Newbury, N.H.
“Whenever I’m here, I’m surrounded by old friends,” said Moreen, 64, now in his ninth year at the lift helm. “It’s like a family.”
These friends and family are not only the skiers and snowboarders who return to the Mount Sunapee slopes year after year, waving at him from their lift chairs, but also the slopes themselves. Moreen prefers skiing early in the day, arriving right when the lifts open at 8 a.m., so he can enjoy the quietness of the mountain for a couple of hours. By mid-morning on Saturday, when the crowds had started trickling in, he was packing up his car to go home.
Since Mount Sunapee’s season opened on Wednesday, some early-bird skiers and snowboarders have wasted no time gearing up for their winter sport of choice. Many said this was because the mountain is a place they associate with kinship and communion.
Thirteen-year-old Teddy Pfeifle, of Bow, N.H., has been eager for ski season to start because it means he gets to see who he calls his “winter friends,” he said. Though the temperature outside was inching toward 50 degrees, Teddy carefully decked himself out in a hat, scarf and goggles, until only the tip of his nose was visible.
Teddy’s been skiing since he was 18 months old, according to his dad, Bret Pfeifle. “And his (11-year-old) sister Adie, I think we have a picture of her somewhere skiing with a pacifier.”
Sunapee usually opens on or around Thanksgiving weekend, weather permitting, and the Pfeifle family tries to go every year. “We have a joke that you shouldn’t try to find us the day after Thanksgiving, because we’ll be skiing down a mountain,” Pfeifle said.
Among the fledgling shredders on Saturday was a snow-suited Brooke Barr, who at 16 months old was having “her first real experience with snow,” said her mom, Kara Barr.
Barr had skied competitively at Bates College, in Maine, where she also converted her future husband, Phil Barr, to the sport. The family had come up to the Sunapee area to visit family for Thanksgiving, and wanted to introduce Brooke to snow before heading back home to Concord, Mass.
“We’re hoping to get her into (skiing), too,” Kara said.
Brooke wasn’t in skis — yet — but evidence suggests she’ll be open to it when the time comes. She was picking up snow chunks with her bare hands to admire them up close, and waved them gleefully at passersby.
“Well, we have our Christmas card picture picked out,” joked her dad.
Nearby, three generations of skiers had congregated on top of the bunny slope to watch their youngest, 3-year-old Tyler Graham, of Merrimack, ride down the hill on a canary yellow sled. To his credit, he was able to keep up with his 3-year-old cousins, twins Anya and Skylar Fraize, of Nashua, N.H., if only because of his willingness to sacrifice a boot or two in the process.
Tyler’s 11-year-old sister Ella was plopped down on the ground next to grandpa Tim Fraize, who lives in Nashua but already has a retirement home lined up in Sunapee.
“Ella, she’s been skiing her whole life,” Fraize said, though one of Ella’s feet was actually clipped onto a snowboard. Asked which sport she liked better, a chorus of “oohs” came from all the adults — apparently it was a touchy subject.
“This is a big debate with Grandpa,” said her mom, Kate Graham. “So, which one, Ella?”
“Um,” said Ella. “Let’s see.” She thought very hard for a moment, her gears visibly turning, but it was too tough a call. “Can I say both? I really like them both even though snowboarding is my favorite. It’s more fun. But either one is a great way to get away from school and work.”
The grownups laughed. “Oh yeah? And how’s work going, Ella?” teased Anya and Skylar’s mom, Julie Fraize.
Jokes aside, Mount Sunapee Resort holds a special place in the collective Fraize-Graham memory. Both Fraize and Graham grew up skiing these slopes, and said they hoped their kids would pick up the tradition.
Anya, or maybe Skylar, had ground to a halt on her sled and watched indignantly as her sister and cousin continued to careen down the bunny slope. She turned around to the grownups for help.
“Lean to the right!” her mom yelled. The sled tipped over along with its driver. “Oops. Too far.”
Toward the other end of the age spectrum was Steve Bernier, 71, of Sunapee. He’s been skiing for 57 years, 35 of which have been at the Mount Sunapee Resort, where he also taught skiing for many years.
Bernier wanted to ski on opening weekend in part to celebrate the resort’s 70th anniversary, and to celebrate how it’s evolved over the years into a “real skier’s mountain,” he said in the lodge, as he pulled on his ski boots without needing to look. “It’s gotten better terrain, better lifts, better customer service and better grooming.”
He also expressed his approval for Mount Sunapee’s new lift pass system, the Real.Easy Card, which replaces traditional lift tickets by providing each skier with a radio-frequency identification, or RFID card, which automatically opens lift gates that are equipped with special RFID readers. Several other ski resorts in the Twin States have also recently adopted this RFID technology, including Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, N.H., Okemo Mountain Resort in Ludlow, Vt., Smuggler’s Notch Resort in Smuggler’s Notch, Vt., Sugarbush Resort in Waterbury, Vt., and Waterville Valley Resort in Waterville Valley, N.H.
“It’s more efficient, and it’s very high-tech,” he said. “I’ve heard of them doing it like this out west, so I guess it’s making its way over here.”
Bernier was out that day with his friend, Bob Peterson, 75, of Grantham. Peterson was one of the few skiers interviewed who didn’t start on the slopes as a child. A Worcester, Mass., native, Peterson hadn’t grown up in a “skiing family,” but when he moved into a skiing neighborhood in the late 1970s, he caught the bug.
Now, he can’t imagine what else he would do on a crisp, clear winter day. “Why would I sit at home right now?” he said. “This is what I do.”
EmmaJean Holley can be reached at ejholley@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.