Ski and RV - if you got one whats it doing this winter?

[snafu]

I, for the first time bought a 30' travel trailer this past summer and enjoyed it so much that I couldn't stand the thought of mothballing it for the winter. I did some research and found a campground in SoVT thats open year round. The price was right so I said what the hell? So I towed it up in December and its been there since. So far I am having a blast, gear up and go on Friday night, get there, get it nice and toasty inside and relax for the night. Saturday comes and I lazily roll out of bed at around 8:30, make some breakfast and coffee, get everything else ready and I'm out the door and within 10 minutes(Okemo, Ascutney) to 1/2 hour(Magic, Strattion, Killington) I am on the slopes. No 5am wake-ups, no rushing up 91 and feeling like I forgot something because I am half asleep. After skiing I enjoy apres all the more knowing I don't have to drive 2 1/2 hours back to Hartford, but rather the small commute back to my portable ski chalet. And did I mention that I do this with a family of 5?

Now a little background - I was a boy scout and camped many, many times, in tents, outside, in the rain, snow, heat cold etc - point is I can rough it and enjoy myself. My wife on the other hand is a city girl who idea of roughing it is if the power goes out at home:smile: - anything more than that is unbearable. Our kids - 16, 14 and 6 are somewhere inbetween, as long as its fun and mostly comfortable they are good. The compromise was the RV, which was the perfect choice looking back, lets me get back to nature while having all the comforts of home.

Winter RV camping is definitely not for everyone, if you need room service or your own private bathroom then its not for you. But if you are up for some adventure then I would say definitely give it a try. The main drawbacks are:

• Water - you won't have running water in your RV, cause its going to freeze unless your stay in your RV full time and even then it will probably freeze. But as long as you bring jugs of water you don't need it
• You probably won't be able to use your shower or toliet(due to the previous point) - well you can use your toliet, I use mine at night for #1, never for #2
• This brings us to point 3 - camp restrooms. If you RV you are familiar with them and probably not a big deal, but this can be a deal-breaker for some people. The campsite I'm at has heated mens and womens bathrooms with sinks and a shower and plenty of hot water and are mostly clean.
• Its cold, but you are already used to that. Most RV furnaces can keep up with cold VT nights, you can always bring extra heaters just in case(I bring a kerosene heater just to take the chill off, I have CO, fire and LP detectors in the RV)
• Snow removal - the campground plows the road and a parking place, but you have to dig out a path and clean off your roof.
• Condensation - LP gas heat and cooking and humans living in a relatively small space will fog up windows and cause condensation on metal parts, bring paper towels or a shamwow(got to get me one of those) and wipe down windows when needed. Or get a small dehumidifier or those damp-rid buckets.

The main drawback is not being able to use water, but having the heated bathrooms makes up for this. Other than that there are other things you can do to make life easier, like skirting the bottom of the RV and covering it with a tarp go along way to make it warmer and easier to remove the snow from the roof.

All in all the pros FAR outweigh the cons. So much so that I wonder why more people don't do RV camping in the winter around here. Especially now that RVs are being equipped to handle all 4 seasons with enclosed basements(keep water tanks from freezing) and more R value to the roofs and walls.

So - if you have an RV and its stored for the winter - why haven't you tried out winter camping? If you knew there was a ski mountain with a seasonal campground w/ hookups and the price was right would you do it?

 

[Geoff]

How much does the campground charge you for the winter?

 

[snafu]

How much does the campground charge you for the winter?

$1,050 for the season Nov-April

 

[deadheadskier]

I'd love to just get something like this and just crash in the parking lot over night

 

[snafu]

I'd love to just get something like this and just crash in the parking lot over night

I hear that some ski areas allow you to park in their lots for a night or two, and something like that is perfect for that for 2 people tops, I wouldn't try it with a family, you definitely need some space. I am just surprised that some mountain hasn't tried having a campground close to skiing, even ski on ski off. Maybe its time has come with the downturn in the economy. To me its a great alternative to having a vacation home somewhere.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Snafu, Good for you and yours. Your post was interesting to read.

 

[ALLSKIING]

I'd love to just get something like this and just crash in the parking lot over night

I have two vans that are very close to that but they are full of dog hair and not 4wd.

 

[twinplanx]

I hear that some ski areas allow you to park in their lots for a night or two, and something like that is perfect for that for 2 people tops, I wouldn't try it with a family, you definitely need some space. I am just surprised that some mountain hasn't tried having a campground close to skiing, even ski on ski off. Maybe its time has come with the downturn in the economy. To me its a great alternative to having a vacation home somewhere.

They did it was called Brodie and can now be found on NELSAP:beer:

 

[hardline]

my parents actually toured all over the west in their RV. most areas didn't care back then but the were not ski resorts yet they where still ski areas. you could probally doit at a places like wolf, abasin, loveland in CO and there are few places left in BC but those days have come and gone.

 

[abc]

I got all excited until I read to the no running water part.

Seriously, I camp in tents in the summer, campground and wildnerness. So public (or nature) bathroom is a given. But for winter? Going outside to go to bathroom IS a deal breaker for me.

To me, the appeal of RV over tents, even in summer, IS a private bathroom. I can relax on the private part, but not the going outside part, NOT IN WINTER!

There ARE alternatives rustic lodging involving public bathroom but without having to go outside. I think I'll stick with that.

 

[Glenn]

That's a cool setup. But the no running water or useable $hitter.....

That 4wd van is sweet. I kow there's a company out west (IIRC) that does the conversions.

I've noticed that the "MooVer" system up in the Mt. Snow area has a few 4wd mini bus transporter things. Now that would make a sweet camper.

 

[ALLSKIING]

That's a cool setup. But the no running water or useable $hitter.....

That 4wd van is sweet. I kow there's a company out west (IIRC) that does the conversions.

I've noticed that the "MooVer" system up in the Mt. Snow area has a few 4wd mini bus transporter things. Now that would make a sweet camper.

I am sure some of them can be built in with running water. Both of my vans have running water with fresh and grey water tanks.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Cannon has 7 spots right next to the mountain.Here's the link.
http://www.nhstateparks.com/franconia.html

 

[smootharc]

Extreme skier Scott Schmidt...

...rocks one of these...

http://www.sportsmobile.com/ultimate.html

The Banana Yellow is A-OK for mine....

 

[ALLSKIING]

This is what both my vans look like but without the bad graphics. Not made for sleeping but you could make it work.

 

[snafu]

I got all excited until I read to the no running water part.

Seriously, I camp in tents in the summer, campground and wildnerness. So public (or nature) bathroom is a given. But for winter? Going outside to go to bathroom IS a deal breaker for me.

To me, the appeal of RV over tents, even in summer, IS a private bathroom. I can relax on the private part, but not the going outside part, NOT IN WINTER!

There ARE alternatives rustic lodging involving public bathroom but without having to go outside. I think I'll stick with that.

There is a heated bathroom/shower for all the campers to use, only 50' away from our trailer. It definitely is possible to use water in the RV in winter, especially if you are staying full-time in it - where it makes sense to keep the heat on all the time. But if you are just using it on the weekends then you have to deal with blowing out your water lines - not a big job at all, takes about 10-15 minutes. Also you have to dump your tanks, from what I have read you want to keep your tanks closed until you are ready to dump, or else you will have problems.

We do use our RV bathroom occasionally - my 6 yr old will use it pretty much anytime, everyone else will use it in a pinch - say at 3am. We have RV antifreeze right next to the toliet so we pour some in everytime we use it. I am also betting on the fact that we won't fill the 40 gallon black tank with occasional use over the season and that whatever is in there won't damage anything when it freezes.

 

[Sven Leonson]

We've done the ski and RV thing and really enjoyed it. (See my post in another thread about SKI NH).

The hassel for us is finding a place to crash at night. I have yet to call a resort and have the say "Sure you can spend the night on the parking lot." Either they don't own the lot (on state or federal land) or their security folks have been told to clear the lot each night. Campgrounds are generally closed in the winter so its been a lot of WalMart parking lots, which is fine by us, but you're sort of at the mercy of whether there is one nearby.

Are you at Running Bear or Crown Point? We were thinking of hitting Crown Point after skiing at Magic during President's weekend.

 

[snafu]

We've done the ski and RV thing and really enjoyed it. (See my post in another thread about SKI NH).

The hassel for us is finding a place to crash at night. I have yet to call a resort and have the say "Sure you can spend the night on the parking lot." Either they don't own the lot (on state or federal land) or their security folks have been told to clear the lot each night. Campgrounds are generally closed in the winter so its been a lot of WalMart parking lots, which is fine by us, but you're sort of at the mercy of whether there is one nearby.

The parking lot deal is very dated I guess, I personally never did it. With a motorhome its more natural to be mobile and park in lots whereas having a travel trailer its more cumbersome. Its made to tow somewhere and leave it for a period of time. My whole deal is I want a ski chalet on my budget, and putting my trailer up north for the winter is really an experiment to see if it was feasible, which so far it totally is.

Are you at Running Bear or Crown Point? We were thinking of hitting Crown Point after skiing at Magic during President's weekend.

I'm up at Crown Point, and its me and a bunch of snowmobilers, who seem to be into the winter camping thing. The VAST trail runs right through the campground. There's at least one full-timer living there while most others come up on the weekend. I like the campground and the owners are nice. I would recommend it but they only take seasonals there for the winter.

Cannon is the only mountain I've heard of that has some RV spots with hookups, but thats a bit too far for me. It would be great if one of the SoVT (Magic!!) had some sort of campground nearby(ski on ski off!). How hard would it be to find skiers/riders with RVs who would put their RVs there instead of storing them for the season? Charge like $1800-2000 for the season - maybe even more if a big market develops.

 

[Geoff]

The parking lot deal is very dated I guess, I personally never did it. With a motorhome its more natural to be mobile and park in lots whereas having a travel trailer its more cumbersome. Its made to tow somewhere and leave it for a period of time. My whole deal is I want a ski chalet on my budget, and putting my trailer up north for the winter is really an experiment to see if it was feasible, which so far it totally is.

As a kid, our first Vermont vacation home was an 80 foot mobile home. You buy land, put in a well and septic, and truck in cheap housing. A few years later, you sell the mobile home and build a permanent structure on the land.

 

[playoutside]

I'm a tenter, but good friends have a trailer. I've been working on them to consider some winter camping. We haven't pulled the trigger yet, but so glad to see there are others doing this.

Glad to know of the 2 in VT, I'd only found 2 in NH so far...one near the NH/VT border that would be convenient to Sunapee, Okemo, Ascutney and the other is Gunstock. We camped at the first one on Columbus day and got the details about how it works, but I'm curious about Gunstock because there is only a stray reference on their site and it's on the summer page. Anyone ever done this?