Bretton Woods 3/25/2014

Date(s) Skied: 3/25/2014
Resort or Ski Area: Bretton Woods
Conditions: Powder, packed powder
Trip Report:

Bretton Woods is yet another place that I skied at once as a child and hadn't been back since. My only recollection was completely hating the place because it was really cold and windy. But, I figured after 35 years I should give it another chance, plus my son and I had freebies from my equipment purchases last fall.

After leaving Benjamin to the tender mercies of the Bretton Woods Snowsports School, I headed up top and then over to the Mt. Stickney area, where I got to ride something kind of rare, a brand-new T-bar. The woods furthest to skier's right were lovely and had a lot of untracked fluff, so I once again got to be reminded of how lousy I am at skiing powder. Did a few runs there and then over to the other side (running into Benjamin with his class in the liftline on the way) to check out the glades in the West Mountain area, which were fun too.

Bretton seems to have kind of a split personality; it's mostly wide groomed cruisers, some gentle, wide-open glades and some steep, dense glades; there's not much in the way of, say, conventional mogul runs.

After lunch we did some of the aforementioned cruisers; Ben particularly liked Bigger Ben/Big Ben/Ben for some reason. Ended up knocking off early and I decided to go home via Crawford Notch and the Kancamagus Highway, which was about three times longer than I assumed. Pretty though.

Was there too !

Second day of the trip. Another great stay at the Omni Mt Washington. Good value in the spring.

Great place for those interested in green/blue cruising. Conditions were great. If you were not aware, side of many trails are left un groomed, for those that prefer that. To me, there is a bit of everything there, that will give all skiers something they like.

As the Bride prefers to cruise slowly, this is a perfect spot for her. We had been going to Loon for years. But, the elimination of greens and shut down of 7 Brothers during the week, has made this a no go anymore.

But, I digress. For those of us heading into our 60's, Bretton is a great place.

There's a guy at BW who I see frequently. He looks to be about 70 yo, wears jeans most of the time, yellow Fischer Vacuum boots, Dynastar carving skis. F****** guy can ski like the wind. Carves it up like he's 20 yo. He's my idol, jeans aside.


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Nice TR. I found some bump runs on my visit in April 2011, which was the first visit in more than 10 years. But it was late spring and they were winding down, so grooming may have been not as much of a focus. And this sign made me chuckle:



(Hopefully it displays)

They had a few runs with these signs. It made me laugh because it showed that (a) their clientele had to be warned about bumps and (b) their groomers/mountain ops crews had no idea what they were doing and/or routinely got lost on the mountain while grooming.