Local Ski Destinations Keeping Fingers Crossed for Coming Season

Local ski destinations can do little but hope for the best in the coming weeks as temperatures fluctuate above snow-sustaining levels and no storms rear their business-generating heads. Even so, forecasts for a cold winter this year have led some ski areas to predict a long and profitable season once it gets under way.

Ski Sundown of New Hartford is one of the few that have opened for the season already. The ski area welcomed visitors on Saturday, Dec. 17, with six usable trails, according to terrain features manager Jarrod Moss. The destination used its 130 snow guns to blanket as much of its terrain once the decision was made to open for the season.

"Wednesday [Dec. 14] we decided we'd made enough, we were able to do it, and then after the rain, we were here all night long pushing out the piles and basically creating the ski trails," Moss said.

Moss said the snow guns would run through Saturday and Sunday to counteract rising temperatures on Monday. Ski Sundown plans to continue this process as it gets colder in order to extend its season through to the end of March or early April.

Recent improvements to Ski Sundown's services include the addition of a brand new snowcat to level the trails, as well as an upgrade to the air and water capacities of its snowmaking systems. Ticket prices have risen by a dollar since last year, with exact prices available from Ski Sundown's website.

Moss said that Ski Sundown is predicting that it will experience a regular season this year, having opened up at the same date it usually does despite the warm weather. If the temperatures remain in the moderate 20s through the season, snowmaking will continue.

"Last year was a gift," Moss said. "It's not going to be like last year, when it snowed every Tuesday.

Winding Trails in Farmington, which offers cross-country skiing over 20 km of trails and the only groomed touring center in the state, must wait until 6 inches of snow has fallen on its trails before it can make its services available, according to recreation coodinator Robb Armstrong. In the event that the trails do not recieve enough snowfall, Armstrong said, the site will simply have to wait until next year and hope the winter of 2012 provides better conditions.

"We used to do a little bit of snowmaking, but it's not big enough, too expensive, so we just rely on Mother Nature and then we'll blow a little bit on our sledding hill and sometimes at our ski school," he said.

Further complicating conditions is that Storm Alfred littered the trails with debris, to the point where Winding Trails was still clearing branches as of Friday, Dec. 16.

Armstrong said that he was hoping for a good skiing season this year, saying that the site was depending upon reports of a winter season comparable to last year. "The one thing we have going against us is that we just did get a brand new rental fleet, so Murphy's Law would say that probably because we have brand new skis, we won't get snow this year," he said.

The new rental fleet is made up of Fischer brand skis. Prices have also fluctuated slightly, and are available on the Winding Trails website.

Northwest Parks of Windsor also offers cross country skiing over its 12 miles of trails and must also wait for 6 inches of snow before they can open, according to recreational programmer Jen Filer. She remains optimistic that the coming season will prove to be a snowy one and generate a lot of business for the park.

"We're definitely hoping to have similar experiences [to last year], just not have a huge storm," she said. "We will have snowfall that's constant and give us fresh snow on the weekend."

The season will officially begin on Jan. 7 at Northwest Parks, though a "moonlight ski" event will be held between 7 and 9 p.m. on Jan. 6. The trails will be open weekends from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with rentals costing $10 for Windsor residents and $15 for everyone else. A family snowshoe event will also be held on Saturday, Jan. 21.

Mount Southington in Plantsville is in similar straights despite having access to snowmaking equipment. Steve Positano, its snowsports director, said that the site is currently planning on opening on Dec. 24 and is relying on the temperature dropping in the coming week for that to happen.

"Unfortunately, we just haven't had any real cold temperatures yet, but we're going to start making some snow tonight and tomorrow night. So, we're hoping for Christmas Eve," he said on Saturday. In the event that natural snow does not fall, Mount Southington will rely on its snow guns to cover as much of the area as possible. Even in that case, the site depends on temperatures remaining below 28 degrees.

The site has made upgrades to its snowmaking system as well as having replaced many of the parts of its double lifter, including its bottom terminal and motor system. Positano said that past seasons have been good to Mount Southington and that the site did not even experience much inconvenience in the wake of Storm Alfred. The warm weather is the site's primary concern right now.

"We're pretty much ready," Positano said. "We just need the cold weather."