One more week, maybe two, for day-trip ski areas

A great season for snow sports in the Northeast is winding down quickly, with nearby ski areas closing this coming Sunday and few in the state projected to stay open past mid-April.

“In New England you have to be able to dodge Mother Nature’s curveballs. Happily, this year she was mostly fastballs and she delivered the goods,” said Pats Peak General Manager Kris Blomback, who had Major League Baseball’s opening day on his mind.

The season’s only drawback, he said, was the extreme cold through early February kept some folks from braving the slopes.  

“Thankfully, she wasn’t too punishing in that department and there were only a few instances of that,” Blomback said. “This March is whole lot better than the past two. We’re putting this season in the win column by New England standards. ” 

Pats Peak in Henniker, Crotched Mountain in Francestown and Tenney Mountain in Plymouth are slated to shut this Sunday, March 29, with Sunapee, Gunstock and Ragged Mountain set to close the following Sunday, April 5. Other resorts will shut in the following week or two although Black Mountain in Jackson claims it will keep at least one run open until June 1.

These closing dates are not unusual, triggered not just by warmer weather but by the annual decline of people going skiing or snowboarding as spring-like temperatures turn their minds to other outdoor pursuits, like Major League Baseball and golf.

They come after one of the best Northeast ski winters in years, featuring solid snowfall that began in mid-November, long cold spells that allowed consistent snowmaking, and a lack of the mid-winter warming that waylaid the two previous winters. A number of Vermont ski areas reported more than 300 inches of total snowfall, with 150 inches or more reported at many New Hampshire resorts.

This was in sharp contrast to conditions in much of the West, which normally has far more snow than East Coast ski areas. Much of the Rockies and Sierras have seen record or near-record low snowfall totals, with some ski areas already shut for the season.

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