Black Mountain Maine 1.5.14 You can't beat the $15 Lift Ticket

[tomcat]

For the price you can't beat the value of this place. It has just under 1400' vertical. The summit chair goes base to summit so every run takes in the vertical. The terrain isn't the most challenging but they are adding new trails and glades. And it's always $15 to ski. The conditions were decent Sunday with all trails open. I did see at least one roped glade. The place was uncrowded with no more than a few chair line to get on the lift. A couple ungroomed trails still had plenty of snow to take a break from the groomers. I only skied two glades and they had decent coverage for this time of year and were not overly tracked up. If you are not too far from Black you can't go wrong. No it's not Sunday River or Sugarloaf but it's $15 with decent terrain and a solid vertical for the price. This placed basically shut down this summer and was resurrected by fundraising and donations. It's good to see that it's still here.
I have a more complete trip report on my blog with pics at http://tomcatoutdoors.blogspot.com/2014/01/skiing-black-mountain-of-maine.html

 

[bigbog]

Nice....did you use the Wailers?
Which way did you go...#2 or #95 and over..?(new exit..y/n?).

 

[deadheadskier]

very nice. I bet I'd love a ski day there. I always tend to love the small uncrowded mountain ski experience and it looks like you hit it with pretty great conditions. 1400 vert is nothing to sneeze at either.

 

[tomcat]

Nice....did you use the Wailers?
Which way did you go...#2 or #95 and over..?(new exit..y/n?). I take 150 to Skowhegan, then 2 to Rumford. I don't want to sound stupid but what are the Wailers? Besides Bob Marleys band.


very nice. I bet I'd love a ski day there. I always tend to love the small uncrowded mountain ski experience and it looks like you hit it with pretty great conditions. 1400 vert is nothing to sneeze at either. Conditions were pretty good. Since there isn't much traffic it never got too choppy later in the day. The ungroomed trails looked barely touched with no bumps starting even just deeper powder.

 

[BackLoafRiver]

How would you compare Black to Mt. Abram? (with regard to size/ trail diversity/ etc)

Nice write up. For $15, it looks like you can't go wrong.

 

[tomcat]

I actually never skied Abram. My friend says that Abram has more challenging terrain. Maybe Salsgang can chime in, I know he has skied both and has done a write up on his blog giving reviews of both. But the value is the real draw at Black.

 

[xwhaler]

Nice report----we'll be hitting BMOM on the way up to the AZ Summit on that Friday. I did notice you refer to the vertical as 1400' in your report. I think that is the true potential vertical which right now requires hike to get to their backcountry terrain. Believe the lift services around 1150.

 

[Quietman]

I actually never skied Abram. My friend says that Abram has more challenging terrain. Maybe Salsgang can chime in, I know he has skied both and has done a write up on his blog giving reviews of both. But the value is the real draw at Black.

I haven't skied the new glades at Black, but can say that Mt Abram has a lot more variety and terrain than Black. When the natural snow is good, Rocky's run is true double diamond, and their other advanced trails have a good sustained pitch. Black is a great place, but after a day of skiing there, my kids wanted to go back to Mt Abram. I do want to try Black's glades when the snow is good.

Also, Carload Fridays at Abrams are also a great deal. Up to 7 people for $79!

 

[billski]

This Black is on my short list. I almost did it, but then realized it was 1.5 hours from Fryeburg.

 

[Bom]

Sounds like a good half-day option on your way up north

 

[salsgang]

Awesome job Tomcat. Quietman has it about right. Bunch of fun mellow crusiers at Black but the recent trail expansion / glades up the ante a bit at Black. Mt. Abram has some legit rugged terrain. When the snow is on both places offer great fun and value.

 

[bigbog]

Nice....did you use the Wailers?...

Ahh, my bad!...it's BackLoafRiver that bought the DPS Wailers..

Nice TR...yeah it's great that it received enough cash for operation.

 

[tomcat]

Nice report----we'll be hitting BMOM on the way up to the AZ Summit on that Friday. I did notice you refer to the vertical as 1400' in your report. I think that is the true potential vertical which right now requires hike to get to their backcountry terrain. Believe the lift services around 1150.

I'm not 100% sure but 1380 is the vert number they used a few years. I was under the impression when the summit triple was installed, that 1380' was the new vert. There doesn't appear to be too much elevation above the lift. There is some new trail expansion that is lift served. I don't know if gains 230 feet since it isn't officially opened yet. It does definitely does start uphill a little bit off of the lift where the new trail was roped. In older literature I do see that 1150' number used for vert. It wouldn't be the first time a ski area embellished a mountain stat.