Small ski hills are the lifeblood of the ski industry in the northeast. Sure they don't have the glitziest base lodges, the fastest lifts, or most vertical, but you and most skiers you know probably learned to ski at one.
Luke Foley
Doug Martland
Genevieve Martland
Tim Peck
Mickey Spades
All tagged skiing
There’s nothing better than making you’re own tracks after a fresh snowfall. But when you live in Greater Boston finding fresh tracks can sometimes seem impossible. I mean, there’s millions of people around here and unless you time things perfectly, somebody usually beats you to the punch. Except, that is, at what feels like my secret stash—Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary in Sharon, Massachusetts, where fresh tracks abound.
I reply sourly, “IDK.” Sure, I have plenty of ideas, but at the time I was having difficulty mustering enthusiasm for any of them. It feels wrong to hike when skiing is still an option, but I don’t feel like skinning at the resort and I’m terrified of the dust-on-crust lurking in the backcountry. On the other hand, I’m stoked to boulder but I would like to spend some time in the mountains. Doug and I trade texts back and forth, him with ambitious plans, and me shitting all over them; too icy, too far away, and I think it will suck represent only a few of my bitter responses that day.
Moosilauke is often one of the first places that newer backcountry skiers visit. And, if they are like us, they will keep being drawn back by the more than five-mile long descent and above-treeline terrain. While there are plenty of places to get beta on the trip—like this article Tim wrote for goEast—we thought a detailed gear list would be an interesting, informative, and helpful companion. So here it is.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. After the start of a ski season that fluctuated somewhere between uneventful and blah thanks to an unseasonably warm stretch of weather, the snow finally arrived. However, with the snow also came record-low temperatures that tempered any enthusiasm for sliding on snow with biting cold.