Date(s) Skied: 2/19/2007
Resort or Ski Area: Berkshire East - Charlemont, MA
Conditions: Blue bird, low teens without the wind chill, packed powder, crud and thinning cover on the natural trails
Trip Report: After a great day at Mt. Snow in which it snowed all day, we got a bluebird day at the Beast today! That sun was clutch today with the cold temps and wind chill. I talked two people from our larger group to ski the Beast with me today. The look on there face when we rolled into the lot at 10 AM was priceless. The weather and TOTAL LACK OF CROWDS was unreal. We skied up to the chair on all but twice. We had a 1 or 2 minute wait on the lift line those two times.
All of the trails with snow making capabilities were in amazing shape. We did a few runs on Big Chief. Great trail, cover, and bumps skier's right. I was able to navigate those bumps with little difficulty. We also did a at least 5 or 6 runs on Exhibition. The trail is a green, really wide, bathed in sun all day, and has an OK pitch. I loved it because I rarely get a chance to make huge arcing turns at high speeds like that. I've been loving the bumps lately but carving those turns on Exhibition was a blast.
OK, now for the part Greg and the guys are waiting for. The natural trails have taken a beating. Liftline had a thin cover sign posted at the top of the trail. It had some nice bumps going but there was a ton of small bare spots, a few rocks poking out, and more skier traffic than I would imagine with the trail in that condition. Jug was closed. I don't have any info. on Flying Cloud. At Mt. Snow on Sunday I skied part of the woods skier's left of Fallen Timbers (holy S, I will talk about this in my Mt. Snow TR). After my first shot at tree skiing I thought trying the East Glade would be a good idea. We couldn't really find a trail marker so we skied right by it. I did notice where the Glade run intersected with a Big Chief. From what I could see looking up it also looked thin. For me the most frustrating trail was Roy's Way. The bumps and slope of the trail were perfect for me. I had a nice line going at one point. As I moved down the trail a bit more I started hearing that horrible scratchy sound and almost went over the handle bars. It felt like I was skiing over sand paper but turned out to be a ton of small rocks hanging out in the troughs.
The BEast rocks. I loved the place, no lines, no crowds, interesting terrain, and just 2 hours from my house. If we get another dump I will definitely hit it up again this season.
If you guys are thinking about going this week give a call to the mountain. From what I saw today cover was thin. But I just looked at the forecast and they predicting up to 3 inches on Tuesday night.
Resort or Ski Area: Berkshire East - Charlemont, MA
Conditions: Blue bird, low teens without the wind chill, packed powder, crud and thinning cover on the natural trails
Trip Report: After a great day at Mt. Snow in which it snowed all day, we got a bluebird day at the Beast today! That sun was clutch today with the cold temps and wind chill. I talked two people from our larger group to ski the Beast with me today. The look on there face when we rolled into the lot at 10 AM was priceless. The weather and TOTAL LACK OF CROWDS was unreal. We skied up to the chair on all but twice. We had a 1 or 2 minute wait on the lift line those two times.
All of the trails with snow making capabilities were in amazing shape. We did a few runs on Big Chief. Great trail, cover, and bumps skier's right. I was able to navigate those bumps with little difficulty. We also did a at least 5 or 6 runs on Exhibition. The trail is a green, really wide, bathed in sun all day, and has an OK pitch. I loved it because I rarely get a chance to make huge arcing turns at high speeds like that. I've been loving the bumps lately but carving those turns on Exhibition was a blast.
OK, now for the part Greg and the guys are waiting for. The natural trails have taken a beating. Liftline had a thin cover sign posted at the top of the trail. It had some nice bumps going but there was a ton of small bare spots, a few rocks poking out, and more skier traffic than I would imagine with the trail in that condition. Jug was closed. I don't have any info. on Flying Cloud. At Mt. Snow on Sunday I skied part of the woods skier's left of Fallen Timbers (holy S, I will talk about this in my Mt. Snow TR). After my first shot at tree skiing I thought trying the East Glade would be a good idea. We couldn't really find a trail marker so we skied right by it. I did notice where the Glade run intersected with a Big Chief. From what I could see looking up it also looked thin. For me the most frustrating trail was Roy's Way. The bumps and slope of the trail were perfect for me. I had a nice line going at one point. As I moved down the trail a bit more I started hearing that horrible scratchy sound and almost went over the handle bars. It felt like I was skiing over sand paper but turned out to be a ton of small rocks hanging out in the troughs.
The BEast rocks. I loved the place, no lines, no crowds, interesting terrain, and just 2 hours from my house. If we get another dump I will definitely hit it up again this season.
If you guys are thinking about going this week give a call to the mountain. From what I saw today cover was thin. But I just looked at the forecast and they predicting up to 3 inches on Tuesday night.
