Ski/Ride Crotched Mountain NH
New England Family Skiing Close To Boston and Eastern Massachusetts
The secret to Crotched Mountain is the millions spent on trail improvements over the past several years and the excellence of its mountainside team. These improvements included massive investment in snow-making and in grooming which turned the trails into things of pleasure.
North facing, Crotched Mountain tends to keep its snow better than some of the other southern ski areas. But then, the snow making capacity here is huge and they are able to quickly recover from any adverse weather event.
On the west side of the mountain a double chair whisks skiers up to the shoulder of the hill providing two good options. First is the Super Nova trail, an easy going novice trail on an old road bed – nice cruising. The other is Comet Drop, a bit more challenging and terminating in the big broad slope directly behind the lodge. That slope, a great place to warm up on or for beginners to start on, is serviced by its own short triple.
The summit here has an altitude of 2,066 feet, just about 1,000 feet higher than the base. It is serviced by a fast Quad. The runs along the side of Pluto’s Plunge, a black diamond ranked slope that is broad and plunges straight down the mountain. Another choice, and one I like is to get off the lift to the right and follow Moon Walk across the mountain to Meteor and take it to the bottom. This run is labeled intermediate. Another option is to follow Moon Walk to Milky Way (on the left) finishing off on Velocity (intermediate) or Super Nova (beginner).
The Valley lift, on the east side of the resort, leads to Galaxy, a nice beginner trail that curves around to join either the Big Dipper intermediate or further on the Crotched Mountain Park slope which is a slow ski part of the mountain.
This is a good mountain not only to learn on but to grow on. Trail rankings (beginner, intermediate and expert) are really subjective and depend entirely upon the judgment of the ski resort staff. Here the intermediates will offer challenges to beginners but can be negotiated by them and the same thing applies to confident intermediates who want to try out the black diamond Pluto’s Plunge, Satellite Summit and Cosmic Blast.
A favorite of local, the base lodge can seem crowded in late afternoon weekdays when school groups pour in for a few runs. Within minutes, however, the crowd disappears as the mountain absorbs them like water. In spite of its advantages of good snow making, great grooming and proximity Crotched Mountain is seldom crowded. Lift lines are short and the whole place is family friendly. Crotched also has night skiing.
Crotched was brought back from the dead in 2003 so everything there is new, lifts, snow making, and lodge. Big, modern and well thought out, there is plenty of room for gear changing and lunch eating. An attractive cafeteria has a good menu of fast meals on tap.
The price is right. At only $48 for weekend/holidays (9am to 5 pm, or 1pm to 9 pm) it is a bargain. Half day and night tickets are even cheaper ($39, $29). During the week (Mon-Fri) the all day ticket is only $39, $35 half day and 22 nights. Beginners can get a lessons, equipment and ski pass for only $69 and Sunday afternoons they offer Family Night Sunday with passes at $19, equipment rental $10 and lessons $10 per participant, a great family outing.
Follow Route 101 to Peterborough, then take Route 202 north to Bennington. From there, follow Route 47 to Crotched Mountain in Greenfield NH.
Crotched Mountain Ski Area, skiers of all ages
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Deciding whether to dare to do the Meteor trail
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Snow guns galore insure plenty of snow
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Rooster tails on a lower slope
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A view of forests and farmland from the top
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