Skiing near Boston?

I will be in Boston this weekend and want to find a good place to ski nearby. What is my best bet?

How far do you want to drive? You want good skiing, it's a 3 hour drive (you can always take one of the bus tours from Boston Ski and Sports Club or Ski Market). You can get decent stuff, it's 1.5 hours to 2 hours. What kind of terrain do you ski?

I am a pretty solid intermediate. I can ski any blue type terrain. I am not looking for scary fast or steeps... I am looking for good conditions. I have had very bad luck this year. Wherever I went I was skiing on very hard packed, icy snow. I want to go somewhere with relatively fresh stuff. Has it snowed this week anywhere in the Boston area? What is 3 hours away?

I'd go for Mt Sunapee. It's about 3 hrs from Boston. Just head up I 93 to Concord, NH and then North on I 89. I usually exit I 89 at Exit 12, but if you're coming from Boston you might want an earlier exit. Anyway, I'm sure they have a web site with a phone number. BTW...their radio ad claims they are 2 hours from Boston...I kinda doubt that.

Sunapee three hours from Boston -- you mean roundtrip?!?

They used to have a billboard directly outside my office (in North Cambridge) that proclaimed "90 minutes to blastoff", but my best effort (72mph in 65 zones, 10mph above posted limited on secondary roads) has been 1:40. (I had thought about calling Sunapee and challenging them to send a representative to meet me at the billboard in 90 minutes.)

The other reasonable choices for someone of your ability would be Waterville (1:55) and Loon (2:05). Wachusett is under an hour, but is good for half a day at most.

For your level, all three referred to would work great; Waterville Valley, Loon, and Sunappe. They are all in New Hampshire.

Day trips (i.e., 2 to 2.5 hours) to New Hampshire from the outer southwestern suburbs of Boston constitute the majority of my ski season.
Recently, I went to:
Gunstock on 3/2,
Tenney Mtn. on 3/14,
Sunapee on 3/15,
Loon on 3/21.
(Waterville Valley will be next; probably going to skip Ragged this year).
All have lots of good snow (and it's snowing, not raining, up there right now) and are very enjoyable.
Sunapee is the closest. Nice cruisers, good lifts and grooming, beautiful views. Can get a bit crowded, but I think it's your best bet. Head over to the Sun Bowl area in the morning, and eat lunch at the summit lodge if it's open.
Tenney has old lifts, but decent vertical and intriguingly quirky terrain, and there's usually hardly anyone there. (Ragged Mtn. is similar with less vertical, but a few minutes closer.)
Loon is the biggest, with some impressive terrain, but is surely the most crowded. (Waterville is also pretty big.)
Gunstock is OK, too - not my favorite, but my 13-year old son liked their terrain park a lot.<FONT size="1">

[This message has been edited by Tominator (edited March 22, 2001).]</FONT>

what about blue hills or wachusett??

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Free your heels, poke your eyes out!

Jonathan - I always wondered about that 90 minute claim for Sunapee... my best (I live off 128, a little south of Boston) is 1:50.

Most of northern New England got snow again last night, so anywhere you pick would be a good bet. Sunapee would be my choice.

Blue Hills is reporting a 10-100 inch base - where the f$@()*k do they have 100 inches of snow anywhere on that hill?

We've continued to set sl courses at The New Blue Hills, which sure is better than the old one.

We can still screw in our gates all the way, which translate into about a foot-deep base, but 100 inches -- hmm, that must be measuring the depth of the big jump & the spine terrain feature!

wouldn't a 100" base double their vert?


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Free your heels, poke your eyes out!

I wonder if any ski area has ever reported a base bigger than their vert? What IS Blue Hill's vert?

309 feet in case anyone is interested. I'd still bet that would be the best snow depth to total vertical ration in North America.

Well, I spend a lot of time in Boston. However, if you really want to find a great place to ski, head over to NY and go to Whiteface Mountain. I ski there, and I will never leave. If you are an inexperienced skier, though, find some other place close by in New England. There are tons of resorts around.

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j a n s a r . c o m
The Skiing SuperSite
(Coming Soon)

jansar@jansar.com

Just curious... why would you never leave Whiteface? It's not exactly a great mountain...even by northeast standards. Have you skied Stowe, Mad River, Jay, etc..?

Hello to anyone in the Boston area, could you tell me what the chances of snow are for Thanksgiving usually? I guess  there are a few resorts opening up around the 26th of November this year (weather permitting) and I am planning a trip out there from the 25th of Nov - to 2nd of Dec. and was hoping to catch at least two days of skiing in=]

I don't mind driving up to 1 / 1.5 hours to ANYTHING that's open of course I would like to avoid traffic at the lift lines (but im not expecting much since its a holiday). Tks

Sunday River opened a couple of weeks ago, and Killington and others should be spinning lifts by then too.  As for snow, it's hard to say this far out... but I can tell you that I usually hike a North Conway area hill that's still closed on Thanksgiving (wildcat, attitash, etc.) and am generally happy with the quality of the snow!

Cool, I will start thinking about planning my trip!  Im not sure if a 3 hour drive will take place since I have to drive back (6hrs total) though and I will be borrowing my friends car so the mileage will be important to them as well, so when you say there will be 'others' , are there any closer that you can think of that has a good 'chance' of being open? Im just looking for an excuse to buy my plane ticket as you can see here=]

Also, this Conway area you speak of - is it in Cranmore, NH?

I also read somewhere that there will be a lot of good deals for early season skiing and lodging so maybe I wont have to drive as much

Going to Ragged Mountain on the 28-30Nov - Any slope suggestions/reccomendations for an advanced-intermediate carver?

They may have 1 or 2 trails open then if any.

But if the temps are right then they should make snow right? Its their lively-hood, -I would assume to get things up and running as soon as possible?
In any event I already purchased my lift tickets through liftopia and hopefully they have some options for me in case the trails don't open

Quite the optimist, aren't we?

Im feeling lucky - what can i say! Actually I got a good deal on airfare with some milleage leftover and I have a place to stay with some friends as well as rental car. So, hopefully there will be plenty of snow SOMEWHERE nearby... I dont like the fact that liftopia does not offer any refunds, exchanges etc...

In NH maybe head further North to Loon or Cannon maybe Waterville. They may be open with more trails. Or try something in VT as well. Ragged doesn't usually open that early. They do sometimes but not always.

Nothing within 1.5 to 2 hours from Boston that is worth skiing pretty much any time of year, especially not that early in the season.  If the place plans to be "open" from Thanksgiving they will probably have 1 or 2 trails open and that's about it.  Hardly worth it in my opinion.

Your best bet would be the big resorts (Killington, Stratton, Okemo, etc.).  They are about 2.5 - 3 hours away but they would have the most trails open (and it still won't be many).

Better hope for some early season snowstorms :-P

I am hoping for MANY early snowstorms . I just don't know if I can handle 6hrs/day driving and skiing but if you think its really worth it then I could give it a shot and see if I can do it 4 days in a row

any thoughts on Jiminy Peak on the 27th of Nov? or later til the 30th? (in case ragged mtn is too 'ragged' )

It is further south than Ragged but it may be about the same 1 or 2 trails if any. They sell those tickets cheap on Liftopia for a reason - It is a gamble

Well, if its a gamble -then my trip is also one and I need to know what my plan 'B' is  because I already bought everything and don't want to waste any time finding the one that is gonna be worth it - I have reserved my rental car and WILL pay extra for unlimited milleage as soon as I find the corresponding nearby accommodation=]=]