Black Mountain Maine 12.30.12

[tomcat]

Powder/Pack Powder
Since everywhere else was peak/vacation prices I decided to try Black Mtn out. For $15 why not.
They claim 1380ft vert which isn't too bad either.
I was pleasantly surprised with the place. A fresh 4 or so inches fell the night before adding to last week's snows. It isn't the most challenging place I skied but natural conditions on all the diamonds made for a good day. There aren't that many trails. Even though they claim 30 there is a lot of upper/lower type runs. There were quite a few glades as well which weren't too bad for a small place. Th place was amazingly dead. Since it was so dead the powder stayed pretty fresh all day. For the price worth a try over a holiday weekend when other places are crowded and full price if you are in Maine or northern NH. That $15 is all day everyday. If you go and want a trail map, print one out ahead of time. There were none at the mountain available. Trails were marked but no map slopeside or paper.

 

[salsgang]

Good report. This $15 ticket strategy is interesting. Black has world-class nordic facilities but they are trying to kick start their alpine operations. They have a very nice base lodge and a newish triple that serves the top of the mountain. They are owned by non-profit corp that also owns Big Rock in Mars Hill. Nice to hear they have glades as they must be recently cut as there was only 1 glade last time I was there a couple of years ago.

 

[tomcat]

Either the $15 strategy hasn't caught on or nobody knows about Black yet, it was fairly dead on the downhill side for a holiday weekend.