Two things we don’t normally put into the same sentence: “King Pine” and “December.” Like many smaller ski areas, it’s traditionally been hard for them to lay down enough snow to make for good conditions before Christmas due to limited snowmaking and lower altitude.

But this year, something has changed…and it’s their snowmaking. King Pine has shifted from diesel powered pumps to electric, and the difference is huge. Sure, it’s more “green”; smells better, is quieter, and more environmentally friendly. But it also means the ability to pump TWICE as much water and air through the system. That means they can produce a whole lot of snow!

With a Sunday snowstorm adding nearly a foot of fresh on top of all the snow they’d made, it seemed like a good time to check out King Pine. One thing that’s wonderful about smaller areas like King Pine, they simply don’t get the same number of midweek skiers that larger areas get.  I arrived a little before 1 pm, to find…nobody. Literally, a dozen cars, total, in the parking lot. The lodge confirmed that; 4 people having lunch, no one on the slopes. I dressed quickly and hit the lifts (for the entire afternoon, I waited exactly zero seconds in a lift line).

Even on the way up, it was clear this was going to be fun. 1 p.m., and there was still plenty of untouched corduroy on White Pine under the lift. It’s not unusual to find an afternoon “secret stash” at ski areas that everyone has somehow missed…but on a blue square trails that everyone sees while they’re going up the lift???

Having skied King Pine before, I headed straight from the lift to the back side; that’s where the steepest trails are, and if anything is going to get skied off, it’ll be those. And…more corduroy! One section of Jack Pine had been skied smooth, but there was no boilerplate; edging was easy. Swinging around skier’s left on Red Pine gave more corduroy, a wide open trail with nobody on it, and big, swoopy side-to-side turns. What a great way to start getting my winter legs back under me!

But…there was more fun in store. Pine Brule, which goes under the Black Bear Triple, is as steep as anyone could want, and ungroomed. There were a few spots where rocks and stumps were visible, but it was easy to avoid them. And there was a TON of snow in there, with only a couple of spots that were skied smooth. Like Jack Pine, it still wasn’t boilerplate; edging was (mostly) possible. Those conditions (steep, ungroomed, big bumps) aren’t my strength, and this was a fantastic opportunity to improve. Being able to take the short trail over and over, seeing the lines each time up on the lift, allowed me to have a better feel for what I was doing. About 10 runs later, my legs were burning (“Brule” is a French/Sioux word that means “burning thighs”…they aren’t kidding!), but my confidence and skill were dramatically better. I’ll attack conditions like that very differently this winter!

Back on “normal” slopes, I wandered King Pine’s blues, enjoying being able to alternate between long-radius carved turns and hard, fall line short radius turns at will. Fun, yes, and great practice for the upcoming long ski days. With absolutely zero wait times, I got in a ridiculous amount of skiing in a short time. And while it’s sometimes nice to get really long runs with a lot of vertical, it’s also nice to have shorter runs where I can really push myself hard, knowing that I’ll have time to recover rather than a long runout to the lift with my thighs burning.

Overall…impressed with the new snowmaking, thrilled to have had such a great time in December, and looking forward to trying Pine Brule (and Pitch Pine, which was the only closed trail on this day) the next time we get some powder midweek!