Crotched Mountain Ski and Ride

My favorite 1000′ vertical mountain. Close by and they have a High Speed Lift!
Your legs will be begging for mercy before the end of the day with only a 4 min rest while you ride up the lift.
Lots of trail variety. Moguls. Lots of sweet jumps too if you are into that.

Season two as a snowboarder and trip two of the year. No lines, pure powder bliss! Super friendly staff, super cheap online deals (14.00 for Valentines Night, 5 PM — 3 AM) and really comfy lodge. We park in front of the lifts easily scoring great parking. The park is fun for my man. I can navigate the blacks which are probably blues on a bigger mountain. Love the scenic vibe all around.

Great mountain to take your kids to for lessons. They had a blast and spent the afternoon with friends they made in their lesson. We had a blast too, the lift takes you up to the top in about 4 mins. It’s not far from our home in Amherst and the prices were good considering how expensive skiing is becoming in New England.

Live in Massachusetts? Thinking of going to Mt. Wachusett? DON’T!!!
Crotched is only another 35 minutes of highway driving, and the difference between Wachusett and Crotched is HUGE!
Crotched has WAY BETTER GROOMING, and trails that are more of challenge. Also, buy your lift tickets online to save $$$!
Wachusett = F
Crotched = A+

We’re from CT visiting UNH and decided to get some ski lessons and r&r…looked online and saw crotched mtn. We were pleasantly surprised! Ski area was not too big and not too small… just right! Everyone was so friendly, the staff was great and very down to earth. Slopes were awesome. If you’re looking for reasonable prices and a nice tranquil place to ski with the family. this is the place. no long lines, great burgers and awesome staff. We will be back! Thanks Crotched!!! ;)

Love Crotched.
An intermediate mtn but still plenty of terrain to keep it fun. I can let my kid roam free and not worry about him getting hurt or lost.
The Rocket makes this a great mountain. Gets you to the top in 4-​ish mins. They did have a couple issues with it early season but it’s been fine last few trips.
Very laid back and «young» feeling place. Kids won’t get yelled at for screwing around and being kids.
Good lodge, shop and bar too. Full rental shop on site for the learners. Limited crowds most days too.
They have discount tickets online which will save you a few bucks at the window.
And don’t miss the pond skimming in the spring!!!
See you there.

Awesome family mountain! Have been here with family last 2 MLK days. Ski school rocks for kids, small groups really helps build their skills. Quad lift is great and crowds are almost non existent. Buy tickets online before you get there.

Went to Crotched Mountain on December 30^th, 2013 and their high speed lift, the Crotched «Rocket» wasn’t operating for some weird reason (there was no explanation given about what was wrong with it). Since this lift goes to the top of the mountain, it limited some of the longer runs on the mountain and more difficult trails. Trails that were open were mostly geared towards beginners. Lines were shorter than at the bigger mountains however and I was able to get quite a few runs in. Would recommend for beginners and would probably give 4 stars if the Rocket was working when I went.

Crotched Mountain & Mt. Sunapee became my «home mountains» when I moved up to Jaffrey for the year. I only skied at Crotched after 6PM this winter, taking full advantage of their very reasonably priced partial day tickets & of course, Midnight Madness.
It’s a tiny mountain — the kind of hill you’d run up for cross-​country workouts in the summer or fall. The lifts are really slow & the facilities aren’t fancy. However, none of this matters when you’re able to ski until 3AM on weekend nights. That alone is the biggest reason to ski Crotched — you’ll have the mountain almost entirely to yourself after 1AM. Sometimes there’s a live band playing indoors, & there’s usually a bonfire outside with music being played over the PA.
They have outstanding snowmaking as well! This winter was miserable in terms of snowfall, but you wouldn’t have known it based on what they could produce. Yea, it was icy some nights & scraped down in places because they don’t really groom for night riding, but it isn’t terrible. They have a couple «blacks» (definitely blues by other standards, but steep enough to have a little fun on), a run or two with bumps, & lots of interesting terrain park features. It’s a perfect beginner mountain, & it’s well-​lit at night.
It’s a snowboarder-​dominated mountain at night — lots of high school kids, it seems. This can be obnoxious because, personally, when I’m skiing, I don’t want to constantly have to be looking over my shoulder to make sure some young kid is gonna not hit me. Luckily, almost none of them last past midnight.

The long dormant Crotched Mountain has been back in business for 4 – 5 years. Not great for beginners or families in my opinion, a small mountain that is usually busy and doesn’t have the best conditions. Even as an experience skier, I have had a hard time figuring out the rating system. I have tried to take some beginners with me on beginner slopes other than the ‘goat pull’ but the beginner trails at the top of the mountain have enough difficult spots to maneuver that I would probably consider them more intermediate. This place is usually fairly busy and icy in the afternoon. I would the staff performing a ‘noon groom’ on the slopes, most of the slopes have the powder scratched off by 11 AM.
The food and eating area as a whole is pretty poor. There are almost 100% kids running the food area and it shows. The cafeteria smells pretty bad, is rarely cleaned up and has sub par quality for, even for ski resorts, that is saying something.
Unfortunately Crotched is one of the closer mountains to Boston and one of only two ski resorts within 90 minutes — 2 hours, so they are a little too small to handle the demand but big enough to just be treated like you are an unimportant number.
A couple of the more elderly employees at this mountain have been ‘holding it down and holding it together’ sine they re-​opened but there just are not enough people that care that work at this place. In my opinion this location will always play second fiddle to Pats Peak until they are more serious about quality control instead of just hiring whatever kids are looking for a free pay check and a good time.

I took my 8-​year old twins to Crotched yesterday. I was heading up on the rocket with my 2 children and my mother when we had a misload. My mother totally missed the chair because she didn’t get up to the spot fast enough so she caught the next one. My daughter did not sit securely on the seat and was hanging on with her forearms while most of her butt was off the chair. I thought about attempting to pull her up to the seat but my sister had just told me about the mother who did the same thing with her six-​year old daughter on the same chair in early December and the daughter ended up falling off the chair half-​way up. The mom jumped off after her. Both were seriously hurt. So, I instinctively told my daughter to let go and gave her a little shove. I thought that the chair would abruptly stop but instead the chairs just kept flying over her as she lay terrified on the ground. My mother screamed for my sister who was sitting on the deck of the smaller lodge. My sister ran to help my daughter while the chairlift kept going. A man on the chair behind my mom yelled «STOP THE CHAIR, A LITTLE GIRL FELL OFF!» The chair finally stopped after 4 chairs had gone over my daughter and my sister was able to run over to pick her up. Several patrol people finally came over & took her to the first aid area of the lodge where I met up with her after I skied down the mountain. A couple of managers met with me since I was so upset. They listened calmly and took notes and said the situation would be investigated. I have no way of knowing if they will do this but I’m posting about it here in hopes that other people who choose to go there are aware of this safety issue. I recognize that loading the chairlift is a shared responsibility between the rider and the attendant, but when the riders are children, the attendants should be more vigilant in making positively sure that the load is successful. There should be one person designated to watch the loaders until the point of the bar going down. I am thankful my daughter was ok, but I fear for the next little girl who has a misload go unnoticed and decides to cling on.