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By Bump Diamond
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The SKI Rankings
September 25, 2006
People probably shouldn't be in such a snit over SKI magazine's dramatic downgrading of Mammoth Mountain, from No. 9 last season to No. 18 this year. Let's face it: SKI magazine doesn't have so much to do with skiing itself as what's printed on its cover: "The Ski Life."
Anymore, "the ski life" has more to do with restaurants, ease of access for your H3, lodging and scenery than it does with actual skiing and snowboarding. A great case in point is No. 2 Deer Valley, Utah—a great place to ski if you're loaded with dough, demand the Wall Street Journal in the restaurant (no kidding), you're over 60 and you hate snowboarders, who are banned anyway.
Some "ski life," huh?
The runs are narrow and not all that challenging, but wow they'll carry your skis for you from the car. Woo woo.
What maybe people ought to be in a snit over is Mammoth's second-place finish to Heavenly in the rankings among California resorts. It's like they're kidding over there at SKI. In the actual ski/snowboard categories, such as snow conditions, grooming, lifts, etc., Heavenly did not place in the Top 10 of any of them, yet earned the No. 17 ranking. Eh?
Mammoth ranked third in variety of terrain, behind Whistler, B.C. and Vail; it ranked seventh in challenge of terrain, behind, among others, Squaw Valley; it ranked third in lifts behind Snowbasin and Vail, and second in Terrain Parks, behind only Nub's Nob, Minn., which draws a collective "Huh?"
Anyhoo, the main point is to not get to up in arms over this thing. SKI Magazine is simply not about skiing that much.
Now, pass the foi gras, willyez?
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Comments
Actually, Nub's Nob is in Michigan, but it's still only Midwestern skiing!
Posted by: Alex | at 12:11 PM on October 5, 2006
Lay off the over sixty crowd.
Posted by: Ken Ryan | at 2:32 PM on October 6, 2006
I consider it a compliment and a boon that they downgraded MM. More importantly, it may cause less of the city slickers / once-a-year-folks-with-more-money-than-brains to spoil things for the rest of us like they've been doing.
Posted by: L.S. | at 8:13 AM on October 11, 2006