Powder Ridge Middletown CT news

[2knees]

You are absolutely correct it was flat as hell and each trail was exactly like the others, just a straight line down the front. I used to ski there for just a couple of years in High School/ college circa 1979-1982. We'd usually ski the 10:00PM to 3:00AM slot on Fridays/Saturday or their Sunday night special 5:00PM -10:00PM for a reduced rate. The skiing also involved drinking and smoking too :grin:.

The place was fine for newbies but after the first couple of years we'd instead drive up to the old Mount Tom ski area north of Springfield MA since we could get there in less than an hour anyway.

I think the area was a good feeder hill where local kids could learn.

all the junk i posted above was in jest. i probably skied there close to 100 times. It was a great hill for kids. In grade school, we'd get dropped off in the morning with like 5 or 6 kids and get picked up in the afternoon every weekend all winter.

I do have nice mammories of the place.

 

[gmcunni]

oh come on.. 2 "feeder hill" references in this thread and neither made by Greg?!?!?!?

 

[bvibert]

oh come on.. 2 "feeder hill" references in this thread and neither made by Greg?!?!?!?

I know, he's definitely slacking off these days. :lol:

 

[2knees]

oh come on.. 2 "feeder hill" references in this thread and neither made by Greg?!?!?!?

nice catch. that's one of his patented phrases that usually make me cringe.

on another note, since we're reminiscing, the lift on the left, looking up, used to real low to the ground about 2/3rds of the way up. I remember jumping off it a few times. And i believe a teenage girl ended up dying when she jumped and the crossbar came down and basically hung her. very sad.

 

[bvibert]

nice catch. that's one of his patented phrases that usually make me cringe.

You're slipping. I threw it in there just for youse guys.

 

[skizilla]

Fact Checks

Southington may be a more interesting hill but it is smaller, Powder ridge has 500 vert 88 acres unless they are lying about their stats. Southington has 425 51 acres . When they put in tubing they ruined half of one of the runs and cut off a tight officiall/ unofficial trail in the woods on the far left side looking up hill. over time it got less interesting trail wise. The new owner may want to look to the success of southing ton and woodbury for keys to success. The ridge has excellent highway access especially now that the route between Middletown and Meriden has been expanded.

I think the helmet incident actually happened at ski Sundown.

Yes there was lots of drinking and drugging there. I skied it as a teen in the mid to late eighties and I have never seen so many drunk and stoned skiers in my life dozens of beer bottles and cans below lift. People were "jumping" or in my mid falling off left and right I can remember at least two incidents one a short fall by a clear drunkard and the other a long drop maybe 15 feet by a guy who claims he was looking for his wallet. Both guys were OK.

 

[crank]

We used to go there senior year of HS, drink a bunch in the bar, go out and schuss the hill a time or 2, then drink more and repeat. Yes they were open until 3AM. The skiing sucked but the drinking made it fun... or at least we thought it was at the time.

 

[severine]

Saw this on the news last night. I don't think Sundown has even 25 full-time year-round employees. I hope it works out for them! Hate to see ski areas go out of business, even if they're small "feeder hills." It's all good!

 

[Chris Sullivan]

The hemet incident was at Powder Ridge not at Sundown.

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

amazing the PR was a 'destination' ski resort for the NYC crowd back in the day, thats why there are all the rooms above the base lodge. PR was 20 min from me growing up, some fun stuff off the backside actually. hope it comes around, great family hill, def needs some serious updating, would be great for the local econ...had alot of fun skiing at night there in JR High and even HS.....

 

[skizilla]

I think the new potential owners are gonna be linked up with the snow time people who own Librerty whitetail and roundtop in pa I checked their websites and they looked nice for smaller resorts. Anyone have experience with them. I liked their interactive trail maps.

 

[thorski]

i hope nobody takes this the wrong way but that place was flat as hell. Basically had 5 trails, all identical, since it's a ridge (amazing observation there). I skied there so much in grade school and middle school that i guess there is a bit of nostalgia for me but I honestly cant think of any reason i would go ski there.

As far as night skiing, yes they had it. For a while, or at least one season, they would stay open until 3:00 am on weekends.

they definitely had the cheesiest radio ads. INSANE TERRRRRRRRRAAIIIIINNNNN!!!!!!

oh and thorski would be happy to know that yes, they did indeed have a small (not medium) sized half pipe.

Powder Ridge had a sweet halfpipe in all honesty and insane terrain was fun.

 

[marcus1]

I would like to see it stay open. I had many nice days at that little Mountain. Funny how we start off amazed by the size of ski hills like southington and powder ridge when we are young. Then we start hitting the big mountains and our skills and intrests grow and we want to challenge ourselves by hitting more bumps, more vert and more EPIC conditions.

I am now 41 and maybee its because of age, or my 3 times operated knee, but it seems all I want now is a nice clean run with an open hill and the wind in my face for a good 3-4 minutes. Call me a wimp, call me a pussy, but its what makes me smile now. I think in a way I have reverted back to what I liked as an 8 year old.

 

[2knees]

Powder Ridge had a sweet halfpipe in all honesty and insane terrain was fun.

funny, but the only time i went back there before they closed was my first day of the winter of 00-01. one of the greatest snow winters of our lives. and they actually had a half pipe.


small though, definitely not medium.

 

[SkiDork]

Back in 1972. my dad and I drove up to Port Jeff and took a fishing boat up to CT, then a bus to Powder Ridge, skied, then reversed the procedure back home. This was a new experiment some enterepeneur cooked up to see if LI skiers would bite, inaugural voyage. I don't think they did it very much after but it was a good memory for me. The local Newsday sports reporter was on the trip, name of Dave Knickerbocker. I also remember it was Super Bowl Sunday and on the way back on the boat we were huddled around a radio listening to the Dolphins play the Redskins.

 

[thorski]

funny, but the only time i went back there before they closed was my first day of the winter of 00-01. one of the greatest snow winters of our lives. and they actually had a half pipe.


small though, definitely not medium.

They could fit that pipe to the side of big air at sundown. Then sundown would be a fully armed and operational battle station, and anything but lame. :flag:

 

[maineskier69]

I learned to ski at Southington, but PR was close to my (then) home (Guilford, CT) and frequented the area alot 1982-86. Alot of night skiing but would do some weekend days when a VT trip was out of the question. One weekend we day tripped to Mt Snow, skied PR that Sat night and went back to Mt Snow Sun AM (crazy 17 year olds).
The lifts at PR had trash cans underneath them that would fill up with a variety of empty cans and bottles as the place skied better with a buzz on.

 

[bheemsoth]

It looks like Powder Ridge's comeback was short lived. The developer has apparently backed out citing high electricity and tax costs.

http://www.courant.com/business/ctn-powder-ridge-0211,0,4693322.story

 

[Stache]

Snow draught winter 1980-'81 or was it '79-80??
I was in the Nav at Submarine Base Groton.

PR ran a radio commercial I will never forget.

Little kid asks "Daddy, What's Snow?"

Father answers "Well son, snow is this white stuff that falls out of the sky."

Kid follows "You mean like a DC-10?"

Then it went on to boast of PRs snowmaking.

 

[bvibert]

It looks like Powder Ridge's comeback was short lived. The developer has apparently backed out citing high electricity and tax costs.

http://www.courant.com/business/ctn-powder-ridge-0211,0,4693322.story

That sucks. I thought it was pretty much a done deal..