In New Hartford, the Ski Season Gets Decided in the Ten Days Before November 8

Ski Sundown has not announced an opening day for 2026-27. Still, most of the decisions that shape a Ratlum Road winter fall between Friday, October 30, and Sunday, November 8. Pass prices go up partway through that stretch, and the Sundown Ski Patrol's gear swap fills the base lodge. This is also the first season you need a new card before you can reach a lift. In the last three seasons, the lifts opened weeks after all of that.

Here is the calendar from this Thursday through early December:

1. Friday, October 30, 4 to 7 p.m. The Pumpkin Walk and Carving Contest on Main Street.
2. Saturday, October 31, midnight. The last chance to buy a season pass at the lower price.
3. Sunday, November 1. Season pass prices go up.
4. Friday, November 6, through Sunday, November 8. The Sundown Ski Patrol Ski Swap in the base lodge.
5. Wednesday, December 9, 5 to 7 p.m. Holiday Sip & Shop at Ski Sundown.

Main Street Comes First

The stretch begins in town, not on the hill. The New Hartford Pumpkin Walk and Carving Contest runs on Main Street on Friday, October 30, from 4 to 7 p.m. Entry is free. Bring a carved pumpkin to enter the contest, which has several age categories, and stay for games, music and a Halloween stroll down Main Street.

It lands on the last evening before the season pass deadline. If your household has been putting off the pass decision, the walk home from Main Street on Friday night is the last easy time to make it.

The Pass Deadline Is the First Real Decision

Ski Sundown's 2026-27 season pass page lists two prices for every age group. The lower price holds through midnight on October 31. On November 1 it goes up.

A family of two adults and two juniors saves $400 by buying before the deadline. The $750 adult price after November 1 matches the full adult season pass price in each of the three previous seasons, according to the year-by-year table at NewEnglandSkiHistory.com. In practice, the October price works as a discount for deciding early.

Lift tickets give the deadline a baseline. For 2026-27, an adult peak ticket is $79 for eight hours, $71 for four hours and $46 for night skiing. On non-holiday weekdays, those prices drop to $70 and $62, and night skiing stays $46. At the October price, an adult pass costs about as much as eight peak eight-hour days. At the November price, it takes about nine and a half days to break even. Sundown's own comparison says a pass "pays for itself in ~10 visits."

Adult and senior passes come with a few extras that matter if you live nearby. Each one includes a friends-and-family voucher for one night of skiing, good Sunday through Thursday from 6 to 10 p.m. Every passholder also gets 20% off one full-price item at the Ski Shop during the 2026-27 season.

The Weekday 8-Pack is the other option. It costs $275 for ages 5 and up and gives eight visits Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. That works out to about $34 a visit, compared with $70 for a weekday eight-hour adult ticket. If you leave and come back on the same day, it still counts as one visit. The 8-Pack is not valid on weekends or during the day on December 28 to 31, 2026, or January 1, January 18, and February 15 and 16, 2027. It does work for night skiing from 6 to 10 p.m. on those holiday dates. It is non-transferable. For a household that skis after work or school on weeknights, the 8-Pack may fit better than a full pass.

This Year, Every Ticket Lives on a Card

Every pass and ticket now needs a card, which is the biggest change at Sundown this winter. The resort's history page lists one entry for 2026: "Installed 10 RFID-enabled Axcess Smart Gates and 2 Go Card Kiosks."

The Go Card is a reloadable RFID card. It holds lift tickets, season passes, lessons, programs and rentals, and you can keep using it in later seasons. The first card costs $5, and each person gets one. With the card in a pocket, you can walk straight to the lift gates without stopping at a ticket window. Sundown recommends keeping it in a pocket by itself, away from other cards and electronics.

Sundown's setup steps start at home:

1. Create an account through the Buy Online section of Sundown's website before your first visit.
2. Buy your pass, ticket or program online. A confirmation email arrives with a QR code.
3. Scan the QR code at one of the two Go Card kiosks at the mountain to print your card.

There are only two kiosks, and the first busy weekend after opening will likely bring in a lot of new cardholders. Setting up accounts and buying passes during the pass-deadline week saves you that step later. It also makes the next item on the calendar more useful. You may already be at the base lodge on November 6 or 7 with a QR code on your phone and a reason to be there.

The Swap Fills the Lodge on November 6

The Sundown Ski Patrol Ski Swap returns to the base lodge Friday, November 6, through Sunday, November 8. Ski Sundown calls it "one of New England's largest and longest-running swaps." Sellers can bring skis, snowboards, boots, poles and clothing, and on-site mounting and tune-ups are available. The Ski Patrol's page lists sales hours of 4 to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. Ski Sundown's event page lists Friday sales from 2 p.m., so shoppers who want an early look should check the patrol's page before driving over.

Selling at the swap has its own rules, and they decide whether a garage full of outgrown gear turns into cash or a donation. According to the Ski Patrol's consignor page, drop-off runs from 2 to 9 p.m. on Friday, November 6, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 7. The patrol checks that items can be sold, tags them, puts them out and handles payment. The consignment fee is 20%, so sellers keep 80% of each sale. The money is the Ski Patrol's main source of funding. The patrol uses it to buy medical supplies and equipment.

The patrol accepts clean, gently used skis, snowboards, cross-country skis, boots and ski or snowboard clothing in excellent condition. It also takes related items such as boot bags, carriers, snowshoes and race gear. It does not accept:

• Damaged or unserviceable gear, including bindings more than 10 years old and skis or boards with damaged edges
• Dirty or damaged clothing
• Used poles, helmets, gloves or goggles
• Any clothing that is not for winter sports, including T-shirts, shorts and shoes

The rule that matters most is the pickup deadline. Sellers must come in person to collect unsold items and their check by 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 8. Anything left after that, including checks, counts as a donation. The patrol does not mail checks, and each check is made out to the name the seller registered with. The patrol suggests picking up between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday, which leaves items on the floor as long as possible.

Then the Calendar Goes Quiet

After the swap ends, the hill has no fixed date until December. Sundown's operating-hours page describes the preseason as running "to Opening Day" without giving a date. Recent seasons give a rough sense of the wait, based on the NewEnglandSkiHistory.com record:

The last two openings came in mid-December, about six weeks after the pass deadline. The three before that came in the last week of the month. Sundown has published no target for this season. Two upgrades from recent years shape how fast the hill can get ready. In 2021 Sundown built a pipeline extension to the MDC that can draw up to five million gallons of water a day for making snow quickly. In 2024 it replaced the Exhibition Triple, installed in 1977, with the Exhibition Quad. Sundown says it is the first quad lift with a loading conveyor in Connecticut, with capacity for 2,400 riders an hour.

Once the lifts open, the hill runs long days. In-season hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends and holidays. Those night hours are why the 8-Pack, the night ticket and the friends-and-family voucher are worth more to people who live a few minutes away than to anyone driving in for the day.

In early December, Ski Sundown's events calendar lists a Holiday Sip & Shop on December 9 from 5 to 7 p.m., with passholders getting 20% off one item. If you bought a pass by October 31, December 9 may be a good time to use that one-item Ski Shop discount.

For more on how the town works the rest of the year, our New Hartford neighborhood guide and our summer piece on the Bridge Street corner cover the river side of the calendar.

If you're thinking about a home close enough to Ratlum Road to make weeknight skiing part of the routine, or about a New Hartford move timed around the winter calendar, the team at Jacek Mikolajczyk knows the Farmington Valley through every season. Let's Connect.