For Christmas I headed back to my Atlantic Canadian homeland with hopes of doing some skiing. The tide was incredibly low across the region and our local wasn't even open, but my brother @TBONE902 and I managed to harvest enough snow with the side by side to build some jibs in the Nova Scotia woods.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1084143/Folly-Jibs-mp4

In search of lift accessed skiing, we headed north to Parc Sugarloaf, a small publicly owned ski hill and summer MTB park on the Quebec - New Brunswick border. There was no natural snow, which is very unusual for this time of year in the area.

The hill is small, 500 vert, but it is well maintained and the lift is fast. Lift tickets were less than $40 Canadian and they are open until 9PM. We got 30 laps in a day EASY.

There was a proper park setup, but conditions were extra extra firm so neither @TBONE902 or myself were hucking. Fortunately we had some carving skis with us so we could link up some dad turns when we grew tired of landing on ice.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1084147/NBloaf-edit-mp4

The local cuisine was truly excellent. Dixie Lee chicken has possibly the best hot wings I have ever had. Not over breaded, just nice and crispy with a bit of spice.

Across the river there is a robust selection of casinos, dispensaries, liquor stores, smoke and sex shops. However you are looking to wind down after the ski day, this place has it!

I would love to ski this hill when there is more snow, which there almost always is. It is dirt cheap and they are clearly invested in their parks. It's an easy day drive north from Maine to get there. It would be a great compliment to a trip to the Chic Chocs to stop here and get some laps in before hitting the backcountry, or to escape a New England-wide ice event. Support publicly owned ski hills!