You know that you're in Bode Miller country when you ski at Bretton Woods, the up-and-coming New Hampshire resort that may soon rival the biggest and best in New England.

Cherie Perkins of Windham poses by the sign for Bode's Run, a black-diamond trail named for the 2005 overall World Cup winner
ALL PHOTOS SCOTT ANDREWS

Bode Miller, the 2005 overall World Cup champion, is "Director of Skiing," a ceremonial title that adds luster to a topnotch resort that already has plenty to brag about: most skiable acres in NH, most high-speed quads in NH, Top Ten ratings in many, many categories of quality and so on.

Signs of Bode are everywhere, including an electronic screen that displays his recent race results and current World Cup standings.

After the World Cup season ends, he comes home -- he has a house less than a mile from the mountain -- and leads a few activities at the Woods.

Bretton Woods boasts four high-speed quadruple chairlifts, the most in New Hampshire

Riding to the top yesterday on the Zephyr Express quad

Cherie Perkins of Windham and I ventured through Crawford Notch yesterday to ski at Bode's abode, and we loved the experience. Snow conditions were outstanding and virtually all the cruising terrain was open. Seven chairs were running, including all four detaches.

The Woods is located on Route 302 about 95 miles from Portland; drive time is a bit over two hours.

Cherie hadn't skied the Woods in years, and she was awed by the high-speed Rosebrook Express Quad and the pod of new trails that it serves -- including black-diamond Bode's Run.

She was also impressed by West Mountain, which opened half a dozen years ago and boasts some really mellow glades.

Despite all the great new developments, Cherie and I especially appreciated a few of the old-fashioned natural snow trails accessed by the new Zephyr Quad, including Coos Caper, Granny's Grit, Herb's Secret and Crawford's Blaze.

Cherie had never skied West Mountain before yesterday

These four classic New England runs get relatively little traffic despite being almost dead-center on the trail map.

As we were leaving, we ran into three skiing friends. Craig and Barbara Whiton are stalwarts of the Portland nordic scene and had come up for the cross-country skiing, which is also topnotch at the Woods. After finishing, Craig and Barbara stopped by the mountain base lodge to hook up with Rik Dow, who was closely associated with two Maine ski mountains before crossing over to the Woods.

Driving back, Cherie and I hit the brakes for the "Famous February Supper" held at the Bartlett Union Congregational Church. These all-you-can eat food feasts, held for decades on the four Saturdays in February, are popular with skiers. One guy who sat near us gave a glowing report of the nearby Bear Notch Ski Touring Center, where he had skied a few hours earlier.

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