Connecticut
For those growing up in south-central Connecticut, there were only a few choices if you wanted to be the next Billy Kidd—or Picabo Street. You went night skiing at Powder Ridge in Middlefield, or made a day of it at Mount Southington ski area, which was snugged up against the eastern slope of mighty Southington Mountain, all several hundred feet of it. These two ski hills, located in the burgeoning suburbs between New Haven and Hartford, are the Nutmeg State's Alps, as far as skiers with young families are concerned. In the foothills of the state's legendary "Northwest Corner'' where high ridges meet the Taconic Range and the southern Berkshires, one arrives at the state's largest area, Mohawk Mountain. Located outside the scenic town of Cornwall, Mohawk is the Connecticut area that most resembles its larger cousins one state north in Massachusetts.
A fourth Connecticut area is Ski Sundown, a charming, out-of-the-way hill rising above the eastern shore of Barkhamsted Reservoir in one of the most pristine regions of the state.
The state's wide field and rolling hills are a cross-country skiers delight. The only real "organized'' XC center is Cedar Brook, located just beyond the western bank of the Connecticut River in Suffield, also on the border with Massachusetts.
