The Ski Mad World blog has been hibernating since the post on the first ski areas opening for the season back in early November; that doesn’t mean I stopped skiing. My skiing life is active, it is just that my personal life has been going through some challenges. My online presence on this blog or elsewhere has virtually non-existent over the last season. The only real positive element of my past season is that managed to get out skiing; not much travelling, but many local days in awesome snow conditions. It wasn’t the big mountains or the deep powder, but it was close to home.
The ski season in the Ottawa region and the East in general took a long time to get started: warm temperature and little snow on the ground. Early December at Jay was pretty brown with only a handful of runs open: our luck was they got hit by a storm right after we left. At the start of the Christmas Holidays, the Ottawa ski hills looked like early November. The local hills were deserted. However right after Christmas, the temperature dipped below zero and stayed below freezing, with very few exceptions, until mid-March. We didn’t get much snow, but the temperature were cold enough to run the snow guns around the clock. What little snow that feel in January stayed on the ground and then we got double the snow in February and March. The snow conditions were consistently great with no-thaw cycle in two months. Ottawa only got two rain events in those two months, the Rideau Canal, the longest skating rink in the World, had a record-breaking in its 45th year: 59 uninterrupted skating days. Another record was that February was the coldest on record since they started keeping track of temps over 150 years ago. So it was a cold year for toes, but great year on snow.
The 2014-15 ski season might be seen as a terrible ski year in most of North America, but definitely not the East. It might have started late, but it was a consistent Winter, cold and great skiing. Although the snow coverage period hasn’t really matched the big Christmas Holidays for ski resorts, the various March break offered prime Winter conditions. The next benchmark Holidays that some ski resorts like to aim for some business is Easter which was early this year. That is a mixed blessing as Easter was this past weekend and they might be less an incentive to stretch out of the season later into the month of April even with the great coverage out there. Almost half of the Eastern ski areas are in Quebec and about the small number are spinning their lifts tomorrow. With the great coverage a number of ski areas decided to try to go for an extra weekend after Easter, many of them only operating on the weekend.
With the cold Spring last season, we counted 82 ski areas a potentially open for the second weekend of April 2014, much better than the previous two Aprils: 47 in 2013 and the disastrous 9 in 2012.
Go skiing!!! Encourage them with your patronage to keep spinning their lifts.
Without any further ado, here is the start of Ski Mad World’s annual Eastern Closing thread. Many are hoping to go as longer as possible, only a few will into late April or into May. Killington is hoping to make to June. Hoping it will continue to be a weekly feature for the next two-months. 🙂
An important note to remember, this list can change at any moment. Even if there is snow, call ahead, some might not bothering spinning if the weather doesn’t compare with the notion of Spring skiing.
LIST OF 80* SKI AREAS TENTATIVELY OPEN THIS WEEKEND
QUEBEC 34*
Montreal, Laurentians and Launaudière
Avila – April 12 (weekend only – tentative)**
Belle-Neige – TBD (weekend only – tentative)
Blanc – April 12 (weekend only – closed if raining)*
Garceau – April 12 (weekend only – tentative)
Montcalm – April 12 (weekend only – tentative)**
Sauvage – to confirm**
St-Sauveur – May – TBD
Tremblant – April 19 12*
Vallée Bleue – April 12 (weekend only)
Val St-Côme – April 12 (weekend only)
Eastern Townships:
Gleason – April 12 (weekend only)
Bromont – April 19
Orford – April 19 (tentative)
Owl’s Head – April 12 (Tues-Wed open – tentative weekend)*
Sutton – April 19
Quebec City area and north of St.Lawrence from Mauricie to the North Shore
Vallée du Parc – April 12 (Sunday weekend only – tentative)**
Le Relais – April 19*
Ste.Anne – April 26
Stoneham – April 12
Orignal – April 12 (weekend only – tentative)*
Massif du Sud – April 19 (tentative – Fri-Sun only)
Le Massif – April 12 (weekend only)
Édouard- April 19 (weekend only)
Le Valinouet – April 26
Lac Vert – April 11 (Saturday only)
Chalco – April 19 (weekend only – tentative)
Gaspé Peninsula
Béchervaise – April 12 (weekend only)
Cap Chat – April 12 (weekend only – tentative)
Comi – April 26 (Wed-Sun only)
Miller – late April-early May (weekend only – if people show up)
St-Mathieu – April 12 (weekend only)
Val Neigette – April 12 (weekend only)
Val d’Irène – April 20 (Fri-Mon only)
Outaouais and Abitibi
Camp Fortune – April 19 at least
Cascades – April 12 (weekend only)*
Ste-Marie – April 12 (weekend only)
Kanasuta – April 12 (weekend only)
Vidéo – April 12 (weekend only)
ONTARIO : 4
Blue – TBD
Calabogie Peaks – April 19 (tentative)
Kamiskotia – April 19 (weekend only – tentative)
Loch Lomond – April 11 (weekend Saturday only – tentative)*
NOVA SCOTIA : 1
Cape Smokey – April 19 (weekend only – tentative)
NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR : 3
Marble – April 12
Smokey Mountain – TBD
White Hills – April 12
NEW YORK : 10*
Belleayre – April 12 at least*
Gore – April 19 (tentative)
Greek Peak – April 12
Holiday Valley – April 12 (Fri-Sun only)
Holimont – April 12 (weekend only)*
Hunter – April 12 at least
McCauley – April 12 (Sunday only)***
Plattekill – April 12 (weekend only)
Royal – April 19 12 (weekend only)*
Song – April 12 (weekend only)
Whiteface – TBD April 19 or more (tentative)**
VERMONT : 12
Bolton – April 12 (Fri-Sun only)
Bromley – April 12 (weekend only)
Jay – TBD
Killington – June (tentative)
Mad River Glen – April 19 12 or more**
Magic – April 19 (tentative)
Okemo – April 26 19 at least*
Smugglers – April 19
Snow – April 19 12 at least*
Stowe – April 19
Stratton – April 12
Sugarbush – May 3 (tentative)
NEW HAMPSHIRE : 7
Abenaki – April 18 (Saturday only – no tow)
Bretton Woods – April 20
Cannon – April 19
Loon – April 19
Sunapee – April 19
Waterville – April 12 (weekend only)
Wildcat – May 3 (tentative)
MAINE : 6
Abram – April 11 (Saturday only)
Bigrock – April 12 (Fri-Sun only)
Black – April 12 (Fri-Sun only)
Saddleback – April 19 (weekend only)
Sugarloaf – April 19 at least
Sunday River – May 2
MASSACHUSETTS : 2
Jiminy Peak – April 12
Wachusett – April 12 or more (Fri-Sun only)
PENNSYLVANIA : 1
Big Boulder – April 12 (weekend only – tentative)
* update : April 9, 9:15pm
** update : April 10, 3:30pm
*** update : April 10, 9:30pm
((*
*))
((*
Previous first post of Annual Eastern Closing Thread
2014 : Spring skiing is just starting, but …
2013: Go skiing this weekend!!!
2012: Eastern Ski Disaster and Winter Hating Heatwave
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
Glad to see you’re posting again Mad Pat!
Thanks Jeff. I’m happy to be able to post again, however I find it always to soon to post after the “end is near” in the East posts.