IT’S ALL DOWNHILL
FROM HERE
Best
Places to Ski in the Northeast
by
Evelyn Kanter
While
the rest of us enjoyed summer and fall, ski areas east to west were busy
widening trails and bulldozing new ones, adding snowmaking and new high speed
lifts, and expanding base area lodging. They also were working overtime to create packages and programs to lure
us back to the slopes. Here’s a
selection of what’s new – or newly improved in the Northeast – for a weekend or
longer, for families, singles, or just for fun in the snow..
 Stratton
Mountain Resort became one of the first resorts in the country to install a
six-passenger high-speed lift, in 1995, and now is the first with two of
them. The new Ursa “six-pack”, named
for the resorts mascot bear, replaces both the creaky old Grizzly double and
the fixed-grip North American quad. Ursa whisks skiers and riders to the top in less than five minutes, half
the time it took before, to broad cruisers, a terrain park and old-fashioned
winding New England trails such as Polar Bear.
Stratton
also has several women’s only weekend ski and snowboard camps scheduled this
season – two in January, one in February and two more in March. The program
includes equipment demos, supervised daily workout sessions at the fitness
center, coaching and most meals. Prices
are $375 for three-day workshops and $480 for four-days. Lodging starts at $49 per person per night.
Another
reason to visit Stratton is Green Mountain Orthotics in the base area
village. The owners are certified
pedorthists and members of Ski Magazine’s boot test team. This is one of the best boot fitting shops
in the northeast, and can outfit you with custom footbeds that will make your
boots more comfortable while repairing any imbalance in your stance so you can
ski better.
Stratton
Mountain Resort is in southern Vermont, off Route 30, between Brattleboro and
Manchester. Take an afternoon away
from the slopes to shop the high end
designer outlets such as Gucci, Coach and Movado) at Manchester village.
Call
800-STRATTON or
www.stratton.com
 Okemo
Mountain Resort is one of the few independently-owned ski and snowboard resorts
left in Vermont, and its low-key nature makes it an ideal place for families
with young children, novice skiers and snowboarders who are intimidated by the
crowds at larger areas, or those returning to the slopes after several seasons.
Kids
six and under ski free, and parents ski worry-free with rented pagers from the
day care center and kid’s instruction program, to be a beep away from any
problems.
Okemo’s
Snow Tracks Nature Program teaches about the environment and the animals of
Vermont, within the ski and snowboard lesson program. There are lesson programs for skiers as young as four and
snowboarders as young as five, and a supervised “nightclub” in the base area
for teens 13-18, from 7:30-10:30 p.m. allows parents to have a civilized,
adult-only evening.
Don’t
think Okemo’s slopes are kidstuff. There’s some serious black diamond terrain off the South Pass high-speed
quad. Double diamond is short, steep,
and usually dotted with monster moguls. Chief and Tomahawk are both long cruisers from the top, for intermediate
and better skiers.
There’s
also a reciprocal lift ticket package with Stratton and Mt. Sunapee, nearby in
New Hampshire. It’s ideal for skiers
and snowboarders to sample three areas with a single multi-day ticket.
Okemo
Mountain Resort is in Ludlow, Vermont, on Route 103. Ludlow is wonderful, picturesque an old-fashioned New England
town, with the requisite whitewashed steepled church in the town square.
Slopeside condo lift and lodging packages start at $160 per weekend per person
and there are additional B&B accommodations in town.
Call
800-78-OKEMO or
www.okemo.com.
Camelback,
the largest ski area in the Poconos has regraded three of its popular trails,
King Tut, Upper and Lower Cleo and Pharaoh, to make them easier to cover with
snowmaking, which has been expanded, as well. A new sound system is being added to the terrain park, so younger snowboarders
can do their 360s in time to the beat. For their parents, Camelback is opening a business center with internet
access, fax machine and other office needs.
Since
this resort is open until 10 p.m. daily, there are a variety of ticket prices,
depending on the time of day you want to ski or snowboard. There’s also an on-line purchase program so
lift tickets will be waiting for you – no standing on line.
Snow
tubing is becoming increasingly popular, and Camelback has seven runs and three
tows. No lessons or skills required –
just dress warmly and step inside a round inflated rubber raft that bounces
down the slopes much like its cousins, whitewater rafts, bounce down the nearby
Delaware River.
Camelback
is in Tannersville, Pa., just off Route 80.
Call
570-629-1661 or
www.skicamelback.com.
 Jiminy
Peak officially opened its new mountain, Widow White’s Peak, last season,
making it the largest ski resort in southern New England. This year, they hauled a wonderful old
building two miles up Left Bank trail, to the top of the mountain to become
Hendrick’s Lodge, offering both sweeping vistas of the Berkshires and food.
For
young kids, a new “magic carpet” has replaced the old Chipmunk rope tow. This moving sidewalk makes it easier and
less tiring for those learning to ski or snowboard. Because this is such a family-oriented area, there are enforced
no-speed zones near lifts serving novice runs.
While
most of Jiminy Peak is gentle green and blue cruisers, there are a few steep
runs that will challenge the advanced skier or snowboarder. Jericho is usually a fight to the bottom,
over and around moguls. The black
diamond runs are clustered in the center of the mountain – and one of them is
lighted for night skiing, directly off the resort’s quad chairlift. There are 18 trails lighted for night
skiing. Slopeside lodging is as low as $55 a night (until Dec. 21).
Jiminy
Peak also has a reciprocal ticket with Brodie Mountain, three miles down the
road. Brodie, also known as the Irish
Alps, is most famous for its green snow. But that’s only on St. Patrick’s Day for the annual spring bash.
The rest of the season, Brodie’s slopes are
covered in white.
Jiminy
Peak is in Hancock, Mass., near Stockbridge and Pittsfield. Local must-sees include the Norman Rockwell
Museum, the Shaker Museum and Chesterwood, home of the artist who sculpted the
statue of Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and there are
several examples of the work in progress.
Call
800-882-8859 or
www.jiminypeak.com
Ski
Windham in the Catskills has expanded its night skiing program to include
mountain’s main racing trail, the badly-named Wheelchair trail, and now offers
night skiing on Thursdays. The 1 ½ mile
winding blue cruiser on East Peak that opened last year has drawn more novice
and intermediate skiers to this under-skied area, taking part of the pressure
off the lift lines on the main mountain. And a second half-pipe, near the resort’s main terrain park, should
reduce some of the crowding there, as well.
Windham
also offers a business center for parents or others needing to touch base with
the boss during the ski day, and valet parking for those unwilling to carry
gear through the parking lot to the lodge. The resort’s snow tubing center, with six sliding lanes, is accessible
by a continuous shuttle from the main lot.
Windham’s
program for disabled skiers is widely regarded as one of the best in the
country, east or west, and is a center for research and development of adaptive
snow sports instruction.
Ski
Windham is just off the Windham exit of the New York State Thruway, between
Kingston and Albany.
Call 800-SKI-WINDHAM or
www.skiwindham.com.
 Killington,
known as the “beast of the east” for its huge size and variety of terrail
-- and the size of its lift lines – has been
tamed somewhat by its new owners, American Ski Company, and aggressively
marketing to families with teens and younger children.
Snow
Zone is a special teen-only instruction program lets them switch back and forth
among skiing, snowboarding and
ski-boarding, which is the newest snowsport, a blending of the other two. Even more, the program has specific zones
for steeps, bumps, racing or tree-skiing, with dedicated coaches for each.
Killington
also has taken some of the traffic congestion out of the Sunrise Mountain
access by reconfiguring it. They moved
the Northeast Passage triple chair to access more novice terrain and move beginners away from the speeders
coming down the end of Juggernaut, a ten-mile (yes, ten) trail that Killington
claims is the longest in the country. At the other side of this seven-mountain
monster is Rams Head peak, a family-friendly area served by four lifts,
including an enclosed learning center just for kids.
And
in between the two is some of the most challenging terrain in the country, such
as the legendary Outer Limits, super-steep and filled with moguls big enough to
hide a Volkswagen Beetle.
Killington
is a few miles from Rutland, Vermont.
Call
800-621-MTNS or
www.killington.com
Killington
also has a multi-area ticketing system, sharing with its sister areas in the
Northeast:
Mount Snow VT
800-245-SNOW
www.mountsnow.com
Sugarbush
VT
800-53-SUGAR
www.sugarbush.com
Sunday
River ME
800-543-2SKI
www.sundayriver.com
Sugarloaf/USA ME
800-THELOAF
www.sugarloaf.com
Attitash Bear Peak NH
800-223-SNOW
www.attitash.com
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