UnionLeader.com - New Hampshire news - NH resorts celebrate best winter ever - Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2008

UnionLeader.com - New Hampshire news - NH resorts celebrate best winter ever - Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2008
LINCOLN – New Hampshire ski resort operators gathered in the 90-degree heat yesterday to bask in the warmth of their past season, which broke an all-time record for skier visits.

The state’s ski industry reported 2,366,706 skier visits at alpine ski areas, beating the record set in 2001 of 2,357,000, said Karl Stone, spokesman for Ski NH.

"Everything fell in place," Stone said. "It shows what weather can do for us."

The organization, which markets the state’s 31 ski areas, both alpine and nordic, held its spring meeting at the InnSeason Resorts in Lincoln.

"The numbers this year were pretty pleasing," Greg Goddard, president of Ski NH and general manager of Gunstock in Gilford.

Nationally, the ski industry also set an all time record of 60.1 million skier visits. A visit is recorded when a skier or snowboarder spends a day or a portion of a day at a ski area.

Cannon Mountain took the overall record this year for snowfall, recording 251 inches; many ski areas reported over 200 inches. Average snowfall for a New Hampshire ski area is about 120 inches a year.

Cross country ski areas benefited tremendously from the natural snowfall and saw 151,040 skier visits, almost a 50 percent increase from the previous season, said Alice Pearce, executive director of Ski NH. Snow tubing visits were at 119,053 a 30 percent increase from the previous year.

Alpine visits were up 20.7 percent from the past year.

Bill Quigley, marketing chairman for the organization and also marketing director at Gunstock, said the coming season’s message will be that New Hampshire ski areas are less than a gas tank away. The industry’s primary market is Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire.

Hardcore Skiers In New England Ski Tuckermans Ravine

Its official. The ski and snowboard season is over for 2007-2008 in the Northeast. Sugarloaf managed to hang on into May. Even Sugarloaf USA has started Golf Season. A late April snow storm kept dreams of powder alive for a couple extra weeks. The northern Mts. may still get some more snow this year. Matt Noyes of NECN has snow in the forcast for the weekend.
Hardcore Skiers and riders are turning there attention to Tuckerman Ravine on MT Washington. See today's WebCam Shots. One of the forum members put this trip report together. Pretty awesome.
My next post will be a video and photo wrap up of the 2007-2008 season. Check out the Camping Gear Reviews coming soon

Okemo Mountain Computer Hacked Credit Card Numbers Stolen

Drinking my coffee this morning and what do I hear on the radio? Okemo Mountain in Ludlow Vermont had there computers hacked in February 2008. If I heard right over 20'000 credit card numbers where stolen. If this isnt enough for those affected, (me being one) they also said this is not the first time.
After scouring the the Okemo Press Releases I have found nothing about this. New England has seen this before with TJMaxx/TJX, Hannafords Grocery Stores and a group of thieves installing keypads at other stores in Rhode Island and throughout the region.

Okemo's been a busy place this year. Epic conditions has been the norm. Typical New England hard pack one day, lite powder the next. Check out my Brother in-law his friend and myself in the back. We were in the woods January 1st 2008. We could have stayed in the woods all day if we wanted. Started snowing aroun 6 AM and didn't stop all day and neither did we. Mind you my brother in-law ski's every day and usually leaves the mountain by 10 or 11 AM.
Getting back on topic. It would be a good idea to check you credit report if you used a credit or debit card at Okemo.

Snowboarders Poach Mad River Glen

Mad River Glen in Vermont has never allowed Snowboarders. I devout group of skiers own the the Ski Area and Maintian it. With the modo Ski It If You Can take it serious. Mad River hates to groom its trails. One of the last old school New England Ski Areas.
Check out this group of Snowboarder Poaching Mad River. If you would like to hike up, check out a map of the Long Trail.

Clearance Solomon Snowboarding Equipment

Extreme Skiing and Snowboarding Movies

I have been doing some searching for extreme Skiing movies and found some real cool ones to share. Check them out. You can also find Teton Gravity Research and Warren Miller Movies. Ski season across the USA has been Epic 2007-2008. Sunday River in Maine has received 15 feet of snow. Sounds like a statistic from Utah or Steamboat Springs Colorado doesnt it. Check out these clips. This one guy call this kite skiing I call it crazy.








60 Foot Cliff Drop