You go to Utah for the deepest snow, to Colorado for the lightest powder and swankiest resorts, to California for the mountains and low prices. You go to New England for … well, for what? Extreme cold? Rock-hard artificial snow? Mountains too limited to be of interest beyond New Jersey? Yes and no: all of these preconceptions have some basis, but they add up to an incomplete and unfair picture.
Yes, it can be cold: one of our reporters recorded 27°F, with wind chill producing a perceived temperature of 73°F. Early in the season, people wear face masks to prevent frostbite. It can also be warm another reporter had a whole week of rain that washed away the early-season snow. The thing about New England weather is that it varies. Not as much as in Scotland, maybe; but the locals’ favourite expression is ‘If you don’t like the weather in New England, wait two minutes’. But we got routine winter weather on both our recent visits one in January, one in February.
Certainly, New England doesn’t get much super-light powder or deep snow to play in. But the resorts do have big snowmaking installations, designed to ensure a long season and to help the slopes to ‘recover’ after a thaw or spell of rain. They were the pioneers of snowmaking technology; and ‘farming’ snow, as they put it, is an art form and a way of life provided the weather is cold enough. And they make and groom their snow to produce a superb surface. Many of the resorts get impressive amounts of natural snow too.
Sure, the mountains are not huge in terms of trail mileage. But several have verticals of over 800m (on a par with Colorado resorts such as Keystone) and most have over 600m (matching Breckenridge), and are worth considering for a short stay, or even for a week if you like familiar runs. For more novelty, a two- or three-centre trip is the obvious solution. You won’t lack challenge most of the double-black runs are seriously steep. And you won’t lack space: most Americans visit over weekends, which means deserted slopes on weekdays except at peak periods such as New Year and during the President’s Day holiday, in late February. It also means the resorts are keen to attract long-stay visitors, so UK package prices are low.
But the big weekend and day-trip trade also means that few New England resorts have developed atmospheric resort villages just a few condos and a hotel, maybe, with places to stay further out geared to suit car drivers who ski, eat, sleep, ski, go home.
But New England is easy to get to from Britain a flight to Boston, then perhaps a three-hour drive to your resort. And there are some pretty towns to visit, with their clapboard houses and big churches. You might also like to consider spending a day or two in Boston one of America’s most charming cities. And you could save a lot of money on normal UK prices by having a shopping spree at the factory outlet stores that abound in New England.
We cover four of the most popular resorts on the UK market in the separate chapters that follow. But there are many other small areas too. And if you are going for a week or more, we recommend renting a car and visiting a few resorts rather than sticking to just one area. In the rest of this introduction, we outline the attractions of the main possibilities.
From Killington, you can go south to a range of smaller resorts. Okemo competes with Smugglers’ Notch for the family market. Okemo mountain has southern Vermont’s biggest vertical (655m) and longest trail (over 7km). The slopes, on several flanks of a single peak, are largely intermediate or easy though there are a dozen black runs and a couple of short double-black-diamonds. Boarders are well catered for, with an extensive park (with music) leading into a half-pipe. There is almost 100 per cent snowmaking cover and the product is said to be the best in the East.
Mount Snow is another one-peak resort, with a long row of lifts on the front face serving easy and intermediate runs of just over 500m vertical, and a separate area of black runs on the north face including one short but serious double-black. (The sister resort of Haystack, a short drive away, has more steep slopes in its Witches area.) Mount Snow claims its 900m-long snowboard park is the biggest in the East.
Stratton offers something like the classic Alpine arrangement of a village at the foot of the lifts. It’s a smart, modern development with a pedestrian shopping street. The slopes mostly easy and intermediate, with some blacks and some short double-black pitches is spread widely around the flanks of a single peak, served by modern lifts including a 12-person gondola and a fast six-seat chair. Stratton calls itself the ’snowboarding capital of the East’, claiming the best terrain park, half-pipe, instruction and (of course) attitude.
You may find more interest in Sugarbush, to the north of Killington on the way to Smugglers’ Notch.
Sugarbush, midway between Killington and Stowe, is a fast-developing resort with one of the larger ski areas (111 trails). The main sector is an extensive bowl below Lincoln Peak, with lifts up to six points on the rim; a long up-and-over chair-lift links the Mt Ellen area smaller, but with more altitude and more vertical (808m). The easy skiing is confined to the lower slopes; higher up, the direct runs are seriously steep. There are snowboard parks in both areas. Most of the accommodation is in the historic village of Waitsfield, but the American Skiing Company is building a village at the base.
Sugarloaf in Maine already has a much better developed village than most small New England resorts. But the mountain is small and a keen piste-basher could ski it out in a day or two. Very popular with day and weekend skiers and boarders, it was very noticeable on our visit how safety conscious the local slope-users were. There was a higher proportion of people wearing protective helmets here than any other resort we have visited. We estimate well over 50 per cent were helmeted and these included all age groups from children to octogenarians. Even teenage and twenty-something skiers and boarders were comfortable in their helmets a sign of things to come in Europe perhaps?
Sugarloaf is another resort that is now owned by the American Skiing Company (Killington, Mount Snow, Sugarbush, Sunday River and Attitash Bear Peak are its other New England resorts) and it has a Magnificent Seven pass which covers seven days at all its resorts.
New Hampshire has several small resorts dotted along the Interstate 93 highway. Bretton Woods is one of the smaller areas, 460m vertical on a single mountain face, but is highly rated, particularly by families, who relish the top-to-bottom easy trails. There is a good mix of terrain, and snowmaking is comprehensive. Snowboarders have a park and a half-pipe. There are a few places to stay near the base, with more five miles away at Twin Mountain.
Cannon is a ski area and nothing more lifts from two base areas close to I93 converge on the summit 650m above, serving mainly intermediate slopes; there are quite a few black runs, but no double-blacks and not much that is genuinely easy. It’s only a few minutes drive to Franconia in one direction and Lincoln in the other.
Loon is a small, smart, modern resort just outside the sprawling town of Lincoln. The mountain (640m vertical) is mostly of intermediate difficulty, though some fall-line runs merit their black grading. There is a long snowboard park.
Waterville Valley is a compact area with runs dropping either side of a broad, gentle ridge rising 615m above the lift base. There are a couple of short but genuine double-black-diamond mogul fields, but most of the slopes are intermediate. Boarders are well catered for. The village is a Disneyesque affair a couple of miles away down on the flat valley bottom.
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