Bousquet Trip 2/21/05

[teachski]

Date(s) Skied: 2/21/05 Night skiing

Resort or Ski Area: Bousquet, Pittsfield, MA

Conditions: 4+ inches fresh powder, AWESOME!

Trip Report: Having planned to be in the Berkshires for something on Sunday, I decided to contact a friend who skis Bousquet regularly with her husband who is a patroller there. We decided to meet Monday at 3 pm to ski for a few hours. I am not supposed to be skiing because of an injury to my right shoulder (rotator cuff).

Our first run after booting up was on the "Blue Chair", the center pole. As we rode the lift we noticed large areas of untracked snow near the edges of the trail that goes under the chair. Naturally, we had to hit it. It was perhaps the best powder I have seen in Massachusetts in years. We took a few more runs here and ate up the powder.

While skiing this area I noticed that my friends poles were longer than mine by about 2". I am at least 4" taller than her. I suggested we swap poles to see if the shorter pole made it easier for her. She had been having some difficulty using poled and I wanted to see if this was the reason.

Next we decided to try the new chair, since it was open for the first time ever. The chair rode nice, but the lift line was an uphill path and the ramp off of the chair a sharp left, kind of close to the return bullwheel. Again, we managed to find powder as we crossed over to the "yellow chair", a modified Carvalho Savio (sp?). This area was a little blown off at the top.

As we approached the "yellow chair" to go up again, I lost my grip on the ski pole in my right hand. I reached for it and was able to grab it again before it fell to the ground. Unfortunately, the tip stuck in the ground and I caught the pole in my lower right abdomen (I jarred my shoulder sending and excrutiating pain through me and now have a fist shaped bruise on my lower stomach and it is swollen). I won though, the pole ended up looking more like a boomerang.

I could not stop skiing though, the snow was so great and we kept finding untracked powder.

While Bousquet is only a small area, it was a fantastic night.