They are all on the first page of
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... um.php?f=2 which is where gpaulski's inquiry is posted. He didn't look very hard. I am the listed first poster for Dec. 4 Killington, Dec. 5 Sunday River and Dec. 6 Sugarbush. James is the listed first poster for Stratton Dec. 2-3. In addition, some of the TR's from my 2003 March Northeast trip are also on that first page because I added scanned film pictures to them within the past year.
Tseeb is perhaps not familiar with gpaulski's history here from 2005-2013. He is infamous for soliciting advice from knowledgeable skiers and than ignoring nearly all of it. Since his inquiry here was just about lift tickets, I left it alone as I presume everyone knows about Epic and Ikon. Ikon includes Stratton, Sugarbush, Loon, Sunday River, Sugarloaf and Tremblant. Epic includes Stowe, Okemo and Sunapee. If the Peaks Resorts deal goes through, Epic will also include Hunter, Mt. Snow, Attitash and Wildcat. As for any other lift ticket deals, I'll leave that to the easterners.
Now that tseeb took the bait first, I'll add a few observations. At any time of year the odds of awful conditions in the Northeast are at least 1/4, and you won't know until less than a week in advance because rain is the major culprit in degrading conditions abruptly. Thus the eastern skiers who enjoy the best quality are those who are flexible in their timing, which means those who live within drive distance and don't have to book air travel and lodging in advance.
The earlier you go before mid-January the higher the odds of disaster will be above that 1/4 because coverage may be inadequate due to not enough cumulative snowfall or cold days for snowmaking. Ironically my trip last year, which was for a media event, followed perhaps the best November in the history of the Northeast. But it rained steadily my first day Dec. 2, slashing open terrain by at least half.
I did find that trip informative. Two days later at Killington it was 11F and I was very impressed by the excellent restoration of many runs by snowmaking and grooming, though all ungroomed skiing was closed due to bulletproof conditions. But that was a Tuesday and obviously very quiet. If there had been any serious crowd those groomers would have been quickly scraped down to frozen granular. So my insight is that Northeast ski quality is unusually sensitive to skier density.
Since gpaulski's stated dates are 12 days between 12/22-1/22, those ski dates should start no earlier than 1/5. That allows maximum time for both natural and manmade snow to accumulate and avoids crowds, holiday blackouts and higher prices for lodging as well as tickets. And realize that as in my case last year you still have a significant chance of being screwed by the weather at the last minute.