FAQs

In the winter you can come as a day visitor.  The purchase of a facility use pass gives you access to our 38k ski trail system, 12k dedicated snowshoe trails, and our skating pond and junior tubing hills. Lodging guests do get extra perks – Lodgers have access to our wood burning sauna and our lighted night ski trail, and nothing beats waking up in the peaceful Adirondacks, just steps from the ski trails.  Please remember to check our current trail conditions before making a trip.

We have investigated installing L2 EV charging, taking advantage of the incentives that are currently available.  We have looked at multiple scenarios, between 4 and 10 ports, and unfortunately none of them are affordable or realistic for our situation.  The challenges with our situation include lack of carrier cell service at our location (charging stations must be networked to be eligible for incentives), the seasonal nature of our business (makes it difficult to recover the annual fixed costs), and the physical layout of our parking areas with limited all-weather capacity.  We regret that we are not able to offer EV charging.  Public EV chargers are available in Northville, approximately 10 miles from our location.

We rely on natural snow, and usually nature treats our location very well.  In 42 years of operation, our earliest opening day was November 14 (in the 2018-19 season) and the latest was December 29 (in the 2015-16 season).  Looking at percentages, we have opened in November 38% of the time, we have opened on or before December 10th 67% of the time, and we have opened on or before December 21st 90% of the time.  The full chart of past season data is under “Snowfall History” on our trails and conditions web page.  Typically we have limited trails open on the first day of a season, because some of our trails require more snow base than others to offer good skiing.  Another early season scenario is frozen Woods Lake – often in seasons when we have limited snow in late December, Woods Lake is frozen with the snow cover blown off and offers a few days of fantastic full lake ice skating and kick-sledding.

In the spring, summer, and fall our outdoor facilities are open only to overnight lodging guests.  We offer day use options only during the winter season.

We do not allow pets in our overnight lodging units or on our trails. If you are coming to ski for the day and have your pet with you, we recommend you take the pet for a nice walk before arriving (a Northville/Lake Placid trail head is about one mile from us). Then make a nest out of some blankets in your car so your pet can have a warm, comfortable nap while you ski.

Yes, we have a full line of classic and skate ski equipment available for rental, plus snowshoes, ice skates, tubes, and pulk sleds for toting little ones.  You can rent packages (boots, poles, and skis) or single pieces (e.g. boots, or poles, or skis).  Our rental ski equipment uses NNN compatible boots and bindings.  You can rent by the day for use on-site.  Lodging guests may keep their rental equipment overnight during their visit.  We also offer seasonal rentals of XC ski equipment, our seasonal rentals may be used at Lapland Lake and off-site.   We also sell new (and sometimes used) XC ski and snowshoe equipment.

You may find great bargains at yard sales, closeout sales, swap meets, and similar.  If you are an experienced skier with several sets of equipment already, you probably have a good understanding of equipment types, sizing, and condition so keep your eyes open for good deals.  If you are just starting out, here are some questions to consider before buying used or closeout equipment :

• Is it the right type of equipment? Classic XC skis include narrow racing skis, intermediate width touring skis, and wider backcountry skis.  Each of these classes include classic waxable, mechanical pattern (also known as no-wax or fish-scale), and skin skis.  Most beginners start with mid-length mechanical pattern touring skis, but your needs could be different depending on how and where you expect to ski.
• Is it the right size for you? Classic XC skis are sized mainly by skier weight.  If you are considering a relatively new ski, manufacturer sizing recommendations should be available.  If you get the wrong size classic ski you may have difficulty getting good grip (ski too large/stiff for you) or you may get poor glide (ski too small/soft for you).  Poles are sized by skier height.  Boots need to fit your feet, so if you are purchasing sight unseen check on the return or exchange policy.
• Is it in suitable condition? For used skis, check the base for bad scratches and gouges, check for excessive wear on mechanical patterns, and check for delamination especially at the tail.  Make sure bindings are securely attached to the ski and work properly.  For used boots, check the sole where it clips into the binding and check straps, zippers, etc.
• Does it use a current binding system? Almost all new skate and touring XC skis use NNN compatible bindings and boots.  There is a lot of used equipment for sale with proprietary Salomon binding systems – these are good systems but the bindings and matching boots are becoming unavailable.  Changing a used ski to an NNN compatible binding system usually costs around $100.