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Weekend skiing

Catherine88

Certified Ski Diva
Today at Sugarloaf has made me appreciate even more my ability to ski midweek. Thurs and Friday were awesome, 18 runs and 19 runs. Today, we stopped at 9. It wasn’t fun.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
I feel the same way. I ski pretty much exclusively mid-week (42 days so far this season), but occasionally I'll go out on a weekend or holiday, and after an hour or so, I'm done. It's just too crowded. I tip to my hat to weekend/holiday skiers; you're a determined lot. I realize for many people, it's a question of skiing or not skiing, but truly, I don't know how you do it.
 

Susan L

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I am starting to not want to ski on weekends, but my husband can only ski weekends. I already ski weekdays but I feel bad if I take the weekend off when that’s the only time he can ski...so I am skiing too much and I am exhausted!
 

newboots

Angel Diva
I was lucky! My first year skiing was before I retired. I was skiing at Berkshire East, a smallish local hill, and it just wasn’t crowded. Even in a powder day once! On race days the lodge was a bit of a nightmare, but the trails and lift lines were fine. Maybe 5 minutes for the lift at its worst.

The next couple of years I worked part-time, and now I’m retired. Thank goodness. I had a try at crowded Killington on the snowy Saturday of MLK weekend. We were done after 90 minutes. Couldn’t bear it.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
I really got spoiled this week. I played hooky from work and skied Thursday and Friday. Thursday we skied onto the lifts. Friday was a little busier. Today, Saturday, a nightmare. It was bumper cars on some of the runs. But I understand once the World Cup event got started it was much better on the mountain.

Think I'll look into this Friday thing for sure.
 

Abbi

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I think I’m going to go out for an hour from 8 to 9 AM at Okemo. But I’m not a fan of weekend skiing. I just feel the need to go see if there’s any snow at that level!
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
I find that Saturday is the worst. Saturday is bus trip day too. Sunday morning people are moving slower or have other family obligations. We got about 2" here in the village overnight, so things could be a little busier with the fresh snow.
 

slyfox4

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I realize for many people, it's a question of skiing or not skiing, but truly, I don't know how you do it.

If you truly *want* to ski...you deal. It sucks, trust me. But I have a 9-5 that I'm lucky is fairly flexible so I get some weekday turns in...but for the fiance that's not the case. We go EARLY Saturday and usually Sunday afternoon. This past Saturday at Loon was the absolute busiest I've seen all season : (
 

MsWax

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I was at Sugarloaf on Saturday. If you stayed off the SuperQuad, WiffleTree, and SkyLine lifts it wasn't too bad. We spent much of the morning on Timberline and King Pine, and practically skied right on. In the afternoon there wasn't really a crowd above the base, and there were NO lines on Sunday. It was actually better than I expected!
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Saturdays are the most crowded in New England. Many weekend-only skiers leave mid-day on Sunday to drive home. So Sun afternoons are often as empty as non-holiday Monday-Fridays.

This season at Bretton Woods every Saturday has been unbelievably dense with the lodge packed. I've been seeing people sitting on the floor in the basement halls to eat their lunch. Outside the lodge it's massively crowded on the flats with big crowds milling about. People drop their skis on the ground and just leave them, clogging left-right travel on the flats even more.

That said, Saturday lines do keep moving for the four lifts next to the lodge. Sometimes you do have to wait. Sometimes you get a break. Once you get up the hill, you can pick your trails to avoid the crowds. Some runs seem to attract everyone; others not so much. I've been surprised that I can find myself skiing uncrowded trails when the Saturday lines at the base appear so thick.
 
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LA Coombs

Certified Ski Diva
Sunday River was the busiest I have seen it this season (including over the holiday break) on Saturday. With 8 peaks, the mountain usually does a good job of dispersing people, but South Ridge has been chronically jammed with people this year. Sunday was glorious--few lift lines and fantastic, soft snow.
 

MsWax

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Saturdays are the most crowded in New England. Many weekend-only skiers leave mid-day on Sunday to drive home. So Sun afternoons are often as empty as non-holiday Monday-Fridays.

This season at Bretton Woods every Saturday has been unbelievably dense with the lodge packed. I've been seeing people sitting on the floor in the basement halls to eat their lunch. Outside the lodge it's massively crowded on the flats with big crowds milling about. People drop their skis on the ground and just leave them, clogging left-right travel on the flats even more.

That said, Saturday lines do keep moving for the four lifts next to the lodge. Sometimes you do have to wait. Sometimes you get a break. Once you get up the hill, you can pick your trails to avoid the crowds. Some runs seem to attract everyone; others not so much. I've been surprised that I can find myself skiing uncrowded trails when the Saturday lines at the base appear so thick.

We almost always always avoid BW on Saturdays because of the lift lines and the lodge (which is NOT big enough to accommodate the crowd on weekends. They really need to expand the lodge, and I don't think the new one at the top of the gondola will do enough (when it opens next year). I really think they should refurbish the Rosebrook building by the road and turn it into another lodge. They can create a ski trail to access it with a tunnel or bridge (for either skiers or cars), and install a slow double lift to bring you to "real" base. It's a missed opportunity IMO.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Saturdays are the most crowded in New England. Many weekend-only skiers leave mid-day on Sunday to drive home. So Sun afternoons are often as empty as non-holiday Monday-Fridays.
I think the same is true pretty much anywhere there are locals who drive over an hour for skiing. Definitely true in the southeast. Also the case for Taos. The local families with kids from Taos who are 30 min away seem to only ski on Saturdays. After lunch on Sundays, those who drive 3 hours from Albuquerque or 2 hours from Sante Fe are on their way home. Even Alta is less busy on Sundays than Saturdays, unless it's a powder day or when key areas are going to be open for the first time after a powder storm.
 

SkiGAP

Angel Diva
Curious, is it lift lines or crowded pistes that are the most trouble?

Just curious - at my home mountain there is a wait at some of the key lifts "linking" sectors of the resort but you can usually get to a part of the mountain that is less crowded and it spreads out pretty well. It's a big place though.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Curious, is it lift lines or crowded pistes that are the most trouble?

Just curious - at my home mountain there is a wait at some of the key lifts "linking" sectors of the resort but you can usually get to a part of the mountain that is less crowded and it spreads out pretty well. It's a big place though.
Lately, the biggest complaints making national news in the U.S. have been for car traffic and lack of parking, even before someone has a chance to get to a base lift. That was true in Big Cottonwood Canyon for Solitude and Brighton last season. The reaction from Solitude, now owned by Alterra, was to eliminate free parking and to offer Ikon holders free access to the UTA bus. The bus schedule was also enhanced around SLC in general. Stowe in Vermont has parking issues too.

You're skiing in Europe, yes? The size of the ski areas/resorts in the eastern half of N. America are really small in comparison. In my home region (south of Washington DC), even the black trails take less than 4 minutes to finish, from top to bottom. Most of the time, the lift(s) that serve advanced terrain also serves intermediate or even beginner terrain. So it's very hard to get away from the crowd on a weekend. Northeast U.S. (New England) includes folks who live in NYC, Boston, and other densely populated areas within 4-5 hours drive of slopes.

For a large destination resort in the west such as Jackson Hole or Alta, the long lift lines are mainly for base lifts first thing in the morning. Especially when a powder day falls on a weekend. That means locals are on the mountain in addition to travelers starting or ending a ski vacation. Might even include people driving 3+ hours to chase the storm or a few who booked a last minute plane ticket because they have Epic or Ikon so don't need to buy a lift ticket.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Also, I read that Crystal Mountain in WA just halted walk ups for weekends and holidays...
Www.sltrib.com/sports/2020/01/25/Washington-ski-resort
For more Diva discussion about the situation at Crystal that led to the new policy for day tickets on busy days, start reading here:

https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/i...pic-and-ikon-resorts.23653/page-8#post-400893

I wasn't that impressed with the writing in that SLC Tribune article. The title seems like click-bait for the local SLC market: "A Washington ski resort ended single-day tickets on weekends. Could Utah resorts be next?" Since Deer Valley and Powder Mountain have limited day tickets for quite a while, the idea is not new in Utah. But the people who worry are those who ski LCC/BCC where traffic on the canyons has been an issue on powder days for years.
 

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