Bretton Woods, NH - Open 11/09/02

Lftgly · Nov 11, 2002

First area in NH to open Saturday! Temps in the mid-40s to 50+, partly-sunny (aka mostly cloudy), no lines for opening day, not bad for early season. Drove by Wednesday, they had gotten 4"+ of heavy wet snow before the temps rose & changed to drizzle. Still looked like they would be able to open multiple lifts/trails. Didn't rain much, but the highs in the 50s Th. & Fri. took their toll. By Saturday morning, they had only the Bethlehem Express quad running to the Top-o-quad restaurant, and the old Rosebrook chair that takes you 2/3 as far. Advertised as 1200' vert, I think it's just under 1000'. Would have been 1200'+ if they had opened the triple that takes you above the restaurant. The "three trails" is really one top-to-bottom route that changes names once, plus one alternate route along top half of In-Between trail. They had made snow on the trail that connects to the Fabyans triple, but hadn't groomed it out. They had left it in whales, probably to stockpile it through this warm spell for next weekend(?). The snow cover looked good above the restaurant, so they could have run that triple, but better to save it for next week. Mechanical problems from 9:30-10:30AM, stopping the Quad half a dozen times per ride, really cut down the number of runs I was able to get in. Any other day we would have been whining. The Rosebrook chair started to look good. Off the man-made, there was still pretty good cover from Wednesday & snow earlier the previous week, probably 4"-6" of heavy wet snow. The lower slopes are mostly hay underneath, so it was fun to goof around a little on the sides, just watch out for the waterbars. By Killington standards, we could have skied the whole mountain if posted "thin cover" and "experts only". Got to mention the construction. First impression when you drive up is "where do I go?". Major base lodge expansion in progress, so the "old" lodge is still closed. They were serving food in the former ski school building, and Top-o-quad rest. Ski patrol building has been up-rooted & moved elsewhere to make room for the base lodge expansion on that side. New "salomon demo center" building had carpenters working on closing up the exterior. Reports are that by December 1 they will have the same number of tables & chairs available in the old section of the base lodge, and will open additional seating as they complete new sections of the interior later in the season. Great to see them making major investments in the lodge facilities & lifts. They're still finishing off the new high-speed detach Doppelmayr quad on the west mountain, but it should be running when the snowmaking catches up to open those trails. Finally, pray for cold temps and snow, so that they can get more trails & lifts open next weekend. Killington is great, but it's nice to ski in our backyard for a change

Bretton Woods, NH - Open 11/09/02

Lftgly

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