Would a cross-country ski roadtrip be worth it?

D

doomquasar

Member
So, dipshit that I am, I bought a 20/21 Epic Local pass pre-pandemic. (I'm pretty confident that resorts will open this winter, but that's beside the point). I live on the east coast, and my family is on the west coast and I had this NUTTY THOUGHT: What if I instead of flying home for Christmas I rented a car and drove, hitting spots offered on the local pass along the way?

My question is: would it be worth it at all to ski in like... Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri? Or are they trash and would I be better off just doing Colorado - Utah - Idaho - Washington, in which case I might as well not drive 30 hours through the midwest to get to CO and just fly anyway? Or would it be fun even if the skiing is bad, just for the shits and adventure of it all?

please educate and shame me, thanks
 
Why not fly to CO and drive from there? You can still get the road trip experience on your way to the West Coast, without having to drive through the flyover states.

**This post was edited on Jul 22nd 2020 at 1:11:37pm
 
There’s a whole lot of space between east coast and west coast skiing that is pretty unremarkable. I would do it exclusively for the experience of driving across the country, if you’re into that.
 
Im all for the adventure. If you got the time, drive the whole distance to experience the country on the road and to hit hills you wouldnt normally ski. Take pictures and document it for later and you can look back and say you traveled the whole country skiing every mountain you could.
 
Where are you flying back from? PNW?

Road trips arw always fun. I like them in the spring and fall best but if you're trying to ski why not.

As far as bullshit midwest ski areas. If theyre on your pass or cheap go for it. Make the most of it. Imo skiing isn't just about the biggest mtns. In fact some of my favorite days and seasons were at smaller spots.

It all depends on how much time you have. I will say that Nebraska really has no redeeming qualities and might be the worst state to drive through in a snow storm. Flat af, no trees, straight roads, snow blowing sideways.

Road trips are sweet though. If your car is decent and you have the time it's a cool experience.
 
14158562:armchair_skier said:
There’s a whole lot of space between east coast and west coast skiing that is pretty unremarkable. I would do it exclusively for the experience of driving across the country, if you’re into that.
Click to expand...

I’ve driven across country 7 times and driven to almost every state. Idk what you’re talking about, Nebraska is beautiful. Kansas is a close 2nd.......
 
topic:doomquasar said:
My question is: would it be worth it at all to ski in like... Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri? Or are they trash and would I be better off just doing Colorado - Utah - Idaho - Washington,
Click to expand...

It depends on what you deem worth it. Ohio, Indiana and Missouri are not going to be comparable to CO,UT etc. But if you want to ski there to say you skied there and take it in for what it's worth, hell yeah. Depending on where you skied on the east coast, it may be completely different or it could be similar(i.e WNY, PA and other small hills will be similar to the midwest - Killington, Loon, etc. will be very different)

I mean, I feel like it would be worth it because you get to ski at a bunch of places instead of using it as a season pass at one place. Driving can kind of suck but it's also cool sometimes. I drove from OR to NY by myself and that fucking sucked because I had to be home in 4 days and couldn't take the time to enjoy it. But when I drove to OR with friends we had a blast. So it kind of depends on what you make of it.
 
14158587:SkiBum. said:
I’ve driven across country 7 times and driven to almost every state. Idk what you’re talking about, Nebraska is beautiful. Kansas is a close 2nd.......
Click to expand...

This has to be a joke. Unless you like flat nothing, corn, and tweakers doing tweaker things if you try and sleep in any rest area or parking lot, etc. Not really that "good life" I'm looking for.
 
Like said above, may as well do the whole thing if u got the time/money. Even the boring states become memorable just for the experience itself and it's a cool bucket list type thing
 
Are you looking to do classic or skate cross-country skiing? The plains would be great for cross-country skiing, not as much for downhill.

;)
 
If you want a nice ski road trip from the east coast without spending most of the time in the car you should hit up Quebec. Stoneham, st Anne, and massif are dope. And tickets and lodging is cheap in Canada. Assuming the border opens.
 
Don’t bait OP into driving through the Midwest lol as someone who’s lived in Kansas & Missouri and done and extensive amount of traveling around those two, Nebraska and Iowa as well, I can assure you there ain’t much to see.

Like, are there some cool parts? Sure just like anywhere else you’re bound to see something but I would never drive from the east coast for these states.

14158587:SkiBum. said:
I’ve driven across country 7 times and driven to almost every state. Idk what you’re talking about, Nebraska is beautiful. Kansas is a close 2nd.......
Click to expand...
 
I have driven cross country 6-7 times, as far as the midwest its a one and done thing. Basically nothing to see so just do it once but don't waste days driving through there if you could be skiing instead. Like many have said fly to Colorado and start there, Or to New mexico and hit Taos, then go from there to Colorado and on.

During Christmas is still basically early season, November and December are early season conditions, January, February and most of march are real winter and April and on is spring so if your driving in December most places that are in the midwest won't have good snow yet. Same with East coast resorts.
 
drive and slay. or get the SW air taxi and fly to the goods. either way you want to have a car when you get to the west.

send it OP!
 
Thank you everyone for the advice!! I still want to do a cross-country road trip someday but I think this time I’ll fly to maximize my time in WA (and get in a good quarantine before I see my family).

PEACE
 
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