Author’s Note: Winter on Cape Cod gets a raw deal (pun intended) from most people since the days are cold, short, and many businesses close for the season. The quiet, gray, chilly days contribute to that desolate feeling that makes us dream of spring. While seeing your favorite restaurant shuttered until flowers bloom can be a bummer, most people would agree it’s completely appropriate as business owners need to re-charge their batteries for the ensuring spring, summer and fall tourist seasons. As Mr. Clement Moore would suggest, winter is the time to settling in for that long winters nap. Let us embrace winter, and one way to do that is skiing from Cape Cod. Huh?
I know, there are no downhill ski hills, resorts or mountains on Cape Cod. The closest mountain is a good 2-hour drive. Distance being what it is, means you may need to be creative with your approach to “dual-planking,” either by cross country skiing, skinning rolling hills or just dusting off some classic skiing movies (Ski School, Aspen Extreme, Warren Miller annual film, etc). To my knowledge, the Cape Cod Rail Trail path is not plowed after a snowfall, so even modest accumulation would provide enough base to cross country ski. While usually thought of for sledding, area golf courses have some steep hills perfect for a quick hike and ski (Hole #6 at Eastward Ho! comes to mind, finishing the run at the shoreline of Pleasant Bay would be quite a thrill. A few years back following a big overnight storm, I actually saw ski tracks on Ridgevale Road from Shady Lane to Pine Drive (down hill section) during an early morning walk. Those examples may seem utterly ridiculous, but with a little creativity, one can find a way to ski on Cape Cod. But for the downhill “Powder Hounds,” you have to head northwest to get those coveted first chair and tracks. Hence, “Skiing from Cape Cod, and the Cape Cod Ski Club can help you do just that.
Skiing from Cape Cod
First, thank you to Rob Conery, who’s January 2, 2020 article “Head for the Slopes in January,” introduced me to the Cape Cod Ski Club. The Cape Cod Ski Club has been around for over 40 years and is currently 400+ members strong offering a mix of day trips, weekend overnights, and destination “fly” trips to higher elevations and vertical out West. This ski season, Cape Cod Ski Club will be descending Aspen/Snowmass (Colorado), Taos (New Mexico) and Park City (Utah) for their fly trips, Sunday River, Bretton Woods and Jay Peak for overnight trips; and a mix of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont mountains for day trips. Membership costs $45 (before October 1, $50 after) is open to anyone 21 or older – whether or not you live on Cape Cod. Family members less than 21 years old can join trips as guests with a signed permission slip and adult guests can buy a single day membership for $15, which can be applied to full membership.
Ski Clubs are a great value because membership fees are usually inexpensive and end up paying for itself within a few trips. The ski club model is also attractive to ski resorts, as they will offer group rates (on lodging, lift tickets, etc) and/or discount “Awareness Days” for club members to ski/ride a specific mountain on a specific date. These scheduled Awareness Days (clubs essentially buy bulk lift tickets) can be helpful to plan your travel and lodging ahead of time, since you will know the exact date you will be at a certain mountain. As an example, a weekend lift ticket at Killington Resort is $129 “at the window”, though the cost of the same lift ticket on a discount “Awareness Day” through the Connecticut Ski Council is only $65. Joining the Connecticut Ski Council is just $30. In this case, the membership pays for itself after just one day skiing! Point being, even if you just want to ski a few times during the season, membership still makes financial sense.
Of course not all ski clubs are the same, but all share the goal of enjoying the great outdoors with friends. The social benefits of ski clubs cannot be overstated. What started out in high school with the “OGs,” carving southern and central Vermont morphed into a collection of groups, the “OGs”, the college crew, Powder Hounds, Team Shred and others. My current “club,” the New England Powder Hounds, has about a dozen members, who are spread out in Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut. You can’t even find us online; we exist within the GroupMe App with a secret headquarters near Site 1 in Ludlow, Vermont. Admittedly, our club is more of a group of friends/hilarious pranksters/ski family, but we share the same purpose as CT Ski Council, Cape Cod Ski Club, and others, skiing and riding as much as possible, in as many places as possible, for as little money as possible.
There is no way around it, skiing is expensive, but it doesn’t have to be that expensive. Through my high school buddies/OGs, I struck platinum at Snowbird for the best day of skiing in my life, an expected 12 inches overnight ballooned to 29 inches and the pass to Little Cottonwood Canyon was open on time. We also caught Mineral Basin a few minutes after the area opened following avalanche mitigation. In just a few weeks, I’ll be joining fellow OG at Big Sky, Montana. An extended family member who is a volunteer ski patrol club at Winter Park has guided me to locally known stashes in Mary Jane (“living room”) and Eagle Wind areas for some of the most consistently powdery runs. Thanks to the Powder Hounds, I’ve gone to Squaw Valley, California for the 2nd best day of skiing ever (first tracks on Siberia after it was closed for 4 days for avalanche mitigation); Steamboat, Colorado, first time skiing bare chested at 6,700 feet and potentially Valle Nevado, Chile, South America, this August if “everything goes perfectly.” Many of us haven’t known each other all that long, but man, skiing and riding brings people together.
Ski clubs also allow you avoid this new phenomenon of picking your ski friends every May. Hear me out. Avid skiers – and even beginners – are all too familiar with the horrors of lift ticket pricing and do everything possible to find the cheapest price. Enter “Ikon” versus “Epic” season passes. The two titans of the ski industry, Vail and Alterra are gobbling up ski resorts as well as mountains to participate in their multi-resort season passes. Not surprisingly, these season passes, which contain a range of lift ticket days at various mountains with or without blackout dates, go on sale in the spring (May) prior to the upcoming season, which usually starts the following November for North American resorts. The question becomes, which pass has access to your “go-to” mountain(s) AND are you flying to a ski destination mountain, thus, which pass is that mountain on? So those decisions/plans have to be made in May, 6-8 months in advance. Indeed, your ski pass dictates which friends you see during ski season. Ski clubs Awareness Days don’t work like that, and can shield you from all that noise.
There are many other ski passes and or discount prices such as Mountain Collective, Liftopia, Ski Vermont, Peak Pass, Four Packs, etc. I’ve bought passes through every one of these sources, and highly recommend doing so as you’ll save a lot of money compared to ticket window pricing, exponentially increase your ski area access, and receive discounts on lodging, food and merchandise at participating resorts. Of course, maxing out all your lift tickets on a season pass or pre-purchased lift tickets becomes the priority, rather than say, an impromptu trip to Mad River Glen that got the most snow from a nor’easter overnight, considering a fly trip to Sun Valley who is not a participant on any collective season pass, or spend a day in the solitude of the back-country. Yes, you can still do those things, but the pass keeps your focus on using up your lift tickets for mountains on your pass first. Okay, I’ve aired my laundry, damp as it may be.
Regardless of your ability, joining a ski club will pave the way for a great snow season experience. You will meet new people, travel to new places and get better, and likely more passionate about doing the sport you love. And who knows, you may also find yourself part of a ski family.
See you on the slopes!
