I’ve never seen anything like it in March. 27C (80F) today and its been around 25c since Sunday.
Ski areas are closing at record pace, how many ski areas are still going to make it to April? Mad River Glen closed last Sunday and found out tonight that Whiteface and Sutton are closing this weekend. A bunch of others have already announced that their season is over. On the local scene, Vorlage, Ste-Marie, Fortune*, Edelweiss*, Cascades**, Calabogie and Parkenham are done. Many ski areas are in April mode with opening only on weekends. (it would seem that some are folding today)* At this time (11:30am on March 22), only Cascades hasn’t announced yet.
Its midnight now and the Environment Canada website says it’s currently +14c at the airport. Normal temps for this time of the year: High 4c Low -7c. Forecast for tomorrow, for a 5 days in a row above 20c, is +25c. People are happy, cheerful folks on the radio. This is a disaster on some many aspects. For us skiers and winter lovers, for sugar farms (the season is over before it really started), for nature in general and for all things that make us northern folks.
This has been the shortest Winter I’ve witnessed. Just 3 months of skiing in the majority of ski areas.
Not sure how many areas while survived past this weekend. I’m reading some disturbing stuff on the ski forums.
I normally start on late season rundown on who’s still running lift in late March/early April. I’m afraid that the list is going to be easy to compile this year. 
These are the first posts of the last to open seasonal threads with generally start sometimes in April. I’ll probably this season in about 10 days from now.
2011: Skiing toward Easter and May in the East
2010: Eastern closing thread – 2009-10
2009: Eastern closing dates thread 2008-2009
2008: Eastern Closing dates 2007-08
2007: Eastern closing dates 2006-07
I have a couple of TRs in draft mode, two from the last week. As I mentioned in the last one I published from last Friday at Edelweiss, it’s going fast and that is before we started beating smashing record temperature.
*updated on March 22.
** second update later on March 22.
True words MadPat, and very sad. The local bump may support some earned patch turns this weekend but after that, I’m probably done.
Camp Fortune and Edelweiss announced it was over. Cascades hasn’t pull the plug on maybe opening for the weekend. Both Cascades and Fortune were still open weekdays yesterday.
For probably the first time in over 80 years, there will be no liftserved skiing left within a 100 miles from Ottawa so early in the season.
A sad state and bad omen for the future.
70 ski areas in the entire East, probably less…mid-March.
Ontario : maybe 1
Blue Mountain (maybe on Saturday)
Quebec: 40.
42Over half of Quebec ski areas closed for the season in the last few days. 42 ski areas still haven’t called their season over in Quebec as of Thursday night. All the destination ski areas with the exception of Orford are still open, however a number of them have mentioned that they are closing this weekend. This ‘closing this weeklend’ list includes major areas like Sutton and Le Massif.
Eastern Townships :
Sutton (Sunday)
Owl’s Head
Bromont
Quebec City area, Mauricie and Charlevoix :
Massif (Sunday)
Massif du Sud (lower T-bar only)
Orignal (not opening this weekend – possible for March 31-April 1)
La Tuque
Vallée du Parc
Relais
Sainte-Anne
Stoneham
Eastern Quebec (North Shore and Lower St-Laurent/Gaspe Peninsula) :
Tibasse
Gallix
Biencourt
Comi
St-MathieuVal Neigette
Cap-ChatBéchervaise
Petit Chamonix
Pin Rouge
Laurentians & Lanaudière :
La Réserve
Garceau
Montcalm (not opening this weekend – possible for March 31-April 1)
Val Saint-Côme
Belle Neige
Vallée-Bleue
Avila
Blanc
St-Sauveur
ChanteclerHabitant (Saturday open, Sunday maybe)
Avalanche
Tremblant
Saguenay Lac St-Jean :
Lac Vert
Valinouët
Édouard
New Brunswick : 2
Crabbe (Sunday)
Mont Farlagne (Sunday)
Nova Scotia : 1
Martlock
Newfoundland & Labrador: 1 or more
Marble
New York: 4
5 are still planning to open, 4 are planning to make it on Saturday and maybe Sunday. All these have announced that their season will end this weekend. Whiteface talks of maybe opening the following weekend.
Belleayre (Saturday only)
Hunter (Saturday only)
Royal Mountain (Saturday only)
Whiteface (Sunday and maybe one more weekend)
Vermont: 10
Bolton (Saturday Only)
Burke
Jay
Killington
Okemo
Mt Snow
Smuggs
Stowe
Stratton
Sugarbush
New Hamsphire: 6
Attitash
Bretton Woods
Cannon (Sunday)
Loon
Waterville
Wildcat
Maine : 3
Sunday River
Saddleback
Sugarloaf
Updates: Friday March 23 at 2:10pm
edits: Chanteclerc, Mathieu closed for the season
Montcalm and Original: closed this weekend, possibly open the following weekend.
Sources:
Ski Mad World
Frankontour and Zoneski
From the Nek and AlpineZone
Laurentians Ski Museum Hall of Fame, ski conditions guy and turn blogger Guy “The Ski” Thibaudeau blog on cyberpresse.
Semaine dévastatrice pour le ski
http://blogues.cyberpresse.ca/ski/2012/03/22/semaine-devastatrice-pour-le-ski/
No liftserved skiing in the State of New York. I don’t know about NYS, but some areas have closed earliest ever in their existence. Mont Sutton’s last day tomorrow will be its earlier closing by one week dating back to March 31, 1981. It was also their shortest season in their 52 year history.
I started a draft of my next post on who’s looking to open next weekend, the East (from Ontario to the Atlantic) will have lost approximately half its areas. There are a few maybes in those numbers.
* – indicates talk of snowmaking this week
Quebec : 24 ski areas are still hopeful for weekend or didn’t mention that tomorrow is the last day.
Big names still open: Tremblant, St-Sauveur, Ste-Anne, Stoneham, Le Relais, Owl’s Head, Bromont, Le Valinouet…)
Vermont : 5 (Jay*, Smuggs, Stowe, Sugarbush, Killington)
New Hampshire : 4 (Loon*, Waterville, Bretton Woods, Wildcat)
Maine: 3 (Saddleback, Sunday River*, Sugarloaf*)
Nova Scotia: 1 (no word on next week)
Newfoundland: 1 or more
This is one month early for the Northeast is the amount of ski areas open and roughly the probably the equivalent of Easter weekend for Quebec. Some Quebec have been more affected by the heatwave than others, also natural snow ski areas in the Charlevoix, Gaspe have been heavily affected. Quebec City areas are in the best shape right now.
Hoping to post an update around next Wednesday/Thursday with a detail listing on Ski Mad World.
PS. As I was working on my draft, Waterville Valley NH is offering free skiing from now until the end of the season; they are hoping to make it to April 1.