Skiing - What we really love to do!
New Hampshire 2006
We booked a trip in the school half term very late - Nothing was cheap, but we ended up with a trip to New Hampshire, with the hope that the snow would be good, there'd be fewer people on the slopes than in France or Austria and that we'd get to try out a variety of different resorts.
Friday
We flew with Continental Airlines from Gatwick. Check in was smooth, but we were right at the back of the plane - Turns out we could have checked in online and picked a better seat - We decided to do that on the way back.
Arrived in Newark and then had to pass through Immigration and Customs (neither too stressful, fortunately) and recheck our luggage for connecting flight to Boston where we collected a Chevrolet Malibu from Alamo and drove the 3 hours or so up to Jackson, NH and our home for the week, The Lodge At Jackson Village, run by Dana and Cathi Belcher.
We couldn't have asked for more in terms of accommodation. The room was large and comfortable and the public areas warm and welcoming.
The Belchers (including Dana and Cathi's children) were friendly, helpful and welcoming. I e-mailed them afterwards to say it was like staying with friends more than staying in a hotel and I meant it.
Saturday - Mount Washington
We had a fairly leisurely start to our holiday.
We wandered down to Jackson Village and hired Lauren some skis and took in some of the local sights, including the famous covered bridges.
We scanned through some brochures and discovered that there was a cog railway on Mount Washington (the highest mountain on the US east coast) and that it was possible to ride it and ski.
we drove the 45 minutes or so to the Mount Washington, turning right off the Highway where a left turn takes you into Bretton Woods.
Unfortunately, the somewhat surly and unhelpful girl wouldn't sell us the 3 ride ticket (It turned out we had PLENTY of time to do the 3) and tempers frayed a little (mine mostly). We had some lunch and then caught the train.
As we waited a cameraman and interviewer from the local TV network approached us and asked a few questions. They were running a piece on the railway and its use as a snow train.
We only did the one run, but the scenery (even from about a third of the way up the mountain) was fantastic on a beautifully clear day.
Afterwards we were interviewed by the TV crew again (they had skied down from the train) who 'Loved our accents' (what accents?) and I've since heard that the piece went out on the Monday night of our return and that our interviews were used.
We also took in the museum, which was interesting, but we were all feeling tired after our long journey of the previous day, so made our way back the Lodge.
Mount Washington Cog Railway skitrains
Sunday - Attitash
Right on the doorstep (Black Mountain is actually in Jackson, but their snow making equipment had been broken early in the season and the snow coverage was too limited for us to try) of our hotel, so we visited there for our first day - Busy-ish, but still no queues to speak off and runs were enjoyable, although most double diamond blacks and all tree skiing was shut.
Monday - Bretton Woods
Big resort, famous as home of Bode Miller.
Some nice, cruiser runs, but nothing very challenging open and blacks and blues seemed easier than Attitash's.
There were some nice gladed runs open in a few places, though, which we all enjoyed.
Tuesday - Shawnee Peak, Maine
Shawnee Peak was probably one of the least developed resorts we visited, but, remarkably, was probably our favourite.
On the day we were there, it featured an interesting and enjoyable variety of runs (especially blacks on left side of resort) in good condition.
We only skied in the PM at Shawnee Peak (two for one tickets and half day rates made it a very reasonable day), but we stayed until about 6PM and did some night skiing under the floodlights, so we had as long a day as most on the slopes.
Wednesday - Wildcat
People in the hotel raved about Wildcat, but the area seemed, in its then current state, to be a bit limited.
There were two very icy and steep runs under the only significant lift which would be enjoyable blacks usually, but were almost frightening in their toughness in the prevailing conditions.
We'd thought of skiing here two days, but decided to not bother and take in a different resort.
Thursday - Cannon
It was a toss up between here and Loon and Cannon got the nod because I had a photo of it as my PC wallpaper before the holiday and on recommendation of a couple of people we met on the slopes. The area is great, but too many of the most challenging runs were closed and it was getting quite slushy low down from lunch time onwards. The top of the mountain was also very windy (as the promised bad weather rolled in). Would be a great place to ski with good snow.
On the way back we passed Loon, which is a fair bit bigger and we'd definitely give it a try if we returned to the area.
Friday
No Skiing - Wind and Rain - Lifts shut...
As in Vermont, some years before, we suffered at the hands of the fickle New England weather. Maybe this is why people often say New England skiing is like Scottish skiing?
We did, however, spend the afternoon down at the North Conway shopping mall and picked up some great bargains, including hand warmers, which were to come in handy over the next couple of days...
We also popped into North Conway's famous Five & Dime store, where we met a British war bride from about 20 miles from our home! It really is a small world...
Saturday - Sunday River, Maine
VERY cold (-17C on way home) - ICY pistes from rain and extreme cold.
Sunday River is a big enough resort to ski for a whole week with 8 mountains linked together.
Again, due to conditions, the very best runs were closed, but the cold was more of a restriction than any lack of runs, there were still plenty to ski on, although nearly all were interspersed with sheets of glass like ice, despite the valiant efforts of the grooming crews.
Where the snow cannons were working, the snow was truly excellent (as good as any real snow I've skied on), but the cold was such that even that wasn't a lot of fun.
Of the places we visited, this and Cannon are the ones which I think would be great to revisit in better conditions (a little warmer and with more snow - The rain ruined a lot of excellent runs, so we were probably just very unlucky).
Sunday - Attitash
Lauren didn't ski at all and Mandy only in the afternoon.
It was still cold, but conditions were better, although it got icier later in the day, probably as manufactured snow was swept off by skiers.
By this time, most of the tougher Blacks and Double-Diamond Blacks were open and they were, on the whole, excellent, especially in the morning, when the slopes were quieter and the man made snow still evenly applied.
After a week of other resorts, though, Attitash still stood up well to comparison.
There are no photographs from Sunday River or Attitash as it was just TOO cold to take my gloves off!
Monday
Said our goodbyes to the people at the Lodge (more welcoming and helpful people you would be hard pressed to find), picked our skis up from servicing and drove back to Boston.
Rental car handover was smooth (Alamo).
We had checked in via the internet, so it was quick and easy and our luggage was deposited at Boston and not seen again until safely collected at Gatwick, being passed through without our involvement at Newark (Impressively clear views of NY skyline on arrival).
Summary
The snow hadn't been as good as we'd hoped, but aside from the rainy day (we suffered one in Killington, VT, too, some years earlier on our only other US ski trip), we had skied on a wide variety of well groomed runs, with something to challenge all of us, if not the beautiful off piste powder I'd hoped for.
There was certainly plenty of variety in the resorts (We skied 8 resorts and probably 15 mountains in the 10 day holiday), although Shawnee Peak was probably all our favourites - No doubt with better snow, some others would have figured higher.
Queuing, too, never became a problem (we probably waited three or four chairs at Sunday River, the busiest day, at most) - most of the time we simply skied up to the next lift and hopped on - Completely empty pistes, too, were far from unusual and I can think of only one occasion (at Attitash on the last Sunday) where I felt a piste was crowded - Due to a large ski school class taking on a run at the high end of their ability range.
People in New Hampshire and Maine seemed much friendlier than the people we had met in Killington - More relaxed and genuine.
One night we went snow shoeing in the foothills of Mount Washington, which was a new experience for us all and quite fun, although it did get rather cold towards the end of the hour or so we were out.
We ate breakfast in the Lodge, but in the evenings ate out. We seemed to find ourselves in the Red Fox just down the road a lot, which offered a great variety of excellent food at reasonable prices, even though it felt a bit like a Harvester.
We also ate, one night, in the Green Door Irish pub in Jackson Village. This was very cheap and certainly offered a 'pub' atmosphere.
Another night we went to Margaritas (near Attitash) for a Mexican meal, which was excellent. We tried to go back another night, but the holiday weekend crowd had beaten us to it.
Other nights we ate at Indian and Chinese restaurants in North Conway - Both were OK, but nothing special.
Overall we had a great holiday, even if, ultimately, we left a little frustrated by the missed skiing opportunities.
