The Grand Tour of New England Skiing!

Whats up Newschoolers!

I would like to introduce everyone to my version of the Grand Tour of New England Skiing (GTNS). I will be (hopefully) hitting 30 (possibly more) of New England's biggest ski resorts, in a single season. This all started as just something I was going to do this winter. I figure this will likely be the last season I have before I have a real, full time job, so I might as well abuse my ski-instructor reciprocity privileges I get from being a full time ski-instructor. I have never been to many of the mountains in ME or VT, and being able to say I did everything 'major' in New England in one season seems like something I want to say I did in my life. Doing it for close to free is even better!

I made a thread awhile back mentioning my plans, and before I knew it I had several people telling me I should make a blog to chronicle my journey. So I thought, "Hey, why the fuck not? I like writing, and I like skiing! I'll do it!" Here is my current list I will be trying to accomplish.

NH

Cannon

Wildcat

Loon (Complete)

Waterville Valley

Attitash

Sunapee

Bretton Woods (Complete)

Gunstock

Ragged Mountain

Cranmore

Black Mountain

Crotched Mountain

Pats Peak

Tuckermans Ravine

MA

Nashoba Valley

ME

Sugarloaf

Sunday River

SaddleBack

VT

Killington

Sugarbush

Smugglers Notch

Stowe

Jay Peak

Okemo

Stratton

Mad River Glen

Burke

Pico

Mount Snow

Bolton Valley

Now please, I don't want to get into a why is this mountain or that mountain not on the list debate in the comments. How I chose this list was by simply picking the largest ski areas off of the list (for vertical drop) for that state. I originally did not have any from MA, but was persuaded into adding one from MA, since I am calling it the Grand Tour of New England, it was kind of necessary. This list may change though, as I am trying to do this as on the cheap as possible. If a mountain will not give me reciprocity (i.e. Let me ski for free, or damn close to it) it will likely get cut, and a mountain that will give reciprocity will be added. Additionally if I have the time and money (which is unlikely) I may try to hit up Mont-Treblant, sense Mousseau so generously offered to let me stay at the NS offices in exchange for a case of beer. Who can pass up on an offer like that?

So, what am I going to cover in this traveling-blog-stravaganza? Good question, that is why I have been struggling with writing this intro piece for a few weeks now. But with my season starting tomorrow at Bretton Woods for some early season access, I am out of time (all this procrastination reminds me of my freshman days in college!). So this is what I am going to try to include in each mountains post. I would love any additional ideas for things to cover, so please, make suggestions! Just keep in mind I will only be visiting each mountain for a single day, so I wont be able to get super in depth.

-A 'review' of each mountains parks, featuring a quick POV video tour, for those NSers debating on if a mountain is worth visiting. Will include some photos of the most unique features I find.

-A general review of the mountain. With only one day on the mountain though, some of the larger mountain reviews may be a little light. No reviews of their cafeterias though, I don't have millions of dollars to eat on site ever.

-If there is interest, a POV tour of the mountains most challenging non-park terrain. I am talking Double Blacks and above. I plan on trying to do every double black I come across during the entirety of this trip, because life on the mountain is not necessarily about the park, and I love gnarly terrain.

-There will of course be a photo of me and any fellow NSers I run into at the summit of all mountains with some kind of NS sign (or flag, if Mousseau was serious about getting me that)

-I will definitely include any shenanigans that occur on the trip, but considering I will be doing many of these solo, that might not occur too often, but one can always hope!

-I would love to get suggestions for anything else to include. Nothing is too stupid for the internet!

I know there were several NSers who wanted to meet up with me to ski, so I will try and figure out what mountains I am going to on what dates, but my scheduled is very fluid and the weather is obviously the biggest factor here. I am not going to make the 3 hour drive to Jay Peak if I can wait a week or two and go after a few feet of fresh Pow drops. Same applies to pretty much anywhere that is known for having particularly good glades or real tough terrain.

So that's the plan for the winter. I have already been to Loon and Bretton woods so far to check a couple mountains off my list early. I have published those posts on my personal blog (which I will be cross posting all articles on, plus more, I do not want to flood the news/features section with my shit, there is no need for that.). I will leave them out for now because they are very light, being super early season stuff, with very little to review. I have been to both mountains extensively in the past though. If I have the extra time I will definitely be trying to return to Loon to get to their killer parks when they have more than 4 features set up.

If you would like to read my personal blog, check that out right here. You'll find my articles on Bretton Woods and Loon up already!

http://nhoperator.blogspot.com/

If you want to keep up with where I am visiting in real time, follow me on Twitter and Instagram! There shall be lots of skiing related pix and posts!

http://instagram.com/nh_operator

http://www.twitter.com/nhoperator

Again, any comments, concerns, questions are greatly appreciated. This is the first time I am doing something of this scope, and Ill take any help I can get!

Stay tuned for more real soon!