What is the best ski area in New Hampshire?

obienick

IIRC Back at SJ1.0, the “best” lists were based on whatever criteria the voters wanted.

conrad

Here’s how I would rank the 1,000 foot ski areas I have visited in New Hampshire:

1) Wildcat

2) Black Mountain

3) Loon

4) Cranmore

5) Attitash

I almost wanted to give Black Mountain number 1 because I like their layout and terrain, but Wildcat just has some of the best trails. I’ll be skiing Sunapee sometime this season so we will see where that falls on the list.

NewEnglandSkier13

My NH top 5:

King Pine
Granite Gorge
Whaleback
Pat’s Peak
Dartmouth

rickbolger

Putting aside my personal preferences, I would call the top three

Cannon Wildcat Attitash

ski_it

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“tedede”><blockquote style=“margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;”>Perhaps the problem with this thread is we do not have 10 SJers who have skied 6 or more of NH’s areas with 1000+ vertical drop to come up with a consensus.</blockquote>

Or perhaps we’re just not interested in compiling a “best” list with best being a very subjective term.

</blockquote>

Yeah that’s why I usually don’t answer these. Hell, I can’t even make up a definite answer in my own mind. Rivercoil & NES13 have some good points. For the sake of full disclosure, I’ve skied all the 1000 footers including Tenney & Balsams. I’ve only skied Black & Balsam once and I haven’t been to Attitash in a good 10 years.  

rickbolger

 I bet there are a lot more than ten of us; I think subjectivity as you pointed out is deterring quite a few.  As for the next five, etc.  I tried that but couldn’t make up my mind.  

57stevey

close as I could get…

top Cannon, BW, Ragged

middle  Loon, Sunapee, Wildcat, (not skied: Black, Cranmore, Attitash)

btm  Gunstock, WV

Remski

WILCAT PERIOD! What’s so hard about that?

ski_it

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“Remski”>WILCAT PERIOD! What’s so hard about that?</blockquote>

Then exactly what were you doing at Bretton when I saw you last season??? :D

joshua_segal

The way you are presenting the information makes it impossible for me to do a decent consensus.

Only 4 people have responded to the format I requested and I’ll need at least 10 to build a reasonable order.

Now if someone wants to do something different, I’m fine with that:

1000 footers in NH

Attitash

Black

Bretton Woods

Cannon

Cranmore

Gunstock

Loon

Mount Sunapee

Ragged

Waterville

Wildcat

There are many ways to put together a list like this.

I proposed: name 3 as “best three”; name 5 as the middle; and name 3 as the bottom 3

Don’t participate if you haven’t skied at least 6 of the areas.  Any area you didn’t ski gets lumped in the middle.  If we choose this approach, I’ll compile the numbers and come up with “the SJ official order”.

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“NewEnglandSkier13”>Why are we only considering 1,000 plus? We are looking for the best area, not the best large area. Am I right?</blockquote>

Sam: Not a single area on your list was named by anyone else!  Does that tell you something?

Remski

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“ski_it”><blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“Remski”>WILCAT PERIOD! What’s so hard about that?</blockquote>

Then exactly what were you doing at Bretton when I saw you last season??? :D

Free tickets and I ski at as many areas as I can all season long but in NH Wildcat is my favorite.

joshua_segal

There are only 4 inputs, but this is the summary to date:

1. Cannon

1. Wildcat

3. Bretton Woods

3. Loon

5. Attitash

5. Cranmore

5. Mt. Sunapee

5. Ragged

9. Black

10. Gunstock

10. Waterville

riverc0il

I’ll bite on ordering the areas that Joshua has included in terms of my preferences. Here are my assumptions: mid-week non-holiday fully open and natural snow trails with decent conditions. Loon would lower otherwise. 

Cannon

Wildcat

Black

Attitash

Loon

Ragged

Bretton Woods

Waterville

Mount Sunapee

Gunstock

Cranmore

xlr8r

Top 3

Cannon

Loon

Ragged

Middle 5

Bretton Woods

Attitash

Gunstock

Sunapee

(Black)

Bottom 3

Cranmore

Wildcat

Waterville

joshua_segal

We are up to 5 inputs with Cannon and Wildcat distancing themselves at the top with to date consensus of WV and Gunstock for the bottom.

The middle is still very fluid and in need of more inputs to begin to draw some distinctions.

Snowmaster

Cannon Loon Attitash Mostly for size, challenge, variety, multiple high speed lifts.

Ragged Sunapee Gunstock Bretton Woods Wildcat Short on vertical and challenge, or, in the case of Wildcat, variety.

Black Canmore Waterville Short on vertical, challenge and variety. For Waterville, vertical short without bunny chair and summit chair that never seems to be open when I’m there, also never get good conditions there.

joshua_segal

The SJ summary list below is based on inputs from: Obienick,Ski_it, joshua_segal, 57stevey, riverc0il, snowmaster

1. Cannon

2. Wildcat

3. Loon

4. Attitash

4. Bretton Woods

6. Ragged

7. Black

7. Mt. Sunapee

9. Cranmore

10. Waterville

10. Gunstock

Bill29

I’ve skied all the 1,000 footers in N.H. except Ragged. But many of them I skied back in the 1960s and not since. I liked Sunapee (first) because it was closest to me in Massachusetts. But I haven’t been there in years. Same is true of both Wildcat (second) and Waterville (third). In recent years, when I’ve gone to N.H., it has been to ski Crotched, which I like very much but which doesn’t make this list.

ski_it

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“Remski”><blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“ski_it”><blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“Remski”>WILCAT PERIOD! What’s so hard about that?</blockquote>

Then exactly what were you doing at Bretton when I saw you last season??? :D

Free tickets and I ski at as many areas as I can all season long but in NH Wildcat is my favorite.</blockquote>

Me too, except I didn’t know it would be free for us until; someone handed me them in the parking lot.

</blockquote>

JMaul

I’ve never been to Gunstock.

I’d like to know why it is rated low on most of these posts. 

Terrain, lifts, access, crowds? Please explain. 

« Previous Page Next Page »