Wachusett - 4/2/14

Date(s) Skied: April 2, 2014

Resort or Ski Area: Wachusett

Conditions: Wet granular on top of hard pack

Trip Report:

I went to the much-maligned Wachusett because it's close and I had a short day. It was surprisingly chilly in the morning, when it was overcast and breezy at the summit, but it warmed up later. The surface was a couple of inches (increasing as the day went on) of loose, choppy wet granular, with a fair amount of exposed gray hard pack. The hard pack was surprisingly hard in the morning but softer by afternoon, and by 1:30 still hadn't turned into slush. The overall coverage was very good, with very few patches that looked thin (only on the narrower trails, like Salamander Cutoff). The moguls on Tenth Mountain were tight and steep but soft on top.

The lake at the base of the mountain is still frozen:



They will be open through Sunday the 6th, closed Monday–Thursday, then open (current plan) April 11–13. Then closed for the season.

Finally, they have upped their trail count. They count Mass Pike (which is just a traverse) as two trails now and the top of Salamander is now called "Oxbow Chute." The one thing that may have involved some new cutting is "Middle Balance Rock." Some of it was definitely an unnamed cutover from Conifer to Tenth, but there's a short section that may be new.

That was a fun day! Manmade snow doesn't really make corn the way natural snow does, wet granular is probably a good description, but it skied awesome all day and never turned sticky like it usually does this time of year. Sun came out hard at 2, even got a bit of a goggle tan. 8)

I got there at 11 planning on just going to 3 or so but was having so much fun I didn't leave until the sun went down at 7:30. Skied every stick I brought with me but had the most fun laying down trenches with the Skwal :uzi:

Headed up for a few hours tomorrow. Want to get the new Wateas mounted up and see how they do. (called ahead and they'll mount the skis while I wait) Probably be on the snow around 10am and ski till mid afternoon.

Wow that is such crap about the trail count.

$10 for Bronze pass holders this weekend and bring a friend for any pass holder also only $10.

Have the let Smith bump up?

As of 1:30 it looked like it might be starting to bump up, but I don't know how far it got or if they groomed it overnight.

Will probably head there sat night for my final day of the year. I'm off to Europe the following weekend.

Good for these guys running the season a bit longer.


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Their latest marketing email says they "may consider reopening" April 18-19 (they probably mean 19-20), although that's probably a longshot. One thing they have going for them is proximity to Boston. They had 10 times as many people as Berkshire East the week before.

Will be there sunday. Anyone else? Prob do 20 or 30 laps, grab a beer or two n just hang out a bit

MadMadWorld said:

Wow that is such crap about the trail count.

Click to expand...

Show me a mountain that doesn't count crossovers or even little trail connectors!



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dlague said:

Show me a mountain that doesn't count crossovers or even little trail connectors!



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Click to expand...

Mass Pike is one long as traverse that they now broke into 2 trails inexplicably. They list the Polar Kids area and Magic carpet on the trail map even though it can only be used by kids in a lesson. Throw out the fact that all of those crossovers are maybe 200 - 300 ft ea

MadMadWorld said:

Mass Pike is one long as traverse that they now broke into 2 trails inexplicably. They list the Polar Kids area and Magic carpet on the trail map even though it can only be used by kids in a lesson. Throw out the fact that all of those crossovers are maybe 200 - 300 ft ea

Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you 100%. I laugh at mountains that do that but we see it all the time! Look at Waterville Valley's trail map and see how many short trails there are. Gotta get the trail count up, right?


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otisshirley said:

Their latest marketing email says they "may consider reopening" April 18-19 (they probably mean 19-20), although that's probably a longshot. One thing they have going for them is proximity to Boston. They had 10 times as many people as Berkshire East the week before.

Click to expand...

It's awesome to hear this from Wachusett. A couple years ago they closed with nearly 100% coverage still and caught a lot of flak about it, they claimed that their lease was inflexible on the closing date. It's good to see that change.

I'm there now. There are no bare spots and plenty of snow around the base. Barring any heat waves they should be able to make a couple more weeks.


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