Top day tripper / "local hill" that would interest...

[crgildart]

Is timberline wv still worth the trip from D.C. Area?

I wouldn't drive more than 3 hours for a day trip there but they do still have plenty of cheap slopeside housing to make a weekender pretty good.

But, 3 hours three years ago is now 2 hours since they finished Cooridor H or whatever it's called so the last 50-60 miles no longer takes 2 hours

 

[tromano]

Sounds like corridor h has done what was promised 15 years ago.

 

[DanoT]

Mt. Baldy, B.C. has the highest ski area base elevation in Canada.
https://skibaldy.com/about/

 

[crgildart]

Sounds like corridor h has done what was promised 15 years ago.

Canan Valley has also upped their game quite a bit.. Tripled their snow making infrastructure and built a pretty big new overnight lodge over the past couple seasons. I never make it over there though when we have a house on the slopes at T-line.

 

[TonyC]

Silver Mt has got to be about the most easily accessible ski area/resort outside of Utah. Kellogg is an hour 15 minutes drive from Spokane airport, all on I-90 with pretty easily driving, no steep ascents, no hairpin turns. From the parking lot and accommodations (they call it a “village”) right off the freeway, you take a gondola to get the ski area.

Yes, Silver looked so accessible to me that I found it hard to believe @PeteIdaho about it being so uncrowded. Now that I have further evidence including a meager 80K annual skier visits, I'm convinced. Clearly Spokane is not the skier hotbed that Calgary is. Schweitzer must be the big weekend draw for that market and Schweitzer was quite empty for a couple of excellent midweek powder days when I was there in 2012.

Hunter used to be my "go to" for early season skiing when I was still back east. It was a ritual to go there the Wednesday, a week before Thanksgiving to get my first turns of the season in. IIRC, the first time I met @Ron, then Finndog, was when we coordinated a trip to Hunter, had to be 04-05.

Liz still speaks well of Hunter, thinks its terrain is better than Big Bear. She usually went there on the Wednesday bus. I have to believe Hunter is one of the areas where going midweek vs. weekend makes a huge difference.

Mt. Baldy, B.C. has the highest ski area base elevation in Canada.
https://skibaldy.com/about/

Yes, and it's in a relatively dry region and has predominant south exposure. I checked it out on the way from Rossland to Vancouver before last season's Gathering. The weather was cold, snow was not refrozen but much of it was windswept. It was worth checking out on my route but no one in their right mind in the southern Okanagan would go there over Apex IMHO.

 

[Philpug]

Liz still speaks well of Hunter, thinks its terrain is better than Big Bear. She usually went there on the Wednesday bus. I have to believe Hunter is one of the areas where going midweek vs. weekend makes a huge difference.

Hunter was Vermont skiing in New York. I prefered going weekdays for sure but New Years morning was always a safe bet too . We had a friend who would fly his helicopter from South Jersey to Hunter, land it in the parking lot, take a private lesson all day and just ski Hell-Eis-Quad, Hellgate to Eisenhower to the Quad. Then he would fly back.

 

[Uncle-A]

Hunter was Vermont skiing in New York. I prefered going weekdays for sure but New Years morning was always a safe bet too . We had a friend who would fly his helicopter from South Jersey to Hunter, land it in the parking lot, take a private lesson all day and just ski Hell-Eis-Quad, Hellgate to Eisenhower to the Quad. Then he would fly back.

A friend with a helicopter to fly into Hunter, WOW you can't get much better than that. Yes, I have enjoyed New Years morning at Hunter also because too many others spent the night before partying, it tends to be empty on the mountain. But I would guess that may be true of a lot of ski areas.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I miss my day trips to snow summit in southern California.

I've never been to hunter, I mean HuntA. One day. I have been told not to go there on the weekends but midweek is a possibility. It's equal distance for me to go there as it is to mount snow and Vermont always wins.

I have a few hills within an hour from me in CT but i never go to them, i always just just go a bit further into western mass. Guess I'm a creature of habit.

 

[Uncle-A]

I miss my day trips to snow summit in southern California.

I've never been to hunter, I mean HuntA. One day. I have been told not to go there on the weekends but midweek is a possibility. It's equal distance for me to go there as it is to mount snow and Vermont always wins.

I have a few hills within an hour from me in CT but i never go to them, i always just just go a bit further into western mass. Guess I'm a creature of habit.

I am sure you would like Hunter because the trails do challenge your skills. The "Cliff" is one of my favorite and "Way Out" the trail that links the main mountain to Hunter West. Go and give it a try this season break old habits because sometimes they just hold you back.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I am sure you would like Hunter because the trails do challenge your skills. The "Cliff" is one of my favorite and "Way Out" the trail that links the main mountain to Hunter West. Go and give it a try this season break old habits because sometimes they just hold you back.

I've a couple instructor friends whom I plan to meet there some Wednesday. I'd like to check it out at least once. My pass is good there so it won't cost me anything. I'm such a Vermont girl so it's hard to head the other direction. Thanks for the trail recs. I will put them in my hunter list

 

[BS Slarver]

Hunter is great mid Atlantic, mid week skiing.
Mid week pass last year was ~ 350ish.
Good deal IMO.

 

[TonyC]

I miss my day trips to snow summit in southern California.

I've never been to hunter, I mean HuntA. One day.

Liz says Hunter is more challenging than Snow Summit, but it's far below Mt. Baldy, for which Mad River is probably the best eastern analogy.

My guess is that Mountain High in full operation is a good analogy to Hunter, but Liz has not seen that yet with our recent run of crummy snow years in SoCal.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I never found snow summit particularly challenging but always had fun there. Love, love, love the east resort of mountain high. Hope you guys get some turns there this season.

I admit to being very biased against hunter based on the stereotype. Not knocking the terrain but the hunterites often hit mount snow when hunter isn't open so it's hard to get passed it but I'm willing to make a visit mid week. Although I'm likely more partial to hit belleyre or wyndham cause me likes smaller places with good vibes.

So mad river is most comparable with hunter terrain wise? Any others?

 

[Read Blinn]

I've a couple instructor friends whom I plan to meet there some Wednesday. I'd like to check it out at least once. My pass is good there so it won't cost me anything. I'm such a Vermont girl so it's hard to head the other direction. Thanks for the trail recs. I will put them in my hunter list

You have one of those Peak Passes, don't you?

 

[Crank]

Hunter was Vermont skiing in New York. I prefered going weekdays for sure but New Years morning was always a safe bet too . We had a friend who would fly his helicopter from South Jersey to Hunter, land it in the parking lot, take a private lesson all day and just ski Hell-Eis-Quad, Hellgate to Eisenhower to the Quad. Then he would fly back.

A friend's father used to take us to Hunter on Christmas Eve day every year. Was totally uncrowded and it got him and the kids out of the house while his wife went crazy stressing out and doing all her Christmas prep stuff.

I have skied Hunter many times, Mountain High and Baldy a few times and Snow Summit many times. Baldy may be most challenging of the group followed by Hunter. Mountain High and then Snow Summit. When I lived in SoCal a friend had a house up in Big Bear and we would go for weekends. If you wanted to ski a Saturday at Snow Summit you had to buy a ticket at Ticketmaster by Thursday or you would be shut out. Their limiting ticket sales made it a better, less crowded place to ski than the other areas in the region. This was late '70's-early 80's.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

You have one of those Peak Passes, don't you?

I do, I do

 

[surfsnowgirl]

@Crank i boarded and ski bladed in big bear from 2000 till 2009. Advance ticket purchases for BB were imperative. I learned the hard way one day when I got up there and learned it was sold out. Its good for crowd control though so glad they do it. I love big bear, we go back for Octoberfest every few years.

 

[Read Blinn]

I do, I do

If you have nothing to do on a Friday evening, and you're anywhere up this way, my school's ski/snowboard club skis Crotched from 3 to 9ish in January and early February. Crotched's on your pass, you know. Long shot, but it'd be fun.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

[QUOTE="Read Blinn, post: 152218, member: 132"]If you have nothing to do on a Friday evening, and you're anywhere up this way, my school's ski/snowboard club skis Crotched from 3 to 9ish in January and early February. Crotched's on your pass, you know. Long shot, but it'd be fun. [/QUOTE]

That's right. I always forget about crotched. That would be fun
I will definitely let you know.

 

[JohnL]

Sounds like corridor h has done what was promised 15 years ago.

From Annandale, 2 hr 45 min trip non rush hour. Much less if from Chantilly, etc.