Best Scenery: H\ I've heard Homewood is at least as good but yet to visit. \
Most Underrated: Kirkwood. The drive in is awful though, you probably shouldn't go there
Good point, I forgot about Homewood:
Kirkwood is good:
Best Scenery: H\ I've heard Homewood is at least as good but yet to visit. \
Most Underrated: Kirkwood. The drive in is awful though, you probably shouldn't go there
...well maybe Whistler...
You love a list don't you! I remember you started something like this in Epicski in previous years.
I'm heading to Snowbasin this coming January and your assessment of that hill being best for advanced surprises me. My favourites are similar to yours so I'm looking forward to Snowbasin - I should love it based on the above.
I'm also hitting up Grand Targhee so I'm glad that features in your list too.
I assume you've not been to Mammoth as it should appear in a few of your lists too (I reckon it would crack your top 10 favourites).
I'm big on scenery. Care to give your opinion on that? I would say Lake Louise would top my list in that regard (until I get to Europe the winter after next). I'm expecting Jackson will do it for me this winter scenery wise too (it would want to as I'm expecting it will be too much mountain for my intermediate family).
Not very. The Aspen areas are nearly liftline proof and sectors of them have low skier density. But not nearly as low as these places more off the beaten track.
Canada: Apex, Castle Mt., Red Mt.
Montana: Discovery, Lost Trail
Idaho: Brundage
Wyoming: Targhee
Utah: Powder Mt,. Solitude, Sundance
Colorado: Sunlight, Wolf Creek
In addition to subjective observation, the relationship of estimated skier visits to ski acreage is very low. Before Sibhusky chimes in here, I'll add that Whitefish is not that far off the areas listed above, and far quieter than the Aspen areas IMHO. The Aspen areas do something like 1.4 million skier visits collectively on about 5,100 acres of ski terrain. Whitefish does about 350K visits on 3,000 acres. On my list above nearly all areas are under 200K visits, some are under 100K, and these are not small mountains either.
As the by far smallest area on that uncrowded list, I'm removing Sundance in favor of a more worthy candidate.I agree with Powder Mountain. But I've dealt with bigger crowds at Solitude and Sundance than I've ever had at T-Ride or Crested Butte. And Sundance has just 450 acres to distribute them in-bounds.
Northstar- La Grave ( kidding but someone will spot the connection)
As the by far smallest area on that uncrowded list... Nonetheless both surely belong on the short list for non-competitive lift served powder.
At large areas I don't think it's all that difficult to find groomers with very comfortable skier density. Skiers do not distribute themselves evenly within areas, and the bigger the area the easier it is to find some outlying sector with plenty of elbow room. I do this all the time at Mammoth, which no one would ever put on an uncrowded list with its huge lift capacity and 1.2 million skier visits. I rarely have lift line issues at Mammoth, but on a big powder day it's shocking how much acreage can get hammered in 3 hours or so. So to me the gold standard of whether an area is elite uncrowded is how long can the powder last on some decent fall lines as opposed to the more common scenario of needing to consume 10 minutes and well over half the vertical on the traverse to the powder and the runout from it after those first 3 hours.Thinking more on this, I'd say a big chunk of our disagreement about an "uncrowded" list is that we're considering different types of terrain. Solitude exemplifies this... I think it makes your list largely because you (like most Pugski posters) spend most of your time there in Honeycomb Canyon or other spots I tend to avoid; I, on the other hand, came away unimpressed by the level of crowding on Solitude's groomed runs. As you say, "non-competitive lift served powder"... almost certainly a better metric for most participants here, but not what I was thinking about.
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If we were faced with this kind of line/wait, I think I would pack my bags and leave. I have ZERO interest in mass humanity anywhere much less on a vacation