Marble Mountain Newfoundland

I had never kissed a cod. Or toasted bannock over a fire. Phrases like Owshegettinonb’y don’t flow off my tongue, and I didn’t know the meaning of mauzy. These experiences were all rites of passage when I skied Marble Mountain in Newfoundland, in eastern Canada.

Bannock is a strip of dough wrapped around a stick that you roast, marshmallow-like, over a bonfire. Owshegettinonb’y translates in the local dialect as “How are you?” and mauzy means muggy.  And that flirtatious cod was part of a “screech-in” ceremony popular at pubs: recite anoath, chug a shot of rum, smooch the fish…. and I became an honorary Newfoundlander.

A land of fjords and barren mountains, Newfoundland is indeed a place apart, an island 11 miles from the Canadian mainland. It didn’t become part of Canada’s confederation until 1949—it had been a British dominion. Even its time zone is quirky, offset from Atlantic Standard Time by 30 minutes instead of the conventional hour.

Marble Mountain Resort rises above the Humber River Valley. Although the mountain has the longest vertical drop (1,700 feet) of any resort in Atlantic Canada, most of its other stats are piddling: just 250 acres and 43 trails. But those ski runs are very, very steep, interspersed with stands of fir, spruce, and birch that pack in powder for tree skiing after a storm. And snow it does: Marble receives an average of 16 feet of snow each year, compared to 12 feet for Mont Tremblant in Quebec.

It feels like a time warp back to what ski resorts were in the 1970s. People leave their regular shoes in cubbies in the airy post-and-beam base lodge and brown-bag it for lunch. Lift ticket prices are also Old School: about $US 40. The resort has been operated by the provincial government since 1988.

Although the vibe is folksy, lifts and grooming are 21st century. Wait lines are rare for the Lightning Express high-speed detachable quad that carries skiers and boarders from the base to the summit of Mount Musgrave. From there, choose black into MacLeod Nine or Deep Bight; blue for Chilliwack, Knute Chute, and a bunch of other cruisers; or green onto Country Road, a three-mile wrap-around trail overlooking the Humber River.

I especially enjoyed the “over the river and through the woods” feel of the intermediate runs. They meander past copses of fir, swoop over dips, and skim ridges overlooking the river. For fast-lane carving, the wide, perfectly pitched Blow Me Down black diamond is almost always groomed. Long-timers still call this trail OMJ—an acronym for “Oh My [fill in the blank]—the reaction of unwitting skiers when they pop over the ridge into the steep descent.

Marble Mountain Newfoundland Signs

Since Marble Mountain is mainly a family ski area, experts can usually suss out untracked powder lines, such as the gladed trees flanking the double-black diamonds of Boomerang and Ugly Stick and the groves along the ski boundary near Tuckamore Tangle.

Nearby Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, offers backcountry skiing, cross-country skiing with 13 miles of groomed trails and snowshoeing. It’s one of the few places where you can actually see the earth’s mantle (middle layer), a stark orangish expanse exposed by 400 million years of weathering.

Deer Lake is the nearest airport.  Air Canada offers flights from Montreal Toronto and other cities.There is base area lodging at Marble Villa.

The kindness with which Newfoundlanders welcome strangers is legendary. After the 9/11World Trade Center attacks in 2001, nearly 7,000 airline passengers were diverted to the island’s Gander International Airport. Residents took stranded travelers into their homes, cooked them meals and shared their wardrobes. Their generosity touched hearts worldwide and inspired the Broadway musical Come from Away.

That friendliness continues on the mountain today. Be prepared to chat a lot on chairlifts. “Where are you from?” locals ask when they’re seated next to an unfamiliar face. That question is almost always followed up by another: “And how do you like it here?”

“A lot,” I answer.