Skiing near Boston?

Howdy!


Most east coast ski areas don't count the time around Thanksgiving as essential operating season.  Their business model is predicated on being open (with most terrain accessible) by Christmas, and staying open through Easter.  Anything beyond that on either end is gravy, save for some of the more prominent resorts (e.g. Killington, Sunday River, Sugarloaf, et al).

For east coast resorts to do well in a season, here are the dates they need to both be open and have maximum terrain open:

- Christmas to New Year's (usually December 22-January 3)
- MLK weekend (late January)
- President's Day weekend (mid February)
- school breaks (vary from late January to late February, depending on individual states' academic calendars)
- Easter (March-April, depending on the year)


Even Easter is a stretch for some of the mom-and-pop areas, so they aim for the lucrative time from Christmas to the beginning of March, when families will take trips during school breaks.

Hopefully things will cool down here in the east.  The Nor'easter that's currently pounding New England is too warm to have a good base-building effect in the Green and White Mountains, which is a shame.  If things were 10-15 degrees colder, they'd be counting the snowfall in feet this weekend.

Good luck!

I left Waterville Valley at 8:30 this morning and it was 48 degrees with the rain just starting.
Not good.
Looks like they might be able to blow a little snow later this week, but the wet and warm that's supposed to come back by next weekend probably means it won't be worth bothering.
At least I'm not too upset that I'm going to be out of town until late on Saturday and will miss WV's opening day.

well..just checked out Stowe's website...opening day is in 5 days.... Killington is on the radar as well as Jay and WHATEVER is open at this point.  As presumptuous as I may be in buying my lift tickets ahead of time I am determined to find my solace on the slopes...somewhere... My commute will be determined by my will (from Worcester) to anything that is open and I will not ...repeat WILL NOT deviate from my desire to rip!

Songfta tks for the info .. Hope to see you out there

doidasso, If you are determined to ski at that time and it sounds like you are, if you are coming up to Vt look into Okemo, Killington, Sugarbush and Stowe. If you are buying tickets ahead of time those places have the best chance of having stuff open. Okemo for the quite a few years now has had good top to bottom skiing on a few runs that early, Killington will try to have a lot of trails open also, more for advanced skiing at the top of the mountain not as much  easier beginner runs that are towards the base.

Tks snowbowler, Okemo is pretty close to where im staying also.  I contacted litftopia about transferring/exchanging my tickets for Jay, Killington or Stowe and  they seem to have good customer service. If not, then a refund would also be an option - Im sure I can find descent deals for early skiing anyways ..