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Berkshire East 02/17

Tin

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Oct 14, 2009
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ZooMass Slamherst
Arrived at about 9:30am and skied until 3:30pm. Some icy bumps on the right side of Flying Cloud, everything else was groomed but with tough. Blizzard Island was the only gladed area that actually had snow. Beast and East Glade required taking the skis off at times and I'm sure the guys in the base lodge shop had lots of core shots to do. If you ventured off the main areas of these trails you could find enough snow to have some fun in the trees. The trees in the Roy's Way/Chute/Mohawk had plenty of coverage and a great time. Liftline was the run of the day, once again some bare spots, but the bumps were forming and some soft snow could be found along the sides. A few minute wait for the Summit Triple around lunch time as you would expect. We will definitely be back soon.
 

o3jeff

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Mar 12, 2007
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Southington, CT
Was our first time there yesterday. Conditions weren't too bad considering that it was pretty windy out. As long as you stayed to the skiers right of the Summit Triple the wind wasn't bad. Conditions on that side of the mountain were fairly good while the the other side of the hill was really wind blown.

What left a bad taste about the place with us is that at 4:00 the lifty tells us this is our last run(signs say 4:30?) So we take our last run and go inside and make a quick sandwich for the kids and take our boots off and head back out around 4:45 to gather our skis and head to the car. While we were inside the employes must of been in a big hurry to leave and just took everyones skis and poles and literally laid them down in a big pile next to the door for you to sift thru to find yours in order to bring the ski racks in. I guess locking them to the rack might have kept them from moving that rack of left you looking for the rack with your skis.

Other than those two issues we enjoyed skiing the mountain.
 

bdfreetuna

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Jan 12, 2012
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keep the faith
I skied Berkshire East on Saturday.

First run I took was Beast because that area is rarely open so I wanted to take advantage of.. the rock garden... LOL. I didn't end up taking skis off I just avoided rocks as well as possible. Took a few more runs in there later in the day. Some of the best skiing was to skiers right of the Beast. All fresh tracks in the woods and enough snow to bury most snow snakes.

The rest of the woods skied fine IMO. Occasional rocks but more than enough snow.

Best run was Grizzly into War Dance. Grizzly had "thin cover expert conditions" sign up top but it was really fine. Nice bumps, not icy, and it goes right into War Dance which was groomed nicely and easy carving. Top of mountain to bottom via that line in just over 1 minute. Love Berkshire East.. there are few mountains where you can just storm the vert like that on multiple runs.

Only trail that kind of sucked was Flying Cloud it was icy in the bumps. UMass was kind of icey in the morning as well.

Anyway BIG UPS to Berkshire East for keeping Beast open and pulling down ropes on Liftline and other runs during the day. I chewed up my skis pretty bad on Saturday. Which means I was having a great time :)
 

bdfreetuna

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keep the faith
I have some pics from Saturday.. I figure most people here have no idea Berkshire East even has terrain like this so here you go:::

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.491869267547547.119501.100001734339088&type=1

Public gallery you should all be able to view it.

BTW yes lots of dirt and rocks on Beast. The photos in the trees are to skiers left of Beast... there are so many great lines in that section including nice drops and real steep areas.

All in all on a day when I don't feel like going to VT and end up at Berkshire East .. as long as there is at least some snow and not just ice I have not been disapointed lately.
 

Tin

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Oct 14, 2009
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ZooMass Slamherst
WOW! The Beast had much less snow on it Sunday. And yes, hard to beat Berkshire with a $48 student ticket and a 2 hour drive from Providence. Been skiing Crotched a ton and the conditions have been ideal, I forgot how steep Berkshire was if you're willing to poke around. Some of the creek beds and gulleys were amazing, untouched snow and little debris.
 

catsup948

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Dec 6, 2007
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Shelburne Falls, MA
I also skied Berkshire East Sunday. Trees near Mohawk were pretty good, didnt trash my skis too much. I was up there yesterday the rain, thaw and refreeze did not help conditions. Skiing was fast and well groomed. A fresh 8 inches for Sunday would be welcome.
 

MBRI

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Oct 8, 2012
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Headed there now, stayign at the Oxbow, hope the storm is a overperfomer in that area and we see at least 4-8" .

Tins older brother.
 
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