***Weekend updates: Gore and Whiteface looking at another weekend. Mont Comi’s last day on Sunday with 20 out 30 runs open.
**Update April 23, 1:00pm: Found out that the Gaspé Peninsula’s Mont Miller was opening this weekend. It has been a bit of challenge to get information from them in the last few season. At one point it was written they were done for the season, I guess not.
*Update April 22, 11:30pm: After a glorious quiet Easter Monday of perfect corn snow, Mont Lac Vert decided to not reopen for the season. With rain forecast, Loch Lomond won’t be opening this weekend, but might reopen the following one, April 30-May 1.
As previously mentioned, Easter weekend often marks a goal for ski operators to reach in hopes of catching some extra skiers for the long weekend. The fact that Easter was in late April, many ski resorts would use this weekend as a last hurrah. Not surprise that over half of ski areas operating last weekend stopped their season.
The weather on the week prior to weather and since hasn’t offered much typical spring skiing. Plenty of precipitations (wet or/and solid). While travelling across the East, noticed that Cannon mountain’s one last day on April 10 with fresh snow on the ground; snow coverage was definitely close to the limit, however these signs were necessarily found further East and North. Saddleback (closed last Saturday) and Sugarloaf plus areas North and East of Quebec City still had great coverage. I’ve seen reports from Northern Vermont that coverage is also pretty good.
New snow accumulations have fallen at different locations in the East; enough for some to tentatively offer an extra day or two (Loch Lochmond, Belleayre, Whiteface and Gore). Higher peaks of New York and Vermont have received as much as 35cm this week. At the summit of the tallest peak in Vermont, the snowdepth hasn’t been so deep all season, the high point in snowdepth on Mount Mansfield is generally one month earlier. Actually for the first time this season the snowpack is approximately on-par with the average depth this time of the year. Of course, there are the areas that closed last rarely extended their fixed date closure despite a healthy snowpack (Tremblant, Le Massif, Mont Ste-Anne and maybe a few in Vermont). It is somewhat ironic that the late season skiing situation in Quebec is, except for Mont St-Sauveur closes until the snow is almost gone, ski areas like Le Valinouet, Mont Lac-Vert and Mont Comi are far from any metropolitan areas cities have all had an excellent snow year (over 9 meters at Le Valinouet). These ski areas are all somewhere 220 to 400km North and/or East from Québec City (460km to 630km from Montreal). The challenge for these areas are attracting sufficient skiers to keep the lifts spinning. Unfortunately there are also other challenges that are independent from customer and mother nature; Massif du Sud QC and Marble Mountain NL were both hoping to open Easter weekend as well as this coming weekend have had a major mechanical setback with their lifts and have had to shutdown until these can be repaired.
As we look ahead, it looks like skiers might have a few options skiing until May.
Source: Mount Mansfield Summit Station
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Numbers from previous seasons: Total / Eastern US
2022 : 18 / 9
LIST OF 17 18 SKI AREAS TENTATIVELY STILL OPEN THIS WEEKEND (6 open daily) **
QUEBEC : 6 7 (1 daily) **
Ste-Anne – April 24 (weekend only)
Val d’Irene – April 24 (Friday-Sunday only)
Le Valinouet – April 30 (Friday-Sunday then one extra weekend)Lac Vert – TBD (tentative – weekend only) *
Miller – TBD (open this weekend only)**
Comi – April 24 TBD (tentative – weekend only)***
St-Sauveur – May 8 (daily until April 24 then weekend only)
NEWFOUNDLAND and LABRADOR : 1
Smokey – April 23 (Saturday only)
ONTARIO : 1
Loch Lomond – May 1 April 23 (tentative – weekend only) – Closed this weekend *
VERMONT : 4 (4 daily)
Snow – April 24 (daily)
Sugarbush – May 1 (tentative – daily until April 24 then weekend only)
Jay – May 9 (tentative – daily until April 24 then weekend only)
Killington – May or June? (tentative – daily until May 1 then Friday-Sunday only)
MAINE : 2 (1 daily)
Sunday River – April 24 (weekend only)
Sugarloaf – May 1 (daily)
NEW YORK : 3
Belleayre – April 22 (Friday only)
Gore – May 1 April 24 (tentative – Friday-Sunday only)***
Whiteface – May 1 April 24 (Friday-Sunday only)***
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Ski Mad World’s previous Eastern Closing 2022 posts:
Eastern Closing Thread 2022 – Part 1
And here comes the rain… – Eastern Closing Thread 2022 – Part 2
Easter skiing: done or more? – Eastern Closing Thread 2022 – Part 3
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