Bousquet Trip 1/17/04 PM

[teachski]

Date(s) Skied: January 17, 2004 - Night Skiing

Resort or Ski Area: Bousquet

Conditions: man made machine groomed packed powder, little scratchy spots here and there but overall GREAT snow.

Trip Report: Saturday I drove to join some friends at Bousquet in Pittsfield, MA for some night skiing. I pulled into the lot at about 4:15 pm. Since one of the friends I was skiing with is a patroller I went to the patrol room to meet them. I was greeted by a few other patrollers who knew that I would be arriving. My friends had gone to take a run as I had called to let them know that I was running a little late. After booting up, we hit the slopes. The conditions were great and it was a beautiful evening, not warm by any means, but so much warmer than the preceding week had been.

I had never skied Bousquet before. It was definately NOT what I expected at all. I boarded the center pole hall double lift for a warm-up run. It goes about 3/4 of the way up the mountain (1/2 mile). As we approached the top my friend pointed out a very steep trail with huge snow mounds on it (too large to be moguls-they were about 7 feet tall and 6-10 feet in diameter), she said, "that's Roberto's". When we got to the top I immediately noticed that this chair was not going to be the easiest to get off as my knees lifted nearly to my chin as we got on to the unloading dock. I had to wait for the ramp to begin to drop before standing to get off. Knowing this, I was prepared for future rides. (I have a bad knee.)

We did not take that run{(Roberto's) as the chair we were going on ended near the bottom of it. Unfortunately, the trail map does not include trail names. We headed down a blue cruiser. It was rather wide but did have a nice pitch to it.

We went up this chair again. My friend lead me to a green trail, which was a nice winding trail. I had told her earlier that I wanted to ski them all, so that was what we were doing. Half way down this trail I got a little bored so I decided it was time for a 360. My friend had never done one, so I taught her how and we 360's the rest of the way down the trail.

After this run we went to the patrol room to get her fiance to come join us. We went up the Blue chair and cut across to the trails to the yellow chair (which I think is a Carlevaro-Savio lift, but I may be wrong.) While I was talking to some of the patrollers about the history of the area one of them said that this lift had a plaque on it with a serial number something like 00003. It has lattice type tower much like the older ones at Mt. Snow had. I do not believe that the chairs are the originals however. The ramp off of this chair is very steep. At the bottom, as you cross to the right to begin down the slopes it appears as if the returning chair is going to hit you. I am 5'9" and it was pretty close, I imagine with more snow cover one would have to be much more careful.

We made several runs down the trails from this chair and then got a radio call that it was time for dinner. My friends were providing the patrollers dinner this evening, Chili with all the fixings, Rolls, Apple Crisp and Ice Cream, so we went to the patrol room. When we walked into the room all of the other patrollers were sitting around the table banging their forks and spoons saying, "we want to eat, we want to eat." They were a fun group!

After dinner the Hill Captain (patroller in charge) wanted to do some sled work so they all went to play. My friend and I did a few runs from the yellow chair before meeting up with them again. When I was introduced earlier in the night I was introduced as a former patroller, so when we skied up I was offered a ride in the sled. All of the patrollers standing there said, "don't do it, he flies..." I said sure.

I hopped into the sled and one of the patrollers carried my skis. I opted (on advice) to lie down rather than sit up. We took off down the hill. He was flying. I felt like the sled was up on edge on several turns and actually became airborne on a few bumps. I imagine that this would be what it feels like to luge or bobsled. When we got to the bottom he took me off the biggest bump he could find, a 5-6 foot drop or more from the trails edge to the maintainance area (it was clear and free of all obstacles). I had an exciting ride, it was great. Several of the other patrollers were truly surprised that I was not scared.

We went back to the top again. This time they were planning a "slow" ride. I said, "Oh sure, she would love a ride.", pointing to my friend. He said, it's going to be really slow. She said, ok, but only if it is slow. She got in and lied down like I had, half expecting a fast ride. The tail rope came out though and I knew that it would truly be a slow run. They headed off toward Roberto's and took the sled Down it, then continued on to another steep, narrow diamond trail.

After we played for a while with the patrol we decided to ski some more on our own. Since we were near the blue chair we took it. My legs were burning from skiing slow on the steeps so we decided to take a run on the green trail and practiced more 360's. We skied until about 9:30 and called it quits.

I had a great time and found Bousquet to be much more challenging than I expected. It was not too difficult for me, but I had almost expected to be bored when they first invited me. I certainly was not bored, there is enough variety to keep one busy. We also found ways to make it more exciting on the easy terrain (trying new things.)

A NOTE: The towers for the new chair are up, I did not notice if the cable was or not. The chairs are across the street in the other lot. They look really nice. It appears to be a Hall double.