by Albert Neubert
What a difference a year makes. Last March, the Northeast saw nary a flake and local ski areas shuttered by the end of the month on their remaining manmade bases. Fast forward to this March and places like the Catskills and New England saw up to four feet of snow that created the best conditions in this otherwise miserable season. I have always maintained that the best skiing and snowboarding is typically in March, when the bases are the deepest, the daylight hours are longer, and you’re generally not dealing with brutal cold. Winter Storm Sage put an exclamation point to that hypothesis this season.
The final tally from Sage was astounding with Plattekill and Belleayre, in the Western Catskills, picking up three feet while Hunter and Windham, in the northern Catskills saw over two feet. Across the Hudson, Catamount, on the New York and Massachusetts border near Hillsdale had 30 inches and Jiminy Peak, in Hancock, Massachusetts, picked up three feet. Even more southerly ski areas like Mohawk, in Cornwall, Connecticut, Thunder Ridge, in Patterson New York and Mount Peter, in Warwick New York, and The Victor Constant Slopes at West Point had their biggest snowfalls of the season with between 8 and 18 inches.
It’s also that time of the season when some local ski areas start to close and it’s not necessarily because of a lack of snow but a lack of enough skiers and snowboarders to make it worthwhile. Racing and children’s programs have ended and these areas depend on a very local base of customers and when daytime temps start to hover near 60 and baseball and soccer field have no snow on them, competition from school sports starts to eat into the snow sports business. For that reason Holiday Mountain near Monticello and the Victor Constant Ski Slopes closed this past Sunday. There may be additional season ending announcements for the week ahead but there will still be enough local areas like Mohawk and Thunder Ridge that will likely hang on until the first few days of April. However, their operating schedules may change to include only weekends instead of mid-week skiing and riding.
I skied at Thunder Ridge last Thursday, a couple days following the big dump and conditions were outstanding with the fresh snow groomed over the thick bases on all open trails. Each time out over the past three weeks, I’ve encountered the best conditions of the season and proves that even with modern and efficient snowmaking, there’s nothing like the stuff from Mother Nature. The bases were from four to five feet thick on most trails and the ski area will likely run out of skiers and snowboarders before it runs out of snow. Thunder Ridge will only be open on weekends from now until closing.
On Sunday, I headed East across the Hudson River again to make turns at Catamount, on the Massachusetts and New York Border, two miles east of Hillsdale on Route 23. Catamount was hammered by Sage, getting almost 30 inches on the summit but also losing power from most of the day following the Nor’easter. The heavy, wet snow combined with the gales force winds brought trees down everywhere in the area and even blocked access from the New York side when a tree fell across route 23
Almost all of Catamount’s terrain was open with just a few of the steep expert trails closed because they didn’t have a manmade base. Even though there was plenty of natural snow coverage, it wasn’t dense enough to groom without the grooming machines sinking down to the ground and chewing up dirt and rocks. With the wild swings in temperature over the past week as some days were in the mid-50s with chilly nights and then on Sunday, it was more like what we should have had in January with the daytime high never breaking freezing, snow surfaces were firm and variable. Ungroomed natural snow trails were not skiable and I saw a few “heroes” test them and they found out quickly that what looked like sweet powder from the chairlift turned out to be more like corrugated iron.
The strong March sun started to soften up the hard pack surfaces in the early afternoon but in the shade the trails stayed firm and fast. The turnout was more like what you would expect with ideal conditions in mid-winter, which goes to prove how a big natural snowfall brings skiers and snowboarders to the slopes. Normally, a typical mid-March weekend day would be half of what I experienced. However, Catamount has a unique situation with more uphill capacity than parking capacity. The results are no lift lines and when most of the terrain is open, plenty of space on the trails. Two of the area’s triple chairs weren’t running and the three chairs that were spinning had no lines most of the time and no more than a minute or two wait other times and that was mostly because of the chair stopping because someone didn’t get on or off safely.
It’s that time of the season when next year’s season passes go on sale and for folks that never bought a season pass to a particular area, there are incentives to buy a season pass now and you can ski or ride the rest of this season for free. In the case of Catamount, you can purchase an unlimited Summit Pass for next season for $549 for and adult and $429 for a junior (7-17) while children under 7 ski for free.
The Summit Pass also includes access to Berkshire East in northern Massachusetts in the town of Charlemont and Bousquet, which is in Pittsfield about 45 minutes north of Catamount. With Catamount announcing that they will stay open at least through April 2, and possibly another week after that, you could still get in plenty of turns using next season’s pass. For more information, you can visit the Catamount web site at www.catamountski.com
Think 23-24 season passes, and happy skiing and riding!
You can contact me at asneubert@aol.com or you can visit my Instagram page at asneubert
