Here's an idea... If you could only ski one run, all season long (meaning, not one trip top to bottom, but day in and day out, only have access to one run), what would it be?

For the sake of limiting this, let's keep it in the northeast (nothing west of the Mississippi river), and limit it to named runs and well-known glades/unofficial trails, etc. In other words, you can't just say "the backcountry near Stowe" but if there's a nicknamed area, that's OK.

Let's assume "ideal" conditions. If that means bumps for you, then it's bumps. If that means hardpack, it's hardpack. If that means...well, you get the point.

I'll reserve the right to change my mind if I think of something different, but off the top of my head, I'd say "Peachy's Peril" at Saddleback get my vote.

Anyone else?


aaron

Too many rules, so I'm gonna ignore them.

Mid A: Extrovert or Stembogan, Blue Knob; Wildcat, Laurel Mtn; Off The Wall (only with whales) or The Drop (only with whales/bumps), Timberline. Since the season is longer, Timberline would probably win. I should also consider Cupp Run, Snowshoe, but I haven't skiied it in nearly 20 years.

I'd also tolerate Gunbarrel, Roundtop; White Lightning, Timberline (longest season!), and Bold Decision, Whitetail.

Northeast: any way down from the single at Mad River or Castlerock lift at Sugarbush. And I mean anyway down, and I'd be very happy. I'd even let Jimmy pick the way down. Wouldn't get bored the entire season. Tribute to those mountains.

West: Tram off of Snowbird. Start with Great Scott, and funnel down. Plus hundreds of other runs.

This could change as the spirit moves me, but today it's...

Locally, Stembogen Trail at Blue Knob PA, picture here:
http://www.onthesnow.com/news/a/6188/blue-knob-passes-on-sale-for-next-season-remainder-of-this (Guess who the uncredited source of this photo is? Also, guess who the skier is?)

New England, Wildcat Trail, Wildcat NH, picture here:
http://www.dcski.com/articles/view_article.php?article_id=838&mode=headlines

Let Jimmy pick? Now you know as well as I do that day will end with Ptex being dripped. Jimmy doesn't own a pair skis that aren't rock skis. Well, I guess following you has got me my fair share of base gouges too...



I'd say it's your photo and that's got to be JohnL


As for the trail that I would ski all season. It is a legend of a trail. It only exists when there has been a good bit of natural snowfall. It must be shown to you be a local. One might not think that it is on the map. But it is. You just have to look closely. My favorite run at Timberline, "Upper Almost Everything".......Can't find it? Don't believe me? Ask the Mayor.

If I could Design 1 trail from the top of MPC, West (Got Potential) Virginia ,it would be one of the Baddest 1770' vert runs on the East coast That I could do over & over again untill I Gumped out...Decided I was Tired..& went Home....

Way too restrictive. If I'm going to play I have to break the rules. How about any 10 contiguous square miles in the northeast? For me it would come down to the 10 square miles centered on Mt. Mansfield, VT or Mt. Washington, NH. Mansfield probably wins because of the proximity of buildings, people, lifts, i.e. safety, in the winter. Mt. Washington is just too big, bad, and deadly during much of the winter. I did once have a very nice skin up and ski down the Sherburne Trail at Mt. Washington in Feb. I stopped climbing at Hermit Lake which is just below the avalanche run out zones of Hillman's Highway and the lower snowfields and skied down, 1900 vertical feet to the highway.

Edited to say that I couldn't really be happy confining myself to just one run.

I'm an "explorer" by nature and can't imagine doing just one run during a day, let alone a whole season. However, 2 slopes that I could imagine would be good candidates would be Gunnar at 7 Springs and Stembogen at Blue Knob. Both are slopes where you can have multiple runs that do not become total carbon copies of one another.

When I was a Kid I would Downhill Mambo Alley at Blue Knob all day long..Over & over again trying to beat my Time!

I know that one run all the time is restrictive... That's kind of the point. I can't imagine skiing one run all day, either, but if I had to choose one, I'd look for something that combined my favorite elements together. I'm not good at bumps (yet) so I'd want something that has some bumps to it, but also has a good way to avoid them. I want something that twists and turns a bit, and has at least a few steep stretches.

I'm not suggesting that's what I actually WANT to do, mind you...


aaron

OK, I'll bite. Antelope top to bottom at Mad River. Upper A has about 1/3 of the 2040 ft. vertical drop and is rated blue; would be a black in the mid Atlantic. Lower A is rated black, narrow most of the way with 2 wider nicely bumped pitches. It wanders far from the other trails and is not heavily skied. Often you can stop for 10 minutes and nobody else will come by. It is the last run to get tracked out on a powder day and the edges will retain powder for several days. It is never steep but is challenging due to being narrow and twisting. Like most of MRG it is never groomed so bumps build up all season. You have to be on your toes. At the bottom you must not miss the little bridge that takes you back to the lift; unless you want, as I usually do, to get a final 10 turns in powder and will trade that for a 1/4 mile walk back on the road. Some of MRG's best off piste runs begin from Antelope, but you asked that I not go there.

In short it has some cruising, some bumps, glades, powder, isolation from the crowd, and beautiful views; everything except serious steeps. It is MRG's signature run IMHO. Don't go there without skiing it. It's on the far left as you view this map,
http://www.madriverglen.com/maps/iMapLarge.php

Edited to say that if you want a bigger challenge take Lynx and Beaver instead of lower Antelope or Catamount instead of Upper Antelope. I've never been a big Catamount fan but many people love it. I do love the gnarliness of steep bumps in the trees on Lynx. Darn - broke the rule again.

Denis,

You mentioned one of my two favorite ontrail runs at MRG. The first time I ever skied MRG was after 10-12" of fresh. Our first run of the day was Catamount/Lynx/Beaver. We did several laps on this before we saw anyone else on the trail. My first trip to MRG was epic.

If my legs are cooked or if the single is closed, my second favorite run is Partridge/Slalom Hill/Perwinkle.

Thinking more about it, Stembogen @ Blue Knob may be the most versatile trail for Intermediate/Advanced sliders in the Mid-A. If you chose your line, you can ski pretty much a groomer the entire way down. Plus you have the switchbacks for variety. For challenge, you have some interesting (non-snow covered) sections of the bowl, some brief steeps in the bowl, some moguled drop-offs near the turns (varies from year to year), and one of my favorite sections, the last slope at the bottom of the lift. Far left or far right or high-speed GS turns to the lift.

Though you have the infamous BK loud powder at times.

And the occasional accumulation of gravel. ???

I have never cared much for Stembogen. Many people love it and it may be BK's most popular trail with advanced skiers. I like Extrovert a lot. When they are open (natural snow only) I like Edgeset and Shortway, and of course Rt. 66.

I'm just about always a stickler for rules , but since someone else already suspendeded them, JohnL we need to do something about your long absence from Snowshoe, soon. There it is, the best trail to spend the entire season in the MidAtlantic on would be imho Cupp Run, but since we're breaking rules here, I'll say Western Territory. 1500' vert, high speed lift, bumps twists and turns and human obstacles, a bit of steepness and if we include Shays when open what could be better. David as far as all my skis being rock skis, I never have to worry about not having my rock skis because if i have skis, well then i have my rock skis. Life's too short to dring lite beer, rock on.

I gotta go with Jimmy onthis one. Only one would be Cupp, an area, the Western Territory. Shays can make one's knees wobbly and with a high speed quad.... nuff said. Doing lapps there can be bliss if the winds are not out of the northwest.

Jimmy, it's funny you say that. I ordered a Yuengling the other night here at the Irish Pub. The bartender asked if I wanted a Light. I stole that quote straight from Jimmy's Quote Box. And just think how many I use after spending an entire ski season hanging with you...

I hate to tell you this Davey Boy but Yuengling Lager is a light beer....4.4%Alc/135 calories/12g carbs...actually light only in Alcohol
Now..Bud Select..a light beer has 4.3 alc with 99 cal & only 3.1 carbs..You can mix Select with Milwaukee best Ice at 5.9 alc/144cal/7.3 carbs to get an awesome mix that contains 5.1alc/121.5cal/5.2carbs.....Cheers!

Yuengling will give you the same runs over & over....

I'm with Jimmy on this...only one trail in MidA I would ski over and over...Cupp Run at the Shoe, along with Shays of course.
The Colonel

Uh, hey Andy.... I didn't know that you were so up on the buzz factor in selecting your favortite consumption. We gotta do some comparitive swilling in the future.

The last time I was in the western territory at Snowshoe on a weekend I vowed I would never do so again. I witnessed dozens of near collisions at high speed by college age bombers who were on the ragged edge of being totally out of control. IMHO this is a problem that area management could stop or greatly reduce, if they wanted to. It is hard to find a place that is free of this on a weekend, but it far exceeded what I have seen anywhere else.

If we're breaking rules and going for maximum length/vertical on one run, I once read there is a skiable line on Mt. McKinley in Alaska that provides one of the longest, continuous descents on Earth, in the neighborhood of 14K vertical feet with no poling :-)

The reference to lite beer reminds me of these words from humorist Art Buchwald's last column around 2006, after his health prognosis was diagnosed as terminal:

For some reason my mind keeps turning to food. I know I have not eaten all the eclairs I always wanted. In recent months, I have found it hard to go past the Cheesecake Factory without at least having one profiterole and a banana split.

I know it's a rather silly thing at this stage of the game to spend so much time on food. But then again, as life went on and there were fewer and fewer things I could eat, I am now punishing myself for having passed up so many good things earlier in the trip.

When you've achieved your thrill on the hill & the lifts go still....its time to Swill ..See ya at the pub!.....Drink in moderation cuzz you got to make it to the pizza joint safely & you don't want to make the final decent down the steps your last run for awhile

Ok for the Mid-Atlantic I'll have to say the Goat at Laurel. I'm going with Laurel assuming it will open in the next few years. You will not find Goat on the trail map and I won't tell you where it is but it is a known unofficial glade. If you want a realistic pick for the Mid-A then I would choose a run with snow making so I'll go with Extrovert at Blue Knob. If I can expand that to the entire lower mountain from the mid station down then that would include Stem, Hopes, 66, Shortway and all the glades to be had from there but that's a lot more than 1 run.

If we open choices to the entire Northeast then that changes everything. Having not ever skied Castle Rock area at Sugarbush or anything at Mad River (I know, I know, how can I be a 55 year old east coast skier and never have skied Mad!!) and never fully explored all the possibilities of woods skiing at Stowe (I poked around the Quad served terrain but I understand a lot of fun stuff is over on the Gondola side) my pick for the one run:

Beaver Pond Glade at Jay Peak. To get there I would take the tram and ski Northway down to Ullr's Dream but I'd ski Poma Line instead then on to the Pond where I could probably find a different line every run for an entire season. When you pop out of the Pond you still need to get down to the lift so I'd head across Ullr's into Kokomo Glade until it pops you out onto the last run out of Ullr's back to the tram. By my reckoning that will give me about 2/3's of the 2000+ vertical in the trees with the most of the rest on groomed cruisers with the exception of Poma Line which is natural snow intermediate pitched bumps.

There you have my pick for the one run in the northeast. If you have a better one, all I can say is,"Take me there."

But you'll have to wear a red #8 jersey on the way down.

Beaver Pond and Beyond Beaver Pond have some nice terrain with some good spacing in the trees. But the vertical pretty much sucks. I'd estimate mebbe 700 feet, and after the headwall, the glades flatten out, which can suck in deeper snow. You burn about half the vert from the Green Mountain Express to get to the entrance, and the runout after the glades is very, very, very, very, very, very, very flat and very, very, very, very, very, very, very loooooooooong.

If you can handle a tight line on Extrovert (and I've seen you do it), way better runs in Vermont. BP and BBP are nice, but too short to be called the best.

In the immortal words of Animal House, Road Trip?

jimmy,

When was the last time you skied Cupp? Cupp hasn't had any bumps since the early 1990's. Plus they took out the left hand turn at the bottom of Upper Cupp.

The Western Territory has some great terrain, I'd ski it all season long if there weren't any ropes.

JohnL,

Beaver Pond has a terrible run out, with fresh snow it seems uphill.

Does Big Jay count?

Only if you don't carry a chain saw.

Since the incident, will they arrest you if you venture in (even with a get out of jail card)?

Like you, I feel safer in gnarlier terrain where I don't have to worry about other skiers, just myself and the terrain. Plus, you can't ski too fast in gnarly terrain, which lessens the chance of catastrophic injury.

Trying to skirt a hijack, but Denis raises and excellent point. If I have to worry about other skiers on *any* ski run (even if they are capable), the run is ruined for me. Trashed. Cherry Bombed. Not even a 6-pack of Vitamin Y can bring it back to life. How often do you have to worry about an out of control bomber or crowded slopes on Extrovert, OTW or The Drop (during harpoon season)? I never have. That may decide my choice for a single run to ski...

And if you do happen to encounter someone you're not sure of on slopes like the above: ski fast, ski hard, and make several very loud check turns. People tend to get out of your way. Like a semi with high beams on going down a hill on I-81.

That's actually a feature. Jimmy can't make left hand turns.

They're even better when they're not open. Telerod?

Point taken John but I was including all the variety before and after BP, you know, a little of everything. So maybe I'll go with one of these three; Forever, Valhalla and Timbuktu.

I've got to get to Mad River soon as well as the Bush and I barely scratched NH resorts, never been Iceface either. Hell, I'd like to get back to Mansfield with a local guide. Flying to Utah is too easy and inexpensive.

As for wearing a Cap's #8 well, they've got to win something first.

why a red #8 when we've allready trashed the ragged edge out of control types that are only going to take others out?

Too late to play? It depends on conditions, but I'd take Goat at Stowe.

Haha Denis I think i was there that day too. I have gone off on the perils of weekend skiing at Snowshoe before. I'm just saying that if i had to spend a whole season skiing one run in MASH it would be Western Territory. Pretty hard to pack 50 Saturdays into a season so i figure most of those days won't be so bad .