Royal Mountain, NY - Jan 22, 2010

We were in the Adirondacks this weekend and decided to bring the skis and try out a tiny little mountain near Megski's parents house called Royal Mountain. Truthfully, we had joked about this place a little in the past - in the summer they do motocross and in the winter skiing, and it just all seemed a little, i dunno, weird? quaint? But we heard good things about it from friends, and her parents swore that people really like it. So we gave it a go.

First, this place is small - about 500' vert, and only three lifts. one of those lifts is just for the bunny hill, and the other two are a pair of double chairs that run parallel to one another, to the summit, from almost the same spot. Nominally, there are 14 trails, but that seems like a pretty generous count. really there are about six, with several named connectors in between. There are also a few glades.

So none of that really makes this place sound very appealing right? Wrong. It's small but that's what's so nice about it - the base lodge is rustic and warm. The people working there were all super friendly, with no attitude. our liftie went skiing on his break. Two hot chocolates only cost $3. They had about 6 inches of powder the night before, and the trails were all in very good condition with powder stashes on the edges of the trails even though we got there at 11:00 AM. There was still plenty of untracked powder in the glades, which looked nicely maintained.

The folks skiing and riding there were mostly pretty good, too, which was really nice because they seemed to appreciate that even though the mountain itself is tiny (you can lap it in about 10 minutes, including the lift line), it's got lots of nice spots to explore.

Also - the mountain is very dog friendly. As you can see from the photos of the liftie's dog, who would chase a chair a few hundred yards up the mountain, turn around and come back and do it again, over and over. There were dogs riding up on the lifts and dogs in the base lodge. The whole place has a nice vibe to it - like everyone there knows everyone else (probably because they do - this is in a very sparsely populated area, especially in the winter).

Honestly, if you're in the area, I totally recommend checking this place out, especially if there's fresh snow on the ground. We're totally going back next time we visit.