Catamount - 3/25/2005

[Greg]

Date(s) Skied: Friday, March 25, 2005, 2:30 PM-4:30 PM

Resort or Ski Area: Catamount, South Egremont, Mass/Hillsdale, NY

Conditions: Spring mush, sweet bumps. Cloudy, 40's, Calm.

Trip Report: What an adventure this afternoon turned out to be! I got a late start as my wife had to work this morning and I had fatherly duties. I got rolling at about 1:15 PM. No problem. I'll get to the mountain at 2:15 and ski till 5:30 or so...or so I thought.

I was hauling up to southern Mass and making good time until I saw the blue lights flashing as I cruised through South Egremont! 43 in a 25. Whoops. Sorry dude, just on my way to the mountain. This would hold me up for an extra ten minutes, but luckily no ticket! Okay, onward...

I was a bit miffed that the lift ticket windows were all closed. Hmm. The lodge, maybe? I asked a guy at the ski school desk and he siad, well, you only have 90 minutes. What?! :blink: No night skiing? "Nope, not anymore." Bummer. Headed up to the office to grab the lift ticket and hurried out to the blue chair. I was bumming. Only 90 minutes to ski? I felt kind of rushed during each run. Now to the skiing:

The snow is still abundant at the mighty Catamount. Great spring conditions with sweet soft bumps. My first run was skier's right of Upper and Lower Glade (bumps) and then the Off-Stage bumps. First run was rough. After four days at Loon on packed powder/powder, the heavy spring snow took some getting used to. The next five runs were all down Catapult and Off-Stage. Catapult had some irratic bumps the whole run. I crashed twice back to back, the second time pretty hard. Overall the conditions are very good. The scrape in between is now in typical Spring form and totally edgeable. Off-Stage bumps were fabuolous.

After my sixth run I learned the blue chair was closed. 4:03 PM. Damn! So, what's to do? Shoulder the skis and hike up. And that's what I did, a couple of hundred feet of vertical up to take one more run down the Off-Stage bumps. It was well worth it!

All in all, an interesting afternoon. A bit unsatisfying, and today's brief outing will only quell the ski jones for a couple of days. Second time to Catamount this season and I'm liking it more than Butternut now.

Click HERE for pics.

 

[ALLSKIING]

Hey you did better then I did. While you were out making turns I was working. And on top of that you got out of a ticket.

 

[skijay]

You have to be careful on rt 23 where the speed drops down to 20 or 25 in the "village". The two times that I have drove to the Cat, I have seen the speed trap.

Did you have fun in the parking lot? My front end sank. Thankfully I have the snow tires and was able to put it in reverse and with a little wheel spin dig out. I just needed a car wash when I got home!

Why do they call the Glade trail the Glade trail, there are no trees. I do have to say that is one of the best places to learn to ski the bumps.

 

[riverc0il]

technically, a glade is an open space in the forest according to the dictionary (the one i have at least) which could theoretically mean all narrow eastern skiing trails are glades to a certain extent :lol: though generally i think of "gladed" trails as having a few loosely spaced trees versus full on "tree runs" or "tree skiing" in which there is no open space, just thinned out woods. though most ski areas use the word glade to mean just that. it is confusing for sure!

 

[marcski]

Catamount is definitely more fun than Butternut. I think the pitch at the top of the hill is steeper than Butternut and the terrain has some fun dipsy doodles and aren't straight down the fall line. Plus its the closest (100 mins) decent place to my house...I usually make it there a few times each season as well.

 

[Greg]

Did you have fun in the parking lot? My front end sank. Thankfully I have the snow tires and was able to put it in reverse and with a little wheel spin dig out. I just needed a car wash when I got home!

Oh yeah! I took a spin over to the back side of the lot which was still snow covered (over mud) to take this pic of the mountain. I then threw the Jeep in 4WD and had a fun ride blasting out of there! Today's rain is washing the last of the mud off!