Northeast Slopes, Hard’ack — skiing on the cheap

Just a week back, as much of the nation was reeling from the effects of a winter blast that devastated most of Texas, locals were anticipating the arrival of a couple of days of wintry weather. Some forecasts promised upwards of a foot of snow would fall on Mount Mansfield.

Stop The Scribe if you have heard this before, but unfortunately the prognosticators were foiled once again by a capricious Mother Nature. Snow did fall, but it was measured by the most optimistic at 2-3 inches and the moisture content was rather heavy. Then a rapid drop into single-digit put a rather stiff crust on the surface. It was not a true ice event but that pleasing packed powder surface gave way to more challenging conditions.

This turn of events did have a positive impact for the early morning crowd — you could almost ski onto the lift for the first hour or so during the rest of the week. Saturday was a day off for your scribe. He had no reservation and being the last busy day of President’s Week, saw no reason to try to scramble for an opening if one became available. He did, however, have a reservation for the next day.

What a fortuitous decision that turned out to be. On Saturday night, about 8 inches of cold snow arrived and Sunday dawned clear and crisp. Bluebird sky and fresh tracks to be had everywhere. It was a day to ski the edge of Hayride early, while others headed to Liftline and National.

It was a day to ski Nosedive Bypass, in far better shape than one might have guessed, with still less than four feet of snow at the snowstake alongside Toll Road. The gladed routes were oh-so-soft and Lookout itself had gone back to the soft bumps of 10 days ago. Best of all, it just wasn’t that busy.

Downcountry guests opted to go on home to where they came from and a lot of the day-trippers from Chittenden County hadn’t heard about the 8 inches soon enough to get there in time to jam up the corral.

The Scribe logged in five very enjoyable runs and hit the road by 10:30 a.m. He had other fish to fry on this sunny day. His list of ski areas, large and small, that he intends to ski this season is lengthy and he had another destination in mind for the afternoon.

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Humor him as he resumes the narrative of this mildly quixotic ski journey on which he has embarked. Last week chronicled visits to Ascutney’s rope tow, the Bellows Falls Ski Hill and the Brattleboro Ski Hill. After overnighting in Brattleboro, it was time to head north in the Prius Prime.

First stop of the day was back at the Ascutney Outdoor Center, where on weekends the T-bar operates. The hill was amazingly busy. There were over a hundred cars in the parking lot, belonging to skiers and riders coming from as far away as Chittenden County and Manchester, N.H. The Scribe logged six runs on the T-bar. There are half-a-dozen routes off this lift, and all featured the same excellent snow he had found a day earlier when riding the rope tow. Now mind you, the T-bar services maybe at best 400-500 vertical feet but there are large numbers of people skinning up to enjoy the additional 1,300 vertical feet above the top of the lift. Lift ticket this day was $15.

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Next on the tour was Northeast Slopes. Arriving at 3 p.m., The Scribe had only an hour or so left before the lifts closed at 4 p.m., but that didn’t matter! After talking to one of the managers of the slope at the top of the T-Bar, he found that there is a lot more terrain here than you can see as you cruise past on Route 25. East Corinth is an unlikely place to find what is billed as the longest continuously operating ski area in North America.

Say again? Can that really be true? Put it this way, they can document that fact that their rope tow has been running since 1936.

OK, go find one that is older and still around! On this day your scribe got one run on the smaller rope tow and five different runs off the T-bar — and never took the same run twice. You can work your way out along ridgelines to the south and wind up in nearby farm fields surfaced with untracked snow.

On this day the legendary rope tow was not running but they are proud of the fact that when it runs at top speed it travels at 27 mph. Take that you devotees of high-speed quads. This place was so cool. They have periodic nighttime skiing and this is no secret to the skiers from nearby towns like Norwich, Thetford, Hanover and Etna. Afternoon ticket price $12. Who says a family can’t afford to ski anymore?

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That wound up day two of the ski tour. Sunday brought two more stops, one of which would be a visit to one of the most remarkable private hills you will find but this visit will be detailed in next week’s chapter. The second stop, after an hour’s drive, was to the longtime haunt of kids growing up in St. Albans, Hard’ack Hill.

Hard’ack itself is a curious word describing a species of tree found throughout much of Vermont. But if you were a kid in St. Albans, Hard’ack meant Go Ski! The area, now managed by the city of St. Albans, has had its ups and downs, no pun intended, but lately, thanks to many local volunteers, it is thriving. The hill is served by a rope tow that delivers those adept enough to hang on to the top of a respectably steep hill.

The area has grooming and sports 11 tower guns for making snow, a luxury at most of these small areas. It also has a new base lodge at the bottom, one unfortunately not yet in full service due to the pandemic. It has tons of hits for snowboarders and free-skiers, as well as the aforementioned steep pitch at the top. It also sports a sledding hill just north of the ski hill.

There is day skiing and night skiing and one other benefit that lots of Stowe skiers raised in the railroad capital of Vermont still fondly recall. You could ski off the backside in the dark, through the woods and ski all the way down to your neighborhood. How cool is that? Kids still do it.

Three days into the Vermont ski adventure your scribe’s total out of pocket for these three days, including tickets and donations stands at $47. Big thrills for cheap dollars.

Kim Brown, a ski bum by winter and a hacker by summer, lives in Waterbury Center with his very understanding family.