Song Mountain: Lake Effect in Riblet Heaven

When I visited Labrador Mountain a couple weeks ago, my sons and I had such a good time that I knew I would be back to check out her sister ski area, Song Mountain. I went to Song on Saturday and I wasn’t disappointed.

driving to Song Mountain

The drive up was a perfect demonstration of upstate New York’s schizophrenic weather. It was overcast, then it was snowing, then everything cleared and it was sunny. I got off Route 17 onto 81 and it started snowing again. By the time I reached Song’s exit, it was like I’d driven to the Arctic.

I stopped to fill up my gas tank and there was a snowmobile at one of the other pumps. Some of the surface roads hadn’t seen a plow. I had to slow down to let more snowmobiles cross the road.

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Toggenburg Hits the Spot

With the most recent nor’easter hitting New York midweek, I had some serious fear of missing out. Would there be any powder left for me? I was able to get Thursday off, so I needed to choose my ski slope wisely.

Evan was in a similar predicament. The storm was hitting south of Syracuse, hard, and I suggested Toggenberg. Evan was hesitant, he had never been, and his Indy Pass (aka Greek Peak) was burning a hole in his pocket. I thought that Togg would have the goods and would remain uncrowded. We made our plan and a bit before 10am on Thursday we met up in the parking lot. As expected, it was almost empty when we arrived.

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Labrador: Under the Radar

It was ski-on just about all day. There were small crowds, cheap(er) tickets, no reservations required. There was plenty of natural snow, a variety of terrain to choose from, fun low angle trees… three cool old fixed grip chairs and a T bar. I discovered that Labrador Mountain in Truxton, NY is awesome. The only thing I couldn’t figure out is how I’d gone this long without checking the place out.

road to Labrador

When I got home from my first visit there, I decided to do some research. I pulled out a couple of books I have on ski history and was surprised to find no mention of either Labrador Mountain or Truxton, NY. I turned to Wikipedia and was astounded to find that there was no page for Lab.

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