Tenney Mountain, NH - February 23, 2019

Paul Giddings

I was long overdue for a road trip to somewhere, so a couple of weeks ago I had contacted an good ski buddy of mine to plan something out, and we had decided on visiting Tenney Mountain, NH. Today was the day. I had been mentioning to him on a few occasions that I had visited Tenney late last season, and that I was impressed with what had been done to re-open the mountain as it had been closed since 2010. A lot work had been done then just to get it up and running in a limited stage. Now it's 11 months later, and there is only one word to describe what we saw and skied today. WOW! That seemed to be the key word today. WOW! It was full on discovery mode. We left Sherbrooke at 6 am and arrived about two and a half hours later under a bright sunshine and some light clouds and a temperature of around -4 degrees.

Photo credit: Christian Lacroix

Lifts opened at 9. The Double chair, the Hornet, and the triple chair, The Eclipse were spinning. We noticed throughout the day that maybe 4 or 5 runs weren't open, but there was still a ton of terrain to explore. What was on the menu in terms of conditions? Well...... groomed packed powder over a firm base. Coverage was excellent all over as was the grooming. The one thing about Tenney is that it was all on natural snow top to bottom! They do have a snowmaking system, but have not had to use it on the main mountain. There are no "superhighways" at Tenney. There are some beautiful narrow and winding trails throughout the mountain. A wide variety of trails, and very interesting terrain with nice soft rolls. The first laps were up the Hornet lift and down The Morning Glory, The Shooting Star, some sections of the Hornet trail under the double chair, and a nice narrow trail, the Half Moon.

The top of the Morning Glory:

The Hornet:

The Half Moon:

Afterwards we headed over to the Eclipse Triple section. Now this was the area that was not open last year, and was the sector that I was wanting to explore. It did not disappoint! From the top of the double lift we skied a combo of Dandelion, The Sunflower, The Trillium, and the bottom of the Eclipse trail. These trails were fantastic, and the view! The view was.....WOW! There's that word again!. Coverage was again superb, groomed packed powder on a firm base. The conditions were consistent everywhere you skied.

The Sunflower:

We made a few rides up the triple chair and skied Jacob's Ladder, Tiger Lilly, Scamper, Hall's Meadow. From here we made our way back to the Hornet Double via the combo of the Trillium, Witch Hazel, and the bottom of the Shooting Star.

Jacob's Ladder:

The pitch looking up the Scamper: It is much steeper than it looks!

After a few more runs off the Hornet Double, we decided to call it a day and go have a bite to eat with a well deserved beverage in the Backcountry Pub in the chalet. They serve the usual pub fare but oh man they serve up a wicked burger and fries! We both had the Backcountry Burger served on a large bun with American cheese, onions, lettuce, and pickles. This has to be one of the best burgers I have had in a long time! (Sorry no pics!) I am pretty sure all the items on their menu are really tasty. Service was excellent as well and everyone was super friendly. We left the mountain at a touch after 3:30 for the trip home, very pleased with our visit! Everyone we met today, parking attendant, ticket clerk, the lifties, the pub crew were all super friendly and made you feel welcomed. We were fortunate enough to catch up with owner Michael Bouchard on the hill earlier during the morning runs to have a pleasant chat with him.

What a difference since my visit from March of last season. Back then Tenney had their soft opening under limited conditions and trails. Only the Hornet sector was opened. A ton of work has been done since, during the off season. Additional cutting of brush on the trail under the Hornet chair, and other sections. Brush cutting in the Eclipse sector of the mountain to clean up and to reclaim those trails from years of growth. Renovations in the chalet with the addition of the Backcountry Pub, Tenney is now a happening place! The parking lot was pretty full during the day but there were no lift lines nor any wait at either lift today. The lot was still full when we were heading out to come back home. If anyone is looking to go on a road trip to New Hampshire, I highly recommend that you check out Tenney Mountain. I did last season, and returned with my buddy Chris for his first visit this season, all we were saying as we were skiing was WOW!

Here are some additional scenes from the day: