Sunday River Ski Resort

Location:

Sunday River is a huge ski resort that is located in Maine. The mountain is located in a very rural are and the whole town here is based around the mountain all year round. The mountain is so large that there are ton of lodges and hotels in the area for people to stay. Also with all the tourist that come to Sunday River there are now a lot of restaurants in the area for people to go out to dinner and enjoy themselves at night after a long day of skiing or riding.

Terrain:

Sunday River has some of the most diverse skiing in all of the east coast just because of the size of it. The mountain has eight different peaks for people to ski or ride. The mountain also has night skiing for those skiers or riders who want to spend every possible minute on the slopes. With all of these trails the mountain has everything from glades to open trails. Sunday has steep trails to for experts and also beginner trails for those who are just starting out.

Staff:

The staff at Sunday River at incredible at what they do. The staff is huge, but still everyone of their instructors know exactly what they are doing and can teach anyone who wants to learn. Not the just the instructors are great here though so is all of the other staff. The cooks make great food at all of the lodges around the mountain. Lift attendants are very polite and helpful. They can help you get places because the mountain is so big people have trouble finding there way to a certain lodge so lift attendants will help you out.

10 Things That Make Sunday River Great

1. 8 peaks

2. Tons of lifts

3. More trails than you can count

4. Outstanding snow making

5. They have a very long season

6. Very diverse terrain

7. Great food

8. Many places to stay

9. Friendly mountain

10. Short lines

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Waterville

Location:

Waterville is located in New Hampshire right off of interstate 93. This is perfect for skiers and riders who are coming from the Boston area. The drive is very easy to get there and hard to get lost. Once at the mountain there are plenty of places to stay over night for those who live to far away to go on a day trip. Also the town has plenty of things to do at night and places to eat. Waterville's location is ideal for all to have a great day or vacation.

Terrain:

Waterville has very diverse terrain for all skiers and riders to enjoy. The mountain is very large even though from the base of the mountain it does not look that big. This is because there are a lot of steep trails off the sides of the mountains that you can not see from the base. My favorite place to ski at this mountain is the top left side of the mountain going off the side. This area has some of the steepest terrain in the whole mountain that you can get some serious speed. For those who do not want the steep trails though there are plenty of other trails that are good for all skill levels.

Staff:

The staff at Waterville is top notch! The mountain has an outstanding coaching staff for ski racing. They actually are so good that they have there own ski academy now. The coaches here have great patience and most also raced some point in their life so they have first hand experience. The other instructors at the mountain are good too. Every part of the staff is good at Waterville and they take pride in this.

10 Things That Make Waterville Great

1. Great coaching staff
2. Lots of diversity
3. Good food
4. Lots of lifts
5. Have a ski academy
6. Many restaurants near by
7. Several places to stay
8. Tons of trails
9. Family orientated
10. Awesome terrain park

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Bretton Woods Ski Resort

Location:

Bretton Woods Ski Resort is located in northern New Hampshire. The mountain is in the Mount Washington Valley region of New Hampshire and is right next to Mount Washington. The mountain is a little secluded from being right next to the nation protected forest, but this means the area will keep its beauty. The mountain still does have places to stay though with the famous Mount Washington Hotel right next to the mountain. The drive to get to the ski area is a little far, but once there it is worth it.

Terrain:

The terrain of the mountain is not as diverse as some of the mountains close by. The mountain does lack some steep trails, but even though is lacks that area it makes up for it by its glades. Bretton Woods glades are amazing and they have so many that it is some of the best tree skiing all around. With the mountain not being that steep it is good for intermediate and beginner skiers or riders because there are so many trails they can ski. This mountain in my opinion is not the most exciting though for expert skiers.

Staff:

The staff at Bretton Woods is great! The instructors here are friendly and know exactly what they are talking about. They all go through a training process to make sure every instructor is top notch and knows how to teach all levels. Also the other staff at mountain is extremely nice like the lift line attendants and others who work in the lodge.

10 Things That Make Bretton Woods Great

1. Great Glades

2. Lots of lifts

3. Quick Lines

4. Gets lots of snow

5. Amazing views

6. Delicious food

7. Large nice lodge

8. Great for beginners

9. Outstanding instructors

10. High speed lifts

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Sunapee Ski Resort

Location:

Sunapee Ski Resort is located in southern New Hampshire. The mountain is right next Lake Sunapee and has beautiful views. This location is perfect because the lake is right there and the mountain is right next to the lake, it is a great year round vacationing place. This means there is a lot of restaurants to eat at and places to stay. Also Sunapee is not to far away from Boston and is fairly easy to get too.

Terrain:

Sunapee has great diverse terrain for all skiers and riders. The mountain offers some very steep sections that usually become very icy late into the day. These trails are located mostly to the left or middle of the mountain including the race trail. These trails are perfect for expert skiers that want to be challenged and ski fast. Also there are some parts of the mountain that are a lot smaller and easier for beginners to learn on because of how the mountain is so family orientated. There is truly terrain for everything.

Staff:

The staff at the mountain is very helpful and friendly. The instructors are great here and have good patience for teaching anyone who wants to learn. All of these instructors go through training to make sure they are top notch and are up to date on all new teaching techniques. Also the lift attendants are very nice and helpful. The food made by the cooks is also to die for.

10 Things That Make Sunapee Great

1. Outstanding food

2. Great diversity

3. Family orientated

4. Friendly staff

5. Lots of lifts

6. Good night entertainment

7. Well informed and taught ski instructors

8. Easy to get too

9. Incredible views

10. Many places to stay

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Gunstock Ski Resort

Location:

Gunstock Ski Resort is located in a great area in New Hampshire. The mountain is located right next to Lake Winnipesaukee which is a huge tourist attraction for many people during the winter or summer. The mountain's location has a lot to offer from being on the lake. There are many restaurants close by and places to stay over night for people who have to long of a drive to make a day trip. Also during the night the town is a great spot with lots of actives to do.

Terrain:

The terrain of Gunstock is great. The mountain is very diverse too. With all of the diversity the mountain has to offer it is perfect for all different levels of skiers or riders. The mountain is good for experts that like to hit the trees because it has some great glades. Also there are some steep locations on the mountain too, but some of those trails turn icy very quickly so your best bet would be to go ski them in the morning. Lastly Gunstock offers great beginner trails for all because it is a very family run mountain.

Staff:

The staff at Gunstock is very knowledgable. All of the instructors at the mountain know exactly what they are doing. The instructors all go through training processes where they learn techniques of teaching and also they shadow instructors that have been doing this for a long time. The staff at Gunstock are very friendly people that are easy to approach. Lastly the coaches for the Gunstock Race Team are some of the best in the state of New Hampshire. They always produce some of the best skiers in the whole state and are tough competitors.

10 Things That Make Gunstock Great

1. Diverse terrain

2. May different lifts

3. Several large lodges

4. Lots of places to stay

5. Family orientated mountain

6. Top notch teaching staff

7. Beautiful views of the lake

8. High speed lifts

9. Lots of places to eat

10. Good for all levels of skiers or riders

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Blue Hills Ski Resort

Location:

Blue Hills Ski Resort is located in Massachusetts just south of Boston. This is a great because it is only about 20 minutes away from Boston so it is very easy for many people to make the trip to ski here. The ski area is very small, but still gets the job done if you want to just ski for a little bit. The ski area has many places to stay near by and restaurants to eat at because it is in such an urbanized area. Also another benefit of its location is that it is rarely very cold at the mountain.

Terrain:

Compared to a lot of the other mountains that I have blogged about this one is very different. This mountain is close to home being only 15 minutes away from where I live. The mountain is really small and because of this there is not much terrain options here. It is good though in fact for beginners to learn here.

Staff:

The staff here at Blue Hills Ski Resort does in fact make up for the size of the mountain though. The ski instructors are top notch and some are from all parts of the world. They know exactly how to teach anyone how to ski or ride no matter what ski level they are at. Also they have a diverse teaching style so when one process does not work than they have a back up idea that usually does. The mountain is also great to because for singing up for lessons it is very easy to get a spot even if it is last minute.

10 Things That Make Blue Hills Great

1. Little lines

2. Good for beginners

3. Family mountain

4. Great instructors

5. Have bilingual instructors

6. Friendly staff

7. Daycare for kids

8. Terrain Park

9. Easy to get too

10. Close to Boston

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Sugarloaf Ski Resort

Location:

Sugarloaf Mountain is located in Carrabassett Valley, western Maine. It is a long drive from the Boston area taking around 4 hours to get there. Even though it is a long drive to get to the mountain it is well worth it once there. There are many things to do once there, with the mountain being the focal point of everything. The mountain brings entrainment to people all year round, whether it be skiing in the winter or golfing in the summer. Also there are a lot of shops and restaurants that make the mountain a great place to spend the day with the family. The town around the mountain has great accommodation for everyone who comes to visit and because it such a long trip there are many places to stay like hotels and inns.

Terrain:

The terrain of sugarloaf is very diverse. This mountain is great for all skiers and riders to enjoy. There are some sections of the mountain that are steep for more expert skiers and riders to enjoy. The mountain even has a snow cap that you can ski down for the adventurous skiers and riders. For beginners this mountain is also great because of its size there is also a lot of trails that are not as steep and easier. This is perfect for people that want to learn or are just starting. The terrain at Sugarloaf is great for all.

Staff:

The staff here at Sugarloaf is outstanding. They are great instructors for all levels of skiers and riders. Also some of the staff are coaches too for the race team at sugarloaf that do well every year. All staff members are trained extremely well and go through a long process to be certified to teach. Other staff on the mountain is also great. The lift attendants are extremely nice and if you have a small child with you they will even slow down the lifts.

10 Things That Make Sugarloaf Great

1. Great food

2. Diverse terrain

3. Lots of different lifts

4. Very friendly staff

5. A large lodge

6. Delicious food

7. Many trails

8. Great instructor staff

9. High speed lifts

10. Several places to stay

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Saddleback Ski Resort

Location:

Saddleback Ski Resort is located in northern Maine. The ski resort is in the small town of Rangley in a rural community. There is only a small little town in the center that is right on a large lake called Rangley Lake. The lake is large tourist attraction in the summer, but in the winter the attraction of the area is the ski mountain and snowmobiling. There are many different places to stay and places to find food too even being located in a small town.

Terrain:

The terrain at Saddleback is very diverse. It is a large mountain that only has one peak, but is very wide and tall. The mountain is broken down very simply where each area of the mountain is a different difficulty. The upper left side of the mountain is the hardest part of the mountain where all the experts go. On the other hand, the easiest part of the mountain is the lower half and the right side of the mountain. Lastly the upper right side of the mountain is usually crowded because it is for intermediates and most people enjoy this part of the mountain in general.

Staff:

The staff at Saddleback has gotten a lot better over the last few years. The ski resort has been updating the whole ski area by even getting new staff that is more educated with the latest skiing techniques. The ski area has been dumping incredible amounts of money into the ski resort and making this into a more family mountain. With a new family style mountain they turned their attention to the staff so they can teach a whole family how to ski no matter what age.

10 Things That Make Saddleback Great

1. Diverse terrain for skiers or riders

2. Several different terrain parks

3. New huge base lodge

4. Recently opened up a new part of the mountain

5. Well trained staff

6. Family mountain

7. Brand new housing on the mountain

8. Delicious food

9. Lots of different lifts

10. High speed lifts

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Loon Mountain Ski Resort

Location:

Loon Mountain Ski Resort is located in the great state of New Hampshire, in a little town called Lincoln. Loon is a great place to visit for skiing it has many places to stay with Lincoln being a very touristy town right on the kancamagus highway. Also it is right off of 93 just like Cannon Mountain, so it is a very easy drive to get there. This is very good for skiers and riders that live far away to get there, but because of this it is a very popular place to ski and gets very busy quickly and often.

Terrain:

Loon is a large mountain with tons of trails and has a lot of different diversity. The mountain is great for  all levels of skiers and riders to enjoy everything it has to offer. Some of the trails on skier's right become very steep and wide for some of more experiences skiers and rider and personally is my favorite part of the mountain because of how fast you can go. On the other hand, if you want an easier way down you can go to skier's left and the trails slope more gently and have nice curves to them making them a fun ride down.

Staff:

The staff at this ski resort are very experienced and know what they are doing. They are all extremely well trained and have great tactics to teach people how to skier or rider, but also have fun doing it at the same time. Loon also has a top notch ski team with a great coaching staff that know exactly what they are talking about. They always know how to critique you when you are doing something wrong too.

10 Things That Make Loon Great

1. Have a gondola

2. Creative style of teaching

3. Many trails

4. Lots of places to stay

5. Large amount of diversity

6. Great food

7. Several different lifts

8. 2 main lodges

9. Amazing views

10. Easy to get there

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Cannon Mountain Ski Resort

Location:

The location of Cannon Mountain is right off of 93 making it very easy to get too. Even though it is very easy to get too there are not many places you can stay overnight. The closest place you could stay is in Lincoln, but Loon Mountain is in Lincoln so many people end up going to Loon instead. This to me is a good thing though because Cannon is never super busy and only a five minute drive from Lincoln, New Hampshire. Located in Franconia Notch the mountain tends to get cold but also a lot of snow.

Terrain:

The terrain at Cannon is very diverse for all skiers and riders. Cannon has three trails all next to each other coming down the main face that are Extremely Steep trails. The steepest being Avalanche has a very fitting name because it is so steep it is even hard to just stand up on. Another great part about Cannon is the Tram that takes you all the way to the summit. The trails on top of the summit are above tree line and very open, winding tails that are perfect for cruising.

Staff:

The staff at Cannon is very helpful and experienced. The best part of their staff in my opinion is there race team staff with their knowledge of the sport and dedication. They produce great ski racers every year and train them hard. They use every bit of terrain Cannon has to offer and do many different drills to work on every aspect of ski racing. No matter what race you are competing in you can always count on a Cannon racer to give you a run for your money.

10 things that make Cannon Great

1. They have a tramway that can hold around 50 people at once

2. Does not get crowded often

3. Great coaching staff

4. Large diverse of terrain

5. Several different lifts

6. A ton of trails

7. Good for all difficulties

8. They can get a lot of snow at one time from being in the notch

9. Extremely friendly staff

10. Family oriented mountain 

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Wildcat Ski Resort

Location:

The location of Wildcat Ski Resort is in Mount Washington Valley, New Hampshire. The ski resort is actually right across the street from Mount Washington itself. The views there are beautiful with the presidential range, but there are some down falls of this too. Having Mount Washington right there the winds come right down the headwall of Tuckermans Ravine and then right up Wildcat making it a cold ski area. It also gets so windy that the lifts can possible shut down.

Staff and Coaches: 

The staff at Wildcat is a top notch crew of instructors and employees that know what they are doing. One of the best parts of the mountain is the lodge they have. The employees working in the lodge make some of the best food. They have everything you could want, having a full working restaurant on the top floor and a cafeteria for the people that want something to eat quick on the main floor. Also they have a staff devoted to rentals and for tuning and fixing skies that know what they are doing. On the mountain too the staff is great with teaching. They use some of the best learning strategies to get you skiing and riding with no problem.

Terrain:

The terrain at Wildcat is very diverse. It is a very old ski area so it has a lot of trails that are long, narrow, and winding trails because thats how they were designed back in the day. They have put some trails in though that are wide and straight for some nice speed runs. The mountain also has some areas that are very steep but other spots that are flatter good for beginners. This mountain does get so cold that it mostly is skied by racers and dedicated skiers, so if you do end up skiing here make sure you dress properly because frost bit can happen if not dressed right.

 Ten Top Things at Wildcat:

1. Zip line down the mountain

2. Outstanding food

3. Friendly staff

4. Fastest quad in the northeast

5. Lots of different trails

6. Beautiful views

7. Rarely crowded

8. Season pass also good for Attitash

9. Close to North Conway

10. Several Lifts

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Attitash Ski Resort

1. Location:

Similar to Cranmore Mountain, attitash is located in The White Mountains of New Hampshire. The mountain is in a small town called Bartlett, New Hampshire, which is just a 5 minute drive from North Conway. Both of these towns have nice shops, restaurants, hotels, and ski rental shops making them attractive towns to stay and ski in.

2. Terrain Attitash has to offer:

Attitash has two peaks for skiing and riding. The original peak is called Attitash and is a great place for learns or experts. The trails range from gentle slopes and wide too steep and narrow winding trails. Also this peak has some nice glades. The other peak is called Bear Peak and was added on to attitash not to long ago. This peak however was designed for more expert skiers having only one green circle on the entire peak. This peak has some of the steepest trails around and some hard winding drop off type of trails. Both of these peaks give Attitash great diversity for all kinds of skiers and riders.

3. Staff:

The staff at Attitash has some of the best coaches around. Me personally I was on the race team after finish the cranmore program and loved it. The coaches that i was working with were retired Olympic skiers and even some that were currently on the Olympic team. The head coach of the race team actually won a very prestigeous getting best coach in the country. I learned many important skills from these coaches and would not want any other coaches than this staff. In my opinion they are easily top 5 coaching staffs in the country.

4. Experiences:

Some of the best experiences of my life was at this mountain but also some of the worst. On memory that I will never get out of my head took place on this mountain. Me and my best friend were skiing Bear Peak and having a friendly competition to see who could be the first one down. We took Illusion, which is the tall we race down with compressions, noels, and windy terrain. Wyatt and I hit a noel racing down doing about 65 mph and both caught a ton of air but more than we were expecting. I landed find but Wyatt hooked a tip on the landing and went face first into the ice. He was knocked out cold for 1.5 minutes and ended up having a brain hemorrhage. He was in the hospital for a week and that image of the blood on the ice and him laying in it will never leave my thoughts. That experience has made me realize that Attitash is a great place to ski but, you have to be careful because even a very experienced ski racer like Wyatt can get hurt from some of this tough terrain.

10 Great Things About Attitash:

1. Mountain roller coaster and Alpine slide

2. Many glades

3. Great food

4. Well educated ski instructors

5. Terrain for all difficulties

6. Large terrain park

7. Many different lifts so short lines

8. 2 peaks for tons of trails

9. Outstanding grooming

10. One of the top race teams in the country

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Cranmore Mountain Resort

Cranmore Mountain Resort is a small ski area in North Conway, New Hampshire. This mountain is a very family orientated place to ski or snowboard and is a great place to learn. The ski instructors at this mountain are top notch and very well trained to teach skier or snowboarders no matter what skill level they are at. The mountain offers all different types of terrain for beginners all the way up to experts, with green circles, blue squares, and black diamonds. The mountain has trails that are steep and wide, but still has glades for more challenging skiing. Cranmore is a mountain with a lot diversity and a great place to ski or snowboard.

Experiences:

In my experiences at cranmore and growing up at this small ski resort, I have formed some strong opinions. The ski instructors, many of which have taught me, are extremely good at what they do and know to make it fun for everyone. My old ski instructor would have us do training exercises but make them very creative and fun. One time he took us into the terrain park to see who could get the most height off the jump. Later after we were done he explained to us that it was for balance which actually helps all of us a lot and plus it was funny to see some people lean back and fall.

Cranmore Race Team:

Cranmore has a great race team which always produces great racers. On the team, I know a boy named jake, number 1 in the country, and a girl named Katie, number 5 in the country. Both of these two people are my close friends, especially Katie, who is like a sister to me and is now on the women's Olympic ski team. Cranmore has an excellent staff and is a great place to learn for everyone, regardless of age or skill level. 

Reasons to Come:

1. Great instructors/ coaches
2. Fantastic restaurants close by
3. Several hotels in town
4. Family mountain
5. Has activities like tubing, mountain coaster, and rock climbing              
6. Good snow conditions
7. Varying terrain for all levels of difficulty
8. Top notch race team
9. Several lifts
10. One of the best terrain parks in the northeast