[ghaff]

>It seems like a ski resort 3.5 hours from Boston should be absolutely brimming with customers every long weekend.

They at least used to be. Probably still are but those are basically the mountains near route 93 in NH. NYC was more inclined to hit Vt. peaks like Stratton and Killington. (Stowe too but longer drive.)

There's more overhead with hopping on a plane but, as I wrote elsewhere, I tended to switch from weekends/long weekends in New England to weeks out West where the snow was (usually) a lot better. And SLC is unusually easy to get to the mountains from.