Black Mountain Maine - Jan 31, 2009 Pics

[salsgang]

Date(s) Skied: Jan 31, 2009

Resort or Ski Area: Black Mountain Maine

Conditions: POWDER & PP

Trip Report: SuperFunFantasticDay at Black Mountain Maine! Black is a 1100 Vert community mountain in Rumford Maine. Considering the Alpine hill is only open weekends non-school vacation weeks, I figured there was some serious untracked Powder from Wednesday storm. We were not disappointed!

Black is known for their World Class Nordic trials. They are holding the NCAA Collegiate Championships there in March, and they were having a big High School meet (500 skiers) today. But they reserved the top parking lot for the 'Recreational skiers' and also blocked off the second floor of the lodge for non-racers. Nice job Black!

We clicked in around 9:30 and started off ripping some serious deep creamy cord. Then got into the Fresh. Just as I anticipated, there was 12-14" of untouched under the chair. It was sweet! We spent the morning chopping up the snow under the chair and down Dead Cambridge - a short steep pitch towards the bottom of the hill. I must of fell a half a dozen times today thrashing the deep (including a double-ejection coming off a jump) but it was nice and soft to come down on.

Black is basically a set of moderate blue to green groomers, with a couple of natural trails to play on. A triple services the top, and a double services the novice area. They also have a TBar and a rope tow for the tubing area. It was seriously good today with all that snow. Light crowds on the Alpine hill and the hill has this great community vibe to it. If you want a relaxing day to just work on the turns, Black is certainly worth the price ($30 adult)

All in all a great day. Here are some pics.

Playing in a little glade at the top. Black has potentially some very good glade terrain if they wanted to develop that area of skiing a bit.

Boy #1 Looking Good ripping some foot deep POW on Lower Androscoggin under the triple chair.

Then Boy #1 gets up close and personal with 12" of Fresh

The Boyz Absolutely killing it on Dead Cambridge

Boy #2 getting some bump action under the triple chair at the bottom of the hill

 

[billski]

that is simply amazing. Untracked pow on a Saturday. thanks for the report; it's an area I've heard of but never experienced. What a great place to go to for low-stress, quiet skiing.
Maine is an amazing place for skiing. There are dozens of community rope tows scattered about the state. I can't imagine any of it is crowded.

What does Black have for an infrastructure? Double chairs? I looked at a picture of it. It seems as if they only have trails on a very small part of the mountain.

I can see how it can be overlooked, juxtaposed between Sunday River and Sugarloaf. Could make a nice day trip if you're at one of the larger resorts and want a change.

Thanks for the pics!

 

[salsgang]

What does Black have for an infrastructure? Double chairs? I looked at a picture of it. It seems as if they only have trails on a very small part of the mountain.

Black has a newer (within 5 years) triple that services the top. It is not real fast but it does the trick. 1100 foot vertical and I think you can string together a run that is about 1 mile long. There is also a double that services a small novice area. There is a T-Bar that probably goes almost 1/2 way up & a rope-tow for a tubing park.

In the mid-2000's, Black was purchased by the non-profit Maine Winter Sports Center with a mission to "re-establish skiing as a lifestyle in Maine." The base lodge is an excellent new construction post and beam structure. Best I have seen in Maine outside of Saddleback I would say.

 

[bigbog]

pics!

Nice pics salsgang, it's a nice small operation in the heart of Maine's western mountains.

 

[Skimaine]

Maine Winter Sports Center also owns Big Rock in Mars Hill Maine (of windfarm fame). Very inexpensive to ski.