Snow Business: Mount Southington Primed For A Good March

SOUTHINGTON, CT — It's no secret that ski areas on Connecticut have had to go above and beyond the norm this season to accommodate the increased amount of visits with folks staying close to home ... and Mount Southington has been at the forefront of that shift since the early going.

Things like importing food trucks, moving the snack bar to a pickup window, keeping the outside rest rooms clean, running a comfortable skiing and snowboarding school and smartly timing its snowmaking have all contributed to a stellar season.

Now it's extending that into the March period. A rainy but great day on the mountain last weekend made that very clear.

Here are some of the factors.

The Strategy

Mount Southington General Manager Jay Dougherty likes to say the snowmaking crews made smart bets and cashed in on them since the beginning of the season. Last Saturday's rain may have washed out most of the snow in the backyards, but Mount Southington is loaded with all 14 trails featuring at least 2-foot base depths. Dougherty says that puts the mountain in in a good position for spring skiing.

The Bunny

In three trips this season with young skiers in tow, the learning area surface has seemed better with each trip, whether ie was being used as a warmup run or a full-fledged lesson. There's even an entry-level skier and border cross setup.

The Cruising

The runs have performed as well as any year in recent memory, adding to the theory that the need to remain local has triumphed over the risk and hassle of traveling far away for extra vertical in 2020-21. From the green trail Dom's Way and blue trail Laurel to the black trail Tester on one side to the black Thunderbolt and blues Turkey Trot and Avalanche on the other, the surface has been smooth and consistent.

The Terrain Park

Mount Southington has been featuring a full park for several weeks now. And we're talking full — rails, boxes, jumps and even a sort of quarter pipe and backboard type of combination that was way cool to try. The park was so complete that I regretted bringing the big boy cruising skis and not the twin tips.

The Halfpipe

Yes, Mount Southington has a halfpipe. It was fashioned last month after an abundance of snow and several consecutive nights of cold weather suitable for snowmaking. The walls are about 8 feet high and the zones in the pipe are well-marked.

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Chris Dehnel is Patch editor who has been writing about skiing and snowboarding for more than two decades. He is a past-president of the Eastern Ski Writers Association and board member of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association. The Snow Business column runs periodically during the season.