powder night at powderhouse mountain 2/22

I

icelanticskier

New member
ok so maybe it can't be classified as a mountain and maybe it's really called powderhouse hill owned by the town of south berwick maine, run by volunteers, but let me tell ya, it was quite deluxe tonight! got there for opening bell at 7 pm and lesley scored 1st rope and i was second. in fact we scored 5 runs each or 10 laps at 75 turns per lap, (yes, i kept track) all untacked in 6 inches of 8% perfect pow all before the first local kid showed up with a hand me down vintage burton elite snowboard. we scored big, 190 vertical feet, 10 sets of tracks, never touching for 750 turns all in about 10 minutes, now thats some efficient pow skiing especially with an 800 ft long rope tow movin at 12 ft per second, my arms are wrecked. the bottom loader said, "we gotta get warren miller out here to film you guys laying down those tracks". we even did some skiing in the glades as the lights were bright enough to give em some light. the lifty was gonna drop the rope for us our 1st run but i told em we'd wait till 8:30 or so when another few inches would pile up as it was snowing at two inches per hour. they were very nice as no one else ducked the rope all night. in total about 10 members showed up-$25 for a lifetime pass as long as you volunteer a couple of times per winter and 10, $5 ticket purchasers lesley and i being two of em. 20 folks with almost 200 vert, 4 slopes and a glade, a higher speed than any HSQ lift, rope tow and snowin like hell made for a truly memorable evening. lesley did tell me that it was like the best date night ever, and all for $11. how bout that. packed it in at 9pm closing and may go back the whole 15 miles from home in the a.m to hike some laps as they don't open till noon on weekends and i gotta work at 11am + it was still snowin pretty hard. i never thought i could live somewhere that i could lift serve ski 10 miles from where i surf on the coast, best of both worlds. what a night.
hours of operation: wed and fri night 7-9pm and sat-sun 12-4pm

experienced some firsts for sure tonight.

1) i'd never had a date night with lesley that provided so much bang for buck. $11 bought us two lift tickets, two hot cocoa's heaping with marshmallows and all the pow we could ski.
2)i've never gotten on second, (in this case rope) lesley got first rope where the staff out numbered skiers 2-1, 4 volunteers 2 skiers for our 1st 5 laps each.
3)i'd never used a rope tow while skiing, only snowboarding back in the day.
4)i'd never imagined a rope tow would kick my ass like it did, my goggles were fogged in no time from so many laps, so many turns.
5)i'd never thought that the 1st 40 minutes of rope tow laps would leave me a bit worked.
6)i'd never have thought that 190 vert could be so much fun.

google powderhouse hill, it's a hoot for sure

rog
 
here's the evening snow report for powderhouse, they thought we were celebs or something:

The Powderhouse Snow Report - your source for projected conditions
at the ONLY lift served ski & snowboard resort on the Seacoast!
Powderhouse Hill Ski Area
Owned by the Town of South Berwick and operated by the all-volunteer Powderhouse Ski Club.

Friday night was "Powder Night" at Powderhouse Hill!

Those who came were treated to 6-inches of fresh powder that fell while the hill was open - it was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!

First tracks were made many times over* from rope to woods by our new friends Roger & Lesley from Newmarket, NH! Welcome to Powderhouse!

Don't miss this weekend...conditions will be the BEST they've been all season. We hope to have the hill groomed by opening on Saturday but even if we don't get it done in time, the snow is light and fluffy so conditions will be beginner friendly.

We will be open this Saturday & Sunday from Noon-4pm.

*I know, I know there can only be one set of "first tracks"... but these two just kept moving over and doing it again, and again, and again, and again.....

Ski you on the slope!

Our new web address is http://www.powderhousehill.com

For up to the minute information on hours of operation, please call the Snow Phone at 384-5858. If efforts to open are hampered by mother nature, mechanical failure, staffing levels, or other surprises, we'll change the recording on the Snow Phone as quickly as possible. If the message on the machine doesn't state otherwise, we plan on being open as scheduled.

Thanks to the Town of South Berwick and volunteers of the Powderhouse Ski Club for making another great day at Powderhouse Hill possible!

This Snow Report is being provided to anyone who signed up to be on the Powderhouse Hill email list - others known to the editor may also be receiving it! Current list members - 147. (If you know someone who'd like to be on this list, or you'd like to be off it, please reply with a note)

Have questions or comments? Please use "reply" or email the editor at powderhousenews@comcast.net
 
It's nice to show that sometimes the simple things are just as sweet.

Reading your report reminded me of growing up in Quincy, MA across the street from Heavenly Hill, where I used to wear out 2 or 3 pairs of mittens on the rope tow each season. My parents bought me my first season's pass in '65 for $20, and I skied every afternoon after school from 3-5, go home and do homework, then ski 7-10. Saturdays and Sunday's it was 10-noon, 1-5, and 7-10.

Of course, that was back in the day when it snowed during winter. :)
 
This place is about 5 miles from us...maybe 150' of vert. Would take waxless skinny skis up there and learn to turn, while scrapping the rocks.

http://www.nelsap.org/nj/belle.html

And like yak said...that was back when it snowed.

***

Also would love to skin/ski this place:

http://www.nelsap.org/articles/hickory1.html

Anyone every been there?

All lifts are surface lifts. Locals say that riding the lift that serves the expert terrain can be very intimating to newbies. Check the picture on the site of the guy getting off at the summit. Yikes.

EDIT: FWIW...the nelsap claims that it will have information on the Harvey Mtn ski area in North River NY in the future...although the site has been making that claim for at least 5 years. :roll:
 
glad you guys liked the report! ah yes, the simple things. it was so nice to see how passionate the volunteers are and to see the kids having so much fun was great, almost made me want to have some but, that may put a dent in my daily EC pow chasing.
"when it used to snow back in the day" well i guess back in the day has been the last two winters here.
lesley and i had yet another pow day today at kingman farm and hicks hill on the bc gear. 6 inches of perfect density pow settled down to 4 on top of a nice base made for a great loop with some more 20 turn shots on the farm field hills. I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! LIFE'S SO WONDERFUL!
ROG
 
Speaking of lost areas, I was checking out this one from the road last September when our MS Bike Ride took us up that climb:

Petersburg Pass

It looked worthy of an exploratory skin.
 
that's an easy one. the trifecta's even better. hike up from pinkham, hit top of hillmans by 8 am and sit/wait a bit for corn. ski down, leave pinkham, do a 2 hour mt bike ride in the valley from 12-2pm. leave the valley and catch an afternoon surf at rye from 5-7pm. day well spent.
rog
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top