Lists are helpful reminders detailing things you want to do but have not yet done. Sometimes the mindless pursuit of lists can become inane, especially when lists are arbitrary or contrary to stronger underlying desires. In outdoor pursuits, lists can drive us to explore new and interesting locales that might otherwise be completely off our radar. This pursuit of new and different experiences is central to my way of life.
With this in mind, I made a list of New England ski areas I have yet to ski. At one time, I thought it would be an interesting goal to ski every open ski area in New England. I have since realized that would be an arduous task; more of a chore than an enjoyable pursuit given the quantity of small feeder, family, and community areas.
So I arbitrarily set a vertical gain minimum of 1150 feet within New England. Why that number? Because no mountain below that threshold ignites my interest excepting Middlebury College Snow Bowl, Dartmouth Skiway, Whaleback, and Suicide Six, which I have included. All ski areas above that threshold spark my interest enough to ski at least once in my lifetime.
I have shamelessly omitted Jiminy Peak which claims 1150′ (but this site says 1140′). Not that it matters. Several Northeastern ski areas outside of New England are included. This list does not include backcountry destinations. I am looking forward to exploring some of these mountains this season.
New Hampshire
- Balsams Wilderness — December 31, 2010
Bretton Woods— March 4, 2012- Cranmore — January 7, 2011
Dartmouth Skiway— March 11, 2012Mount Sunapee— March 11, 2012Whaleback— March 9, 2013
Vermont
- Ascutney — Doh
- Middlebury College Snow Bowl — February 20, 2011
- Mount Snow — January 1, 2011
- Okemo — March 19, 2011
Stratton— March 17, 2012Suicide Six— March 9, 2013
Maine
- Big Squaw — Doh
Black Mountain— February 17, 2013Shawnee Peak— January 13, 2013
New York
- Gore — April 10, 2011
- Hickory Ski Center
- Plattekill
- Whiteface — April 9, 2011
Quebec
- Le Massif de Charlevoix
- Le Massif du Sud
- Orford
Owl’s Head— February 19, 2012- Sutton
20 thoughts on “The List”
My list is similar yet different. I’m surprised you have hit BW given your Cannon expertise. I’m not a regular at BW but have enjoyed some good days there. I’ve also been recently surprised and impressed with Cranmore. I’ve been there with nephews and in-laws in tow and end up finding good stashes. There are some surprising tree shots and cliffs. Both BW and Cranmore get extra points for snow preservation and untouched lines since the target crowd won’t go near the tight lines that are a given for Cannon (+Wildcat, Jay, etc) regulars.
Bretton Woods is a very expensive lift ticket. BW’s glades has given me a reason to give them a try but it is difficult to be lured away from the superior terrain of Cannon and the also excellent terrain and significantly larger amounts of powder in Northern Vermont. I will not get to Bretton this year but I will have to give them a shot maybe next season if I can.
Cranmore is even more of a mental hurdle/block to get to. I can not imagine Cranmore will be able to keep me interested for a full morning, let alone an entire day. And with Black Mountain right up the road, there is a much better and cheaper mountain for essentially the same drive time. Of all the mountains on the list, I think Cranmore and Shawnee Peak will be the most difficult to peal myself away from my usual haunts.
I was had the same perspective on both BW and Cranmore….in fact I still generally do. Cannon is my spot, and Wildcat or Black if I’m over that way. But I’ve hit BW when I’ve had a deal or wind holds shut down Cannon. This year I expect to hit it more since my mid-week Cannon pass is good at BW too. (I still think this is the best deal going for season passes).
Believe it or not Cranmore would easily keep you occupied for a day. Untouched tree shots abound, and the cliff structure is much like Black’s. I know they are both a hard sell, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
By the way, I stumbled on you site through reading many of your super posts at T4T and AZ. Specifically thank you for your recent skin advice on T4T. I am ‘Cannonball’ on both of those sites.
Keep up the good work.
I will do my best to keep an open mind. Your comment gives me some hope that I will find enjoyable skiing at both locations, thanks for the comments and have fun touring this winter!
Cheers,
-Steve
For Steve, Cranmore would be a good mountain on a weekday. On the weekends, it’s families tumbling over families. A great place, (I skied there last year on a weekend) but you’d have to tone it down though. Not a place for opening up.
Now, I have never skied at Black on a weekend, but I would imagine there are plenty of places you can go, just rip, and not fluster anyone, because the trail will be vacant. Like to hear a bit about Black on a weekend.
Black on a weekend is like other mountains on a weekday. Expert trails always feel deserted due to families staying on lower level trails. The base lodge can be quite busy though: a sparse hall during the week, a snug play room on the weekend. Except for the lodge, Black has plenty of elbow room on weekends.
This is quite a list. Good progress so far, especially when you consider the quality of the year you are having. Unlike some who think rating systems should be absolute, I like a relative system. Absolute or relative – nice work season to date.
@Harv: I neglected to specify in the post that this is not a one year project but rather an indefinite project. Though I think I should be able to hit all of these areas within three years. For the current year, I have vouchers in hand for five of the above areas so it seems likely that at least half of this list will be crossed off this year.
One minor observation, belatedly – I actually think Whaleback is more interesting than the mostly groomed-to-hell Sunapee. Some pretty righteous terrain packed into a small hill, though the fact it had 16″ of fresh when I was there – and lots left ungroomed – certainly helped.
BW really can get a lot of snow – don’t know if it’s a fluke of the past few years but this seems to be especially the case earlier in the season. In fact sometimes they can have too much pow for the mostly tame terrain. I do like their grooming practices though – in addition to leaving certain trails natural, on wider groomed trails they tend to leave good-sized stretches untouched on the sides. I’ve only been there a few times but have had a blast when they’ve gotten 6″ or so of fresh. And when they do get a big early-season dump they’re aggressive in opening trails even if there are things like water bars to contend with. In the right circumstances I’ll be back.
I am really looking forward to trying out Whaleback. The plan was to copy Billski’s Trifecta from last year: Suicide Six and Dartmouth in the afternoon with night skiing at Whaleback, all in the same day. That didn’t happen this season, so maybe next year.
Bretton Woods has had great things said of its new glades. It may perhaps become my favorite new discovery from The List. Next season for sure.
I love exploring. Most people know that. Looks like Snowayman is getting in the groove. Other than King pine and some places in the Berks, I’m pretty much done exploring the white, berks and greens and a few ADKs. It’s only taken me 30 years. I go for everything, not just the challenge. Some of the smaller area serve to provide inspiration and reminisces of those formative years and formidable talent who started small. Where everyone knows everyone. They all watch each others kids.
I’m now trying to figure out how to hit all the smaller areas in Maine. SkiMaine is offering a pretty good pass for 20 areas. The only way I can do it is to camp out in Maine for a couple of weeks. Maine is a huge state.
Hats off to you Snowway. To your spirit of adventure and exploration. I hope that some of your earned turns take you to new hills.
My only goal this year is to hit 3 or 4 powder days. As defined as 10 inches or more. In the East, that’s a big deal!
I’ve been in the exploring groove for sometime, billski! That the list above is so short for the entire northeast says a lot, I think. I can’t quite get into the small local molehills. But perhaps in my later years, I’ll keep extending the list to include them for similar reasons to yours.
That Ski Maine pass looks perfect for nailing most of Maine in one fell swoop. You could ski many areas in the same day, especially if some offer night skiing. Even I gotta admit the prospect of skiing in Fort Kent or Presque Isle would be really cool for the novelty of skiing with and meeting people that live such a radically different lifestyle and probably rare meet many people from more populous areas. They gotta have a much different take on life, let alone skiing.
For Maine, Black Mountain really needs to happen for me this season. Shawnee I am a bit more ambivalent about. The view of Black while driving north to Saddleback aways gets me excited to finally get over there.
For the uniformed (me) – what is the significance of (Doh!)? Would be quite a feat to get you to the Catskills. We’d need some kind of cosmic/life/meteorological alignment.
The link goes to NELSAP. Squaw was a lost area. But it is reopening latter this month! But only the lower slopes. I may get there next year if they open the summit lift.
I guess Squaw seems like it’s gonna be a local’s mountain this year. Well, good for them; they deserve it after all the effort they put into it.
The sandbag lift-test project was quite the late night affair.
I am going to see if there is a way to hit some of the smaller maine areas. The big problem is that a lot of them are only open on the weekends.
The lower mountain lift operating makes a trip up there a little bit more likely. That small vertical assistance means I might be able to skin to the summit from the top of the lower lift and ski each trail at least once. Without that lower lift, I don’t know if I’d be able to get enough runs in to make it worth the drive.
I’ve heard King Pine has a couple steep trails that are continuous to the lift that could be fun on a powder day/night. However with only 350′ of vert it may be a bit tough for you to justify.
Be cool to do Blackwater in Andover NH as well if they would let you on. Their headwall trail looks steep. Hunter/Plattekill in the Catskills perhaps too?
King Pine is going to be a hard sell whether they have a couple of steep trails or not. 350′ vertical is definitely bump status. I would need to expand the list is a dramatic way to get to King Pine. I’ve toyed with the idea of including any open area in NH and VT including the bumps. Not sold on that idea yet. Life is too short to be ruled by a list and those bumps just don’t interest me (but Northeast Slopes in VT does interest me, I am probably going to add that despite its bump status).
I live pretty close to Andover, NH… less than an hour drive. Not sure if it is worth the effort — since they are private, I would probably need to obtain special permission. I’m sure the skiing would be at least as good if not better than some of the other areas I have on the List.
For NY, I’ve debated a Catskills trip. I’d love LOVE to hit Plattekill. But at almost 6 hours each way, it is hard to justify. The other Catskills areas I could care less about but the thought has crossed my mind of just doing all four in a long weekend which might be an interesting excursion.
I stumbled onto this site looking for some info on Mount Snow. It was fun reading all the trip reports. I like your writing style.
My wife and I have a project to ski the top 100 ski resorts in North America, and it is proving to be a challenge. We have 16 resorts in the Northeast that will be particularly difficult to get to since we live in California, but with 39 down we are determined. We have an arbitrary cutoff of 1,300 vertical, which eliminates a lot of the Northeast resorts (luckily?). We also specify a minimum amount of acreage and it has to have more than one ski pod.
I spoke with another family who has a goal to ski every New England resort over 1,000 vert, so apparently a lot of us have the same idea. Sometimes it seems more like work than fun, but it has been a great experience with a lot of memories.
Nice job on the blog!
Thanks for the comment! I’ve been stalled out on completing The List these last few years. Since I am at the end of the list and most areas are far away, it has been challenging to get the rest done. Two of the remaining areas are in Quebec and crossing the border is certainly a deterrent. Presidents Week is when I normally target those areas, maybe this year will be the year!
What are the 16 northeast resorts you have selected? 1300 is a great cutoff, you could probably go higher for the northeast. I can’t think of many resorts less than 2000 vert that I would recommend for a “best of the northeast” list. Perhaps Magic Mountain for lovers of old school skiing, natural snow, and trees. Much as I love smaller areas, most don’t quite have enough terrain and variability to merit inclusion on a list such as yours. Good luck with your project!