ski area myth busters - good or bad

Scotland is notorious for vicious weather and erratic snow conditions, but I've seen enough pics to know that locals like q should take advantage when it's good.

The Mt. Rose chutes are elite expert terrain which only a handful of much more famous areas can match.

I have to defend Mammoth's spring operations, which I've been observing since 1978. The closure of the Canyon/Eagle side of the mountain occurs after the third weekend of April, so nathanvg must have been there late in the month. Most ski areas are closed completely by then. If Rollercoaster was so thin they only wanted you to use it for parking access, that implies not a great snow year.

Redundant lifts? Perhaps you'd rather be at Snowbird or Palisades, where you can wait in horrendous lines on spring powder days because management is too cheap to open more lifts. I've seen Mammoth run as many as 7 extra lifts for Memorial Day or other late weekends with good conditions. Even midweek you want chair 1 running for people skiing the lower mountain and not competing for gondola seats with those skiing the top. Chair 6 is dedicated for people lapping the Unbound Park.

You can ski all but the lowest 400 vertical off Mammoth's backside and follow lower Roadrunner around to the front side. In fairness this is not obvious to a new visitor. I've seen chair 9 run on weekend mornings of big seasons. But in general 9 and 22 take a lot of direct sun and wouldn't hold up well in late spring except in the biggest seasons.

There's a window in late April/early May where you can argue A-Basin (full operation and often still in winter mode) or Mt. Bachelor (360 degree skiing off its summit) are better spring destinations. But after Bachelor closes its backside and Northwest and A-Basin closes all of its steeps for wet snow instability (average date for both is Mother's Day) I'd be interested in anyone's opinion of where else spring skiing in North America would be as good as at Mammoth.
 
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nathanvg said:
***Disappointments***
Europe: The towns are neat and the mountains big but snow is more rare/wet, crowds can be nuts, anything challenging is not avalanche controlled, topography is often short steeps followed by flats, lower vertical is often not worth skiing, etc.
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Which ski areas are you referring to?
 
I was tempted to ask James' questions about where in the Alps too. There's no question that for a standard one week trip booked far in advance to a fixed location, the odds of getting screwed by the weather in Europe (as happened on Liz' first trip in 2001) are higher than in most of western North America. James, ChrisC and I have figured out how to avoid that scenario most of the time. On our longer Euro trips we generally ski about 3/4 of the maximum available days.
 
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jamesdeluxe said:
Which ski areas are you referring to?
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Arlberg, Davos, Zermatt, Portes du Soleil, Engelberg, Trysil, Salen. Arlberg was my favorite with good snow and some nice runs.

Tony Crocker said:
I have to defend Mammoth's spring operations, which I've been observing since 1978. The closure of the Canyon/Eagle side of the mountain occurs after the third weekend of April, so nathanvg must have been there late in the month. Most ski areas are closed completely by then. If Rollercoaster was so thin they only wanted you to use it for parking access, that implies not a great snow year.

You can ski all but the lowest 400 vertical off Mammoth's backside and follow lower Roadrunner around to the front side. In fairness this is not obvious to a new visitor. I've seen chair 9 run on weekend mornings of big seasons. But in general 9 and 22 take a lot of direct sun and wouldn't hold up well in late spring except in the biggest seasons.

There's a window in late April/early May where you can argue A-Basin (full operation and often still in winter mode) or Mt. Bachelor (360 degree skiing off its summit) are better spring destinations. But after Bachelor closes its backside and Northwest and A-Basin closes all of its steeps for wet snow instability (average date for both is Mother's Day) I'd be interested in anyone's opinion of where else spring skiing in North America would be as good as at Mammoth.
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I enjoyed the backside of Mammoth and caught roadrunner for most of the runs as you mentioned. I explored hemlock and a few other lines that required a hike out too.

Mammoth puts on a good spring operation it just could have been so much better and I might have gotten a little unlucky in my timing (late April). I used to prefer Mammoth to A-Basin in May but now additional CO ski areas often are open late too. As long as Breck (typically closes end of May) or Loveland (1st weekend in May) or Mary Jane (1st weekend in May) is open, I prefer Colorado. In the spring all three are an easy drive from Georgetown or Summit in good weather. I haven't skied Bachelor yet but hope to soon.
 
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Mother's Day generally closes the window where Colorado's spring skiing is competitive with Mammoth. That said, the year we went to Colorado in that time frame (2015) we finished up with fresh powder at A-Basin May 8-9.

That's a good sample of Euro countries, Norway and Sweden along with France, Switzerland and Austria. I've had impressive days at all of the Alps places nathanvg mentions though. I would cite Hohtalli in Zermatt and the Laub at Engelberg as having continuous fall lines longer than nearly anything in North America.
 
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Tony Crocker said:
Mother's Day generally closes the window where Colorado's spring skiing is competitive with Mammoth. That said, the year we went to Colorado in that time frame (2015) we finished up with fresh powder at A-Basin May 8-9.

That's a good sample of Euro countries, Norway and Sweden along with France, Switzerland and Austria. I've had impressive days at all of the Alps places nathanvg mentions though. I would cite Hohtalli in Zermatt and the Laub at Engelberg as having continuous fall lines longer than nearly anything in North America.
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That's a good point about Pali closing around Mothers Day most years. IMO pali+imperial is better than Mammoth, but pali or imperial is not.

I didn't get a chance to ski Hohtalli or Laub due to conditions and not having a guide respectively. I did ski some extended pitches but they were rare.
 
tseeb said:
Their list is supposed to be next great ski towns but I think they are late on their first two choices as ski area crowds and rapidly rising real estate prices have already affected Revelstoke and Ogden (especially at Snowbasin). https://www.outsideonline.com/adven...th-america/next-best-ski-towns-north-america/
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This list is kind of poor. They need to include the avg. house price.

Revelstoke blew up 15 years ago when the new resort opened, the real estate boom was full-on and everyone needed an alternative to Whistler.

June? There is not much there. At least the one time I visited.

I would add Canadian towns like Rossland, Nelson, or Golden. Maybe Sandpoint, Philipsburg. Whitefish might already be pricey.
 
I would expect Whitefish to be pricey as it's a first rate summer resort with big lakes plus Glacier National Park nearby.

And yes June Mt. is completely in Mammoth's shadow. I do not believe it would be economically viable if Mammoth didn't own it. Mammoth's ownership has not been without controversy though.
 
Whitefish has gotten ridiculous - the "Zestimate" for my house has doubled in the last 18 months. And if I look at eight other places than Zillow, the Zestimate is the median estimate, some are 70% higher yet. It's even spreading out to Columbia Falls. Which leaves Kalispell as having some houses without the word "million" in the price. The infrastructure for the influx of new residents is really not handling it, either. Add to that the lack of affordable housing for workers and you've got restaurants on short hours, etc. We need new fire stations, an expanded airport, a new water treatment plant, more parking, and on and on. It's too many, too fast. From the air, It looks like tons of empty land, but that land is mostly federal, state, logging company (with increasing acres covered from development by conservation easements), and private land 20% owned by a single owner. Not much left. It's been a feeding frenzy.
 
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