PhineasC

A couple of guys that work for me are into it. Seems like more of a labor of love for an IT nerd than anything. One of them has a pretty extensive setup in his basement with many GPUs but it hasn't been life-changing in terms of income for him. It uses a decent chunk of electricity and make his basement hot and loud too.

The point I was making was that there is always a bigger mountain and someone skiing on it thinking all those other places "aren't doing it right" so that's not a very helpful attitude. My original post said that it's all about what you personally enjoy. Everyone has different things they enjoy. If they are there enjoying it, then they are "doing it right."

We'll be getting the kids' rentals this week or next. The place we use said they'd have stock ready by then. Getting excited! Hope November comes in strong with cold and snow to jumpstart the season.

Yeah, I thought I might buy something lightly used since there was nothing available new, but that is not happening. There is not much used inventory either and what is there is crazy high.

You seem kinda defensive for your chosen spot, which is fine. Whatever floats your boat is fine. Not looking for a pissing contest. There are plenty of guys out west who think VT skiing is a total waste of time too. LOL

I haven't skied much in VT recently, but I have been very happy with the conditions at BW so far. I am not a deep powder hound like most of you seem to be, so we probably are looking for different things. I would tend to agree that NH ski places for whatever reason seem to not have those deep powder stashes all the time like some VT places have (based on the posts here).

These vehicle shortages are crazy. Up here in NH there is very little inventory. I am ready to buy a vehicle but no one has anything.

That sounds like a nice upgrade for Stowe.

We skied weekdays at BW and Cannon most of the winter and not a single time did they scan our season passes, which we had attached to our jackets. It was smooth as silk at those places because of that, obviously. We didn't ski on weekends or peak. I assume on those days they are doing the "go through the crowd scanning people" deal. We went to Sunday River midweek too, but they had the gates and it was a mess. I'm sure if we skied there more often we'd become accustomed to it, plus they should eventually get back to their normal traffic control policies once the distancing stuff is done. I'm sure standard procedure rolls more smoothly than what I saw.

First blue of the season.

I am willing to give them a pass for last season because of COVID. The hardcore social distancing protocols in Maine likely made it really hard for them to control traffic in the way intended with the gates. You would have laughed if you saw the chaos at their "chondola." A weird mix of jammed up mobs with 20-50 people and then one or two guys at a time moving six feet apart towards the lift while the mob mills around behind them. It was probably the worst possible way to do things. Our bigger issue with the mountain is the risk of losing the kids and all of the flat parts you have to trudge over to get between the different areas. It would be a cool place if you knew the mountain well and were just blasting around by yourself.

We've been happy with it, but we are not doing the ski town/après-ski thing. We ski and then go straight home to do family stuff. I could see being pretty bored if I was there on vacation and wanted to do something after 5 PM. LOL Gorham is a two-horse town for sure. I was shocked when we bought our house to see that the BW area was literally identical to how it was 20 years prior. There was basically nothing new in the surrounding "town." Same way at Wildcat. Nothing there. It is a little different down at Cranmore. They have a little more of the ski village thing going on there.

I kept having to dig the cards back out of the kids' jackets every time we got to the lift because it couldn't scan them. It seemed really clunky and pointless. Long lines with empty lifts going up too. I get why the resorts use them, but I hope BW stays away for as long as possible.

BW is our go-to. It's perfect for my kids right now. They love exploring every nook and cranny and we love the layout where it is basically impossible to get lost. If you keep skiing downhill you end up at the lodge no matter what. We went to Sunday River late season and that place is bewildering, to a hilarious degree. It is like a puzzle resort designed to trap people forever. They also have that ridiculous, asinine "toll booth" style gate system before the lifts. So stupid. I really didn't care for it much. It is close to us though.

I sure hope Wildcat is better this season. It was pretty rough last season. They had a lousy season snowfall wise. Randolph beat them handily in the snowfall department.

Yeah, it's great. We love watching the kids pair off and ride the lifts together and then help each other out of jams. The self-confidence for all 4 has gone through the roof. When you have tackled an entire mountain, it makes basic kid stress stuff seem like no big deal. I can't wait for the snow to start. Enjoying this weather for fall right now, though. Snow will be here soon enough.

70/63 Seems fine.

I expect a big season for my family, at least. Hope to get out at least 40 days.

Climate is shifting north. Down south, people have resigned themselves to the fact that the Raleigh climate is now Atlanta, Richmond is now Raleigh, and DC is Richmond. It all shifted north. I'm thinking parts of SNE are now like NYC/NJ climo, whereas NY/NJ are like central MD climate. Areas south of SC are getting too hot for me to even deal with at this point.

I saw zero of the large hornets we get up here whereas last year I had several in my house every day. No clue where they went. Never see regular yellow jackets here.

We had Sysco knockoff versions of Subway, Panda Express, and chick-fil-a to choose from. No lobsters, that's for sure.

I am thinking I don't want blocking up here.

49/49

You can have the rest, but the pancreas is mine.

Just call a pigeon a “squab” and then it becomes fancy.