Mount Southington Ski Area

Mount Southington is one of our local ski areas, located just off I-84 about nine miles east of the town of Waterbury.  That puts it just forty-five minutes from our house, making it ideal for short day-trips when there’s snow, and the kids don’t have school.  

8-Hour Adult lift tickets are available through Mount Southington’s website for around $45 if you plan ahead.  Otherwise, an Adult 4-Hour Flex ticket will run you $55 at the base of the mountain.  Junior 4-Hour passes are $45.  They also have Sunset skiing from 3-8 pm for $33.  That’s probably about the best you’re gonna do if all you want is an affordable chance to get out on the snow.  My kids got 4-Hour tickets comp’ed with their seasonal rentals this season, giving us a perfect excuse for a day-trip.

Mount Southington Ski Area

Alas, Mount Southington is not big.  The mountain has three main lifts along with a handful of smaller lifts and carpets, all serving fourteen trails spread over 425 feet of vertical drop and 56 acres of skiable terrain.  Of the trails, six are green, six are blue, and two are black.  But only one of the greens, Dom’s Way, goes all the way to the top of the mountain.  The rest are in the learner’s areas.  Moreover, blue trail Laurel’s Way and black trail Tester are dominated by the mountain’s halfpipe and terrain park, leaving basically four or five ways down the mountain accessible via three lifts.  

My kids and I skied all of this multiple times in just three hours.  We had a lot of fun, and it gave my daughter Emma a chance to do her first black trail, but mostly, we enjoyed it because we got out onto the snow and practiced for other trips.  Southington is great for that, but it’s not the place you’re going to spend most of your winter skiing budget.

Emma after tackling her first black, Thunderbolt

Hannah with snowplow in effect.

The kids on the lift.

The resort’s lodge is a two-story affair, with tables and wall hooks for gear and staging and a small fast-food restaurant down below for lunch or snacking.  The kids and I meant to bring snacks with us but accidently left our bag sitting by the front door.  We wound up ordering two boxes of fries and a bottle of water before we left simply to ward off cannibalism.  The lodge itself got crowded the day we were there, but that’s to be expected, especially at lunch on a holiday weekend.  It was nice enough, but they didn’t have a locker room.  There was just a single bathroom, accessible only from the outside.

Mount Southington is open from 10 am to 10 pm on weekdays and from 9 am to 10 pm on weekends.  Night skiing runs from 6 pm to 10 pm.  We liked all of that well enough, but unless we get an unexpected chance to get away for a day later this season, we probably won’t head back until next year.  It was fun, but it didn’t take long at all to see everything.