Ride Delaware ?

I drove up from Delaware this morning for an afternoon session and then a morning session tomorrow after the rain. Fantastic day. On the lift about to finish my day as we speak. FYI, it isn’t on the website yet, but I ran into the patrol director at the top of the lift and they aren’t opening tomorrow. With some colder weather this week and nice weather next weekend, they want to avoid the groom, potentially make snow, and reopen Friday if possible. They will need to farm some snow, but I think it’s doable.

This was actually my second trip to Orford, with the first one being Monday. I had intended to make a trip report for both, but just didn’t have the time. Both days were great, but the second was top tier, so that’s the one I’ll write about. My wife’s family is from the North Country of NH, practically on the border with Canada, but they had grown up skiing the Balsams, and when it closed, had always thought Sunday River was the next closest resort. I hadn’t been to Canada since 18’, so I had been looking for a new resort nearby that I might be able to add to the list. I did some research and found that Orford was only about an hour twenty five away (assuming a smooth border crossing) as opposed to an hour forty to SR, so we decided to give it a try. We went Monday and had a great day, so we decided to go back Thursday. Certain parts of the North Country, especially in northern Coos County, are basically in a snow globe most of the winter. Every day we were there it snowed a couple of inches. They had a few clippers in Canada, so along with consistent cold temps, they were having one of the best early seasons for natural snowfall in the last decade. We had a smooth border crossing and made it to the mountain right around 10:30. The main lot, which holds a couple hundred cars, was mostly full and they had received 6 or so inches of fresh snow overnight. The snow would continue intermittently throughout the day with another inch accumulating while we were there. We snagged our lift tickets for $80 CAD ($55 US) and headed out. I don’t know if this is standard practice for them, but they had closed down the main lift and peak, Mont Orford, Monday-Wednesday for resurfacing. This peak allows you to ride their entire 1,933 ft vertical in one run off a very nice chondola. It had some long cruisers and some nice steeps as well. They had a mix of natural ungroomed trails along with a healthy dose of groomed trails. There were plenty of freshies throughout the day no matter what trail you were on. The fresh snow was light, fluffy, and gave you that great floating sensation. The other lifts had less steep cruisers. There were lots of consistent pitch woods shots filled with freshies to be found everywhere. The unmarked woods were better than most of the marked glades, which were mostly narrow and steep one or two route luge runs, but the coverage was deep on everything. There were definitely some sudden unmarked cliff drops in there, so you needed to be careful. Head on a swivel as they say. The lifts were ski on ski off all day. There were some empty chairs, but overall almost every chair had at least one person on it. The main lifts out of the base are all fairly modern and had the annoying loading carpets. Luckily most people there knew how to use them and there weren’t many stops. The lodge was nice and modern but was under construction. The ski resort itself is more like a day area with some vacation homes starting to pop up on the access road. The closest city is Sherbrooke, but I didn’t get the feeling that the place gets overrun on the weekends either We logged about 4 nonstops hours on Thursday. The legs were definitely spent and sore the rest of the night. I am definitely glad we found the place, and it’s significantly cheaper than 90% of US ski areas, even the cheaper ones. The ski area food is better and cheaper and the ski school looks to be cheaper too, assuming you can find someone that speaks English well enough. That puts my Eastern Townships list at 3 including Bromont and Sutton. I could see Owls Head from one of the lifts, and I’m told it’s much more old school, but there’s a lake in the way, and even though “it isn’t far, you can’t get there from here”. It would be hard to justify the extra 40 minutes of drive time, but I’m sure I’ll do it this year or next. I’ve still had my best east coast days at Charlevoix, but the eastern townships are definitely worth a day or two if you’re already up there and looking for something new. As always, pics below:

We were still up north for Thanksgiving, so we decided to head back to Sunday River for another weekday session before the holiday. We were meeting someone there, so we got a slightly later jump on the day than we wanted. Although the roads were snowy in northern NH, they were clear by the Maine/NH border. We got to Sunday River about 10:15 and were on the slopes around 10:30. They had opened some new terrain in the past 5 days, including Cascades over at Barker Mountain, but with that being ungroomed and the only open lift there still being the triple, we decided to go to Jordan Bowl where they had three top to bottom open trails, two of which were groomed. That is some of the best terrain at the resort, is serviced by a fancy high speed 8 person bubble lift, and since the mountain is currently fragmented, it was the better place to ride for the day. Snowmaking was ongoing around the resort, but was limited to closed trails and only on the upper mountain. The side parking lot at Jordan was about half full, which was way more full than last year, but with an 8 person lift, every lift had somebody on it, but no lift line. Rogue Angel and Lollapalooza were both groomed. Lolla is more mellow than Rogue, so conditions held up better and didn’t ski off as quick. Lots of fun rollers and speed on both trails. Easy carving on the outside of the trail. Base was deep. Excalibur wasn’t groomed, and wasn’t very enjoyable. There was some snow to ride on the outside of the trail, but lots of ice chunks and obstacles. Subsequently, we only did one run on it. We also logged 3 on Rogue and 4 on Lolla because it’s the only way to get back to the parking lot. There wasn’t a quick food option available at the Jordan hotel, which is the only “base lodge” available. All in all, definitely worth the 3 hour round trip. As always, pics below:

Way to silence the haters. I’m glad it was a good time. Sounds like typical early season when Killington isn’t the only show in town.

You rocking the Epic Northeast Pass? It’s a nice offering at $600 for early bird rates. Shake off the haters. With so many resorts opening tomorrow, including Bell down the street, I bet the crowds won’t be that bad.

Since we were up in New England before the holidays, we figured we might as well get a couple of days in. I figured there would be more open than Killington and Sunday River, but as of yesterday, they were the only two operating daily. Sunday River is only an hour twenty from where we are staying, so that was the logical choice. We’ve got 5 days there on the iKon, so we figured we would use one. We always regulate ticket usage early on and end up with days leftover anyway. I told my wife that the first day costs $1,100 and every day after that is free… I had been following the snow reports, and knew they had been making a ton of snow, so I was surprised that they had just gotten to the bottom of the Locke triple on Tuesday. Before that was just uploading and downloading for two upper mountain trails. We pulled into the Barker lot at 10 AM with guns still firing top to bottom. The lot there is tiny, but we found a spot, and there were still probably 15-20 spots left to be had. We happened to be there at the “busiest” time, so the lot got emptier from there on out. We booted up in the parking lot, and by the time we got on the lift, the lower mountain guns were off. The top 3 trails had been groomed and did not have snowmaking on open terrain. The bottom had snowmaking that had been turned off, but it wasn’t quite deep enough to be groomed yet. We hopped on the lift, which had no line, and headed to the top. I hadn’t been on it since I worked there, and I forgot how painfully long and slow that lift was. The two “real” trails off the top were Sunday Punch and T2. Both had a deep base and had been groomed. They both skied smoothly and had no ice. Fast carvable surface. Sunday Punch is a little longer and has some nice turns and humps. T2 is a race trail, so it’s just fast and fairly straight. We had already decided to skip the mid station and ride to the bottom, but the line at the mid station confirmed it was the right call. They started loading every other chair at the bottom to leave space for mid station skiers after our first run. Lower Sunday Punch below the mid station was variable to say the least. It was icy hardened manmade snowpack right from the beginning, especially under the guns. They had been running wet, and once that water drained, it locked up. However, the blow over snow on the far edge of the trail was soft and carried a good edge. There were also some small bumps forming. It was a narrower trail and thinner snowpack at the bottom. It started out wet, but locked up as the day went on. We did 4 t2b runs and 2 mid station runs once the line there cleared out around noon. We did 3 runs on each upper mountain trail. It was a leg burner, but all in all, a good day. They used to concentrate all the early season snowmaking on Locke and South Ridge, but now they kind of spread it out across the mountain. Guns were firing everywhere, and the Jordan Bowl opens with 3 t2b runs tomorrow. The mountain fragmentation is annoying, but those trails are all top notch cruisers. I might have to try them next week. As usual, pics below for stoke:

Sugar in NC opened today. Currently 15 degrees at base and 10 at the summit. Base Cam looks Sweet!

Looks promising for any early season player in New England to open next week. I could see somebody going for an unadvertised afternoon opening on Tuesday. That used to be a pretty common thing 10 or so years ago, but it’s disappeared as of late. Killington’s upper mountain base looks good, so with upper mountain temps in the teens Monday night, I could see them going for a Veteran’s Day afternoon special…

I’m sure Nate Dogggg is already camped out…

There was snow at 7 Springs yesterday. Killington looking good to fire up the guns November 4th right now. Even if it’s only overnight snowmaking, I could see a Nov 7th or 8th opening with hiking to and from Rime. Not ideal, but not bad for 600’ of vert and a dedicated lift…

Temps starting to look better in VT for snowmaking to start around November 1. October is out of the cards. Hoping to be in New England for an extended Thanksgiving trip about a week after that, work depending, but might delay it and extend on the back end if nothing is open.

Anybody been to both Massif de Charlevoix and Mont Tremblant? My guess is @Johnny Law is the surest bet. I just found out that the closest ski area to my in laws is actually Mont Orford, so I’ll probably hit that once or twice this season, but I will probably be able to score a 2-3 day trip somewhere in QC, and I’ve never been to Tremblant. I absolutely love Charlevoix and MDS, so I’m leaving that way, especially since it’s been 6 years, but Tremblant is a similar distance and I wanted some intel on whether it was comparable or not.

I’m sure it’s an expensive project. I have no idea what commercial LED lights cost nowadays, but I remember buying 30 exterior rated LED bulbs in 2010 when they were first coming out for like $35 apiece. It did cut the cost from $100 a month to $30 a month on electric, and did last 7-8 years, so it paid off, but I remember thinking it was crazy to spend $1,000 on lightbulbs, especially when regular ones were $2 apiece.

Just purchased the ikon base pass today. 23/24 got 4 days. 24/25 got 12. Really hoping to top 20 again this year. They added Blue and CB last year, so hoping to get a few more days there this year. They added Le Massif de Charlevoix this year, so hoping to get back there on an in-law vacation to northern NH.

Almost the 15 year anniversary of this thread… Huge Stoke!