drjeff
Well-known member
So the townhome complex my wife and I own in at Mount Snow received an invite for owners to come check out The Hermitage Club for a free day of skiing, with a bit of a sales pitch thrown in. We decided to take them up on their offer today.
To make a true comparison, we started off at Mount Snow at 7:30AM for their passholders AM Express access only until 8AM to get fresh tracks. It was COLD, single digits with a brisk wind blowing UP the hill at you as you skied down If it wasn't for the Bluebird Express there was no way I would made it break free until I had to drop my son off at 9:15 for his park program! After 8 runs on very nice machine groomed packed powder and about 12k verts, I was very happy to head for my car and warm up a bit heading about 2 miles down the road to The Hermitage Club.
We arrived, dropped my car off with the valet parking attendant (yup, free valet parking at The Hermitage Club) and headed into the membership center to pick up our complementary day passes. We walked by the side of the under construction MASSIVE timberframed 40,000+ sq ft base lodge set to open in November (this looks like it will be IMPRESSIVE!!)
We had our tickets scanned, by a very nice host who told us that the snow is great today and to be careful of the cold! We boarded the to the mid mountain Hayfever triple, and our backsides were greated with a plush, Hermitage Club logo embroidered seat and back pad! Very comfy for the slow ride to mid mountain. On the way up, we noticed the fleet of yellow techno alpin fan guns lining the Needle trail under us, my wife even commented on how from a distance they look like minions from the Dispicable Me movie series!
We unloaded and started our 1st run down route 100 South to The Shaft to Needles Eye. The snow was GREAT, very soft, dry edgeable machine groomed snow and not a slick spot to be found. We discovered that this was the standard all day!
We explored the open trails off the Mid Mountain Hayfever lift, the summit Barnstormer lift and the "expert" area Witches lift for the next 3hrs totaling 13 runs with a short break in the very nice, but small summit warming hut (complete with a BIG 15 foot long oak table and high backed leather chairs for lunch parties!)
The terrain is fun, not overly challenging, with most of the "steep" pitches being maybe 3-400 vertical feet before you encounter some flat/flatter terrain. Regardless of the trail difficulty rating the mix of ASC era ground air/water guns, HKD Impulse tower air/water guns and a variety of techno alpin fan guns had the open trails covered with very good quality, dry snow. The thing that I kind of chuckled about was any trail that hadn't been groomed had a "Warning: Variable Conditions" sign on it! :lol:
Favorite trails were the "ungroomed" Fever Pitch off the summit (a few hundred verts of legit black diamond pitch with a couple of drops too) and Gandalf right under the Witches Lift (a few hundred yard long pitch with perfect "ski me at mach 1 with super G turns" machine groomed packed powder! )
My runs there today had me wishing I was on full out GS race skis! The mountain skis small though, basically a few 3-500 vertical foot "mountains" with some flat areas connecting them instead of straight top to bottom verts. They did a very nice job of clearing out their on the map tree terrain, and while it was lacking the good extra foot of snow it currently needs to be skiable, it looks like it will be fun ski with enough snow.
Did today sway me or my wife to fork over the now 45k (bumping up to 55k in about 3 weeks) initiation fee + just over 5k annual dues? Nope. Was it a fun day of cruising VERY nice snow? Yup!
I'd be curious to try The Hermitage Club again when the trees are open and the lodge is complete! They're closing in on 300 members now, with a 1000 member maximum and an increase over the next year or so to an initiation fee of just over 100k
After seeing what's been done so far today and hearing about the grand vision for The Hermitage Club, I don't doubt that it will make it.
I'll post some pics from today once my wife gives my lap top back to me and I can upload the pics from my camera from today!
Sent from my DROID RAZR using AlpineZone mobile app
To make a true comparison, we started off at Mount Snow at 7:30AM for their passholders AM Express access only until 8AM to get fresh tracks. It was COLD, single digits with a brisk wind blowing UP the hill at you as you skied down If it wasn't for the Bluebird Express there was no way I would made it break free until I had to drop my son off at 9:15 for his park program! After 8 runs on very nice machine groomed packed powder and about 12k verts, I was very happy to head for my car and warm up a bit heading about 2 miles down the road to The Hermitage Club.
We arrived, dropped my car off with the valet parking attendant (yup, free valet parking at The Hermitage Club) and headed into the membership center to pick up our complementary day passes. We walked by the side of the under construction MASSIVE timberframed 40,000+ sq ft base lodge set to open in November (this looks like it will be IMPRESSIVE!!)
We had our tickets scanned, by a very nice host who told us that the snow is great today and to be careful of the cold! We boarded the to the mid mountain Hayfever triple, and our backsides were greated with a plush, Hermitage Club logo embroidered seat and back pad! Very comfy for the slow ride to mid mountain. On the way up, we noticed the fleet of yellow techno alpin fan guns lining the Needle trail under us, my wife even commented on how from a distance they look like minions from the Dispicable Me movie series!
We unloaded and started our 1st run down route 100 South to The Shaft to Needles Eye. The snow was GREAT, very soft, dry edgeable machine groomed snow and not a slick spot to be found. We discovered that this was the standard all day!
We explored the open trails off the Mid Mountain Hayfever lift, the summit Barnstormer lift and the "expert" area Witches lift for the next 3hrs totaling 13 runs with a short break in the very nice, but small summit warming hut (complete with a BIG 15 foot long oak table and high backed leather chairs for lunch parties!)
The terrain is fun, not overly challenging, with most of the "steep" pitches being maybe 3-400 vertical feet before you encounter some flat/flatter terrain. Regardless of the trail difficulty rating the mix of ASC era ground air/water guns, HKD Impulse tower air/water guns and a variety of techno alpin fan guns had the open trails covered with very good quality, dry snow. The thing that I kind of chuckled about was any trail that hadn't been groomed had a "Warning: Variable Conditions" sign on it! :lol:
Favorite trails were the "ungroomed" Fever Pitch off the summit (a few hundred verts of legit black diamond pitch with a couple of drops too) and Gandalf right under the Witches Lift (a few hundred yard long pitch with perfect "ski me at mach 1 with super G turns" machine groomed packed powder! )
My runs there today had me wishing I was on full out GS race skis! The mountain skis small though, basically a few 3-500 vertical foot "mountains" with some flat areas connecting them instead of straight top to bottom verts. They did a very nice job of clearing out their on the map tree terrain, and while it was lacking the good extra foot of snow it currently needs to be skiable, it looks like it will be fun ski with enough snow.
Did today sway me or my wife to fork over the now 45k (bumping up to 55k in about 3 weeks) initiation fee + just over 5k annual dues? Nope. Was it a fun day of cruising VERY nice snow? Yup!
I'd be curious to try The Hermitage Club again when the trees are open and the lodge is complete! They're closing in on 300 members now, with a 1000 member maximum and an increase over the next year or so to an initiation fee of just over 100k
After seeing what's been done so far today and hearing about the grand vision for The Hermitage Club, I don't doubt that it will make it.
I'll post some pics from today once my wife gives my lap top back to me and I can upload the pics from my camera from today!
Sent from my DROID RAZR using AlpineZone mobile app
Last edited: