The Scribe’s ‘Ski the South Tour’ has kicked off and the first stop was in what might seem an unlikely place – the southern coast of New England’s smallest state – Yawgoo Valley Area. New England is home to many millions of skiers and snowboarders. Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire are well known for their mega-resorts. Massachusetts and Connecticut have ski areas that have been around for many decades. But who knew that south of Providence is an area that has been around since the winter of 1964-65.
Small Hill, Deep Roots
Yawgoo Valley is not large by anyone’s standards. Two double chairs and a couple of rope tows servicing about 350 vertical feet of drop. But the Yawgoo tale is not one of numbers, it is a story of families learning to ski, of being a spot where the kids who learned to ski or ride here return years later to the place where their winter sports careers began. The resort has always been committed to learning to ski and ride programs. This year 1300 area kids are in the resort’s teaching stream.
Coastal Carving and Ocean Views
There is something else here that is unique. On a clear day, from the top of the Proud Mary double chair, you can see bridge to Newport and the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. There is a good-natured dispute between Camden Bowl in Maine and Yawgoo about who is closer. Being this near ocean weather does have its challenges for Mountain Operations. As Danielle Dandrea, Director of Operations, says, snowmaking can be a challenge. The resort has an extensive network of fan guns and the snow depths on the trails are impressive. There is also plenty of natural snow which is not always the case.
For the Scribe, a fun day of skiing soon began. He made a dozen laps, always finding a partner for the chair rides. Almost everyone was locally based. Remarkably, he heard not even a single negative comment. People love this place. Almost every skier and rider he met had made pilgrimages north to Vermont and New Hampshire to put to use the skills acquired at Yawgoo.
In Search of the Yawgoons
There was one other goal for The Scribe this day, to track down the Yawgoons. A bit of background here. The Yawgoons are well known in snowboarding culture. Four young men who began riding here. They got skilled, they developed some cool tricks and they began filming themselves. Soon these videos were going viral; riders knew about the Yawgoons. Even far north in Vermont, the Burton crew knew about the Yawgoons. In fact on the day before his departure, The Scribe was riding up on the Stowe Gondola and the subject of Yawgoo floated into the conversation. Immediately, two riders in the cabin said, “you got to go find the Yawgoons, they are famous.” Yawgoo Valley, Rhode Island – who knew…