Great day at Shawnee Peak today. Forecast called for 50% chances of showers today, but there was only about 5 minutes worth of sprinkling throughout the day, but otherwise low 40s with beautiful corn harvesting to be had.
IMO Shawnee Peak is one of the more underrated ski areas in the East. It's only 250 acres and 1300 vertical, but it really makes the most of what it has. There's not much there that's all that challenging, but it does have a great mix of great character trails that follow the fall lines of the mountain really well. It's got some wide trails that you can really open the throttle on and lots of narrower runs that are all unique from one another. When conditions allow, they let a fair amount of trails bump up and the on map glades are quite good too. I also like that the mountain has minimal run out. I've always been a bit surprised that Shawnee is not a more popular ski area given it's proximity to so many great lakes in Maine; the region is as ideal of a place for a year round vacation home that I can think of in New England.
Dana and I hooked up with Terry and his crew for unfortunately, only a couple of runs to start the day. They were going to show me some off map trees that ended up being a bit too crusty and manky to ski. Despite the no go on those trees, I have a feeling I have some unfinished business off map at Shawnee. Dana wasn't up for the off map stuff, so when I went to meet back up with him, we never reconnected with Terry and crew. They were either on the lift and us skiing or vice versa the few times we saw them again throughout the day. So, it goes. That said, I highly recommend anyone who skis Shawnee to try and hook up with Terry and his friend Bruce. Bruce was the freestyle coach at Shawnee in the 70s and actually taught Greg Stump and Wiley Coyote back in the day. Even today 30+ years later, Bruce is one of the most fluid skiers you'll ever see. He just has a unique style of skiing that I find amazing to watch. Thanks for the few turns we got in Terry!
I would've left Shawnee today super satisfied with the awesome skiing, but our day ended with something really unique and cool. Someone at Shawnee came up with the brilliant idea to open up their Big Air bag to Snowtubing. At the end of the day, they close their Big Air Bag to skiing and snowboarding and open it up for snow tubing only. HOLY CRAP is it fun.
No pictures of skiing today, but here's a sequence from one of my runs tubing. Any place that has a Big Air Bag, should be doing this. So much fun.
IMO Shawnee Peak is one of the more underrated ski areas in the East. It's only 250 acres and 1300 vertical, but it really makes the most of what it has. There's not much there that's all that challenging, but it does have a great mix of great character trails that follow the fall lines of the mountain really well. It's got some wide trails that you can really open the throttle on and lots of narrower runs that are all unique from one another. When conditions allow, they let a fair amount of trails bump up and the on map glades are quite good too. I also like that the mountain has minimal run out. I've always been a bit surprised that Shawnee is not a more popular ski area given it's proximity to so many great lakes in Maine; the region is as ideal of a place for a year round vacation home that I can think of in New England.
Dana and I hooked up with Terry and his crew for unfortunately, only a couple of runs to start the day. They were going to show me some off map trees that ended up being a bit too crusty and manky to ski. Despite the no go on those trees, I have a feeling I have some unfinished business off map at Shawnee. Dana wasn't up for the off map stuff, so when I went to meet back up with him, we never reconnected with Terry and crew. They were either on the lift and us skiing or vice versa the few times we saw them again throughout the day. So, it goes. That said, I highly recommend anyone who skis Shawnee to try and hook up with Terry and his friend Bruce. Bruce was the freestyle coach at Shawnee in the 70s and actually taught Greg Stump and Wiley Coyote back in the day. Even today 30+ years later, Bruce is one of the most fluid skiers you'll ever see. He just has a unique style of skiing that I find amazing to watch. Thanks for the few turns we got in Terry!
I would've left Shawnee today super satisfied with the awesome skiing, but our day ended with something really unique and cool. Someone at Shawnee came up with the brilliant idea to open up their Big Air bag to Snowtubing. At the end of the day, they close their Big Air Bag to skiing and snowboarding and open it up for snow tubing only. HOLY CRAP is it fun.
No pictures of skiing today, but here's a sequence from one of my runs tubing. Any place that has a Big Air Bag, should be doing this. So much fun.
