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Small Ski Area Challenge

steamboat1

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Cochran's, Queechie, Whaleback. If you want me to name a few that are not on the list because they're NELSAP the list is longer.

Did quite a bit of skiing here back in the days of wooden ski's,cable bindings & leather boots.

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xwhaler

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Just Whaleback on this list though I hope to get to Granite Gorge this season
 

ScottySkis

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Last year I did Catamount it nice hill might get a cheap season pass their this year. I need to try Berkshire E and that hill in Roxbury , NY lol it is ok I guess.
 

VTKilarney

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The are going to need to add Mt. Eustis to their list in a couple of months!
 

Savemeasammy

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I guess I don't get the point of the "challenge". You get your name on the list? I've been to Whaleback and Quechee. I honestly don't see myself skiing any of the other places (that could change if the list gets updated).


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dlague

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I guess I don't get the point of the "challenge". You get your name on the list? I've been to Whaleback and Quechee. I honestly don't see myself skiing any of the other places (that could change if the list gets updated).


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The point is for the fun of it? We ski small ski small ski areas once in a while for the hell of it. Granite Gorge, Cochrans and a couple others are places I would like to hit up for the fun of it.


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Savemeasammy

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Granite Gorge looks like it could be entertaining for a few hours. If we lived in Keene, it's the kind of place we would probably bring the kids to.


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moguler6

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Not sure how they're defining this, but I think McIntyre and King Pine belong on that list. As it stands, I've hit none.
 

Tin

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Whaleback has more difficult terrain than some big mountains/resorts. If I was nearby and they got a good storm I would head back again.
 

4aprice

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Whaleback has more difficult terrain than some big mountains/resorts. If I was nearby and they got a good storm I would head back again.

Dartmouth Skiways is running a program for season ticket holders that includes days at Bolton, Black, Granite and a couple of other smaller hills. Why Whaleback is not on the list mystifies me. Seems to me they would be a perfect fit and a great option for Upper Valley residents and Dartmouth students and help Whaleback to boot.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ
 

xwhaler

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Dartmouth Skiways is running a program for season ticket holders that includes days at Bolton, Black, Granite and a couple of other smaller hills. Why Whaleback is not on the list mystifies me. Seems to me they would be a perfect fit and a great option for Upper Valley residents and Dartmouth students and help Whaleback to boot.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ
I was surprised by the omission of Whaleback as well. Sub out Ski Ward and put in Whaleback and I would have given some serious thought to getting this.
 

billski

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As you guys have noted, there are a number of glaring omissions, and there are even more after that.

You know I've been knocking off small areas for a few years now. I've probably knocked off half of the operating areas, at best. George Wood's adventure a decade ago, where he knocked off 50 Northeast areas in 60 days was my inspiration. George had an unfair advantage - he somehow became "famous" and got to ski for free, or had people meet him at the slope off hours to open up for him, he got a lot of free lodging and of course, he was blessed with free time.

The challenge list, even as limited as it is is still an arduous task. The geographic distance between areas makes it impossible to day trip or safari many of them. Not only that, it can get pretty doggone expensive, even at 10, 20 or 30 bucks a pop, not counting the gas. Complicating matters is that most of these small areas operate on limited hours.

Now that I have family living in Maine, I may use it as an excuse to base camp and "day trip" about, perhaps capping it off at Saddleback. Maine is one of the more difficult states to tackle given the distance between each area.
 

dlague

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Well I have investigated and question them about this and they shot me a url that had the criteria. for Example McIntyre fails because they have 2 double-chairlifts for the trails - personally I think that is a load of bull! This site was created by NELSAP to bring visibility to smaller ski areas. So they created criteria that disqualify those that do not need marketing. King Pine anf McIntyre are both very successful feeder ski areas.

SmallSkiArea.com Membership Requirements
Ski area must be located in New England.
Must be open to the public during regular hours of operation. Private ski areas/clubs can join if membership is open to the general public.
Ski area must have at least one licensed/operational lift for skiing.
Ski area's lift serviced terrain must be less than 1,000 vertical feet.
Ski area must not have more than one licensed/operational chairlift and must not have a high speed detachable aerial lift.
Ski area must submit regular conditions reports when open and denote when closed.
 

thetrailboss

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Well I have investigated and question them about this and they shot me a url that had the criteria. for Example McIntyre fails because they have 2 double-chairlifts for the trails - personally I think that is a load of bull! This site was created by NELSAP to bring visibility to smaller ski areas. So they created criteria that disqualify those that do not need marketing. King Pine anf McIntyre are both very successful feeder ski areas.

SmallSkiArea.com Membership Requirements
Ski area must be located in New England.
Must be open to the public during regular hours of operation. Private ski areas/clubs can join if membership is open to the general public.
Ski area must have at least one licensed/operational lift for skiing.
Ski area's lift serviced terrain must be less than 1,000 vertical feet.
Ski area must not have more than one licensed/operational chairlift and must not have a high speed detachable aerial lift.
Ski area must submit regular conditions reports when open and denote when closed.

I don't think this is affiliated with NELSAP but is just another site in a collection of websites that includes this often discussed website.
 

VTKilarney

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McIntyre has 200 vertical feet and 9 trails.
Whaleback has 900 vertical feet and 30 trails.

Yet Whaleback is a small ski area and McIntyre isn't.

Makes perfect sense to me.
 

Cannonball

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I don't think this is affiliated with NELSAP but is just another site in a collection of websites that includes this often discussed website.

Do you get a kickback for driving traffic to his site? Why would you disguise what the link is so that people have to click to find out instead of just using the url? You had to go through extra effort to disguise the link and create a curiosity out of it. I'm not happy that I just added to his site traffic thanks to you.
 
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