Who Will Open First in New England? This is not a poll.

[BodeMiller1]

Killington

 

[urungus]

Ski Ward

 

[chrisw]

I've got kiddo lessons at Ski Ward staring November 1st. Looking forward to checking out the snow product from Latitude 90 Snowmaking.

 

[switchfox]

Ski Ward

Mostly definitely Ski Ward, they have the right equipment to do it each year.

 

[4aprice]

Give Ski Ward many kudo's, however, I'll still take the "ramp in the Swamp".

 

[Zand]

Oh come on, Ward being the first to open is as serious as Tenney being the last to close all those years. At least let me ride a chairlift before it counts.

With no world cup it will be interesting to see if Killington tries to get back after it with opening first. They lost by a lot to Sunday River last year.

 

[urungus]

Oh come on, Ward being the first to open is as serious as Tenney being the last to close all those years. At least let me ride a chairlift before it counts.

With no world cup it will be interesting to see if Killington tries to get back after it with opening first. They lost by a lot to Sunday River last year.

If you’re not going to count Ward, then SR opening one trail for 4 hours on Halloween shouldn’t count either … Killington and Sunday River both opened for daily operations on Nov 14 last year

 

[letitsnow1]

I agree with zand it's gotta at least be a chairlift

 

[Zand]

If you’re not going to count Ward, then SR opening one trail for 4 hours on Halloween shouldn’t count either … Killington and Sunday River both opened for daily operations on Nov 14 last year

Key word is chairlift. Ward makes enough snow to open the rope tow. Cool for the novelty (and getting lessons going) but T2 is a real trail off a real chairlift.

Also K has opened for a day or two then closed for a month many times also. That doesn't bother me, as long as I'm driving to a run worth skiing.

 

[Rogman]

Killington opens with the intention of staying open, not for a day or for a weekend. Given a brief cold snap they can be beaten by anyone willing to watch their money melt down the hill. It’s been a few years since Killington even had an October opening. My expectation is that if they’re not the first to open whoever is will also be first to close.

 

[AdironRider]

With the drought you’d be a pretty stupid ops manager to waste that water if you weren’t going to stay open.

 

[BodeMiller1]

With the drought you’d be a pretty stupid ops manager to waste that water if you weren’t going to stay open.

That's another variable, who can make snow in a drought. Sunday River would edge out Killington. Bear Sunday River...

Not sure how much they can pull out of, butt it's up there.

Also, Cannon has Two "lakes" I think they only pump from one.

Sugarloaf must have the melted snow from last year. The water must be at the base by now.

 

[AdironRider]

Its not just about what you have in the pond, but how fast it refills. That is the biggest worry with the ops people I talk to regularly. Not a lot of outfits have more than 3-5 days worth and they aren't replenishing at anywhere near the necessary rates.

 

[Quietman]

100% Correct! With last fall's drought, and the very cold Jan-Feb stretch, the ponds never had much of a chance to re-fill.

 

[urungus]