Mt washington has some high points and some low points, and it all comes down to opinion.
High points:
1. They get tons of snow, second only to mt, baker.
2. Due to all of this snow there are usually some very large jumps built up in the park, when the park crew gets their act together.
3. They have 3 high speed lifts all of which are less than 8 years old.
4. There are several bus companies that will drive you up there daily from Victoria.
5. They built a lift last year that will access much more "advanced" terrain, meaning you no longer have to hike for it.
6. The road to get there is pretty good due to a lot of highway improvements.
Low Points:
1. It's the only mountain on the Island with regularly operating lift services.
2. Due to it pretty much having a monopoly on the island, the crowds are huge. In fact it has one of the worst "sker visits to lift capacity" ratios in Canada.
3. There is no halfpipe, they have tried in the past, but failed miserably due to lack of equiptment and grooming time.
4. It's at least a 3.5 hr drive from Victoria.
5. The management of the mountain sucks, they are more concerned in making it a "family friendly" mountain and building more condos up there than actually improving the mountain it's self.
6. Several companies have offered to make the park a decent one by paying for grooming time, new rails, new grooming equiptment and whatever else it takes to fix the park, in return for simply putting up a few signs and banners to advertise their comany. The management has declined them saying that they would like to keep the park a "natural one" without any coroporate advertising. Which is completely hippocritical considering that they host events each year which are sponsored by Coke, Sprite, Helly Hansen, etc, etc.
7. Lift tickets are ridiculously overpriced, especially when you compare it to the price of a ticket in whistler, and the comparison of the two mountains. They get away with it, only because of their monopoly.
8. The tons of snow that they get is pretty damn wet.
9. THe few rails that they do have are few and far between and need a lot of work.
10. The great steep terrain and 3 small cliffs that they have get skied out within 3 minutes of the lifts opening in the morning.
I am probably missing several points here, especially the high ones. I skied there for 10 years, living in Nanaimo. I think that I simply grew out of the mountain, but that's just me.
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