Your Web Guide to Connecticut Ski Areas

Connecticut Ski Areas

The skiing industry in Connecticut started during the 1940s with one man, a dream and a radical idea.

As the founder of Vermont’s phenomenally successful Mt. Snow, Walter Schoenknecht was a skiing entrepreneur who could bring into being his vision of the perfect ski area.

His creative thinking for Mt. Snow paid off substantially as more than 10,000 skiers a day, snow plowed, jump turned and schussed down the slopes he had conceived.

For many years, Mt. Schoenknecht was a dominant player amongst the growing number of ski areas in southern Vermont. But when usually frequent and heavy snows moderated, the enterprise suffered a revenue drop.

Discouraged by flagging profits, Mr. Schoenknecht left Mt. Snow and took a similar but smaller-scale dream to the State of Connecticut. It seemed an odd place to develop a ski area inasmuch as, with some exceptions, the state is not known for its mountains—even in the Berkshires—nor for frequent, heavy snowstorms. But he had found the perfect spot to unleash his idea.

To the utter amazement of those observing, he was granted permission to build his ski area, and he named it Mohawk Mountain, the first ski area in the state.

It would be at this mountain that, in 1948, his idea, the invention of a mechanized way to make snow, would first be tested, and that’s why the ski area is dubbed the "cradle of snowmaking."

His invention was an amazing success. If temperatures were below 32 degrees, ideally between 15 and 25 degrees, his invention could and did make snow where no natural white stuff could be found.

Today, snowmaking technology, greatly enhanced from the first snowmakers, makes far better snow. The snow crafted with the earlier snow manufacturing machines tended to ice over, is ubiquitous around the world. If Mother Nature was going to be penurious with snow, Schoenknecht had found a way to rebel against her.

Mohawk, in Cornwall, is one of five Connecticut ski areas, the others being: Mount Southington, which is close to Hartford; Powder Ridge/Whitewater Mountain in Middlefield; Ski Sundown;not far from Hartford; and the Woodbury Ski Area in Woodbury.

   Connecticut's Five Ski Areas

46 Great Hollow Rd. West Cornwall, CT 06753
Elevation Summit : 1600 feet
Elevation Base : 960 feet
Vertical Drop : 650 feet
Longest Trail : 1.25 miles
Number of trails : 24
Lifts : 6
- 1 triple
- 4 doubles
- 1 Wonder Carpet (in the Hawk’s Nest)
Acreage : 107 skiable acres on 350 scenic acres of state forest.
Snowmaking : 95% of all terrain.
Night Skiing Trails : 12 Trails (more info in night skiing trails)

396 Mount Vernon Road, Plantsville, CT 06479
Mountain Statistics
Total number of trails: 14
% Beginner: 33
% Intermediate: 42
% Advanced: 25
Longest Trail: Dom's Way 7/8th of a mile
Alpine Parks: 1
Snow Making: 100%
Night Skiing: 100%
Total no. of
skiable acres: 51
Vertical Drop: 425
Peak Elevation: 525 above sea level
Base Elevation: 100 above sea level

Lifts: 8
Lift Capacity: 6254 per hour
Types of lifts:
1 Triple Chair;
2 Double Chairs;
2 T-Bars;
2 Handle Tows; 1 Carpet Lift