Battle of Resorts

[longboardsrule]

Wanted to get some Opinions of which resorts that I have ridden are the best, all the resort match ups are based on proximity. If you wanted to provide any insight to why you chose any resort I would be interested to hear this.

The following are my opinions.


Castle vs Fernie
Winner = Castle - Less crowded, All fall line runs, great wind sift, closer to home, know all the stashes

Fernie vs Whitefish
Winner = Close one, but Fernie is better, not always fogged in, a bit more snow and the traverse from the east rim at WF gets super annoying, but really I love both.

Panorama vs Kimberely
Winner = UGH, I try to avoid both of these places, but I would have to choose Panorama due to the vertical feet and the extreme dream zone. If either of these resorts ever got any snow my opinion of both of them may be better.

Nakiska vs Norquay
Winner = Norquay - Steeper, better park, better nightlife

Louise vs Shine
Winner = Louise - More varied terrain

Kicking Horse vs Revy
Winner = Really a toss up, but I will go with KH, closer to home, better on mountain accomodation


Whitewater vs Red
Winner = Red, gladed are so sick there, more access to cliffs of the lifts, Longer vertical. (The above lift terrrain at Whitewater is also super sick)

Apex vs Big White vs Silverstar
Winner = Apex, less crowded, great terrain at the top. (Big white is flat as a golf course and the conditions at siverstar when I was there were atrocious, so I dont have a good read on that Mtn)

Powder King Vs Sunpeaks
Never been to either

Mt Seymour vs Mt Washington
Never been to either

[poutanen]

Originally Posted by longboardsrule

Castle vs Fernie
Winner = Castle - Less crowded, All fall line runs, great wind sift, closer to home, know all the stashes

Louise vs Shine
Winner = Louise - More varied terrain

But Fernie has high speed lifts! I can't STAND non-detachable lifts. Most of my laps at Fernie are on the Bear, usually though the Lizard bowl or fall line right under the bear lift. Then I go off and do a lap up Timber, White Pass, Polar Peak and come into corner pocket or something to get back to the bear. Then a lap into the Cedar bowl and back to the Bear...

Gotta agree with you on Louise vs. Sunshine. I found sunshine boring. Louise just has a massive amount of different terrain.

Here's my thoughts:

Louise vs. Fernie?
Fernie - more alpine terrain, more glades, stuff that still gives me the holy shit factor (although Louise has a real terrain park, I'm not much of a park guy)

Kimberley vs. Nakiska
Nakiska - Kimberley has a HORRIBLE bottleneck at the base of the main lift, and although the back side is quite enjoyable, again the slow lifts have me sitting there watching my life go down the drain on the lifts. Nakiska gets me up the hill, so I can race back down.

Jay Peak vs. Tremblant
Jay hands down. Really relaxed atmosphere. Less French. Best glades in the east...

Jay Peak vs. Fernie
Different resorts but I gotta pick Fernie (Jay used to be my favorite). More extreme terrain at Fernie, same vibe, although Jays terrain park is fun too.

Kicking Horse vs. Lake Louise
I'm going against the trend here and saying Lake Louise. KH is nice, but again slow lifts unless you're doing gondola laps. Yay, 30 seconds of alpine terrain and a 15 minute decent to get on a 15 minute gondola. At LL I'll run laps on the Top of the World and I can hit some great terrain, a bowl, glades, groomers and a couple jumps all in one lap, then back on an uncrowded chair that doesn't move as slow as grandma moses...

So out of the resorts I've been at, here's my fave list in order:

1. Fernie
2. Lake Louise
3. Jay Peak
4. Kicking Horse
5. Nakiska
6. Tremblant
7. Mt Sutton
8. Sunshine
9. Kimberley
10. Loon Mountain
11. Mt. St. Anne
12. Stoneham
13. All the hills in Ontario that I used to ride on a regular basis (with Blue and Searchmont being the best)

Heading to Seymour, Cypress or Baker, and Whistler in a few weeks so I'll have to slot those in somewhere!

[longboardsrule]

Yeah the high speed lifts at Fernie are nice! When Westcastle is busy the wait at the red chair can be brutal. Since they put that bear chair in Fernie laps are much more tolerable than the old t bar, they gotta due something with the Haul back T to Boomerang, that makes for a long process to get outta Cedar.

If we are making lists I gotta go with:
1.Castle (1&2 is close, but gotta stick with the home mountain)
2.Red Mtn
3.Fernie
4.KH
5.Revy
6.Whitefish
7.Louise
8.Apex (Tie)
8.Whitewater (Tie)
10.Sunshine

[poutanen]

Originally Posted by longboardsrule

Yeah the high speed lifts at Fernie are nice! When Westcastle is busy the wait at the red chair can be brutal. Since they put that bear chair in Fernie laps are much more tolerable than the old t bar, they gotta due something with the Haul back T to Boomerang, that makes for a long process to get outta Cedar.

Yeah, although it's a short t-bar and actually some decent runs down to the triple, but even still if you want to do full Cedar bowl laps it's a 3 lift excursion per lap! I usually stick to skiers right in the cedar bowl anyway (drop in off the little cliffs beside the bear, then stay on my heelside for a while) and you can make it back to the triple without having to take the t-bar but it's a long and boring traverse.

A lift from the bottom of cedar bowl up to the top of the North side of the bowl would be sweet! Not gonna happen though...

I also love the stuff on the ridge between Curry and Lizard, but that's a 2-3 lift excursion too. Lately I've hit the new side once or twice a day and spent the rest of my time putting the mileage in off the bear. When no new snow has fallen the main bear run can be great for wide open, relatively steep groomer carving.

[atr3yu]

Lol Whitewater kills Red. Red has less snow and way bigger line ups at chairs and super shitty food. Whitewater is may be smaller but all the terrain is awesome consistently gets more snow and the new backside chair opens tons of terrain. Also never line ups, even on weekends and the best food on the planet.