Truth in Reporting - Trails vs. Acres

[billski]

I've been mulling this around for a while. While often we focus on how much snow has fallen, especially early and late in the season we don't have a good sense of how much of the mountain is actually open. Numbers of trails doesn't cut it as we all know. How about acreage? Check out this reporting:

http://www.wunderground.com/ski/VT/

Not everyone does it, but to see something like Smuggs say that 50 of 1000 acres is open is moremeaningful in my book than 8 of 78 trails. I'm sure that Tony Crocker has analyzed this one to death over at FTO.

you thinks?

 

[Greg]

http://forums.alpinezone.com/18850-ski-area-acreage-reporting.html

Mileage seems to be the most reasonable metric for the East; while acreage is probably better for the West.

 

[billski]

http://forums.alpinezone.com/18850-ski-area-acreage-reporting.html

Mileage seems to be the most reasonable metric for the East; while acreage is probably better for the West.

Good point. Are there "rules" to mileage calculations, such that there is no double/triple/quadruple counting? where are these numbers being compiled? how prevalent?

 

[drjeff]

It's early season and to some extent, just about every ski area will have some type of exageration in their reporting, from dividing a single run into 3 trails, or when a trail that encompasses say 20 acres when wide open, is just a manmade 3 acre WROD, but gets recorded as the full acreage.

Until a some decent amounts of natural accumulate, divide most reported numbers (trails or acres) by 2 to get a much better feel for how much is really open is the loose rule of thumb I follow

 

[bvibert]

I wish more areas would have interactive maps that clearly highlight which runs are open so that you can clearly see what exactly your options are. I don't really care so much about how many miles of trails are open or how many acres, I care more about how many ways down are there....

 

[billski]

I wish more areas would have interactive maps that clearly highlight which runs are open so that you can clearly see what exactly your options are. I don't really care so much about how many miles of trails are open or how many acres, I care more about how many ways down are there....

yeah, beginners say the same thing, but for a different reason!

 

[Zand]

IMO acreage doesn't really work around here. Mount Snow could open 40 miles of something like Snowdance and MRG could open 40 miles of something like Fall Line... you'd ski the same amount but Mount Snow would have 10X more acreage.