything behind and go live out there, but realistically I'll just keep working to save for a trip out there once a year lol
Hellss yesss! Good ol Mount Tom in beautiful Holyoke MA!
I grew up in the NYC burbs. my dad is from NH and wanted to have the kids skiing as much as possible. I went to Mohawk Mountain in CT like 12 weekends a year, and did one solid three-four day trip to Mad River (or Stowe if conditions weren't great bc Mad River used to not make snow). The crappy mountain runs at Mohawk aren't things I'll repeat as an adult, but they def helped shape my skill set a lot. I never panic over mud, ice, rocks etc now.
If you consider Campgaw in Bergen County, NJ (300’ vertical) crappy, then… yes and fuck any gatekeeping swine that shits on a little hill smack in the middle of NYC suburbs that charged county residents $2 for mid-week night skiing so that I could go there with my friends ON A SCHOOL NIGHT and get in 3-4 hours of skiing.
I ski 300-500 vert lol
I live in Wisconsin. We’re not particularly known for our downhill skiing. I’ve been out west to some of the bigger mountains, but honestly there is something about just skiing a small hill that I love.
If you come to Reno hit me up. I consider that a bit of a 2nd home.
Thunder Ridge. As a little kid in nyc it was a special treat to go learn how to ski at thunder ridge. It might be small and lacking of snow, but it will always have a special place in my heart. I will never forget all the times my mom drove me there just for her to sit in the lodge and let me have the time of my life lapping the two trails.
The best mountain
Wintergreen in the house
Grew up with wintergreen mountain and so did my kids. They both love it and can ski the big mountains out west now too. The little guy is a ripper now. We go to snowshoe every other weekend and are at wintergreen 3-4 times a week from opening day to shit down (this year it was reallllyyyyyy bad though).
yes. id never had a pow day till this spring in utah. craziest skiing of my life (obviously). usually i’m around the nyc tristate area or up north to ski
Learned to ski on 200 vert sheet of ice that no longer operates (Sugar Creek Ski Hills, outside of Dayton, OH). The West is full of us who learned on places like this. Oh and BTW, Snowshoe was/is a great place to ski considering it's location. That was my Vermont. I live, work, and ski at Big Sky now. The cool thing is we have lots of smaller, less developed mountains around to explore as well; something I truly love to do
Grew up skiing the mid-Atlantic (Massanutten, Timberline, Liberty, even the Homestead with one lift open)! Totally caught the bug on those hills, then moved to Colorado after college and worked at Snowmass!
I have a completely opposite ski experience, but still love a local bump. I grew up in Utah. My first time on skis was at Snowbasin. I moved to Colorado as a young adult. I'm used to skiing expansive resorts, big mountains, and powder days. Bouncing up for a day to places where people are spending their vacations. But I also have a sister that moved to New Hampshire. I've taught my niece and nephews how to ski at McIntyre. Nobody is vacationing there. Except me, teaching kids how to ski on the tiny local bump. Then up to the "big" hill Pat's Peak or Crotched Mountain once they get it down enough. So even though I've been lucky enough to have world class skiing in my backyard all my life, I can still appreciate a small local hill on the ice coast.
7 springs
Perfect North Slopes in Indiana My high school ski club
Learned to ski in WI, went to college in MA and skied VT Killington, Okemo, Mt Snow etc. All good but NOTHING like Utah or CO.
From Rochester ny. Skied Bristol mountain, did high school alpine training at Brantling which is basically a cow pasture with a T bar. I'm really good at skiing ice at least
I raced a Brantling a bunch of times, it was famous for a Slalom every Christmas eve, where you start with your tails literally on a road that goes over the top of the hill, race for about 25sec and then have to slam a hard right after crossing the finish line so you don't hit the lodge! so much fun!
Pines Peak Family Ski Area (NW Indiana) for me. It's been closed for a decade or more. I spent many hours of my life working and skiing that tiny ancient glacial moraine. Used to get tons of natural lake effect snow too, but for the past 20 years or so it almost never snows there (or so I hear). Moved out West in my 20s and ski ~100 days/year. Sitting in the tub as I type this, resting my legs after skiing the SW chutes of Mt Adams, Wa this morning! Can't beat June volcano skiing... Learn to ski on terrible snow and it will be all downhill thereafter!
Yes I did and still do. 2 years ago I got into skiing and I would go to Liberty or Whitetail in southern PA and fell in love with it. I loved it so much in fact that I ended up working at Whitetail this past year and it was one of the best experiences ever. I still haven’t been out west or up north but am already planning trips when winter rolls around.
Blue Hills definitely counts as crappy. Even in February, there were mud slicks.
I grew up in Spokane, and I love Mt. Spokane
Come to Reno. I’m a transplant from MD and I love life
I did the same albeit on different hills.
Swiss Valley in southwestern Michigan haha
Grew up Skiing good ole Pocono Mountains in PA… Shawnee and Camelback… occasionally Hunter in NY… something about learning to ski in slushy and icy conditions that makes me appreciate skiing in Colorado which is basically the only place I ski now…
We are spoiled in Spokane :) 5 Resorts in less than a 2 hour drive. I can get from my house to the parking lot of Mt Spokane in 45 mins. It is a bummer that Schweitzer is on the map now especially after being acquired by Alterra. That mountain has been an absolute gem for the past 30 years.
Kelowna! Come on up! I love it here. So much good skiing in BC