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Liftopia awards Titus #2 best overall ski area in North America

Beginners are taught how to ski at Titus Mountain Family Ski Center in Malone. (Provided photo — Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism)

MALONE — Liftopia, a ski mountain aggregate website, ranked Titus Mountain Family Ski Center as its second best overall resort in North America in its 2018-19 Best in Snow awards Friday.

Titus also earned awards for being the top resort for beginners in North America, the second most family-friendly resort and the third best value resort in North America.

Titus earned the “top family-friendly ski area in North America” in last season’s Best in Snow awards. Overall, Titus Mountain made the top three in 11 national and Northeast categories.

The Best in Snow awards are based on feedback from thousands of skiers and snowboarders. It takes into account more than just the number of votes, but also the number of votes in relation to the size of the resort and visitors. This is intended to level the playing field between large and small resorts, and base awards on what matters most to consumers.

“We are always striving to keep our customers happy by offering affordable skiing, family and beginner friendly amenities, and top-notch snow conditions,” Titus co-owner Bruce Monette said in a press release.

Children are a primary target audience at Titus Mountain Family Ski Center in Malone. (Provided photo — Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism)

Titus is home to 50 trails and glades over three inter-connected mountains — the tallest being 2,025 feet in elevation — accessed by 10 lifts, as well as a two-lane tubing hill. Located south of the village of Malone, it is an hour south of Montreal, two hours from Ottawa, three from Albany and about five-and-a-half from the New York City metro area.

As the name implies, Titus is big on being beginner and family friendly.

“We make skiing with kids easier by offering plenty of easily-accessible beginner and intermediate terrain, an advantageous resort layout with short distances from the parking lot to the slopes, and ski-in and ski-out lodging,” Monette said.

Through its “4-1-1” program, area students have learned to ski for free at Titus Mountain. Participating fourth graders in Titus’s “Intro to Ski” school program receive a free season pass and access to rentals for the rest of the season. The students also receive a voucher for one lift ticket and rental for a parent or guardian to use so they can show them what they learned.

The “Best Kept Secret” program allows the ski school to create programs centered around skiers’ needs rather than making them fit their needs into a pre-made program.

At Titus, newbies don’t have to worry as much about getting on the wrong lift because all of them access relatively easy trails. There are also three terrain parks, one of which is considered “forever wild” and never gets groomed.

Award methodology

To compile the 2019 Best In Snow Awards, Liftopia surveyed some 8,000 consumers. Respondents took into consideration criteria such as snow quality and conditions, grooming, accessibility, terrain variety and difficulty, vertical drop, learn-to-ski and -snowboard programs, staff and instructors, resort size, crowds and lift lines, accessibility of lifts and beginner terrain, off-slope activities, the surrounding community, and cost of lift tickets, rentals and programs.

The responses were weighted with a proprietary algorithm based on Liftopia’s data set that includes skier and snowboarder visits annually, acreage, uphill capacity and average true cost of skiing, to surface the best ski areas overall and across seven categories and five regions.

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