Indy Tour 2-12 & 2-16-2020 Mohawk Mountain, CT

It’s not like I actively avoided skiing at Mohawk Mountain until now. I never had anything against the place. I knew it was there. Somehow I never had a good enough reason to go. There are other mountains that are closer or bigger or that a friend was meeting me at. The stars just didn’t align for me and Mohawk. But it is one of the three ski areas on the Indy Pass that are within a two hour drive from my house. That fact pretty much guaranteed that I would ski there this year. Last Wednesday I found myself with the day off from work so it seemed like the right time.




It’s close enough that there wasn’t the usual urgency to get an early start. I rolled out of bed around my normal time, made sure my kids were off to school and, eventually, got on the road to go check out Mohawk Mountain. First of all, getting there was a nice drive. Once I got off I287 in Westchester County (and especially after entering Connecticut) it was mostly parkways, country roads and farms- classic Southern New England. I even drove across a covered bridge.

Wednesday



Sunday



Of course on Wednesday morning, the place was deserted. I was pleasantly surprised to find that four out five of Mohawk’s chairlifts were in operation when I arrived. A lot of hills would use  light midweek business as a reason to only run one lift. Mohawk staffed enough lifts that I could explore the whole mountain and I appreciated that. I made my way around the hill, checking things out, skiing fast and having fun.

Wednesday





Sunday




Mohawk isn’t a big resort but it’s got more vertical (650 feet) and terrain then a lot of feeder hills. I guess I’d call it a family Mountain. It’s the kind of place where, if I lived closer, I would have been very happy to spend every weekend there when my kids were younger. Honestly if Mount Peter were this size, we might still be buying season passes every year. Its not Plattekill or Gore but I had a great time zooming around on Wednesday. Even after all the race kids showed up after school, I did not have to wait on a lift line.





Towards the end of the day, I decided to retrieve my skins from my car and take advantage of Mohawk’s liberal uphill policy. As long as the mountain is open for operation and you follow their designated uphill route, you don’t even have to buy a ticket. I thought that I’d stripped off enough layers and paced myself sufficiently but I still got a sweat going right away, in spite of the cold. Skinning has to be the best workout there is.



Anyway, Mohawk impressed me enough to plan a return trip for this past weekend. Junior and I skied the place on Sunday and I have to say my opinion of it wasn’t diminished one bit. This time the parking lots, the lodge, ski school and the base area were all full of happy people pursuing fresh air and fun but the staff and management handled the holiday weekend crowds easily.




Lots of uphill activity




Of course there’s a tubing hill




With all the lifts running we still didn’t have to stand on line more then five minutes at the most. At certain times a couple of them were still ski on. Somehow the trails didn’t seem crowded either. I guess Mohawk is just the right size hill to service the people from the area. I’m sure that many resorts around the area were absolute zoos this past weekend but the people at Mohawk made it look easy. We stuck around until close to closing time and left satisfied.






And there was this quaint little restaurant a few hundred yards up the hill under one of the lifts. It was closed on Wednesday of course. I poked my head in on Sunday and it turned out to be a full sit- down- waitstaff place so I just used the toilet and kept moving but it looked really nice.

Wednesday



Sunday



And this little stone turret is at the top of the Mohawk Lift. No idea what it’s for.

Another great report, Brownski. Mohawk looks like a fun place, and reminds me of our local family hill, Sir Sams. You have to love a place that calls one of its lifts the "Nutmeg Triple."

Brownski wrote

And this little stone turret is at the top of the Mohawk Lift. No idea what it’s for.

The turret was part of an old custom from early on in the previous century.  A snipper would wait in or behind the turret to discourage beginners from getting in over their head on expert terrain.

I agree, great photos.

Great piece, I'm enjoying the entire Indy Tour series. This season, I've been doing my own indy tour in Colorado (Loveland, Cooper, Sunlight, Monarch, Powderhorn, Wolf Creek). I hope that as many of them as possible will be on the Indy Pass next year.

Brownski wrote

With all the lifts running we still didn’t have to stand on line more then five minutes at the most.

Hailing from CNY, I never ran into the in line/on line thing until I moved to Brooklyn then to NJ. Fascinating how this usage is limited to the NYC tri-state region. 20 years later, it still stops me dead in my tracks.

Jamesdeluxe wrote

Hailing from CNY, I never ran into the in line/on line thing until I moved to Brooklyn then to NJ. Fascinating how this usage is limited to the NYC tri-state region. 20 years later, it still stops me dead in my tracks.

I think of it as "shore" speak.

I had no idea that was controversial. I grew up upstate so ... maybe I just picked it up without noticing at some point.