Skiing or boarding after the mountains close

[caribchakita]

When the mountains close (lifts shut down) and there is still snow, where do you go? What are the easiest places to hike and ski down?

 

[ironhippy]

That would depend on a lot of things.

The easiest for me is the local ski hill, if you have a ski hill local to you that will most likely be the "easiest".
Even if the base area snow is gone, you can still find runs with lots of snow and just hike that. You'll have better luck finding man made snow than natural snow this time of year.
Even when most of the man made snow is gone, you can still find skiable snow in the terrain parks and shady/north side of trails.

The other option is to go to the mountains, tuckermans ravine being the biggest/most popular in the east. This is much more involved than hiking up your local hill and should be researched before considering.

Either way, your life will be much better with a pack that is built to strap your skis/snowboard to.
Skinning/splittboarding is even better than hiking, but requires specific gear that will have drawbacks compared to normal resort gear.\ and will cost money.

 

[Smellytele]

Went to Pats Peak yesterday for a few runs and heading to Crotched after work today to get a run in.

 

[mikec142]

I really don't have a local ski area that is closer than an hour away and the nearest decent place is 90 minutes. So I've really never been tempted to go and earn some post season turns. That said, I'm so curious as to what the conditions are like. In general, what would Windham look like or ski like today?

 

[drjeff]

One thing you need to keep in mind, is that some areas, often those with planned off season projects requiring heavy equipment access up the hill such a new lifts, new Snowmaking pipes, or areas with extensive mountain biking trails, may very well put the cats on the hill after closing day, to push much of what's left out of the way of where they want the melt out and dry out to happen quicker....

I know from hiking Mount Snow in the week or 2 after closing the last few years, that they've been aggressive with moving snow around after the end of the ski season for various non snow season projects.....

Don't just presume that the snow will be untouched and only effected by mother nature after the last chair of the season

Sent from my XT1254 using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[Killingtime]

I've seen people hiking up Superstar in June and skiing sections that still have snow. A few years back I saw some kids go up with shovels and set up a ramp and do jumps all morning. Was tempted to break my skis out of storage. Had to have been late May early June. As someone said before, a lot depends on the level of work activity on the mountain after the lifts stop running.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Canada

 

[Killingtime]

I've seen people hiking up Superstar in June and skiing sections that still have snow. A few years back I saw some kids go up with shovels and set up a ramp and do jumps all morning. Was tempted to break my skis out of storage. Had to have been late May early June. As someone said before, a lot depends on the level of work activity on the mountain after the lifts stop running.

 

[caribchakita]

Wachusett opened two years ago in May and last year. It was 10.00 an was awesome!! Everything is 90+ minutes but in May, I'd love a hike snowboard sesh...why not, life is short, have fun doing the unexpected..

 

[bdfreetuna]

Try Cannon, it's a 2 mile hike to the top (regular hiking trails). Then you can ride down whatever has snow.

Haven't done this myself but sounds like a good idea !