Marginal conditions at Cannon Mountain on this January day. Nothing to write home about. This would be my last day of skiing while being employed during the 2000-2001 ski season, so I was to miss all the great skiing that would place the 2000-2001 in the annals of New England’s best seasons.
On a stormy weekend during a lack luster beginning to one of the Northeast’s biggest seasons, two friends and I packed up the car for a ski trip to Wildcat Mountain in New Hampshire. Despite taking a wrong exit off the highway, trying a “short cut” that made for a long drive, and several white knuckle moments due to poor road conditions, we finally made it up through Pinkham Notch to Wildcat. Due to high winds, only the Bobcat Triple was running without access to the Summit. We lapped the Bobcat slopes many times working on our early season technique on our first day out of the season. Due to a variety of circumstances including leaving a job and being unemployed, I was only to ski four days during the fabled epic season of 2000-2001.
During Spring Break of March 2000, I ventured up to Maine for an afternoon of some great skiing at Sunday River. The race season with UMass Lowell Ski Team had concluded the previous month and college graduation was two months away. Having raced for several years, I wanted to get off the groomed terrain and try natural terrain and tree skiing. Thus, my second solo outing to a big mountain taught me some hard lessons about tree skiing and rope ducking.
Pico offers up some first rate skiing, without the crowds and McSki atmosphere that plague neighboring Big Brother Killington. UMass Lowell Ski Team descended upon Vermont during the night of a fierce snow storm. When we awoke Saturday morning, many inches of snow had accumulated already. Upon reaching Pico, we found over a foot of fluff at the summit! My first true Powder Day. On our first run, half the team ascended to the summit via both Quads, and we proceeded to fall often in knee deep fluff skiing the Summit Glades. Amazing!
All that fluffy powder was not good at all for racing, though. We had to clear all the powder away from the gates. This took numerous times of the entire 100 person league snow plowing the course before it was racable. After all that snowplowing, the ruts on the race course were huge! It was an unbelievable day to ski, but an abysmal day to race.
Pico has some interesting terrain. Everything off the Summit Quad is gold. There is a relatively flat section on mid-mountain that was hard to deal with. Pico is essentially four mini-peaks. They have a Triple and Double on the Left and Right Wings for access to the smaller peaks. The first quad goes up the gut of the mountain, to mid-mountain where it services intermediate and beginner terrain. And their Summit Quad gets you to the real goods. Unfortunately, this means that top to bottom skiing is not really much of an option. However, there is quality skiing everywhere on the mountain.
UMass Lowell Ski Team hit Vermont’s own “Mountain in the Sun;” Bromley, for a weekend of racing the gates. Saturday brought snow showers and high winds early, and then the sky opened up into bright and sunny skies for the rest of the weekend! Bromley is not kidding about the sun exposure, bring your sun screen, you will need it!
Bromley is an incredibly well laid out mountain. Looking at the map, a bowl full of tough diamond runs rests comfortably on the right side of the map. Located far away from intermediate terrain and serviced by its own lift, a clear difficulty distinction is drawn which separates the men from the boys. Most of the mountain’s intermediate terrain is located right down the center of the mountain and is served by a fairly slow High Speed Quad and a pair of doubles. Towards the left side of the map, you’ll find beginner heaven with gentle grades and soft snow from the sun’s exposure.
Value wise, Bromley is slightly expensive for what they offer. However, their expert terrain is nothing to laugh about! They market themselves as a family mountain, which I found to be their niche. A great weekend of skiing and racing was had for myself and the team.