Jiminy Peak - 3/14/04

Date(s) Skied: Sunday, 3/14/04; 8:50 AM - 1:15 PM

Resort or Ski Area: Jiminy Peak, Hancock, Massachusetts

Conditions: Packed Powder, Some dense powder, Lots of scratchies late. Calm winds. Some sun early, then high thin clouds, ~30*F.

Trip Report: Great day at Jiminy today. Very few liftlines at the six, the Triple and the Widow White Quad. The Q1 wasn't running which I think kept some traffic off Whitetail which was the run of the day.

We started on the six at 8:50 and did our customary skier's left to right attack of every run. We hit West Way (firm packed powder; you can tell the powder set up yesterday); West Way/Foxes - the bumps on Foxes were a mess. Icey, erratically spaced bumps, a far cry from the bumps I enjoyed at Loon 2 1/2 weeks ago. We then hit North Glade which had slightly better bumps in the center. Then on to Whirlaway which had some nice powder (albeit dense and chopped) on skier's left. Same for Whitetail which was nice the whole way. We repeated on Whitetail and then Jericho which had the same dense powder on skier's right. Wild Turkey was a little beat up. It hasn't been great this season. We then rode to Widow White Quad to hit Noreaster which was nice. Then onto Panorama which was very thin and then Noreaster (scaped). A total of eleven runs before lunch which we ate at 11 AM. Very little wait at the six today which provided for a lot of skiing (12,500+ feet of vertical in just over two hours!).

Ate the customary lunch at Christiansen's which was dead when we got there, but began to fill up by the time we left at 11:30. Rode the Triple for a run down West Way and then Ace of Spades. Ace has some nice chunky powder on skier's left. Rode the trip again for another down the Foxes. The bumps softened a bit by this time, but I peeled out of my binding on Lower Fox and had to hike a few yards up to retrieve my ski. We then rode the six for the rest of the day for some more runs down Whitetail (3x) and Jerico (1x).

Huge amount of skiing in ~4 1/2 hours. The mountain is holding up well thanks to Friday's snowfall. 10" is a stretch but whatever fell really brought the mountain back to respectable late-winter conditions. We witnessed a lot of melting today though. Damn high March sun angle! Hopefully they'll see more snow this week.

Great Day! Whitetail wins "run of the day"!

Click HERE for pics.

After looking at your pictures, it is amazing what 1 week & snow does to change the landscape. Last week looking down from Jericho all of the fields were brown, now there is snow. I would say more snow fell at Jiminy than at Butternut.

Yup. And more is expected tomorrow, and maybe more throughout the week. Could make a great trip to the Beast on Friday...

Glad to see you had a great day! Morning sun, perfect snow temps, and enough clod to keep the conditions good in the afternoon. I had originally thought I might ski Jiminy on Sunday, but when I got the Powder alert on Friday decided to ski then. Thanks for the tip Greg! I first got wind that Jiminy got dump on through your post.

So far for me, Whitetail has not been good. Good to see they had it in great condition for your trip. No mention of J. Handcock. Did you ski it? One of my favs because its all natural cover when its open.

Side note. So far this season, none of Jiminy's galdes have been open. Nor have Upper Ex. and Upper liftline. Maybe this new storm will change that.

Jimme

jimme said:

So far for me, Whitetail has not been good. Good to see they had it in great condition for your trip.

Click to expand...

I think since the Q1 was closed many folks bypassed it so it held up most of the day. There's a little access trail under the Q1 which connects the summit area to Whitetail.

jimme said:

No mention of J. Handcock. Did you ski it? One of my favs because its all natural cover when its open.

Click to expand...

No. Actually I never have. We only took one run over there after lunch to ski Ace. Problem is you're forced to ride the Triple unless you want to hike the hill back to the six. I'll have to try JH sometime though.

jimme said:

Side note. So far this season, none of Jiminy's galdes have been open. Nor have Upper Ex. and Upper liftline. Maybe this new storm will change that.

Click to expand...

I think they're gonna need a good dump to open the glades. Riptide and Willie's may have the best shot as the get some higher elevation blow-off, but Hot Wheels will get scraped pretty quick. It gets a lot of sun and there's not much in there to begin with.

Upper Exhibition has a shot and it's been tracked, but Liftline will need a lot. The top is really blown off and there are 18" twigs poking through most of the trail. Should be a good week for the Berkshires regardless. Feel like playing hookey and hitting the Beast on Friday, jimme?