Ski Area Wish List

On my side, I want to ski this year :

Ski areas in operation, in Québec (where I've already skied)

- Avila
- Tremblant (with the Edge Side never groomed this year !!!!)
- Saint-Sauveur (MSSI)
- ORFORD
- Sainte-Anne
- Blanc (not while the mountain is in operation though)
- Val Saint-Côme
- Chantecler (not while the mountain is in operation though)
- Ski Morin Heights (may be, I'll have a night skiing ski pass with MSSI)
- Garceau
- Gabriel (may be, I'll have a night skiing ski pass with MSSI)
- ALTA
- LA RÉSERVE
- Le Massif (6 new trails... I have some pics of 4 of them at the house)
- Avalanche
- Shefford
- MASSIF DU SUD
- Kanasuta
- Côtes 40/80
- Mont Édouard
- Mont Grand-Fonds
- Stoneham

New Mountains in Québec (potential) (in operation)

- Mont Vidéo (may be if I go near Val D'Or in Abitibi)
- Club de Ski de Val D'or (LOL)
- Mont Adstock (way more serious)
- Valinouët

Lost ski areas in Québec to ski

- Do you really think I'm going to name them ? :mrgreen:
(at least 3-4 to ski :))


New England : (ski areas where I already skied)

- Jay Peak : it's time for me to come back after 7 years !
- MRG (same thing, after 5 years !)
- Burke : yeah, got a cool day with FTO 2 years ago, time to come back
- Smuggs : yeah... time for a come back after 9 years

Hopefully the borders won't be too tough this winter (I already see Marc punching me about the problem of passing the borders)

Ski areas to try :

- Cannon / Mittersill
- Mt Washington (Tucks at least)
- Stowe (possibly)
- Sugarbush
- Sugarloaf

... something like that... but this remains a WISH list. I'm not sure if I'll get the time to ski all of them. If I had unlimited time, let me say that the list would be way longer :):):)
 
Frankontour":15kms5yr said:
Hopefully the borders won't be too tough this winter (I already see Marc punching me about the problem of passing the borders)
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](*,)
 
:lol:

how many times have we got this discussion up to now ? :D

At least, I'm not from France (despite the flag) so it should be less worst...

A problem is that my main ski buddy (Christophe) is born in France ! oops
 
Frankontour":29pl9r0s said:
At least, I'm not from France (despite the flag) so it should be less worst...

A problem is that my main ski buddy (Christophe) is born in France ! oops
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:roll: Jeezuz, Frank...unless you've got plastique explosive strapped to your chest and shout "Allah Akhbar!" as you speed through the barrier, crossing the border is no big deal. Sure, it takes a few minutes longer than it used to, but the way to get around that is to cross at a small, rural border crossing instead of on the main interstate highways. When I do so there's seldom more than a single car in line ahead of me.

Folks do it all the time. Some folks do it every day. My in-laws just came down for the weekend from Quebec City and went back.

Speaking for all but the most ignorant rednecks amongst us, I have no problem with the people from France. It's the French government of Jacques Chirac that I have no patience for. There's a distinct difference between the two.
 
Admin":3cmlo4xz said:
Frankontour":3cmlo4xz said:
At least, I'm not from France (despite the flag) so it should be less worst...

A problem is that my main ski buddy (Christophe) is born in France ! oops
Click to expand...

Sure, it takes a few minutes longer than it used to, but the way to get around that is to cross at a small, rural border crossing instead of on the main interstate highways. When I do so there's seldom more than a single car in line ahead of me.
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Not that it's stops me from skiing in the US and it happens rarely but I have been pull over at the border for 30 to 60 minutes (also prior 2001). :x

One of the worst case has been the very small border crossing between Woburn (Québec) and Coburn (Maine) at 7am where my wife was questioned (French passport, before she became a Canadian Citizen) because they had her name in a database where she entered in US on a tourist visa and never left since entering 3 yr before. This was do to an adminstrative mix-up, lucky she had her passport stamp a few times to help explain to the custom officer that this was impossible. The :roll: weird case was that we entered the US numerous times prior to this without a problem.


Speaking for all but the most ignorant rednecks amongst us, I have no problem with the people from France. It's the French government of Jacques Chirac that I have no patience for. There's a distinct difference between the two.
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We better stay away from this discussion about foreign or domestic governments alltogether. :shock:

Can anyone guess to which ski area we were heading toward when we cross that tiny border crossing? What a wonderful spring day, however it was a long day trip from Montreal.[/quote]
 
On my yearly pre-Christmas trip to Vancouver, I've always wanted to hit the Okanagan. Instead, I end up at Whistler/Blackcomb and Mt Baker due to poor base depths in the interior. Maybe this is the year?

* Mt Baldy
* Apex
* Big White
* Silver Star
* Sun Peaks
 
My new area list is modest:

If there is decent snow in Southern New England:

Bershire East

I've skied there a few times beofre but always managed to hit poor snow:

Smugglers Notch

The big stretch would be to hit Quebec outside the Eastern Townships:

Le Massif

Mt St Anne
 
Scheduled trips:

Mammoth weekends in Nov., Dec.

NASJA West at Sierra/Northstar/Alpine Meadows. I may sneak off and try Mt. Rose one day as I've never been there and it's opening some previously closed high end terrain

Last week of January Great Northern Snowcat plus Red and Whitewater

President's weekend at Heavenly Kirkwood, Mammoth on the way home

The annual 4 days to Snowbird March 5-8

NASJA annual Schweitzer/Silver, followed by kids' spring break at Whistler and 2 days TLH heliskiing

One spring weekend a month until Mammoth closes. If they make it to July, I'll be tempted to go for my first 12-month ski season. I was thinking about South America sometime. If the El Nino strengthens, this will be a good year to do that.
 
Tony Crocker":28m5pe1y said:
One spring weekend a month until Mammoth closes. If they make it to July, I'll be tempted to go for my first 12-month ski season. I was thinking about South America sometime. If the El Nino strengthens, this will be a good year to do that.
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I'm gonna try this year. I screwed up July since Blackcomb didn't make July 31 and closed to the general public the day before I arrived in Vancouver. August & September were at Valle Nevado, Chile. October was wimpy laps at Loveland. November through May are easy. I'm planning a New Zealand trip for next summer so June is the month where I'll have to get creative with a *cough* business trip. 8)
 
My understanding was that South America had a lean year this year while Australia/NZ had their best in a decade. If El Nino strengthens it will be the other way around next summer.
 
Tony Crocker":1am5q48q said:
My understanding was that South America had a lean year this year while Australia/NZ had their best in a decade. If El Nino strengthens it will be the other way around next summer.
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The bottoms of my skis agree with you. The cover in Chile wasn't all that great this year.

I'll consult with you weather wonks before I start thinking about booking flights. I have no problem heading back down to South America though I prefer the non-skiing options on the South Island to being stranded 2 hours from nowhere in Chile when they're socked in with high winds and vertigo-inducing flat light. There's a summer promotion for a Mt Hutt/Coronet Peak/Remarkables NZ$499 season pass and I don't have to pull the trigger to get that deal until early-March. I can push a 3+ week trip to New Zealand to another summer.
 
It's a good thing that there are so many non-skiing options in NZ because the skiing isn't that reliable. Of course both of my trips were in big El Nino years 1982 and 1997. I wrote up the details for Inside Tracks: http://webpages.charter.net/tcrocker818/anzguide.htm. Don't be tempted by early season deals. I wouldn't recommend any earlier than first of August if skiing is your primary focus.

I would not go for the 3 area pass. If weather is uncooperative it might not pay. And the best overall ski area on South Island is Treble Cone. There are also the rustic club areas which I never tried but which might appeal to you. They were the inspiration for the proprietors of Silverton.

I do recommend NZ; after all I've been there twice and might do it again. But do it on a flexible schedule with a rental car or RV and plan to ski about half the days you're there. Trust me, you won't be bored on the days you're not skiing.
 
I was planning on late-August into September. I really liked Treble Cone but I also enjoyed Mt Hutt. The Tower rocks, South Face, and Montezuma Ridge were pretty fun. You could also traverse around the other side of the resort and ski down to the road. On days when Mt Hutt is socked in, it's not all that far to Marlboro wine country and it's less than an hour to Christchurch so you're not stuck in a tiny little town for days on end. That 3-resort season pass gives you a break on Treble Cone day tickets, too. I was thinking maybe 4 days in Wanaka/Treble Cone, 4 days in Queenstown split between Coronet Peak & The Remarkables, and Methven/Mt Hutt on either end. We'd probably do a heli-ski day when we're at Treble Cone since there's a chopper operation right at the base of their access road. I also have a nice friendly B&B to stay at in Methven that's operated by a pinner who used to run lift ops at Mt Hutt. With a season pass, we can mix morning skiing with doing something else in the afternoon and not feel guilty about it. A multi-resort season pass also really controls costs.

Dunno. Maybe we'll just head back to Chile next summer. I really want to try out Termas de Chillan.
 
I spent 3 ½ weeks in New Zealand from Aug 13 to Sept 5, for my first overseas ski trip. It was indeed very good conditions... at Treble Cone skiing was possible even under the six pack at the very bottom - which I've been told is pretty rare. I had two powder days, of about a foot each in Broken River and Porter Heights. I've also had fabulous skiing in Ohau - a deserted resort that kept powder even 3 days after a storm - as well as two delicious days of corn snow at Whakapapa in the North Island.

The downside of course is that when it gets stormy all mountains close... Out of 16 days I could have skied I skied 12, but as Tony said, it's not like there's nothing else to do.

Personally, if I go back I would still hop around from place to place and not stick to a pass. Though Hutt and mostly Remarkables certainly seem like interesting places, I've prefered the Wanaka region, close to Treble Cone, as well as that of Ohau (staying at Ohau Lodge is real fun - it's on the lake at the base of the mountain). Club ski areas are a must - though nutcracker lifts are killers.

As for North Island, Whakapapa and Turoa are risky, as the risk they will be closed is higher than that of South Island, as well as the risk that there be no skiing at all (eruptions, no snow, etc.), but Whakapapa with its northern orientation is corn capital of NZ. I.E: when it's good, it's real good, though when it's bad it's real bad. Views of and off Mt. Ruapehu are awesome.

Of course also, North Island is the cultural center of the country, so I feel visiting Auckland, Rotorua and Wellington are excellent additions to such trip...
 
The Towers were not even close to being skiable when I was at Mt. Hutt Aug. 23, 1982: lots of rocks and ice. Whakapapa on Sept. 3 was the best lift service skiing I got on that trip. The base was deeper and we got a sunny day about 3 days after the last snow.

I agree you want to be based in Wanaka for both Treble Cone and heliskiing. Use Harris for heliskiing, they have way more permit areas than anyone else, which is important when dealing with the temperamental weather.

Methven/Ashburton is the best bed base for the club areas as well as Mt. Hutt.

Queenstown was transformed between 1982 and 1997. In 1982 it wasn't that much different from other NZ small towns. By 1997 it had become the "adventure capital" you read about now. It is now an international resort, often with upscale amenities and prices. I knew Queenstown had changed in 1997 right away when I saw parking meters.
 
NHpowderhound":zhycae0v said:
I forgot Diagonal And Esacape Hatch in H.R.. :wink:
Anyone with experience doing eighther?Lftgly?Marc?
((*
*))NHPH
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Paint me confused: H.R., H.R....I'm still trying to figure out "H.R."
 
NHpowderhound":3k7s1m3h said:
Anyone with experience doing eighther?((*
*))NHPH
Click to expand...

To add on the experience of skiing certain places around Mt.Wash.

Does anyone what any experience doing Dodge's Drop or Duchess?
 
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