• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Skiing in the east -- then the west -- then the east again.

W8N2SKI

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
We have one elder fur face remaining. I live in dread that he'll take the final road when I'm away. At least, most of the time, hubby is home w/him when I'm traveling.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
I live out west, but we still have to leave the pups from time to time. Not all ski vacations are pup friendly. We do look for pup sitters first and then, if none are available, we take the doggies with us. One of the things I look forward to when we are retired are month long vacations with the dogs - possibly even season rentals!
 

Catherine

Certified Ski Diva
I wish I had checked in earlier, we just moved our family out west ! We now live in Canmore Alberta.

The motivating factor was all the things we like to do that require mountains, like skiing. We were in Kingston and I got tired of a 2 month ski season and chasing snow.
My daughter loves to ski and I want her to experience life in the mountains.
I have told her that the skiing is completely different here and she will need more lessons.
Thanks for the article, I had always wanted to go to Mad River while we were in Kingston, but never got the chance
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
As someone who grew up in the midwest and moved to the east coast in my early 20s... maybe I'm already set in my ways, but I really, really love the east coast. In ways I'm not sure I could love living out west. Mr. tinymoose would disagree with that, but when I'm out west for skiing, I always look forward to coming back east where things are a little greener. Although, I'd happily trade in our summer humidity. lol I do think I'd eventually like to move up to New England or Upstate NY, but with jobs and what not... for now we are where we are. And that's OK too.

ETA: Although, the humidity I hate is what makes things so green here so... *sigh*
 

dloveski

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Since I was 17, I've lived within 12-20 miles of Cottonwood Canyons (48 years to be exact). While I love love mountains in every season and early morning skiing before work, or evening skiing in spring/DST after work and all, it's not perfect. While I am grateful and have had experiences beyond what I deserve, for you Easterners, here's a few reality checks:

1. Living close, life trumps skiing. work and responsibilities. Yes, I can sneak up for a few runs and then jump back into my chores/work. RARE apres ski. But it's not that 'vacation' mindset---I often envy those that are on the mountain for a whole week and can just luxuriate in the experience--and apres ski. And many days, I can't get away at all and that's a frustrating feeling.

2. raising kids 10 miles from Brighton. Need I say more? no way to enjoy a 'family' vacation of ski-bonding. they ditched us as soon as they could catch the ski bus and hang out with friends. and skip class on powder days. and work for a season pass in H.S. How I envied those families together skiing on a vacation for a week.

3. Crowds. No more can I just count on even sneaking up the canyon on a powder day. traffic/parking is horrendous and unsustainable. One Saturday last season, after a HUGE series of storms, we tried to take the ski bus up early. Long story, but we bailed at the mouth of the canyon after two hours. it felt like a hostage situation in a crowded, steamy bus to nowhere. the canyon was shut down til noon because a couple of yahoos slid off of the road and snowplows could not get up or down. And good luck getting on a chair timely on a powder day---especially when Little Ctwd canyon is closed for avy control (which is often).

Even b/c terrain is over-run these days----unless you go high and are creative.

But, I'm not complaining. just relish your luxurious ski vacations out here when you get to put your life on hold and just ski.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
A recent comment about someone who was too busy with work to ski fresh deep powder at Snowbird reminded me of this discussion.

I realized I essentially went from east to west and recently back to the northeast, with a number of years skiing in the southeast or Mid-Atlantic in the middle. In my case, I didn't move. But after learning to ski in the northeast in middle school, the next skiing I did was out west. From NC, it made far more sense to fly to ski in UT/CO/CA/NV than head into NY/VT/NH. Having had a chance to check out some skiing in the northeast in recent years, I'd say there is more character in general. Although that's probably partially because I tend to avoid the more crowded resorts and go to old school ski areas instead.
 

Randi M.

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Almost all of my skiing was out west when I was younger. I took a long ski break and then picked up the sport again, exclusively in the Northeast, a few years ago. At first I got really frustrated with the short runs and icy conditions. But something changed this year -- I grew to actually really like skiing ice. I like the way it forces you to hone your technique. And I love how fast it is.

The other shift that happened was that I started to look for my challenges not from variety of terrain, but variety of conditions. Conditions change so rapidly on the east coast that you can ski the same run first thing in the morning and right after lunch and have two completely different experiences. It really forces you to be nimble with your tactics -- literally to think on your feet.

I guess what I'm saying is, I finally truly understand and have a real appreciation for why people say if you can ski the northeast, you can ski anywhere. There's a real art to it.

My only lingering complaint is that I DO wish the runs were longer. Nothing to be done about that!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I guess what I'm saying is, I finally truly understand and have a real appreciation for why people say if you can ski the northeast, you can ski anywhere. There's a real art to it.
:thumbsup:

My only lingering complaint is that I DO wish the runs were longer. Nothing to be done about that!
LOL! Try comparing the length of runs in the Mid-Atlantic. At least to the northeast ski resorts with >200 acres. Hard to find a run that takes longer than 3 min to finish within a half-day drive of my house in central NC, or in anywhere in PA.

What I've learned about the smaller mountains in the northeast is that a few have high-speed detachable quads. Midweek that means I can get in a lot more time on snow even at a place with only 1000' vertical than I can at Massanutten, which is 1100' vertical but only has fixed-grip lifts for 70 acres. Wachusett and Jiminy Peak have similar total vertical and aren't that much bigger, with 110 acres and 170 acres respectively. But a 7-min lift ride can mean a 5-min run, instead of a 2-min run at Mnut. All three depend on snowmaking, although of course it snows more in MA than in does in VA.

Out west at destination resorts, a 7-min lift ride can mean a 10-min run even on a groomed blue. Or 15-20 min on off-piste black terrain that requires advanced skills, or at least an adventurous spirit and a good ski buddy.
 

Midlifeaddiction

Certified Ski Diva
Many of us in the east long to move out west, where the skiing is bigger, the mountains steeper, and the snow deeper. And some of us, even here on the forum, have gone ahead and done it.

I just finished reading an interesting article in Skiing about eastern skiers who moved west and then came back east, so I thought I'd share. For the record, I think that both eastern and western skiing have a lot to offer -- one doesn't necessarily trump the other. Hey, it's skiing -- it's all good. :thumbsup:

Go here.

Many of us in the east long to move out west, where the skiing is bigger, the mountains steeper, and the snow deeper. And some of us, even here on the forum, have gone ahead and done it.

I just finished reading an interesting article in Skiing about eastern skiers who moved west and then came back east, so I thought I'd share. For the record, I think that both eastern and western skiing have a lot to offer -- one doesn't necessarily trump the other. Hey, it's skiing -- it's all good. :thumbsup:

Go here.
Can you repost? I would love to read this.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Good bump. Thanks for updating the link. Things have certainly changed in the last decade.

What I've learned about the smaller mountains in the northeast is that a few have high-speed detachable quads. Midweek that means I can get in a lot more time on snow even at a place with only 1000' vertical than I can at Massanutten, which is 1100' vertical but only has fixed-grip lifts for 70 acres. Wachusett and Jiminy Peak have similar total vertical and aren't that much bigger, with 110 acres and 170 acres respectively. But a 7-min lift ride can mean a 5-min run, instead of a 2-min run at Mnut. All three depend on snowmaking, although of course it snows more in MA than in does in VA.
Out west at destination resorts, a 7-min lift ride can mean a 10-min run even on a groomed blue. Or 15-20 min on off-piste black terrain that requires advanced skills, or at least an adventurous spirit and a good ski buddy.
Never imagined when I wrote this in 2018 that Massanutten would ever have a high-speed detachable lift. Happily as of 2023-24 the mid-mountain lift to the summit is a brand new express lift. Plus there are new trails on the upper mountain with plenty of snowmaking and lights. Now it's a 3-min ride for a 2-3 min ski down on blue or black trails.

The advantage of skiing in VA/WV, NC is that night skiing is an option in most of the resorts, at least on weekends. That means it's possible to ski into the lights instead of having to quit at 4:00 or 4:30, as is the case out west.
 

Trailside Trixie

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I lived in California for 15 years and moved back to CT a few years ago. I was set to move back and then I fell in love with Vermont. Now we have what we consider an ideal existence in the hills of NW CT near the western Mass border and southern vermont with a slopside condo at magic. This works for us. Maybe one day full time in VT. Maybe one day living in Reno or Flagastaff but we love our split existance now in CT/VT so really not in a hurry to change anything. My season is very long from November - May so moving wouldn't be about length of season. We also live pretty cheaply here so it's not about changing anything financially. It would be more about longer runs, maybe a little less ice, even more stunning views, being closer to my friends in Cali and access to In N Out burger, lol.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
I moved back to Ottawa for 2 years, way -way- back in the day. The first winter was fine, but the second one nearly killed me. I hightailed it back to SoCal. There is a lot to be said for having mountains, coast, and desert all within 2 hrs of each other. Although, we really enjoy the skiing in Tahoe (and living in Reno), I do miss the coast now that we moved away from it. I still get to live in the SoCal mountains in summer and fall and the high desert in the winter. AND ... it's all milder weather than back east!


I am considering moving out West after I retire. Makes me wonder if I will miss skiing the East.
I know this quote is from nearly 10 years ago... but, NO, don't change your mind! We want you and V to move to Reno!
 

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