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Best in MA

Tin

Active member
Joined
Oct 14, 2009
Messages
2,996
Points
38
Location
ZooMass Slamherst
Ha! Mind if we dance with your dates?

We went up the month after and I remember seeing a cemetery the tornado had gone through. They had blue tarps over coffins that had been ripped out of the ground.
 

Newpylong

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 20, 2005
Messages
5,019
Points
113
Location
Upper Valley, NH
I would go with Jiminy Peak for the best combination of season length, terrain, snowmaking, lifts and night skiing.
 

otisshirley

New member
Joined
Jan 18, 2014
Messages
22
Points
3
Location
Western Massachusetts
Berkshire East has the best terrain: steeper steeps (except maybe that one trail at Catamount), a fair number of rarely-groomed trails, etc. But the snowmaking isn't that great so a lot of the mountain is dependent on natural snow. And it's rarely crowded.

Despite its poor reputation in these parts, I like Wachusett for exactly opposite reasons. The terrain is not that interesting, but they have good snowmaking and grooming and high-speed lifts. So if hasn't snowed for a while and you go during the week, you can do a lot of laps on decent conditions.
 

catsup948

New member
Joined
Dec 6, 2007
Messages
1,026
Points
0
Location
Shelburne Falls, MA
Berkshire East has the best terrain: steeper steeps (except maybe that one trail at Catamount), a fair number of rarely-groomed trails, etc. But the snowmaking isn't that great so a lot of the mountain is dependent on natural snow. And it's rarely crowded.

Despite its poor reputation in these parts, I like Wachusett for exactly opposite reasons. The terrain is not that interesting, but they have good snowmaking and grooming and high-speed lifts. So if hasn't snowed for a while and you go during the week, you can do a lot of laps on decent conditions.

Snowmaking at Berkshire East has recently had a massive upgrade. When it's mid January and your only choice is groomers I'd take Berkshire East over most bigger mountains.
 

Higgl

Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2014
Messages
38
Points
6
Despite their massive upgrade I still feel as though Berkshire East has been starting off slowly this year in terms of the their blowing. I think a lot of it has to do with the warm weather recently, and I'm stoked to see it finally cooling off a bit, but they had very little open today.
Does anyone know when their new quad is going to be open?
 

joshua segal

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
1,005
Points
63
Location
Southern NH
Website
skikabbalah.com
....

Despite its poor reputation in these parts, I like Wachusett ...

I don't think Wachusett has a bad reputation at all. The complaints I always hear about Wachusett are:
1. Huge crowds (and lift lines)
2. By policy, they have stopped leaving half a run for the mogul enthusiasts
3. No steeps
 

prsboogie

Active member
Joined
Aug 13, 2014
Messages
1,764
Points
38
Location
Swansea
I don't think Wachusett has a bad reputation at all. The complaints I always hear about Wachusett are:
1. Huge crowds (and lift lines)
2. By policy, they have stopped leaving half a run for the mogul enthusiasts
3. No steeps

They will seed half of 10th Mountain, skier's left mid season. They knock down any naturally formed ones though.
 

hrstrat57

Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2006
Messages
549
Points
18
Location
Yawgoo Valley RI
IMHO the seeded bumps on the bottom of Hitchcock were a disaster glad they are gone, ruined the best cruiser on the mountain not steep enough for bumps anyway. Stupid, good call to ditch that experiment.....

OTOH the natural bumps that sometimes form on the left of lower Challenger can be a blast.....
 

MadMadWorld

Active member
Joined
Jan 10, 2012
Messages
4,082
Points
38
Location
Leominster, MA
IMHO the seeded bumps on the bottom of Hitchcock were a disaster glad they are gone, ruined the best cruiser on the mountain not steep enough for bumps anyway. Stupid, good call to ditch that experiment.....

OTOH the natural bumps that sometimes form on the left of lower Challenger can be a blast.....

Weird....I don't go to Wawa much anymore but I liked the Hitchcock bumps were fun to rip. When do bumps ever form on Challenger? I have never seen a race trail with bumps on half of it. Maybe they did this at the very end of the season. I think Challenger would actually make a very good bump run but it will never happen.

Natural bumps would never form well at WaWa. Too many people that go in and ruin any good line
 
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