Is the North East Screwed for Skiing, Boarding and Naked Sub-freezing Streaking?

[JerseyDave]

The two are related. You can run a local ski hill for cheap with natural snow. You can't when you need snowmaking.

If there were still 30 ski areas offering $30 lift tickets in NJ and PA, there would be much less of a flood of gapers to the Rockies. But you can't run a mom and pop hill in the mid Atlantic any more and the last ones standing in southern NE are hurting.

Check out the New England Lost Ski Area Project web site for a trip down memory lane and/or a vision of what is already gone.

I think there is a space for the NELSAs to reinvent themselves right now. The general population of my area in Central Vermont doesn't ski anymore. However, all the locals grew up skiing SkiNorwich, a 900 vert hill located on campus of Norwich University.

The ski-history "out back" on the hill runs deep. Trails that are of the same vintage as the Bruce, Thunderbolt, Nose Dive, ect are still running back there, though almost all of the original ski trails are covered with 10-20 years of growth. It's happened that a hardened core of locals have just kept doing the work to keep the best parts of the hill open. The commercial viability was never really there due to the fact that the top is at about 1800 ft. , and it faces West to Southwest mostly, but it's value was never forgotten by some, and is being remembered by the town now.

Norwich invested 200k to build out a XC center though the old area. Add in a ton of volunteer mtb trail building, and the school springing to mow 3 of the trails to finish off the project and folks saw that as a public open space, a closed ski hill is fantastic.

Living here vs near the larger resorts of Vt has made me realize how little snow is needed to ski. ( I'm not talking about grass, but on sliding on snow) With a good mix of slopes, cleaned to the ground, at lower elevations where there's more soil then ledge and on a grassy mowed slope you can have a great time in 6" on a micro base. The town slope as a community volunteer effort, as a back country/cross country area is completely viable and locally valuable.

The school and town are slowly reclaiming lost ground and I think eventually we will have the entire ski hill recut and maintained as part of their Center, with free town resident access guaranteed in the initial land gift to the School, thanks to the vision of the local ski gurus the Goodriches, BITD.

The Northeast is not screwed for skiing. For-profit, commercial land development projects centered around skiing will be tightening their belts and some on the fringe may fade away, but a place like Bolton, for example, could sell off the lifts, snow making and most of the equipment and just live cheaply and provide self powered winter fun. Might be a viable existence and preserve the ski history of that center as it seems it will here in Northfield.

[Groomer Gambler]

Seems like this trend is especially hitting resorts on the fringes of NE and the mid Atlantic...ie central/western NY, Catskills, southern VT, western Mass, NY.

As I write this from western NY, we have about an inch of wet snow on the ground after a few weeks of bare grass. Talk with an old timer and they remember the days of total snow cover in this area for most of the winter. I grew up skiing in the Catskills and similar story there - most places now rely on man made snow for coverage. Later openings/early closings for places like Plattekill.

How much is attributed to climate change is debatable, however, the main driver is economics for keeping these places afloat. Myself included, I've been skiing twice this year (after averaging maybe 1-2 times the past 3+ seasons) when in school I would get 50+ day seasons. Out of principle, I'm not paying $70 for a weekend lift ticket to a small mountain here that has all its snow coverage from man made snow.

Just look at development projects for lots of the smaller hills in these areas and you'll notice less emphasis on the mountain during winter and more investment in mtb trails, ropes courses, waterparks (ehem Peak Greek), summer lodging, etc.

[smallies]

#1 Can we stop quoting the post directly above and posts with 5 pics 2 posts later. Back on Cape Cod we have coastal inundations like the town needs money for a new parking lot because the old one is crumbling into the sea or underwater sometimes.

[From_the_NEK]

ILiving here vs near the larger resorts of Vt has made me realize how little snow is needed ski. ( I'm not talking about grass, but on sliding on snow) With a good mix of slopes, cleaned to the ground, at lower elevations where there's more soil the ledge and on a grassy mowed slope you can have a great time in 6" on a micro base. The town slope as a community volunteer effort, as a back country/cross country area is completely viable and locally valuable. .

I'm not so sure. The Lyndon Outing Club has struggled a lot in the last decade to open due to lack of snow. Last year the lifts never spun. This year it was open for two weeks and had to close again. When I was a kid the lights were usually on there for three straight months. Here in the valleys, the year-to-year snow totals may not look too far off the mark of what they were 30 years ago, but the massive prolonged thaws that keep melting out the base are what is killing us.

[SlidewaysShooter]

A bit of thread drift but funny to see that NJ map. During the winter where we had that really good sustained cold a few years back, I was living in the burbs and hit 'Snow Bowl.' Only about 400' or so. I think some folks keep it pretty clean and you can still make out most of the trails. Its in the Mahlon Dickerson Reservation and part of the Morris County Park system... Some decent single track in the park as well but prefer the mooch a bit further west.

[Lostmyboards]

That was a great year. You could actually ski between the ribbons and under the lifts. I took some core shots that year, without any reservation at all.

[JerseyDave]

I'm not so sure. The Lyndon Outing Club has struggled a lot in the last decade to open due to lack of snow. Last year the lifts never spun. This year it was open for two weeks and had to close again. When I was a kid the lights were usually on there for three straight months. Here in the valleys, the year-to-year snow totals may not look too far off the mark of what they were 30 years ago, but the massive prolonged thaws that keep melting out the base are what is killing us.

I hear that. Get rid of the lifts. Make some bike trails. Keep the skiing mowed down. When it snows, have a good time, but there is no sweat if it's grass for a year or two. Some years, like 2 years ago in Vt....it could be great for weeks.