Tenney Mountain, NH 1/11/19

I’m not much of a trip reporter, I mostly post down in the quarantined politicrap section, but I need this place to stay viable enough to remain open for me to enjoy.

Tenney has suffered from a lot of neglect over the years.  I had a season’s pass the last few years it was open 08/09 and 09/10.  I got out a for a couple afternoons last spring during their little mini-season in March and it was great enough that I bought a $229 season pass for this year.  I live 5 minutes away, have a flexible schedule, and don’t mind antiquated infrastructure, so it’s a no brainer.

Or is it?  I won’t go into the ownership details except to say it’s uhhhhh.....unusual. If you’re curious you can find various threads on AZ (free gss!) and snowjournal. They have vacillated between over sharing on facebook and being so aloof that you can’t even tell if the mountain is open. For a less ski savvy customer located further away, it might be a deal breaker. They are having some snowmaking issues obviously, but luckily, with lots of low angle terrain, a northeast exposure, and little skier traffic, it doesn’t take all that much to make the place “skiable” by advanced eastern skier standards.

I skied this morning, and it’s cold and windy, and midweek, but I did not see another skier the entire time!  The liftie told me there were other people but she thought they went into the lodge.



There is now a wind farm across the ridgeline of the mountain. Iberdrola (the Basques!) put it in in 2013 or so.  You don’t hear the whooshing as you ride the rattly 1960s, 13 minute long double chair.  But near the summit, if you stop and listen you can hear them.


Skiing was great.  Leftover pow, wind buffed and refilled pow, a little bit of a glazed over sublayer was present the lower on the mountain you went.




Crowded base area and parking


It’s great having a private ski area, don’t get me wrong, but they need people to buy tickets. They need to get their snowmaking capability sorted out.  I need them to, for my own selfish ends. I’d like to be a pass holder here for the foreseeable future. It’s so convenient for me.  I’d hate to see it fail yet again.

Nice report, witch.  You should do more of this, it suits you.

Looks and sounds pretty sweet.  If I lived close, this would most certainly be a "go to" spot for me.

Awesome!

Tenney looks pretty cool to me

That is my kinda joint -- nice work Witchy

Nice report, thanks. I've always been curious about that ski area. Maybe Harv can resize the pix so they're bigger.

I’ve always been curious about tenney as well. It looks pretty cool. Your pics sure look like it was deep and empty. Good for you but bad for business. It doesn’t sound like they are gonna make it eh? Well.....skin to win witch.

Wow! Nice! thoughtful and great pics.

So far this might be the TR of the year. I mean was there another?  

raisingarizona wrote

I’ve always been curious about tenney as well. It looks pretty cool. Your pics sure look like it was deep and empty. Good for you but bad for business. It doesn’t sound like they are gonna make it eh? Well.....skin to win witch.

Way too soon to say.  This will be the first full season since the new owners decided to get the lifts certified and came up with a plan for 3-5 years for getting the trails and everything else in working order.  They fix things the right way, not the quick and dirty way.  I've been following the Tenney Facebook page ever since it started.  The story is unique.  There are lots of reasons it took longer than expected to open for a full season.  Warm weather is one of them.

I stopped by and had a chat with Mike Bouchard in Fall 2017.  Skied there in March 2018.  Hoping to get back in March on a day when both lifts are running.

The slopes have been open to uphill travel.  There are videos posted on FB.

witch hobble wrote

I’m not much of a trip reporter, I mostly post down in the quarantined politicrap section, but I need this place to stay viable enough to remain open for me to enjoy.
. . .

Thanks for the pics.  Tenney deserves support from those who like old school ski areas.

Used to ski there (and nearby Ragged Mountain) in the late '90s - early '00s when I lived in Bow, NH. At the time it had much the same vibe as Plattekill: family friendly, uncrowded, with some decent terrain for all abilities. But it had problems even then which apparently got progressively worse after we moved back to NY in 2003. Looks like they have had a hard road to recovery and I hope it works out that they can remain open to provide a nice option only an hour north of Concord.

On a Trip to see my daughter and family near Nashoba Valley in Ma. we did a swing into NH for 2 days  ( Gunstock , Tenney and a couple in Mass  Wa Wa  and Nashoba Valley near my daughters home )

Skied Tenney several years ago , decent place , retro vibe , inexpensive , SLOWEST lift to the summit OMG , but as has been said the mtn provided something for everyone for a day's skiing.  The lift on the other side was actually decent but serves maybe 700-800 vert of the 1400 or so the main lift  served .

I really liked Gunstock , 10E was a pleasant surprise .

Hope 10E makes it !

Thanks for reading and commenting.

They have been making lots of repairs over the last few years, but some of their repairs already need repairs.  It sounds most likey that they will NOT be making snow on the main mountain this season, only at the tubing hill/beginner area.  So I need to get my $ worth out of my pass quick.

They were open for one day, 12/1/18, then closed until last weekend, then closed again on Monday -Wednesday, now have been open since the storm.  So let’s hold off on calling this their first “real” season open again since they have had about 6 days open including today.  Believe me I want it to happen.  

There is always lots of grumbling locally about Tenney and how it’s cursed. Longtime local skiers have been burned by previous ownerships over-promising and under-delivering enough that they have abandoned ship and are now loyal to one of our other close by ski areas (Cannon, Loon, Waterville, Ragged).   There also is a weird quirk that many home and condo owners in the association are primary homeowners, and are not even skiers and are not thrilled at the prospect of noise and congestion in the neighborhood.

Skiing-wise it feels a bit like if the Dark side and the North Side at Gore were it’s own ski area. Low angle pitches with occasional short, steep headwalls.

And, RA the skinning was great for a few years right after it closed down. This 43 year old of moderate fitness level could make it up in 45 mins  to an hour depending on conditions. The down can be blasted out in 5 minutes if you want.  The problem was the regeneration made the place a jungle/prison of puckerbrush creeping in from all sides, and after 7 or 8 years they closed out a lot of the lines. That, coupled with the dramatic rise in the # of people pursuing “uphilling” during the same timeframe, took some of the blank canvas aspect out of the picture.  It works much better for me as a functional ski area with some ongoing trail maintenance.

Well I hope it works out WH. If it doesn’t could you organize a small crew of volunteers to keep the underbrush at bay on a few of the best trails?

raisingarizona wrote

Well I hope it works out WH. If it doesn’t could you organize a small crew of volunteers to keep the underbrush at bay on a few of the best trails?

Doesn't look to be public land so I'd wonder how the owners or future owners might feel about that, as well as the liability of people skiing it.

If the town, county or state bought the land, that should be an easy thing to organize.

OMG there would be heads exploding all over the place if the town bought a defunct ski area!  Haha

Decent little crowd at Tenney for the start of the Massachusetts vaca week.

Great report witch, don't know why but didn't see it until now. Seems like you and remski from SJ are the only regulars so I hope Mike and Kim can keep it going. Good to see the lot more full 2/16.
Is that first pic of the barn Tenney or Ragged? Stopped by Tenney 1/6 on way to snowjournal meet up at Crotched. Great report, like we had at Black you had the place to yourself

Thanks cisco.

That picture is of Tenney, from the intersection of Yeaton Rd and Bartlett Rd in Plymouth.  So the barn and farm you see are not part of the ski area, they are private property in the valley below.

I think they’re having a decent run of things.  But you know how it is with no snowmaking here in New England.  It could all wash away next week. You should definitely check it out.  Snowjournal crowd would definitely enjoy it.