Conditions at Sunapee

This update from assistant snow detective Keith Canniff:

Rode at Sunapee yesterday (Wednesday). Conditions were good for late December. Good snow coverage, mostly loose granular, a little more hardpack/ice as the day went on, but still good right up until 4:00. Not as crowded as I expected, only a couple of waits in line more than 5 minutes. It was warm and sunny too - too warm actually, unopened/uncovered trails were actually melting. Like your posting says, glades weren't rideable because of the super-hard crust.

Their North Peak triple is down for repairs all week (bad timing), so the 4 or 5 trails in that section weren't accessible. Park and pipe looked to be in great condition.

Overall a great day for late Decmber.

Thanks for the helpful blog.

Thank you Keith

Best December EVER

(December 19, 2007 at Attitash)

I kid you not. That's what they're saying up at Mad River Glen, and they're not prone to the usual ski industry hyperbole. MRG got 3" last night with more coming today. They got 16"-20" from the Northeaster last weekend and they've gotten five feet in the past two weeks.

And it's not just Mad River Glenn. All of northern New England has been getting pounded with lots and lots of powder.

Early in the week was cold and very windy, but temps are climbing and the winds have subsided. I advise you go before the weekend, because it could get crowded.

See you up there.

Fresh Powda

Parts of northern New England got a sweet new layer of fresh powder on Tuesday and Wednesday, although there was a small bit of rain on the lower elevations at the start. Snow depths at high elevations are now up at 39 inches.

Here's how the latest snow showers played out:


Cannon 2-4"
Jay Peak 9"

Mad River 3-5"
Smuggler's 6"
Stowe 5-7"
Sugarbush 8"

More To Come
But this is just the beginning. This current storm sweeping through is predicted to mostly stay along the coast, possibly giving slight accumulations in the mountains. But then on Sunday everyone is looking forward to getting pounded with a heavy Nor'easter. This is shaping up to be one hell of a Christmas for New England skiers.

Enjoy

Jay Peak Gets 16 inches

While the rest of New England has been getting wet today, up at Jay Peak it's been snowing all day. This may sound like an ad for Jay, but that's what's been happening. By early afternoon Thursday, Jay had four inches and weather.com says the snow will continue through the night. (Update: by Friday evening they had 16 inches). Jay is scheduled to open on Saturday. Sweet.

More New England Openings
Mount Snow opened last Saturday (11/10/07), the earliest date since 1998! In fact, they opened earlier than Killington, which almost always takes the title as the first to open and the last to close. (Maybe this is changing under new management.) Mount Snow's early date may be attributable to the 101 new fan snow guns they just bought. (I'm getting a tour next week.) I've seen similar fans in action at Blue Hills and they do a great job of producing some very realistic snow in pretty marginal conditions.

Killington and Attitash are also scheduled to open this weekend. Unfortunately, the snow they've made so far is now rapidly heading toward the valley floor as heavy rain hits the area. But they will probably get snow as the temps drop this evening.

Free Lift Tickets
Two weeks ago I announced that the first New England Snow Detective reader to ski and send in a report within 24 hours will receive two free lift tickets to Sunday River. That deal is still up for grabs. So get moving. (Many thanks to Jackson's Ski Outlet in Easton, MA, for providing the prize.)

Boston Ski Expo
The Ski and Snowboard Expo starts tonight. It's at the Bayside Expo Center just south of Boston off Route 93. For those of you who haven't been before you can often pick up very good early ski season deals. You'll also find on sale lots of ski equipment and clothing. Tickets are $10 plus parking, but you can get $3 off if you go to their web site and give them your email address www.onthesnow.com/bewi/boston

More Openings Soon
Even more mountains are scheduled to open soon, and the weather for the next ten days is supposed to stay cold at night with no signs of rain in the forecast. No doubt the ski areas will be doing their best to cover their slopes with snow for the Thanksgiving holiday next week.

Others to open soon include:

Maine
Sugarloaf 11/16

New Hampshire
Cannon 11/23
Loon 11/21
Waterville 11/17
Wildcat 11/24

Vermont
Killington 11/16
Okemo 11/17
Smuggler's 11/23
Stowe 11/21
Sugarbush 11/22

Tell Your Friends
Please tell your skiing and snowboarding friends about this blog. The more people who sign up the better intelligence I can collect about New England ski conditions. All they have to do is send an email to skimail@mac.com and I'll put them on the list. I promise not to sell their email to anyone and they won't get any spam from me. Just good accurate ski conditions information.

Now get out there and enjoy the great outdoors. And don't forget to report back.

Thanks

Free Lift Tickets

Holy Cow, Sunday River in Maine was open for skiing yesterday, Halloween.

Two Free Lift Tickets!
Jackson’s Ski Outlet in Easton, Mass. (www.jacksonsskioutlet.com) is offering two free lift tickets to Sunday River (valid until Christmas) to the first Ski Mail New England reader to ski in New England and report their findings back to me within 24 hours. Stay tuned for more free stuff. (And if you stop by Jackson’s please mention this newsletter.)

Here is a list of scheduled opening days:
Vermont: Jay 11/23, Okemo 11/17, Smuggler’s 11/23, Sugarbush 11/22
Maine: Sugarloaf 11/9, Sunday River 11/9
New Hampshire: Waterville Valley 11/17

Make a Fortune Skiing
Ok, that’s a lie. But you can make enough to pay for your equipment (especially since it will be discounted) by becoming a ski instructor. And best of all, you’ll become a better skier. Anyone in the Boston area who is interested should go to the Blue Hills Job Fair Nov. 24 (10am – 2 pm) or Nov. 27 (6 pm – 8 pm). (www.ski-bluehills.com) You don’t have to be a great skier, and you’ll get free weekly ski clinics from master ski instructors throughout the season for free. I’ve been teaching at Blue Hills for a few seasons now and find it’s a lot of fun. Instructors at Blue Hills range in age from 15-70+.

Here Comes the Snow
It’s officially November, the first month of the ski season in New England. To get ready, here are some tips from Jesus Vazquez, a Level III instructor:

“I like to recreate the moves and tactics we use in skiing when practicing other sports. Sports such as mountain biking give you similar skills as skiing and keep your aerobic and anaerobic systems working in preparation for ski season. Your visual skills are at the same time worked out.”

“Running in the woods is another sport that keeps your reflexes sharp and your engine going.”

“Lifting weights also will help reduce the risk of injury by strengthening your thighs, shoulders, abs and arms. It will also aid your coordination and will reduce the burning sensation we have when holding and edge, skiing bumps, etc.”

Get Your Kids Ready
One of the many benefits of skiing is that it gives you something to do with your kids once they reach their teens. (Here’s a tip, don’t take them out West until they’re 15-16 and they’ll really be psyched about going on vacation with you.)

Here are some more tips from master instructor Dick Paret, who you’ll find teaching kids at both Blue Hills and Killington:

“Start with checking out the equipment. Make sure the boots fit right and if too small do not buy new ones too big 'to try and get two seasons out of them'.”

“Check the skis (between sternum to chin height for the length), tune up with binding check. Very important for everyone to have a yearly certification of their ski bindings.”

“Encourage bike riding, skate boarding and rollerblading, swimming helps build endurance and flexibility. Take a hike with the family in the woods and hills of your favorite ski area now before the snow falls. See how different it looks, great fun and great exercise.”

Ski Clubs
And for those of you interested in discount ski trips and making new friends, Rich Higgins of Easton recommends joining a ski club. Rich has been to St. Anton in Austria with the Cape Cod Ski Club and had a great time. www.capecodskiclub.com He also recommends checking out the Boston Ski and Sports Club, which has a wider variety of trips, although he hasn’t been on any of those, yet. He’s seriously interested in their trip this year to Engelberg, Switzerland, this season. www.bssc.com

Hope to see you out there, and don’t forget to report back.

Save your $$$

*In case you’re wondering, I do not benefit in any way from the deals I recommend here.

Blue Hills Gets New Owner
Blue Hills Ski Area, our favorite local bump, has a new owner. The state has given the license to the people who run Campgaw Mountain of New Jersey. It’s been a difficult time for this throwback to the days of leather ski boots, with very little snow to speak of last year and major issues with the previous owners. But it’s a new day, and many of the instructors who work at the mountain (including myself) are optimistic that things will get better.

The scuttlebutt is that Campgaw is a well-run local hill, and given that they’re just 20 miles north of New York City, keeping their hill covered in white all winter must be an even more challenging task than it is here in Boston. It’s a good sign that the new owners have already purchased a new groomer and four snow guns. The new equipment will be able to cover the hill with snow in just 48 hours (weather permitting of course.)

Challenge Yourself and Save $$$$
Mad River Glenn has been dubbed the most challenging mountain in New England by Ski magazine with lots of steep terrain and a philosophy of grooming as little of it as possible. (Is this really a philosophy, or are they just trying to save money?) And here’s a deal to let you try it for cheap. The mountain is offering the Mad Card, which lets you ski for any three days during the season for just $119. For those of you who are math impaired, that’s just $39.60 per day. With the card you’ll also be able to buy midweek tickets for just $30/day. You need a good dumping there to make it worthwhile, but when they get one, this is a good deal. As they say “ski it if you can.” (No snowboarders allowed.) You can purchase the Mad Card online www.madriverglen.com/?Page=price.php#mad or call 802-496-3551.

Save Even more $$$
For those of you out there who are do-it-yourselfers, consider learning to tune your own skis. I started a couple of years ago, and not only have I been saving money, but my skis are in better shape and I have a better sense of whether they’re tuned properly or not. (Only because I tune them more often, not necessarily because I'm any better at tuning than the shop.)

Unfortunately, there is a fairly large initial outlay. You’ll need a ski vice (which attaches to your work bench), an edging kit and a waxing kit. The total will come to a little under $200, but you’ll make your money back in a season or two, especially if there are several people in your family.

Tuning is not difficult and you can tune a pair of skis in about 15 minutes. You’ll probably still want to take your skis to your local shop for major issues, but for frequent tuning it’s the way to go. The most comprehensive place to buy ski tuning equipment and educational material is Tognar Toolworks www.tognar.com

Correction
My friend Dick Paret informs me that Sunday River and Sugarloaf ski areas in Maine are no longer owned by the American Ski Company. My bad.

Tell Your Friends
Please tell your skiing/boarding friends to send me an email to sign up for this weekly newsletter. I promise to keep email addresses top secret and to only send one email per week during the ski season. The more readers I’ve got the better deals I can get you and the better the field intelligence I can collect. AND ITS FREE.

See you again next week.

Head West

Head West My Friends
Ski this weekend! Two ski areas in Colorado are officially open for the season—Arapahoe Basin http://www.arapahoebasin.com and Loveland Ski Area http://www.skiloveland.com, which is a little less than two hours west of Denver. Arapahoe was the first to open last Wednesday and Loveland opened on Tuesday. The Colorado Rockies have been getting snow all week. Many of the other Denver area mountains also have snow, but are prohibited from opening until November by National Park regulations.

It’s early season at most mountains out West until Dec. 14, so lift tickets at Loveland are $42/day and $45/day at Arapahoe. And here’s a great deal: two people can ski and stay at Loveland for just $50/person/day, at the Georgetown Mountain Inn. JetBlue charges $438 to get out there, which is pretty steep for a weekend, but maybe you’ve got some frequent flyer miles you want to get rid of.

Killington $79/day
This is shaping up to be a bizarre year for New England ski areas, especially with the American Ski Company selling all its New England properties except Sunday River and Sugarloaf/USA. You’d think that more competition would drive down the price of lift tickets. But hold onto your ski helmets folks--Killington lift tickets will be $79/day this year for Saturdays and Holidays. Ouch.

For those of you who like to ski mountains other than Killington or Sunday River, they actual conditions may improve this year. When American Ski Company owned a bunch of mountains they were plowing their snowmaking resources primarily into those two hills. If you liked to ski at Attitash, for instance, you’d find very little snowmaking there. Now that the mountains are independent again, mountains other than KillingRiver will have incentive to make their own snow again.

Winning Strategies
So what’s a poor ski bum to do? Either go short, or go long. You can do what Paul Sweeny, co-owner of Jackson’s Ski Outlet (http://www.jacksonsskioutlet.com/) in Easton, MA does and wait until the last minute and then go where the last-minute deals and the snow falls. (SkiMail is perfect for this strategy with weekly updates on Thursdays) Paul likes to fly out to Salt Lake City in early December when the deals are still good and the snow plentiful. Or you can plan way ahead. We expect the Boston Ski Expo (Nov. 15-18) may have some excellent packages this year, considering the mountains are starving for cash.

Tell Your Friends
Please tell your skiing/boarding friends to send me an email to sign up for this weekly newsletter. I promise to keep email addresses top secret and to only send one email per week during the ski season. The more readers I’ve got the better deals I can get you and the better the field intelligence I can collect. AND ITS FREE.

See you again next week.

Ski for $37.50/day

Ski for $37.50/day
In anticipation of the coming ski season--which we all know is going to be great--I’ve been researching pre-season ski deals. Last week, I mentioned the Sunday River/Sugarloaf season’s pass, which is a good deal if those are the only mountains you ski and you’re going to ski a lot.

If you want to ski in all of New England, and even upstate New York, think about getting a Powder Pass. You can ski for as little as $37.50/day at any of 16 mountains (some very good) spread across New England. Some of the more notable ones are: Attitash, Waterville Valley, Gunstock, Jay, Mad River Glen, Saddleback and Wachusetts. You buy these passes in sets of 1, 3, 5 or 7. The best rates are available up until Oct. 18, when they go up 20 percent. A seven-day pass goes for $263, which works out to $37.50 per day. There are no blackout days and at Jay Peak, for instance, these passes will save you $21.50/day peak season. To get more information go to http://www.powderpassport.com/

Snow
At the moment, the only snow on the ground in the US seems to be in Montana. Big Sky has 5 inches at mid mountain and 10 at the top. Unfortunately, they don’t open until Thanksgiving. But check out Whilser! It’s not officially open until Nov. 22, but they already have a bunch of juicy photos of people skiing powder this month. http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/weather/gallery/index.htm Thanks goes to Rich Higgins for this nice tip.

Deals
Keep your eyes out here for specials. I’ve already got one ski shop that has agreed to give exclusive deals for readers of this email newsletter.

Tell Your Friends
Please tell your skiing friends to send me an email to sign up for this weekly email. I promise to keep the list top secret and to only send one email per week during the ski season. The more readers I’ve got the better deals I can get you and the better the field intelligence I can collect. AND ITS FREE.

See you again next Thursday.