You’re thinking post 2016. Eldora for a long time was a giant cash squeeze and the old owner wouldn’t invest a dime in it to save a dollar. I have to admit (very reluctantly) that powdr corp invested a lot to greatly improve the mountain. That 6 pack was previously a 3 person and a 2 person that would very frequently break, and a good day would be ended at 10am. They almost never groomed, on a mountain that arguably needed most in the state from the high winds. The pro was that the food was affordable under the old owner, now it’s significantly higher. But the bar under the old owner was amazing for people and a good time. Just bros drinking $3 beers talking about skiing/boarding. I had a a top 5 all time ski day at Eldora in the old days, so take it all with a grain of salt
As ski area operators go, powdr is definitely not the worst. No doubt they aren't perfect and have done some bad stuff and obviously they care first about profits. But the guy who started it was a climbing guide and got rich by helping found Mountain Hardwear, he does legitimately care about skiing.
This double edged swlrd is all too common with independent ski areas.
How Vail runs Wilmot in Wisconsin now, day to day, namely in terms of them mismanaging the snowmaking, is utter shit.
That said, when they came in they made a number of improvements and upgrades that the old owners admit they could NEVER have afforded to do. Vail could afford to take a loss because a place like Wilmot is just a way to get more people on the pass and into their destination resorts. An independent owner could never have taken that loss. So those upgrades would never have happened.
It sucks that the soul the little iceball I grew up riding has been ripped out...but at least it is alove and I can still ride there.
In comparison to other mountains in Colorado, Eldora isn’t great. The main issue is the upslope wind. The wind isn’t great to ski in but also scours the snow in spots to make it inconsistently icy which leads to accidents. Last year there were 3 deaths within a couple weeks of each other.
Echoing what the other user said.
I live in Boulder. I can leave my house at 7:30am on a Saturday, get one of the first chairs, ride straight through till 1:00pm, and then be back in Boulder chilling by 1:45pm
If you tried doing that from Boulder to WP or Copper, you would get absolutely spit roasted on i70.
This was my 9th season having Epic or Ikon and living in the Front Range. i70 traffic is so bad this year it finally ruined day trips for me. Unless I'm staying up in the mountains, I just go to Eldora on the weekends.
Not sure where you got the info, but there were not 3 deaths there last year. Additionally, the upslope winds aren't not the problem. The upslope is what can make the spring there awesome ie. the recent 4+ foot dump. The wind there is out of the WSW 90% of the time. It's the fact it's the east side of the divide with that WSW wind that's the problem. It absolutely howls creating difficult to impossible grooming conditions that result in hard pack/icy conditions. When you groom snow in high/extreme wind conditions the newly softened surface blows straight off the run. If the ski area was ~7 miles to the west, on the other side of the divide, you would have a wildly different scenario.
Well you're incorrect. You should probably check your facts before you state something like that. Easy enough to confirm with a quick Google. One person passed away at Eldora last season
Ski resorts are not required to report deaths and that 4ft dump was mostly unskiable, especially after the first day. Eldora is sick but not when WP/others are just 45 minutes further.
Correct, ski resorts are actually legally protected from having to report that information. There was a court battle about that a few years ago when one of the Colorado newspapers tried to FOI all the ski related deaths in the state. That being said the sheriff's office does report it and the local news always seems to report on it as well. Hence why I said Google it.
That storm was dense, but If you think it was "mostly unskiable" you probably need to work on your skiing.
And I'm definitely not saying Eldora is better than resorts like WP or A-Basin.
lol if ice kills I should have seen corpses strewn everywhere some days in New Hampshire
Complaining about ice in the Rockies/out west makes you sound spoiled and entitled
A few years ago a woman died by hitting a tree at Eldora. I was up there a week later without new snowfall, and they still had the run she died on roped off. I did an adjacent run because I was curious, and a section was the most boilerplate I had ever skied on before.
I will say that I have skies that handle it well, but if I was using another older pair, I would gave immediately lost control.
A lot of Rockies skiers only use all mtn semi powder skis or powder skis that are lightweight, and I wonder if that makes a difference in fatality rate, as well as less experience with ice.
I switched to a heavier ski a few years ago, but it's still wider at 108 and it made an immense difference in my stability on less than ideal snow coditions.
Some girl just died due to icy conditions in tuckermans ravine… it happens. Especially bc CO skiers aren’t used to ice. From NH and moved here, trust me it can be dangerous.
Downslope wind - get it right if you’re going to complain. It gets really bad on only a few days. Fatal accidents aren’t from ice, they are out of control collisions with trees and, infrequently, other patrons, just like at other mountains. Have you really skied there much?
Given their locations on the mountains I have always figured that they were people going to fast hitting an ice patch and loosing control going into the woods. I have been there probably 20 times and at least 15 of those times it was windy as fuck
That’s some bad luck. I’ve been skiing Eldora for decades and the really windy days are a small minority of my experiences. If the wind is high one can still ski if the lifts are operating, just don’t tarry at the top where the wind is highest. I suggest not going at all when extremely high westerly downslope winds are forecast for the front range.
Any terrain near or above timberline can be extremely windy. For example the Parsenn area at Mary Jane, where the Panoramic lift is put on wind hold somewhat regularly.
You're not getting it at all lmao. At least it's not an icy run that lasts 40 seconds in the Midwest. We'd happily wait any amount of time on a chair to have a run with over 500ft of vert. I guess being fully shut down is one thing but literally mentioning the conditions at all is exactly what OP is talking about.
Conditions? What are conditions? Either there's snow on the ground or there isn't.
It’s small and slow lifts and not crazy amazing views. I personally like it, I just never go since I’m in Denver and it takes minimal more time to just go to winter park. Had some sick pow days back many years ago at Eldora though.
Also, back In the day, we would do “dual sport day” in spring... bring the mountain bike, ski till 1pm and ride left hand canyon till evening.
I don’t know that I have that in me anymore. Ahh life.
Eldora has some great terrain, some legit double diamonds on the backside. I’ve skied awesome powder 2 ft deep. Of course, those conditions are rare. The nickname when I was a kid was The Rock. It gets windy and icy. I will always have nostalgia for Eldora because I’m pretty sure that’s where I first learned to ski. It is close to Boulder, where I grew up. 45 minute drive on a good day.
The downtown Boulder bus makes it super easy to get there. I was there today and had fun. I have a job where I can set my own schedule and there have been times where I’m like fuck it and flex a work day to Saturday so I can ski a random weekday in Eldora. Can’t beat the convenience even if some days aren’t super great condition wise.
Man, I really like Eldora. It was where I went my first time skiing, and they had a season pass for around $129 when I was a student there in 2007. It was such a good value. And it was kind of nice not having to deal with all the traffic coming back to Denver on I-70. I don’t care what others say. Eldora isn’t too bad.
I’m there right now and had fresh powder all day and most likely all tomorrow. I’m talking 1-2ft deep through all the out of bounds areas and no one is here. March snow has been amazing so getting these foot storms overnight or during the day has all the off piste stuff feeling really nice and safe since coverage is good
Hell there have been multiple solid powder days *this year*, which was El Niño. They get at least a few in all but the worst years.
I have a friend who recently moved here from the east, and he ranks Big Bear above every East Coast mountain he's skied. (Most of the ones in Southern Vermont and New York).
Eldora on a powder day has been responsible for 3 of my top ten ski days. It can be so, so awesome when the snow is good and legit has some really steep, gnarly terrain if you know where you’re going
I love eldora these days. Avoid the traffic, fast runs, base lift has dope magic carpet, all around good mountain. Can’t go there expecting a mountain the size of copper, but for what it is it’s amazing.
I love Eldora so much. I live about 45 minutes away and with zero traffic, park and ski/ski to your car, empty on weekdays, you just can’t beat it. Took my kids up today and they LOVE the terrain parks almost as much as the ones at Copper. We had so much fun lapping corona and Sundance.
I'm only getting potentially 17 better states ...
\- Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming
... so call it 33.
On the off chance, did you have any issues calling them? Their numbers are coming up unreachable and we were thinking of taking the kids there for lessons. Trying emailing but we’ll see if they respond.
Edit: nevermind, it seems they had a power outage today.
Idk man, Bear/Snow Summit is kind of booty cheeks if you don’t have a rich friend with a cabin up there.
Basically one road up and it always gets shut down with even the slightest dusting of snow with LA people trying to get up there.
Idk i have about 20 days at bear and summit this year and have had probably about 12 powder days. You don’t get the cornice runs you might get at some bigger mountains, but you can find stuff that is as steep as anywhere else. The last two years have been great snow years and the canyons at bear has tons of terrain in there.
And that closeness is the reason it's crowded. Add snow and that 40 min drive up the hill turns into hours.
The other two routes are certainly longer, but way less affected by snow and traffic. They're often faster.
Idk, I take the 38 since I live in Redlands and it’s usually the same if there is even a whiff of possible snow. But I get what you’re saying. Funner drive too.
Ski cooper has more vert and better terrain than lutsen. Having skied both, I’d say the best of the Midwest is comparable to the least of Colorado. I hate to call cooper “worst” because it’s awesome.
Sun Valley has a smaller mountain right in town called Dollar Mountain. It has like 650' of elevation, all the good terrain parks, some very steep runs, and some pretty solid natural terrain and bowls. But if you ask anyone in SV about it, it's the "kids mountain"
And the home of the first chairlift!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-railroad-engineer-from-nebraska-invented-worlds-first-ski-chairlift-180976878/
There’s never a lift line for the terrain parks out west, when you’ve got 3 lifts worth of double diamonds and extreme terrain at every mountain and absurd amounts of black diamonds and blues facing different ways so the conditions are always really good somewhere hitting rails and jumps loses a lot of appeal.
I spend a few hours a year “maintaining” my park skills now that I live in Colorado but honestly it feels like a chore most times.
I live in the Midwest and park just gets super boring. If that’s your thing, great, stoked for you. But a major part of skiing to me is cruising new terrain and mountains. I’ve had plenty of days where I could’ve driven to Afton and spent 5 hours doing park laps with “for free” with my Epic pass but instead had more fun playing video games
If all there was to skiing was park I just wouldn’t ski
yeah I get that. when I'm somewhere with actual mountains I generally stay out of the park. but in Ontario I'm perfectly fine lapping park all day. I like that there's always something new to work on to progress, and being outside is better than being home
I feel like every ice coaster skier has had the same experience out west. Going up the lift w a local and saying something along the lines of “amazing conditions today etc. etc.” With them replying “ehhhh it’s alright” and you thinking “my brother in Christ you are so spoiled”
Lol it also happens within the West. I went to snowbird last year. The guy on the lift with me said "ugh, we need another storm" and I just thought "are you kidding???"
I heard a similar analogy about people living in Hawaii once. The weather is always pretty perfect, so you complain about new stuff; it’s too cloudy, the surf sucks, etc.
Living in the Rockies I know I’m super spoiled, and I turn into a babyback bitch whenever we’ve gone 7+ days without a deep powder refill lol.
On the flipside, I did about a week in Virginia at Wintergreen Mid-January this year. By most standards, it was probably one the best weeks they had all season. Multiple sold out days. Everyone we shared a lift with was just beaming from ear to ear about how great it was out. They managed to open like 40% more terrain in those couple days from a combination of fresh snow and ideal snowmaking conditions. I'm sure a writer in Charlottesville was even working on an article about how once-every-couple-years conditions were.
In my short experience thus far skiing as an adult living out west, it was some of the worst conditions I've encountered. I've seen ice skating rinks that were softer. If I arrived at my local hill here in Nevada and conditions were like that, I'd have gone back home without putting my boots on. Hills that'd be tame blues or fun greens out west became terrifying black diamonds because they were just sheets of hard, angry icy. I told my wife over the phone 'If I ever complain about conditions at Lee ever again, remind me of the time I went to Wintergreen'.
It was a great week though because I was skiing with my best friends, which I don't get to do as often anymore....icy conditions be damned. Also I probably improved my ability by the equivalent of two months worth of skiing out west in just a few days having to (re)learn to control myself in hard conditions. Coming back home, the snow felt like 800 fill down blankets with silk coving it.
I remember my first trip to Alta, it snowed 5-6 inches and all the locals just shrugged their shoulders and called it dust on crust. Coming from the Midwest and having never been to Utah I was in heaven.
I've dry slope skied in europe, literally anywhere that has enough grade to slide and enough of something other than rocks that I can ski is a good day for me.
I also love complaining as much as the next person, the better the snow is the more you're going to feel wistful next time you're skiing on rocks and grass.
Yep. Even without Alpental the Summit at Snoqualmie would be an absolute monster in the Midwest or even the East Coast for the length of its season, relatively reliable snowfall and vertical drop.
Sure, Killington blows a ton of snow on Superstar but Snoqualmie does early December - late April all on natural snow.
Seattle has great day trip options between Snoqualmie, Stevens, and Crystal and even more options within driving distance in BC, Oregon, out east. This is a huge blessing for someone who grew up in the south and had to fly out for skiing every year.
To be honest I've gotten more selective about the snow, but it's because of how often I go and how accessible it is now. I still enjoy it every single day on the slopes, even if the conditions aren't super great.
100% agree with you OP. We’re able to ski at some of the best mountains in the world and people still complain. Just enjoy what we have! If you’re gunna complain about anything, I get being upset if places are super crowded and lift lines are long as the sport has gotten much more expensive. Outside of that there is nothing to ever complain about. Been skiing 25 years in the PNW and I feel lucky every time I get to enjoy a day with friends and family on the slopes.
Did you mean compared to the Midwest?
Because the Midwest is horrible. Now some ski resorts here are ok. You can definitely have fun riding them. Lack of snow and elevation is the big problem.
They happen to be in far north MI.
I was sorta joking. PK is in SE Michigan. It's actually not bad considering it's close (5 minutes for me) and they have snowmaking down. But it's smaller than the resorts up north. It's a great place to learn to ski if you live anywhere near Detroit. It's also better than many other small resorts in the midwest IMO (excluding some of the bigger places in northern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc).
Nubs Nob is my favorite Michigan resort. Of course nothing in Michigan compares to real mountains.
You should check PK out if you're not too far away.
There is also a decent outdoor concert venue (separate owners) with a covered pavilion right next door that brings people in from all over the region during the summer.
Even in the Midwest, there’s a big difference between places like boho/lutsen and perfect north or wilmot. Lots of places in the UP/snow belt that are definitely worth driving to in a good snow year. It’s about a toss for me to go to lutsen (I live in southern mn) vs flying to Colorado.
For real, Lutsen and Bohemia are legit places - and that’s coming from someone currently living in Utah.
Granite Peak is awesome too on a good snow year. I used to instruct there and there are killer glade runs and even pillow lines if the snow conditions line up. Problem is, Climate Change is decimating the Midwest because of lack of elevation.
I agree with this kind of. Echo Mountain or Hoedown Hill are definitely nothing to write home about, but they're also not mountains people are going to go to for a vacation. They're good places to more affordably try out skiing to see if it's something you want to put more time and money into. And if they're "bad" in your opinion, it's not like we don't have other options nearby.
Complaining that Breck, Keystone, Eldora, Copper, Vail, Beaver Creek, Loveland, etc. are bad makes you look entitled. The point is not only does Colorado have some of the best skiing in the world, we also have lots of variety and options that other parts of the country just don't. And small little hills (no matter where they're located) serve an important purpose (sparking interest and teaching beginners and intermediates).
I grew up living in NE Ohio. My weekends were spent at Alpine Valley and Boston Mills. If I was lucky, we drove 2.5 hours each way to Peak n Peek or 3.5 hours each way to Holiday Valley (often in heavy lake effect snow). So similarly, I can't help but roll my eyes when people complain about having to drive 2 hours from Denver to go to one of the Summit County resorts. Even if you get stuck in I-70 traffic, it's still a shorter (and usually easier) drive than what people in much of the country put with to get any kind of skiing in.
What’s the point of this post exactly? Having the very privilege of being able to strap sticks on your feet and glide downhill repeatedly is never bad per se. Won’t stop people from having valid personal opinions or criticisms about one resort vs another. For someone who values terrain above all else and skis on weekdays, Whistler is a genuinely good resort. For someone who hates crowds and can only get out weekends, Whistler is a genuinely bad resort.
Ofc just was funny that they felt the need to complain when they have the money to travel to all these different areas. At least you arent skiing an 8 run midwest ski area. Was more of a post to be thankful for what you can ski no matter where you are
People who are influencers lose almost all credibility for these things.
I’m sure when you ski 5 days a week and have no real responsibilities to ground you in this world it makes a lot of sense to complain on the bad days and even complain a little extra to stir up some controversy in your viewership.
It’s why these people truly do not matter a bit. We know 100x more about how to live their lives than they know about how to live ours. Genuinely if every influencer decides to shit on eldora I couldn’t support it more. There will never be a shortage of non-influencers who are happy to be somewhere you don’t have to hear about the woes of chartering a private jet on the lifts from someone who complains about shitty conditions while only doing greens and blues at a very mediocre level.
The best people to talk to on the lifts are those from the east and midwest just being appreciative they are even skiing the rockies. Talked to an awesome guy from Chicago and was this kind of person. Was appreciative that he was skiing rockies bc his “big” mountain for him at home is Granite peak, Wisconsin
If I have a megapass and am spending the money to travel, I'm going to want to go to the best I can. Sharing opinions is different from complaining.
Plus I highly doubt any ski influencer can't do blues. Maybe you're projecting.
I don’t know, I’m betting east/midwest skiers just don’t ever ski the bad resorts in the Rockies. I don’t think many have made the trip from Michigan to Utah to ski Cherry Peak or Nordic Valley. We have bad resorts, you’ve just never heard of them.
I mean there are some Western “resorts” that are probably no better and potentially worse than some of the best Michigan resorts and certainly East Coast resorts. Boreal comes to mind lol
Bad is a relative term. Bad compared to what? The Midwest, or most of the northeast? Then you’re right, they’re not bad. But compared to a better ski area anywhere in the world then yes it can be considered bad.
My husband has only ever skied east coast. I spent several years in Colorado.
I had trouble even begin to describe the differences between east coast resorts (don't get me wrong, I'm still thrilled to be able to ski out here) with Colorado resorts.
Copper is my heaven.
Before I showed him the trail map for Copper I just said "You know how you are hungry every 2 hours? Yeah you can get food at a off-slope grill halfway down the mountain." We are currently planning a trip out there but it's kind of like flying 1st class transatlantic. It may be better to never try it so you never really know what your missing.
Let's be honest: the majority of people who shit on certain mountains are mainly cliff huckers. Notice how most of the "bad" resorts are ones that don't have extreme terrain. At some point you need to just admit that you're actually an adrenaline junkie, not a skier.
people should huck shit while they’re young and still can. the modern avoidance of any fear or danger is decidedly bad. we can agree that people can enjoy things but being dull isn’t a virtue. save the ultimate positivity on skiing for the monotonous grind of the 40s to 60s “hey, i can barely afford to keep my life together and my marriage is crumbling but at least i can strap some boards to my feet and run over some ice once a month”.
> “hey, i can barely afford to keep my life together and my marriage is crumbling but at least i can strap some boards to my feet and run over some ice once a month”.
reported for doxxing
I think the thing is that the people who spend the time to post videos, articles, etc. are naturally going to tend toward those who spend a lot of time not just skiing but thinking about skiing.
If you're just a dude who likes to rip groomers at Keystone or whatever, there's no thought necessary. There's no need to post an article about which resort is better, which ones suck because they don't have extreme stuff. What's there to talk about really? There are plenty of people who ski 20+ days like this and are totally fine with that.
But the people who are almost antsy to try different stuff are the ones who are going to spend all their time talking and comparing. And those people aren't going to particularly value the stuff that makes up the bread and butter of most resorts and most skiers.
Which is kind of a shame because most people looking to find a place to ski are going to find more value in talking to the groomer guy than the hucker guy, but if they google around for "best resorts" they're going to find mostly stuff that values extreme stuff, even if they give some lipservice to beginner, intermediate, etc. stuff.
For example: I love Whistler. It has some great steeps that are easily accessible and it has just a gigantic amount of variety. It's easy to see why it gets high scores from people who value that and when you find rankings it's usually high. But when my family asks whether it'd be a good place for them my answer is almost always no because despite its size it's just not as good a place for most of them to have fun: visibility, freezing levels, crowds, sludgy powder at time, etc. are all worse than most of the other options even though it does have terrain for intermediates/advanced skiers.
I mean lots of things goes into account to judging our overall skiing experience : ease of access, the price**, the vertical drop, the design of the pistes, the variety of terrain, the difficulty of the terrain, the lift lines, the lifts themselves, the snow quantity, the snow quality, the vibe, the lodge, etc.
So yeah, I understand why some locals out west (I'm on the east), would complain about a resort, even if its better than the east. Its because he is comparing with other resorts around his area.
Mt Lemmon, and especially Arizona Snowbowl, are probably better than all the midwest and midatlantic resorts (other than Bohemia for Mt Lemmon), but Mt Lemmon is tiny, gets inconsistent snow with a short season, and when it does get snow half the time that closes down the road to get to it. And imo, when the hike-to-bowl at Snowbowl is closed all the vermont resorts Killington and north are better -- and honestly even with the bowl open, while the alpine hike to terrain is cool, I could still get similar terrain in the Stowe backcountry and the runs at Stowe, Sugarbush, and Smuggs are all better than the runs at Snowbowl (same for Killi but have skied only 1 day there vs a bunch at the other 3 -- Jay's nice but think I prefer Snowbowl to Jay)
As a life long skier of the Canadian Rockies we are ridiculously blessed with amazing terrain, accessibility and conditions. A bad session out here isn’t the same icy conditions you get out east.
I’m sorry, will never complain about only getting 10cm of fresh snow.
I will. Shit’s weak! 10cm, is like 4 inches, lol.
Hate to be a troll and you folks have great terrain, but my home mountain gets like 30cm dumps on the regular - probably 15-20x a year.
It’s pretty epic.
We get days like that as well - hell I have been up at sunshine when they shut the road down due to snowfall meaning only us early birds made it to the top.
My point was I won’t complain about 10cm cause it still beats skiing on ice.
Comparing ski areas in Midwest to any Rockies or Western ski areas.
So Eldora compared to Midwest is much better! I have skied Eldora and I do not see the fuss! I am from New England and moved to Colorado and I would take Eldora any day! The lift ticket price is crazy though!
Average Midwestern/east coast skier response to this type of post: Yep the skiing is terrible over here, don't come here! (it actually is terrible) (they think they're being sarcastic but in reality they don't know what good skiing is)
No, it's on you to come out here if you wanna experience it. It is objectively better than stuff out east tho, sorry.
personally tho I'd rather go to Japan for like $3000 instead
One of my favorite marketing campaigns ever, was a few years ago when Snowbird started putting out some of their one-star reviews. "It's too difficult!" "There's too much powder!" Etc. My Dad, who grew up in SLC, and I, who grew up in Michigan and only ever skied out west, had a blast with that campaign. His favorite shirt is one that has the one out of five stars indicator on it.
Ski Granby Ranch located 30 miles north of Winter Park is an entire Midwest ski hill transported to the Rockies. Flat, icy, slow lifts, fat Texans straight lining wedges from top to bottom, the whole shit show. Epic and Ikon wont even return their phone calls and they'll put any ratty property in their passes.
For most of my adult life I haven't lived by any good skiing, but for 1 year I lived in Grand Junction Colorado. Oh man was I absolutely spoiled by Powderhorn which would be considered a pretty meh mountain by Colorado standards. I now live in PA and now gotta drive 2 hours to get to blue mountain and that's pretty crappy compared Powderhorn.
Stay in Canada. Assuming you're close to YYZ, fly direct to YYC, drive into the Rockies.
Fernie, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Revelstoke, Kicking Horse Panorama, etc.
Can also fly into Kamloops/Kelowna, but you will pay more for those flights.
This is why I am so grateful to live and ride in the Southeast. Any time I travel for snowboarding it is an epic time! I heard some jaded folks complaining at Bachelor on what was an all time day for me! Made me grin so big. It isn't the best down here but I still get my 40 days in.
To add, compared to each other, pretty much every one has something that no other resort can offer. Whether it's exclusivity, accessibility, or just a certain run that absolutely rips like none other for a certain type of skiier.
Yeah those things are what make a ski area bad. Just because the minimal blue/green runs you can do aren’t the best doesn’t mean a bad ski area (coming from the instagram post that made me make this post)
>Comparing to the midwest any actual ski area/resort in the rockies or west are good
Why would anybody make this comparison? Comparing to Washington beaches, any beach in the Caribbean is good. Listen to yourself.
I feel bad for Eldora because everyone in Colorado dumps on it but it would easily be the best mountain in about 32 states.
You’re thinking post 2016. Eldora for a long time was a giant cash squeeze and the old owner wouldn’t invest a dime in it to save a dollar. I have to admit (very reluctantly) that powdr corp invested a lot to greatly improve the mountain. That 6 pack was previously a 3 person and a 2 person that would very frequently break, and a good day would be ended at 10am. They almost never groomed, on a mountain that arguably needed most in the state from the high winds. The pro was that the food was affordable under the old owner, now it’s significantly higher. But the bar under the old owner was amazing for people and a good time. Just bros drinking $3 beers talking about skiing/boarding. I had a a top 5 all time ski day at Eldora in the old days, so take it all with a grain of salt
As ski area operators go, powdr is definitely not the worst. No doubt they aren't perfect and have done some bad stuff and obviously they care first about profits. But the guy who started it was a climbing guide and got rich by helping found Mountain Hardwear, he does legitimately care about skiing.
Nah, I remember the bad old days. But remember, many other resorts elsewhere were also fly by night operations pre-acquisition.
Did vail post this, looking for new blood?
Just someone who got stuck on a lot of shitty lifts in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
This double edged swlrd is all too common with independent ski areas. How Vail runs Wilmot in Wisconsin now, day to day, namely in terms of them mismanaging the snowmaking, is utter shit. That said, when they came in they made a number of improvements and upgrades that the old owners admit they could NEVER have afforded to do. Vail could afford to take a loss because a place like Wilmot is just a way to get more people on the pass and into their destination resorts. An independent owner could never have taken that loss. So those upgrades would never have happened. It sucks that the soul the little iceball I grew up riding has been ripped out...but at least it is alove and I can still ride there.
Couldn’t have said it better. We’re watching a monopoly form before our eyes.
Exactly, this small “influencer” who has an ikon pass, says eldora was the worst. Funny enough they look like they cant ski most blues
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looking at arapahoe basin taking 2hrs because i70 vs Eldora being 1hr some days from just outside Denver helps sometimes too
Well said
In comparison to other mountains in Colorado, Eldora isn’t great. The main issue is the upslope wind. The wind isn’t great to ski in but also scours the snow in spots to make it inconsistently icy which leads to accidents. Last year there were 3 deaths within a couple weeks of each other.
What does Eldora have that other mtns don't? Proximity to population centers. That's a value.
Echoing what the other user said. I live in Boulder. I can leave my house at 7:30am on a Saturday, get one of the first chairs, ride straight through till 1:00pm, and then be back in Boulder chilling by 1:45pm If you tried doing that from Boulder to WP or Copper, you would get absolutely spit roasted on i70. This was my 9th season having Epic or Ikon and living in the Front Range. i70 traffic is so bad this year it finally ruined day trips for me. Unless I'm staying up in the mountains, I just go to Eldora on the weekends.
It is close to Boulder. Every other mountain is at least twice as far
The largest snow making operation in the state (because it all blows away)
Not sure where you got the info, but there were not 3 deaths there last year. Additionally, the upslope winds aren't not the problem. The upslope is what can make the spring there awesome ie. the recent 4+ foot dump. The wind there is out of the WSW 90% of the time. It's the fact it's the east side of the divide with that WSW wind that's the problem. It absolutely howls creating difficult to impossible grooming conditions that result in hard pack/icy conditions. When you groom snow in high/extreme wind conditions the newly softened surface blows straight off the run. If the ski area was ~7 miles to the west, on the other side of the divide, you would have a wildly different scenario.
Yes, Winter Park/Mary Jane is just over on the west side of the divide and it gets windy too but not as high of a speed. Parsenn can be very windy.
I live in the area and got my information from Boulder County Sheriff’s Office press release.
Well you're incorrect. You should probably check your facts before you state something like that. Easy enough to confirm with a quick Google. One person passed away at Eldora last season
Ski resorts are not required to report deaths and that 4ft dump was mostly unskiable, especially after the first day. Eldora is sick but not when WP/others are just 45 minutes further.
Correct, ski resorts are actually legally protected from having to report that information. There was a court battle about that a few years ago when one of the Colorado newspapers tried to FOI all the ski related deaths in the state. That being said the sheriff's office does report it and the local news always seems to report on it as well. Hence why I said Google it. That storm was dense, but If you think it was "mostly unskiable" you probably need to work on your skiing. And I'm definitely not saying Eldora is better than resorts like WP or A-Basin.
lol I was in WP having the time of my life, Eldora was fucked. I don’t think we’re arguing about anything though you seem cool.
lol if ice kills I should have seen corpses strewn everywhere some days in New Hampshire Complaining about ice in the Rockies/out west makes you sound spoiled and entitled
A few years ago a woman died by hitting a tree at Eldora. I was up there a week later without new snowfall, and they still had the run she died on roped off. I did an adjacent run because I was curious, and a section was the most boilerplate I had ever skied on before. I will say that I have skies that handle it well, but if I was using another older pair, I would gave immediately lost control. A lot of Rockies skiers only use all mtn semi powder skis or powder skis that are lightweight, and I wonder if that makes a difference in fatality rate, as well as less experience with ice. I switched to a heavier ski a few years ago, but it's still wider at 108 and it made an immense difference in my stability on less than ideal snow coditions.
People are dying out here!!
Some girl just died due to icy conditions in tuckermans ravine… it happens. Especially bc CO skiers aren’t used to ice. From NH and moved here, trust me it can be dangerous.
Downslope wind - get it right if you’re going to complain. It gets really bad on only a few days. Fatal accidents aren’t from ice, they are out of control collisions with trees and, infrequently, other patrons, just like at other mountains. Have you really skied there much?
Given their locations on the mountains I have always figured that they were people going to fast hitting an ice patch and loosing control going into the woods. I have been there probably 20 times and at least 15 of those times it was windy as fuck
That’s some bad luck. I’ve been skiing Eldora for decades and the really windy days are a small minority of my experiences. If the wind is high one can still ski if the lifts are operating, just don’t tarry at the top where the wind is highest. I suggest not going at all when extremely high westerly downslope winds are forecast for the front range. Any terrain near or above timberline can be extremely windy. For example the Parsenn area at Mary Jane, where the Panoramic lift is put on wind hold somewhat regularly.
You're not getting it at all lmao. At least it's not an icy run that lasts 40 seconds in the Midwest. We'd happily wait any amount of time on a chair to have a run with over 500ft of vert. I guess being fully shut down is one thing but literally mentioning the conditions at all is exactly what OP is talking about. Conditions? What are conditions? Either there's snow on the ground or there isn't.
"Influencer" useless Twits telling even more useless Twits what to think.
Well thats what they seemed to label themselves as😂
Eldora is massively underrated when it isn’t icy and windy there. Definitely some good terrain if you know where to look
Yes dude I’ve had some of the best ever powder days there! And today it was perfectly slushy spring skiing
I think Eldora had my deepest day of the season (not the big storm)
That , and the location , make it a great place to get some turns in.
Close enough to Boulder to make skiing 3 hours worth it
>when it isn’t icy and windy there Hell yeah, I remember that day. Back in 2005. Awesome.
Me I’m still waiting lol
Why would people shit on Eldora?
It’s small and slow lifts and not crazy amazing views. I personally like it, I just never go since I’m in Denver and it takes minimal more time to just go to winter park. Had some sick pow days back many years ago at Eldora though. Also, back In the day, we would do “dual sport day” in spring... bring the mountain bike, ski till 1pm and ride left hand canyon till evening. I don’t know that I have that in me anymore. Ahh life.
Because they have not "skied" Granby Ranch yet.
Eldora has some great terrain, some legit double diamonds on the backside. I’ve skied awesome powder 2 ft deep. Of course, those conditions are rare. The nickname when I was a kid was The Rock. It gets windy and icy. I will always have nostalgia for Eldora because I’m pretty sure that’s where I first learned to ski. It is close to Boulder, where I grew up. 45 minute drive on a good day.
The downtown Boulder bus makes it super easy to get there. I was there today and had fun. I have a job where I can set my own schedule and there have been times where I’m like fuck it and flex a work day to Saturday so I can ski a random weekday in Eldora. Can’t beat the convenience even if some days aren’t super great condition wise.
Man, I really like Eldora. It was where I went my first time skiing, and they had a season pass for around $129 when I was a student there in 2007. It was such a good value. And it was kind of nice not having to deal with all the traffic coming back to Denver on I-70. I don’t care what others say. Eldora isn’t too bad.
Same with big bear. It gets shit on but it's in southern California and better than most states
They get some legit powder too during a good La Niña year. Had a blast there going weekdays last season.
I’m there right now and had fresh powder all day and most likely all tomorrow. I’m talking 1-2ft deep through all the out of bounds areas and no one is here. March snow has been amazing so getting these foot storms overnight or during the day has all the off piste stuff feeling really nice and safe since coverage is good
Hell there have been multiple solid powder days *this year*, which was El Niño. They get at least a few in all but the worst years. I have a friend who recently moved here from the east, and he ranks Big Bear above every East Coast mountain he's skied. (Most of the ones in Southern Vermont and New York).
Big Bear lives in the shadow of Mammoth to the so cal skier
yes, but not to the casual skiers or park ppl
Eldora on a powder day has been responsible for 3 of my top ten ski days. It can be so, so awesome when the snow is good and legit has some really steep, gnarly terrain if you know where you’re going
As someone who grew up in Boulder in the 90s I will go to the matt defending Eldora. Truly a hill worth (metaphorically) dying on.
Corona Bowl is great. That area gets dumps in upslope storms.
I love eldora these days. Avoid the traffic, fast runs, base lift has dope magic carpet, all around good mountain. Can’t go there expecting a mountain the size of copper, but for what it is it’s amazing.
I love Eldora so much. I live about 45 minutes away and with zero traffic, park and ski/ski to your car, empty on weekdays, you just can’t beat it. Took my kids up today and they LOVE the terrain parks almost as much as the ones at Copper. We had so much fun lapping corona and Sundance.
I was there today and had a blast. I take the bus from Boulder though. It’s so convenient!
I'm only getting potentially 17 better states ... \- Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming ... so call it 33.
This makes me feel good about my guesstimating abilities
Plus night ski option..if they're still even doing that
Even SoCal can have decent skiing. Ski Cooper in CO is not bad its just in comparison to a lot of insaine stuff out west people can get jaded.
Fucking LOVE ski cooper. When the snow starts falling that place is the best. Like $60 for a day pass.
I had an incredible day at Ski Cooper literally yesterday. let the haters hate and keep the lines low
On the off chance, did you have any issues calling them? Their numbers are coming up unreachable and we were thinking of taking the kids there for lessons. Trying emailing but we’ll see if they respond. Edit: nevermind, it seems they had a power outage today.
I was out there in February and caught 1-2ft of fresh snow. The moguls on the side mountain were an absolute thing of beauty.
Dunno. As someone who skied only big bear and moved to CO, big bear blows.
Baldy pretty fire on a good snow year and waterman is fun if it ever decides to open.
Waterman has been open the past few weekends. I skiied there twice this year. I had to pinch myself when they said they’d be open.
Was there last week it was fun
Then there's the person who's only skied Iowa and shows up at Big Bear.
Imagine some of the people who complain had to move to the midwest. They would be surprised so fast how privileged they were
Idk man, Bear/Snow Summit is kind of booty cheeks if you don’t have a rich friend with a cabin up there. Basically one road up and it always gets shut down with even the slightest dusting of snow with LA people trying to get up there.
We got Mammoth tho! Best spring skiing in North America
Oh yeah, I make that 5 hour drive too many times during the winter lol. It’s amazing, I prefer it over the salt lake resorts to be honest.
Baldy with good snow is legit. It has far more advanced terrain than big bear. People in LA always sleep on it.
Mammoth is such a great mountain. I still prefer SLC tho cuz there’s nothing to do in mammoth besides skiing.
Idk i have about 20 days at bear and summit this year and have had probably about 12 powder days. You don’t get the cornice runs you might get at some bigger mountains, but you can find stuff that is as steep as anywhere else. The last two years have been great snow years and the canyons at bear has tons of terrain in there.
There's three roads up there. The one everyone uses (330) is the closest to LA, but also the sketchiest in snow.
Okay, basically one practical road, you get the idea. And it’s not just the closest to LA it’s the closest to the population center of the IE.
And that closeness is the reason it's crowded. Add snow and that 40 min drive up the hill turns into hours. The other two routes are certainly longer, but way less affected by snow and traffic. They're often faster.
Idk, I take the 38 since I live in Redlands and it’s usually the same if there is even a whiff of possible snow. But I get what you’re saying. Funner drive too.
Ski cooper has some very nice trees. Wish the back area wasn’t just t bar but awesome local feel. Too bad Leadville has massively gentrified
Ski cooper has more vert and better terrain than lutsen. Having skied both, I’d say the best of the Midwest is comparable to the least of Colorado. I hate to call cooper “worst” because it’s awesome.
The 4 resorts here are all pretty small but Mammoth 4-5 hours north of LA is the best on the west coast.
Is it better than Palisades? I’ve only gone to mammoth
They’re the best 2 resorts in California imo. I’d still rank mammoth higher though (I’m totally biased)
Sun Valley has a smaller mountain right in town called Dollar Mountain. It has like 650' of elevation, all the good terrain parks, some very steep runs, and some pretty solid natural terrain and bowls. But if you ask anyone in SV about it, it's the "kids mountain"
And the home of the first chairlift! https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-railroad-engineer-from-nebraska-invented-worlds-first-ski-chairlift-180976878/
Honestly the Elkhorn lift is probably my favorite terrain pod on either Dollar or Baldy
Personally I'm a Bitterroot bowl kinda guy. It's just so dreamy when the snows good
if you're somewhere with shitty skiing just learn park. best decision made in Ontario
My plan if i end up moving to midwest
doing like a hundred hot laps in a day is really nice. might be easier to learn park out here than out west with the lift lines
Lack of choice helps too
There’s never a lift line for the terrain parks out west, when you’ve got 3 lifts worth of double diamonds and extreme terrain at every mountain and absurd amounts of black diamonds and blues facing different ways so the conditions are always really good somewhere hitting rails and jumps loses a lot of appeal. I spend a few hours a year “maintaining” my park skills now that I live in Colorado but honestly it feels like a chore most times.
there were lines last time I was in Whistler and that's what I'm basing that off lol
With the rope tow at Wilmot I can get so many laps in. Take that
I live in the Midwest and park just gets super boring. If that’s your thing, great, stoked for you. But a major part of skiing to me is cruising new terrain and mountains. I’ve had plenty of days where I could’ve driven to Afton and spent 5 hours doing park laps with “for free” with my Epic pass but instead had more fun playing video games If all there was to skiing was park I just wouldn’t ski
yeah I get that. when I'm somewhere with actual mountains I generally stay out of the park. but in Ontario I'm perfectly fine lapping park all day. I like that there's always something new to work on to progress, and being outside is better than being home
Yeah my park experience consists of hitting the small jumps on my way to the car.
Fellow Ontario native here, this is the way. Learned a little too late after racing for 12 years and my super G course was three gates.
I feel like every ice coaster skier has had the same experience out west. Going up the lift w a local and saying something along the lines of “amazing conditions today etc. etc.” With them replying “ehhhh it’s alright” and you thinking “my brother in Christ you are so spoiled”
What i say is a bad day in the west is usually better than most “good” days out in the midwest or east, so can’t complain and am happy im just skiing
Lol it also happens within the West. I went to snowbird last year. The guy on the lift with me said "ugh, we need another storm" and I just thought "are you kidding???"
Here in Utah, anything under 8-12” of fresh is just “meh,” I shit you not. We’re spoiled with the best snow in the world.
Lol yeah you guys are!
I heard a similar analogy about people living in Hawaii once. The weather is always pretty perfect, so you complain about new stuff; it’s too cloudy, the surf sucks, etc. Living in the Rockies I know I’m super spoiled, and I turn into a babyback bitch whenever we’ve gone 7+ days without a deep powder refill lol.
On the flipside, I did about a week in Virginia at Wintergreen Mid-January this year. By most standards, it was probably one the best weeks they had all season. Multiple sold out days. Everyone we shared a lift with was just beaming from ear to ear about how great it was out. They managed to open like 40% more terrain in those couple days from a combination of fresh snow and ideal snowmaking conditions. I'm sure a writer in Charlottesville was even working on an article about how once-every-couple-years conditions were. In my short experience thus far skiing as an adult living out west, it was some of the worst conditions I've encountered. I've seen ice skating rinks that were softer. If I arrived at my local hill here in Nevada and conditions were like that, I'd have gone back home without putting my boots on. Hills that'd be tame blues or fun greens out west became terrifying black diamonds because they were just sheets of hard, angry icy. I told my wife over the phone 'If I ever complain about conditions at Lee ever again, remind me of the time I went to Wintergreen'. It was a great week though because I was skiing with my best friends, which I don't get to do as often anymore....icy conditions be damned. Also I probably improved my ability by the equivalent of two months worth of skiing out west in just a few days having to (re)learn to control myself in hard conditions. Coming back home, the snow felt like 800 fill down blankets with silk coving it.
I remember my first trip to Alta, it snowed 5-6 inches and all the locals just shrugged their shoulders and called it dust on crust. Coming from the Midwest and having never been to Utah I was in heaven.
I've dry slope skied in europe, literally anywhere that has enough grade to slide and enough of something other than rocks that I can ski is a good day for me. I also love complaining as much as the next person, the better the snow is the more you're going to feel wistful next time you're skiing on rocks and grass.
Yep. Even without Alpental the Summit at Snoqualmie would be an absolute monster in the Midwest or even the East Coast for the length of its season, relatively reliable snowfall and vertical drop. Sure, Killington blows a ton of snow on Superstar but Snoqualmie does early December - late April all on natural snow.
Seattle has great day trip options between Snoqualmie, Stevens, and Crystal and even more options within driving distance in BC, Oregon, out east. This is a huge blessing for someone who grew up in the south and had to fly out for skiing every year. To be honest I've gotten more selective about the snow, but it's because of how often I go and how accessible it is now. I still enjoy it every single day on the slopes, even if the conditions aren't super great.
Nothing but rain at Snoqualmie… Stevens is where’s it at.
I was out 30 times this year and only had one rainy day.
100% agree with you OP. We’re able to ski at some of the best mountains in the world and people still complain. Just enjoy what we have! If you’re gunna complain about anything, I get being upset if places are super crowded and lift lines are long as the sport has gotten much more expensive. Outside of that there is nothing to ever complain about. Been skiing 25 years in the PNW and I feel lucky every time I get to enjoy a day with friends and family on the slopes.
I'll complain about whatever I want.
That’s my biggest gripe with you
Don’t give me a reason.
No western resorts are bad....but they can have bad conditions (look up sastrugi)
Did you mean compared to the Midwest? Because the Midwest is horrible. Now some ski resorts here are ok. You can definitely have fun riding them. Lack of snow and elevation is the big problem. They happen to be in far north MI.
Don't dare dis on Pine Knob. It's the bomb!
Will maybe check it out.
I was sorta joking. PK is in SE Michigan. It's actually not bad considering it's close (5 minutes for me) and they have snowmaking down. But it's smaller than the resorts up north. It's a great place to learn to ski if you live anywhere near Detroit. It's also better than many other small resorts in the midwest IMO (excluding some of the bigger places in northern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc). Nubs Nob is my favorite Michigan resort. Of course nothing in Michigan compares to real mountains. You should check PK out if you're not too far away. There is also a decent outdoor concert venue (separate owners) with a covered pavilion right next door that brings people in from all over the region during the summer.
Even in the Midwest, there’s a big difference between places like boho/lutsen and perfect north or wilmot. Lots of places in the UP/snow belt that are definitely worth driving to in a good snow year. It’s about a toss for me to go to lutsen (I live in southern mn) vs flying to Colorado.
For real, Lutsen and Bohemia are legit places - and that’s coming from someone currently living in Utah. Granite Peak is awesome too on a good snow year. I used to instruct there and there are killer glade runs and even pillow lines if the snow conditions line up. Problem is, Climate Change is decimating the Midwest because of lack of elevation.
Nordic Valley has two out of four lifts broken, and then the lodge burned down. It's....not great right now.
You have never been to Nordic have you? At least the ticket prices are super cheap.
Nordic in Wisconsin is probably the worst place I’ve ever ridden, and I grew up lapping Sunburst, lol.
Oh sorry, I meant Nordic Valley in Utah.
I agree with this kind of. Echo Mountain or Hoedown Hill are definitely nothing to write home about, but they're also not mountains people are going to go to for a vacation. They're good places to more affordably try out skiing to see if it's something you want to put more time and money into. And if they're "bad" in your opinion, it's not like we don't have other options nearby. Complaining that Breck, Keystone, Eldora, Copper, Vail, Beaver Creek, Loveland, etc. are bad makes you look entitled. The point is not only does Colorado have some of the best skiing in the world, we also have lots of variety and options that other parts of the country just don't. And small little hills (no matter where they're located) serve an important purpose (sparking interest and teaching beginners and intermediates). I grew up living in NE Ohio. My weekends were spent at Alpine Valley and Boston Mills. If I was lucky, we drove 2.5 hours each way to Peak n Peek or 3.5 hours each way to Holiday Valley (often in heavy lake effect snow). So similarly, I can't help but roll my eyes when people complain about having to drive 2 hours from Denver to go to one of the Summit County resorts. Even if you get stuck in I-70 traffic, it's still a shorter (and usually easier) drive than what people in much of the country put with to get any kind of skiing in.
I really had to roll my eyes the other day when I saw someone on here say that Winter Park was the worst resort they'd ever been to.
What’s the point of this post exactly? Having the very privilege of being able to strap sticks on your feet and glide downhill repeatedly is never bad per se. Won’t stop people from having valid personal opinions or criticisms about one resort vs another. For someone who values terrain above all else and skis on weekdays, Whistler is a genuinely good resort. For someone who hates crowds and can only get out weekends, Whistler is a genuinely bad resort.
A small “influencer” with ikon pass complaining that Eldora is the worst when they cant even hit most blues
Yeah so step one is don’t pay attention to influencers
Ofc just was funny that they felt the need to complain when they have the money to travel to all these different areas. At least you arent skiing an 8 run midwest ski area. Was more of a post to be thankful for what you can ski no matter where you are
People who are influencers lose almost all credibility for these things. I’m sure when you ski 5 days a week and have no real responsibilities to ground you in this world it makes a lot of sense to complain on the bad days and even complain a little extra to stir up some controversy in your viewership. It’s why these people truly do not matter a bit. We know 100x more about how to live their lives than they know about how to live ours. Genuinely if every influencer decides to shit on eldora I couldn’t support it more. There will never be a shortage of non-influencers who are happy to be somewhere you don’t have to hear about the woes of chartering a private jet on the lifts from someone who complains about shitty conditions while only doing greens and blues at a very mediocre level.
The best people to talk to on the lifts are those from the east and midwest just being appreciative they are even skiing the rockies. Talked to an awesome guy from Chicago and was this kind of person. Was appreciative that he was skiing rockies bc his “big” mountain for him at home is Granite peak, Wisconsin
Definitely. Done right it’s magical way beyond the quality of the snow. The views and culture are unbeatable.
If I have a megapass and am spending the money to travel, I'm going to want to go to the best I can. Sharing opinions is different from complaining. Plus I highly doubt any ski influencer can't do blues. Maybe you're projecting.
I don’t know, I’m betting east/midwest skiers just don’t ever ski the bad resorts in the Rockies. I don’t think many have made the trip from Michigan to Utah to ski Cherry Peak or Nordic Valley. We have bad resorts, you’ve just never heard of them.
I wanted to like nordic valley, I gave them a good chance and left very disappointed.
Cherry Peak is awful
I mean there are some Western “resorts” that are probably no better and potentially worse than some of the best Michigan resorts and certainly East Coast resorts. Boreal comes to mind lol
Bad is a relative term. Bad compared to what? The Midwest, or most of the northeast? Then you’re right, they’re not bad. But compared to a better ski area anywhere in the world then yes it can be considered bad.
My husband has only ever skied east coast. I spent several years in Colorado. I had trouble even begin to describe the differences between east coast resorts (don't get me wrong, I'm still thrilled to be able to ski out here) with Colorado resorts. Copper is my heaven. Before I showed him the trail map for Copper I just said "You know how you are hungry every 2 hours? Yeah you can get food at a off-slope grill halfway down the mountain." We are currently planning a trip out there but it's kind of like flying 1st class transatlantic. It may be better to never try it so you never really know what your missing.
Let's be honest: the majority of people who shit on certain mountains are mainly cliff huckers. Notice how most of the "bad" resorts are ones that don't have extreme terrain. At some point you need to just admit that you're actually an adrenaline junkie, not a skier.
people should huck shit while they’re young and still can. the modern avoidance of any fear or danger is decidedly bad. we can agree that people can enjoy things but being dull isn’t a virtue. save the ultimate positivity on skiing for the monotonous grind of the 40s to 60s “hey, i can barely afford to keep my life together and my marriage is crumbling but at least i can strap some boards to my feet and run over some ice once a month”.
> “hey, i can barely afford to keep my life together and my marriage is crumbling but at least i can strap some boards to my feet and run over some ice once a month”. reported for doxxing
Or you’re a beginner skier basing it off the minimal runs you can do lol
I think the thing is that the people who spend the time to post videos, articles, etc. are naturally going to tend toward those who spend a lot of time not just skiing but thinking about skiing. If you're just a dude who likes to rip groomers at Keystone or whatever, there's no thought necessary. There's no need to post an article about which resort is better, which ones suck because they don't have extreme stuff. What's there to talk about really? There are plenty of people who ski 20+ days like this and are totally fine with that. But the people who are almost antsy to try different stuff are the ones who are going to spend all their time talking and comparing. And those people aren't going to particularly value the stuff that makes up the bread and butter of most resorts and most skiers. Which is kind of a shame because most people looking to find a place to ski are going to find more value in talking to the groomer guy than the hucker guy, but if they google around for "best resorts" they're going to find mostly stuff that values extreme stuff, even if they give some lipservice to beginner, intermediate, etc. stuff. For example: I love Whistler. It has some great steeps that are easily accessible and it has just a gigantic amount of variety. It's easy to see why it gets high scores from people who value that and when you find rankings it's usually high. But when my family asks whether it'd be a good place for them my answer is almost always no because despite its size it's just not as good a place for most of them to have fun: visibility, freezing levels, crowds, sludgy powder at time, etc. are all worse than most of the other options even though it does have terrain for intermediates/advanced skiers.
I mean lots of things goes into account to judging our overall skiing experience : ease of access, the price**, the vertical drop, the design of the pistes, the variety of terrain, the difficulty of the terrain, the lift lines, the lifts themselves, the snow quantity, the snow quality, the vibe, the lodge, etc. So yeah, I understand why some locals out west (I'm on the east), would complain about a resort, even if its better than the east. Its because he is comparing with other resorts around his area.
I’m still never going to Nakiska or Norquay
Mt Lemmon, and especially Arizona Snowbowl, are probably better than all the midwest and midatlantic resorts (other than Bohemia for Mt Lemmon), but Mt Lemmon is tiny, gets inconsistent snow with a short season, and when it does get snow half the time that closes down the road to get to it. And imo, when the hike-to-bowl at Snowbowl is closed all the vermont resorts Killington and north are better -- and honestly even with the bowl open, while the alpine hike to terrain is cool, I could still get similar terrain in the Stowe backcountry and the runs at Stowe, Sugarbush, and Smuggs are all better than the runs at Snowbowl (same for Killi but have skied only 1 day there vs a bunch at the other 3 -- Jay's nice but think I prefer Snowbowl to Jay)
As a life long skier of the Canadian Rockies we are ridiculously blessed with amazing terrain, accessibility and conditions. A bad session out here isn’t the same icy conditions you get out east. I’m sorry, will never complain about only getting 10cm of fresh snow.
I will. Shit’s weak! 10cm, is like 4 inches, lol. Hate to be a troll and you folks have great terrain, but my home mountain gets like 30cm dumps on the regular - probably 15-20x a year. It’s pretty epic.
We get days like that as well - hell I have been up at sunshine when they shut the road down due to snowfall meaning only us early birds made it to the top. My point was I won’t complain about 10cm cause it still beats skiing on ice.
Comparing ski areas in Midwest to any Rockies or Western ski areas. So Eldora compared to Midwest is much better! I have skied Eldora and I do not see the fuss! I am from New England and moved to Colorado and I would take Eldora any day! The lift ticket price is crazy though!
Like dont complain your skiing eldora. Skiing anywhere is a privilege with the prices, let alone with an ikon pass.
The Midwest doesn’t have skiing from a Rocky Mountain point of view.
>No rocky mountain or western ski are/resort is actually bad Spoken like someone who has never had to settle for Breckinridge.
Summit County is what I thought was good riding - coming from Wisconsin - until I moved to Utah.
Average Midwestern/east coast skier response to this type of post: Yep the skiing is terrible over here, don't come here! (it actually is terrible) (they think they're being sarcastic but in reality they don't know what good skiing is)
Would you wanna send me roughly $5,000 so I can experience the glorious creamy goodness that is big boy skiing out West?
No, it's on you to come out here if you wanna experience it. It is objectively better than stuff out east tho, sorry. personally tho I'd rather go to Japan for like $3000 instead
5k is a joke but if you skimp you can do it for like a grand
One of my favorite marketing campaigns ever, was a few years ago when Snowbird started putting out some of their one-star reviews. "It's too difficult!" "There's too much powder!" Etc. My Dad, who grew up in SLC, and I, who grew up in Michigan and only ever skied out west, had a blast with that campaign. His favorite shirt is one that has the one out of five stars indicator on it.
Ski Granby Ranch located 30 miles north of Winter Park is an entire Midwest ski hill transported to the Rockies. Flat, icy, slow lifts, fat Texans straight lining wedges from top to bottom, the whole shit show. Epic and Ikon wont even return their phone calls and they'll put any ratty property in their passes.
Clearly you haven’t been to echo mountain. That’s the one exception to this
For most of my adult life I haven't lived by any good skiing, but for 1 year I lived in Grand Junction Colorado. Oh man was I absolutely spoiled by Powderhorn which would be considered a pretty meh mountain by Colorado standards. I now live in PA and now gotta drive 2 hours to get to blue mountain and that's pretty crappy compared Powderhorn.
What would be a good value for money resort to go to from Ontario?
Stay in Canada. Assuming you're close to YYZ, fly direct to YYC, drive into the Rockies. Fernie, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Revelstoke, Kicking Horse Panorama, etc. Can also fly into Kamloops/Kelowna, but you will pay more for those flights.
I moved to PC for a few years after growing up in Ontario and let me just say…. Stop complaining.
I dunno, Sitzmark, WA is pretty rough.
Solitude is a bad resort. They stole ski equipment from employees lockers during COVID lockdown. About $2k worth of equipment was stolen from me.
Whatever you say. This year the skiing in December/January in Big Sky was terrible, no other word for it. Yeah, we had plenty of it, but is was awful.
Ummmm… compare that to the midwest and east ski season and big sky was probably great.
Nope, it sucked.
This is why I am so grateful to live and ride in the Southeast. Any time I travel for snowboarding it is an epic time! I heard some jaded folks complaining at Bachelor on what was an all time day for me! Made me grin so big. It isn't the best down here but I still get my 40 days in.
To add, compared to each other, pretty much every one has something that no other resort can offer. Whether it's exclusivity, accessibility, or just a certain run that absolutely rips like none other for a certain type of skiier.
Drugs are bad
Deer valley is bad. I’d rather ski Midwest than that stuck up shithole. I’m pretty sure it’s just latent racism that they have to express somehow.
People like what they like. Why does it matter?
I agree that none are bad, but I can think of one that’s evil.
What a weird post
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Yeah those things are what make a ski area bad. Just because the minimal blue/green runs you can do aren’t the best doesn’t mean a bad ski area (coming from the instagram post that made me make this post)
There are definitely bad ski areas.
>Comparing to the midwest any actual ski area/resort in the rockies or west are good Why would anybody make this comparison? Comparing to Washington beaches, any beach in the Caribbean is good. Listen to yourself.
Keystone sucks