Snow Business: 2023-24 Bound To Be Uplifting At Mount Southington

SOUTHINGTON, CT — A dad and his daughter skied their way over the the beginner area at Mount Southington on New Year's Eve morning.

"OMG Dad, look at that new lift," the young lady said. "Your butt can actually fit on the chair."

It seemed a bit dramatic and exaggerated, but the point was made. One of the highlights of the 2023-24 season has to be the new triple chair lift at the main learning area at Mount Southington.

The Northstar Triple was installed during the offseason on the far left-hand side of the mountain, looking uphill. The butt comment referred to the the aging and somewhat cramped double chair that had been there for years.

"It's something we've wanted for a while now and it's going to make a major difference," Mount Southington General Manager Jay Dougherty said.

In addition to increasing the uphill capacity by two-thirds, the chair is, well, a lot more comfortable.

It will alleviate the logjam at the bottom of the learning area by getting folks up the hill a lot quicker, Dougherty said.

The new learning center building will also have a significant effect. It is located the base of the learning area, adjacent to the new lift. Construction was completed in the offseason and Dougherty said it will allow the ski and snowboard school to spread out. It replaces a cool but ancient shack that was around for quite a while.

So ... this winter ...

It's the consensus in the industry that this was a rough an early season as ever with torrential rain on several occasions and warm temperatures dominating the weather patterns. Therefore, it should probably be considered to be a minor miracle that Mount Southington had two summit trails and the learning area open on New Year's Eve day.

Though the cover was thin, the trails were decent.

"At least we were able to get people on the snow," Dougherty said. "We've been doing our best."

Alas, colder nighttime temperatures gave the snowmaking crews a window of opportunity and the open trail count doubled by Friday. Snow — a lot of it — is also in the weekend forecast.

"Then, we'll really put the lift to good use," Dougherty said.

Indeed.

____

Chris Dehnel is a field editor for Patch Media who has been writing about snow sports for more than two decades. He is a past-president of the Eastern Ski Writers Association and past board member of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association. His Snow Business column runs periodically during the season.