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I'm out here in the South Lake Tahoe Basin, doing some Research and Development for my ongoing scientific study of what to do to make it easier for us Eastern skiers to become more proficient in deep powder snow.
Hey - somebody's got to it - you think it's easy being snowed in here at Kirkwood Mountain Resort. Be Prepared, right. There's some big dumps due East yet this season and I'm hard at work planning for them. More later...
Photo - actual proof of me hard at work in powder at Kirkwood.
I didn't get to throw any confetti or sing Happy Birthday, but I was able to ski Whiteface yesterday, on the eve of the 50th birthday celebration. It wasn't a bluebird, powder day - it was cold, snappy and great skiing. The kind of day when you hear the skis sharp and whistling on the snow. Packed powder and groomed to perfection. That would be PPWDR, GR if I remember it right.
Riding up the Summit Chair, I tried to picture what it was like 50 years ago. At first I thought that for sure there couldn't have been anybody skiing from up here. But then again, when you look out to the Slides...then up to Whiteface Summit..I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some intrepid pioneer hiked down and set tracks out there.
Toured a lot of the mountain that was there when the man that Draper's Drop is christened after was the first manager and got a chance to see the home of some future Whiteface stars - the Kids Kampus. 
This is an all-in-one stop for everything the family needs to get youngsters into rentals, into ski or riding school or into day care, and then catch a short chair right out the door and a trail over to the main mountain. Family friendly at its best, even has its own parking area and/or a shuttle over to the main lodge.
If you can't get up to Whiteface for the weekend festivities there are two months of venues ahead including World cup events you won't want to miss...
Friday, January 25th is the 50th Birthday of Whiteface Mountain and lift ticket prices will be rolled back to $30 for the day. But, the big celebration will be on Saturday the 26th, with a gala Ski Sweater Ball from 7 to 11 PM. For Adults 21 and up the price is $85 per person. This includes the Main Lodge Party access with live entertainment and dancing to the music of the Nu-cullers, a vintage Whiteface film screening, and much more.
Whiteface didn't forget the future skiers and riders, as juniors and young adults, ages 7-20, will be admitted free. There will be free hot cocoa, with hot dogs and hamburgers in the NYSEF Lodge, night skiing/riding on the Mixing Bowl, round-a-bout rail session, and a half-pipe hike (conditions permitting). Supervision will be provided by Whiteface.
Adult tickets must be purchased, and junior and young adult ordered by January 23rd. Tickets are available at all Whiteface ticket windows, the Olympic Center Box Office, the ORDA Store located on Main Street in Lake Placid and by phone 518.946.2223.
So dig deep into your closet and bring out your favorite sweater - you know the one, red with skiers and snowflakes or maybe the one with the frolicking whitetail bucks, or if your still in love with that single striper, wear it. But come out and and give Whiteface a sendoff for the next fifty years...
Image Copyright Whiteface Mountain
Last week, when I was skiing around different resorts in New Hampshire, I knew I was being chased by that warm weather system coming up out of the south. I was hoping for two more cold day,s but I'd take what I could get as long as rain and fog held off and it was still crisp in the morning I made it to Attitash.
I plan on getting back to New Hampshire a little later in the winter, but I had a special reason to try and fit Attitash into this trip. I really wanted to see - and ski - the Illusion Trail which had been blasted, top to bottom, with manmade snow beginning with the first cold snap back in the fall. Peak Resorts, the new owners of Attitash, invested $2.5 Million in the latest innovation in snowmaking - Fan Gun Technology and Illusion was the showcase trail.
I can tell you Peak president Tim Boyd made the right decision to buy into this system, because Illusion was covered wall-to-wall with snow that, even in the warming temps, was holding up like a winter cover. I hope this technology is the wave of the future throughout the ndustry because, whatever formula mix is in the product, it seems to hold up better than natural snow. This will allow for an earlier opening and hopefully a longer season.
The photo above shows the pedestrian tunnel from the parking lot across to Attitash Lodge. Check out the paint motif. In New York a tunnel is a tunnel - you don't know who or what you might find within. Here at Attitash you get a forest with snow capped mountains and an full blue sky for a ceiling.
I know there are classic views from the top of Attitash including Mt. Washington, but the day was cloudy and most of the peaks shrouded over. Still, there was good skiing on both mountains with groomers, whales, bumps and trees, you had your pick. I really liked the glades on lower Bear Peak and I'm sure they get skied up early after a snowstorm, that's where I'd be anyway. A few more photos.
One big footnote - on my way up to Attitash from Gunstock, on some two lane road my Garmin sent me on, I saw a moose - with a huge set of antlers! It was dusk but I took a picture from the car that came out very fuzzy. He was a big lazy looking creature - just standing off the side of the road staring at me, staring at him. What a beautiful world we live in...
When I was still in New Hampshire last week, how could I not head over to Gunstock Mountain Resort to see if the view had changed any since I used to drive up there just about every weekend when I was in the service? That was better than a 3 hour drive from Rhode Island but the skiing was great then and even better now.
As I mentioned last month, this season Gunstock Mt is celebrating 70 years and, yes, the lake is still here and the views are still the same and it's a great place for photo ops. I remember thinking back then that people living around Gunstock had the best of both worlds. Snow hills in the winter and a beautiful lake in the summer. I never got up there in the summer, but each winter weekend I would try to stay in different place around the lake just to take in the friendliness of the people toward servicemen.
Gunstock has some classic New England ski trails that you can really open up on and that lead you through at least a couple of natural turns on the way down, so you're not just turning around at the top and schussing straight down. On one side of the mountain Upper and Middle Trigger and on the other side Upper and Middle Gunsmoke will both set you up with this type of run.
There is also a terrain park that obviously wasn't just thrown into a narrow existing trail and forgotten about. Blundersmoke Park, at 12 acres, is the widest park I've seen and from the Pistol Triple Chair you can really get a sense of how big it is. Being a parent, this wide open area gave me an impression of being a safe place where the kids can have fun and still be able to see each other around the structures and jumps.
Another neat feature here is called the Sick Trick Session where for a nominal fee kids get to learn and practice a new trick in an interactive session with an instructor, where it's not as confined and directed as a group lesson.
If you're in the area, and that's anywhere from Rhode Island to Boston and the seashore don't miss Gunstock's Birthday Bash Weekend - tomorrow and Sunday with two full day's of events scheduled. Hey, there's not to many areas other than Gunstock that, when night skiing is going strong on Saturday nights, you can sleep until Noon Saturday in Boston or RI and still get in a lot of skiing!
Photos copyright Mike Doyle
After a great day of skiing at Mt. Sunapee I decided that as long as Hillary and Obama and the rest of the traveling show was in New Hampshire, I would stick around also and ski some places I hadn't skied in a long time.
So on Sunday I set out to Ragged Mountain in Danbury. Earlier this year, Ragged came under new ownership who have big plans for the area and with Bob Fries as President don't even doubt those plans. Bob has a lot of years in the ski resort industry and has taken more than one resort that was on the brink of going under and brought new life into them.
Over the summer a lot of money and sweat equity when into getting the area ready for this winter and a lot of that work was behind the scenes, work that skiers don't usually see and often fail to appreciate. For example, new carpeting, kitchen reworks, and electrical overhauls take a big chunk of change, but don't get the center of attention that snow quality and quantity get. But they all must come together for the resort to present the finished product.
Sunday morning was holding a good cold temperature that allowed the snow to set up nicely for a New England Masters Ski Race which featured about 140 racers at the Ragged Mountain venue of the scheduled racing tour around various NE resorts.
The Spear Mountain chair should be opening shortly and when it does it will open the area to over 200 acres. The slogan on the Ragged Mountain web site is "there’s change in the mountain air at Ragged" and it's true. Starting with the sprucing up of the large, really large, base lodge and opening it out to propane heated patio area around a firepit.
If you haven't been to Ragged in a while - for whatever reason - do yourself a favor check out some photos here and then go sniff out the changes in the air.
photos copyright Mike Doyle
I was able to spend Saturday at Mt Sunapee, NH, along with a good number of other skiers and riders. Unfortunately the North Peak Triple was not running due to ongoing repairs. Mountain management put the word out that the chair would be down but that didn't stop a big turn out of skiers and riders - a real testament to the popularity of the ski resort.
With one chair not running all the access to the upper mountain was put on the Sunapee Express quad, yet there was very little complaining. Mainly because of the excellent efforts of the liftees in keeping the line moving and all the chairs filled with 4 people. Everybody took the wait in stride.
The snow conditions were excellent and Mt. Sunapee well deserves the grooming and snow quality accolades that they have gotten from Ski Magazine. The Sunrise Glades were holding a surprising amount of some lightly tracked powder which may have been blown in, but who cares how it got there it was nice skiing. No doubt we've been blessed with snow this year, but Mt. Sunapee added 18 new energy efficient snow guns over the past summer just to keep Mother Nature honest and add to the fineness of the product.
I 'm told the mountain doesn't run the Ducklin Double much when the newer chairs are all running, but it was a nostalgic treat to ride it today especially with the new 4,000 watt music system pumping out classic rock next door on the Pipeline Trail.
Everbody on the Upper Ridge also got a treat when two couples with the International Ski Dancing Association waltzed and turned their way down the mountain.
Mt Sunapee-In a word (or 3) - New Hampshire hospitalty.
photos copyright Mike Doyle
