“2001-02 was still our top year.” Although the winter season wasn’t exactly a record-breaker, there were some milestones: the biggest day ever, with 8,354 skiers, tubers and snowboarders, beat the previous record by a whopping 1,000 people, they said. The mountain will expand its night skiing next winter to try and spread out the people.
Despite opening four days later than anticipated, Mount Washington enjoyed a better-than-average snow year. “We opened with everything (operational) and we closed with everything,” they said proudly. “There’s very few ski resorts that can say that. Even the snow tubing kept going.”
At the end of March, almost a month before closing, the resort had 1,000 centimetres of snow on the runs. The mountain averaged about 900 cm over the season.
“It was a pretty smooth year,” they said. Also heartening to Mount Washington staff was the increase in seasons pass holders. “More people are committing to be frequent skiers.”
All signs indicate that Winter 2004 will be a good year for the resort, with the addition of the Boomerang lift and new double-black diamond terrain on the other side of the mountain. “It opens up brand new terrain to the mountain,” they said.