I’ll admit it, when I first planned our annual “Kings of Spring” ski getaway, I’d envisioned day after day of warm spring sunshine and corn snow, people gathered on the decks at noontime, weekend afternoons watching silly events between runs—all the joys of spring skiing. In other words, exactly what we’d enjoyed at Whiteface in Wilmington, New York a couple of weeks ago. What I hadn’t counted on was winter deciding to stick around for a little while longer. It snowed just a few days before we left home and, trust me, I am NOT complaining! I don’t think you are, either. For anyone who loves to ski, March, 2013 in New England has been amazing.
The first day of our getaway was at Black Mountain in Jackson, N.H., which, sadly, was slated to close for the season the very next day. Black is a family mountain and they often close the weekend before Easter, which unfortunately is very early this year. Black is, in fact, one of the earliest mountains to celebrate spring. You see, the trails at Black face south, so while it’s still very much winter at their bigger neighbor, Wildcat, you can enjoy windless, sunny, often warm days on the slopes of Black. You can, that is, if Mother Nature decides to send you some warm weather and sunshine.
That was not to be for us. In fact, as we drove to the mountain, the March wind was grabbing the car and shaking it like a very large terrier shaking a sock toy, the temperature was stubbornly stuck below freezing, and it was snowing for much of the ride.
No problem! Based on the fact that Black faces south, I predicted the wind wouldn’t bother us, and whatever sun could peek through the clouds would warm things up and soften the snow. I was one-third right. The wind didn’t bother us (it almost never does at Black–this is the place to go when Wildcat is on wind hold), but the sun never softened the snow at all. And it never got warm. In fact, part of the reason we were there was to watch their annual pond-skim, which raises money for a local cancer charity. That event had to be postponed to the next day—it was just too darned cold.
Black’s base lodge, nothing huge or fancy, just comfortable, was hopping with people coming in to add layers when the sun never materialized. At lunch time they came back for good food (not expensive!) at the cafeteria. Some people were warming up with a libation at the Lostbo Pub, too.
Dressed for the weather, we enjoyed perfect groomed, mid-winter skiing on Black’s lovely, old-fashioned trail system. These trails were cut for skiers, not grooming machines. The groomers still do a great job, but they have to take their time and travel slower on the twisting trails—which pays off in perfect snow conditions.
Black also doesn’t have any high-speed detachable lifts. The summit chair is an ancient double that’s pure pleasure to ride; as you go up the views of Mount Washington to your left just get better and better. Some people shy away from areas with slow lifts, but I’ve never seen more than a minimal liftline at Black. They just don’t have crowds except, perhaps on a few vacation-week Saturdays. And the low-capacity lifts mean their lift tickets stay very affordable.
But the real benefit of their venerable lift system comes with the skiing. On this “busy” Saturday, even on the most popular groomed trails, the snow conditions late in the afternoon were just as good as they were first thing in the morning.
Black’s closed for this year, but you can bet that we’ll be going back next season. It’s great any day you can get there, but it’s simply the best area anywhere on the days when it’s just too cold and windy to enjoy skiing more famous (and more crowded) mountains, or when, in mid-March, we want an early taste of spring corn snow on a sunny afternoon. What a great mountain!