Thread: WWMD? Where to ski?

I’m giving some thought about next ski season and what to do. This past year, along with a few people, I rented a condo for the season that was about 10 minutes from Sunday River. It was about 1000 dollars for the season. It worked out pretty frickin awesome, except for the fact that it was Someday Bigger, that it was near. Next year I have higher hopes; preferably living and skiing out west, but my circumstances will probably be such that I’ll be looking for a lot more skiing in Vermont (Sugarbush, MRG, Jay, etc).

I live near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I’m about 2 hours from Sunday River, Wildcat, and Cannon; a little under 3 from Killington, 3:15 to Sugarbush or Sugarloaf, and 4 to Jay.

In addition to a week out west (summit almost definitely), I’m also planning on making a trip or two out that way for a long weekend. With the addition of the zoo-ish holiday weekends here (mlk and president’s day) this cuts down the number of good EC weekends down to about 10.

In my current job, which I’m looking to leave (but don’t know if I’ll be gone by next winter), I can work 9 or 10 hour days, giving me 3 day weekends every week or every other week.

ASC (Killington, Sunday River, Sugarloaf ) have their season pass prices out and you can get one for all of their mountains for 600, 399 with 10 blackout dates, or 349 with 10 blackout dates. None of those places I really want to ski at year round next year though. Every other place is considerably more expensive. Jay is reasonable at 499 but it’s also really far away.

Do I consider a place to stay for the season again? If so where? Season pass anywhere? Go where the snow is and hope I can find cheap hotel rooms and deals on lift tickets?

I'd go for a silver or Bronze ASC pass. Seems like you are a reasonable drive from all the resorts. Than you can use the blackout dates to plan your trips out west or hit some of the less crowded EC resorts (I've skied Jay several times during Christmas week and the crowds aren't too bad. Maybe 5 minutes max for a chair, and 15 or so for the tram).

Like I stated in another thread- the blackout dates for the silver and gold passes are days you might not want to ski due to crowds anyway. If you think you'll get 10 weekends of use out of the pass, that's $400 for 20 days, or about $20 a day to ski. Not a bad deal if you ask me. Plus, you'll get discounts at other resorts (like Jay) as well.

The best places in Vermont are Stowe, Jay and MRG depending on the snow. Big K is also good, but it is The big K. Wildcat is a lot of fun and pretty close to Portsmouth, ( I lived in Hampton) so if you are stuck in your job that would probably be the cheapest/most practical. If you are moving somewhere, go to Vermont. Place in Watebury or Middlesex/Moretown can be cheap if you look in the right place, and they are in the middle of the best skiing in Vermont ( My opinion) Vermont ski areas are larger than NH, and the terrain is way better (lift accessed) SO, if you can move, VT is the place. Otherwise, Wildcat and Cannon are my NH favorites.

Shmer, you should be closer to sugarloaf, its not an extra hour and fifteen from sumgay river. Plus Saddleback is there to spice things up, and if you go north via rangeley instead of kingsfield, its actually closer that sugarloaf. Plus, if you need a place to crash for the weekend let me know.

Just so I got this right, you are considering renting somewhere else and staying there weekends? Rentals around jay are pretty cheap, I think bill rented a place by it this year(or was it someone else?)

Id say look into getting a rental around waitsfield/waterbury. You are close to sugarbush and mad river, and have stowe on the other side of 89, and jay about an hour away. Not to mention smuggs on the other side of stowe. Getting a pass at any one of those places would be great, and you are in a great central location, close to burlington for those wild and crazy saturday nights.

And if you spend the whole season skiing at mrg you'll be a damn good bump and tree skier come april.

Yeah, my ideal setup would be to rent a place for the winter near Sugarbush and get a season pass there. I think that would be pricey though. Why can't Sugarbush, Stowe, and Jay have 350 dollar season passes?

I'm just gonna have to find a job out west soon.

Because the companies that own them suck. You should be able to get a sugarbush pass pretty cheap ( compared to stowe, $799 if you under 29, and that is blacked out for about a month total) Are you looking for just a seasonal rental? There are lots around or you could look into subletting. I live in the area and there are tons of rentals in the paper right now.

Id say rock the MRG pass and use Jay on pow days(the half off deal).


I had a sugarbush pass this year and it was great, lots of fun stuff(Castlerock, stashes all over the place, and its empty) but after going to MRG a few times I found myself wishing I had gotten a pass there. Its got everything a maggot could want in an eastern mountain. Lots of stashes to get away, cliffs and waterfalls all over and snow builds up and doesnt get tracked out very quickly. Downside is its a bit more expensive, and you have to rely on mother nature...but they opened Dec7th last year(with 30 inches of fresh snow) and had a 108 day season. And you are supporting the little guy.