East Coast skiers and riders are a different breed. We are made of sterner stuff, ready to encounter unpredictable snow conditions, and more excited to ski in weather that would make most western skiers clutch their collective pearls. Yet most North American ski publications have an undeniable bias toward western ski areas and winter culture, despite the millions of skiers and riders who make their homes on this side of the country.

The Ice Coast, they call it, derisively. But we are intensely proud of our mountains and the joys and challenges they offer. While we may not have the altitude and vertical drop of many of the larger western ski areas, and we rarely get the amounts of snow that the Rockies, the Sierras, and the Cascades receive, there is nevertheless a bounty of wintry riches in the Northeast.

The variable conditions and freeze-thaw cycles make us more confident skiers and riders, willing to brave challenges that would send powder junkies running to the base lodge. We don’t blanch at hard pack. We sally forth into rain and sleet with smiles on our faces. We brag about the blue ice patches we’ve survived. So we at Ice Coast Magazine embrace the insult with pride and wear the would-be slur as a badge of honor.

And while our hearts are  firmly rooted in the east, we won’t ignore western ski culture. Indeed, most serious East Coast skiers and riders make time to visit the west to ski big mountain lines and search for deep powder. We’d be remiss to ignore everything on the other side of the Mississippi, but we’ll approach our coverage from the point of view of the visitor, the pilgrim, the non-local looking to get as close to the local experience as possible. We will help you get the most out of those expensive trips out west, which, thanks to the growth of the multi-mountain pass industry, have become more affordable and accessible.

Ice Coast Magazine is an answer to the overwhelming bias in winter sports media toward western mountains, skiers, and riders. We celebrate the quirky, the local, and the underrated. From Vermont to the Catskills, Quebec to British Columbia, the Adirondacks to Maine, the Chic-Chocs to the Wasatch, our publication exists to celebrate the best of ski culture from an East Coast point of view, and to become a locus of discussion, sharing, and insider information. We believe in keeping our edges sharp, our expectations reasonable, and our stoke high.

 

We aim to embrace this regional and national ski culture, while focusing in depth on many of the over 200 ski areas available on the right coast. We’re not afraid of firm conditions, we don’t worry about underwhelming snow packs, and we glow with pride when someone says we ski the Ice Coast. And if you catch us in a moment of unguarded honesty, we’ll admit we tend to look down on those who shy from such challenges. At least, that’s what we tell ourselves when the sleet exfoliates our exposed skin, our goggles crust up, and our pants get soaked with frigid precipitation.

We ski the Ice Coast, and we love it.

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