This Weekend Ski NE
Happy Friday!
If you do not have plans to head north to the mountains yet this weekend you should make them. Maybe the new snow falling will finally inspire us all to start skiing this season.
For updated conditions check this LINK.
Photo from Pats Peak: snowmaking operations (taken sunrise 01/18/07)
You all know that the line form Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”
The resorts of New England are doing just that since the weather has been cooperating.
But they are not building a baseball field.
They are building out their open terrain!
Trail counts are expanding to their highest levels of the season. Parks and pipes are getting revamped. Things are really beginning to snow up, so get out and take advantage.
Here is the breakdown of weekend projections the hit the S.G. inbox. Pick your poison and ski on it.
Appearing in order of reply…words from the resorts themselves
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Killington, VT
Killington: 97 Trails for Saturday, 102 for Sunday (50%)
Outer Limits opened today (Wednesday) and snowmaking will continue on it through Saturday morning, creating the famous moguls OL is famous for. Superstar is also open top-to-bottom.
Jay Peak, VT
80% open for Saturday. I’d check out Beyond, Beyond Beaver Pond this Saturday.
Mount Sunapee, NH
We made a ton of snow this week. We will have 38 trails open for the weekend. That is 69% of total terrain. That’s 158.3 acres, which will give us 50% more terrain than any other area in central and southern New Hampshire. Percent open can be deceiving depending on the size of the area. We will have 11.5 miles of terrain. The weather looks great this weekend.
Upper Cataract is opening, which is one of my favorite trails. Lynx is also opening, but we will have races on there Saturday and Sunday.
Crotched, NH
100% open TODAY! Makes Crotched the 1st of the season, again…
Among the trails we’re opening today, I’d recommend Big Dipper. It’s a short, but sweet blue intermediate trail which is a little bit off the beaten path. It doesn’t get a lot of traffic, so it stay in great shape all the time. Opening today with all fresh snow (it hasn’t been open yet this season), the trail is sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Wildcat, NH
For this weekend at Wildcat, we’ll be at over 60% open here at Wildcat with 30 out of 47 trails. The trails to hit: The Tomcat Schuss for experts — it’s open now on all natural snow & snowmaking is heading there right now, so that should be GREAT; the Wild Kitten is open on all natural snow & though it’s usually for beginners, it’ll be perfect for intermediate skiers at this time, along with the Upper Catapult trail from the summit; for beginners, once they’re experts in the Snowcat Novice Area, then we’ve got a great route from the top of the Tomcat Triple, which sends them down the Tomcat trail to the Middle & Lower Polecat trails, and the Stray Cat should open on fresh man-made snow on Sunday for beginners as well.
Shawnee Peak, ME
60% + open this weekend! All five lifts open!!
You’ve got to ski Lower Kancamangus – opening Friday. Nearly 3/4 mile of fantastic lake/mountain views, wide enough for big turns and just steep enough to get your heart pounding. The perfect trail for the whole family
Pats Peak, NH
For the weekend, we plan to have 100% of our trails open – all 22 trails.
The last two trails to open are the Tornado trail and the Vortex trail. New this season, our Hurricane trail has new fully automatic SMI fan guns and it’s been getting rave reviews.
Stratton, VT
We will be up to 73% open this weekend. We’re looking at 65 trails for Saturday, including two full terrain parks and a rail garden. I’d head over to Sun Bowl this weekend as it is opening top to bottom for the first time this year. Hit up the Sunriser Supertrail for some great cruising and to get some winter sun on your face.
Mount Snow, VT (the S.G. will be on hand for the unofficial open of gaping)
We expect to be just under 50% open this weekend (45-50 trails).
We’re opening Snowdance this weekend, which is one of our most popular cruisers.
Saddleback, ME
67% of our terrain will be open this weekend. We have gotten two feet of snow in the last two weeks, packed powder and powder surfaces. Fantastic skiing! Hoping to open the Kennebago lift and get access to Tri –Color.
Bolton Valley, VT
Looks like we’ll be able to open our 5th of 6 Lifts (Timberline) and that lower base lodge this weekend, if things continue as planned!!! Heck, for that matter, if we get a few more inches of natural snow in the next few days (which IS the prediction), we may be able to reopen Wilderness Lift (our 6th!!!)… Keep up the snowdancing!!!
Sure Shot (off Timberline Lift)
Smugglers’ Notch
At Smuggs, we’ve taken advantage of the colder weather to really crank the snowguns, and we’ve also benefited from a couple of storms with up to another eight inches forecast to come down by Saturday. We’re expecting to have about 50 percent of our trails open this weekend, and word is out that the conditions are fabulous. Lifts are operating on all three mountains with a nice balance of terrain. Our Zone Terrain Park opens tomorrow, which means an Altitude Adjustment sponsored by Dr. Pepper with music, prizes and fun on Saturday! We’ll be opening two of the trails in our Morse Highlands network for beginners.
pic from Snugg’s
Butternut Basin, MA
1 – Ski Butternut will be 45% open for Saturday. 10 of 22 trails and 6 of 10 Lifts.
2 – Recommended Trails just opening: Expert Trails Whip & West Way. Deep Snow from 3 continuous nights of snowmaking.
Sugarloaf, ME (making a case)
We’re basking in some of the best skiing you’ll find anywhere with lots of natural snow and copious amounts of machine made snow across the mountain. We’ll have at least 80 trails including some glades, natural, ungroomed trails, and skiing on all 2,820 vertical feet. The summit opened today and we expect to have several trails open from the top tomorrow. Percentage wise, we’ll be at 60-65 % for Saturday. That number isn’t necessarily the most accurate description of how much is open because we have so many named glades that are included in the total trail count. One figure that’s more representative of how much is open is our mileage. We have almost 37 miles of terrain open.
Recommended trails — I picked one from each difficulty category.
• Green circle – Timberline from the Summit. Stand on top of the world at 4,237 feet and take in the views and then take a leisurely cruise down the entire mountain
• Blue Square – Lower Gondola Line – this is a Sugarloafer favorite .
• Black diamond – Widowmaker/Flume – steep, groomed, cruiser buried deep by the snow guns.
• Double Black Diamond – Ripsaw – a magnet for drifting snow. A six inch storm tomorrow will put 2 feet of fresh on Ripsaw by Sat. morning.
Next two shots from da Loaf (taken Tues after the snow stoped)
the gondi line
Pow Pow POW!
Cannon, NH (late entry…)
We will have 8 lifts (all but the tram) and 24 or 25 trails (around 55%) for this weekend. Snowmaking is moving to Avalanche/Zoomer, so we are hoping to open the Tramway for next weekend.
Sugarbush, VT (super late entry)
The ‘Bush is jumping up to around 60%. Steep favorites Twist and Ripcord opened for the first time this week and cruisers favorite Spring Fling opened Wednesday and has had the snow guns trained on it for the last 96 hours.
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Gone skiing,
S.G.
PS ~ please visit LINK
