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Berkshire East Northface expansion video

urungus

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Exciting news from the B’east :

Long rumored new top to bottom trail has been cut, north of Mohawk and wrapping around the wind turbine. There will also be be new intermediate trails and glades connecting the new trail to Mohawk.

Sounds like we will have to wait another year or two for phase 2, which will extend down to the main road and include new chairlift.

Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Gkaz_wKk8
 

tnt1234

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Nice. Hope to visit there for the first time this year. Daughter in college near there.
 
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Skied there a bit back in 79 and 80. Great video and good to see it in such a healthy place.
 

crank

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Good video but hard to get excited about a green groomer.
 

bdfreetuna

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Good video but hard to get excited about a green groomer.

Probably a good idea though as beginners at Berkshire East are kind of limited, trail wise.

Also if they plan on glading terrain over there where it supposedly holds snow better... win win
 

urungus

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Trail names were announced. Thunder and Bolt.

They also mentioned:
Along with the addition of "Thunder" and "Bolt," we've made big time improvements to fall lines, blasted cliff bands, removed trees, and regraded some of your old favorites - "Big Chief," "Hemlock," "Mohawk," "Flying Cloud," and upper and lower "Comp.". Berkshire East will have a new ski area feel

Not sure how I feel about this, I liked the old feel just fine. Wonder what “regrading” these trails entails. They’ve already mentioned Mohawk will be widened, which is unfortunate IMO. I guess they are expecting more traffic there since it will connect to the new trails. But my favorites are the narrow runs like Roy’s Way and Jug.
 
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Mapnut

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Yeah, I can't imagine any improvement to Big Chief, unless it's for drainage. Mohawk, yes, could use some improvement to its fall lines.
 

bdfreetuna

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I'm guessing that means flattening out spots like the big roller on the bottom of Lower Flying Cloud. (fine with me)

Lower / Upper Comp were already pretty smooth, perhaps they felt it could be improved for slalom/GS.

Curious to see what they did to Big Chief -- and if it's even noticeable.
 

Jully

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Yeah, I can't imagine any improvement to Big Chief, unless it's for drainage. Mohawk, yes, could use some improvement to its fall lines.

I hope they didn't alter Big Chief much! That trail is one of the most interesting blue cruisers I've ever skied. It had great flow too.
 

bdfreetuna

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I hope they didn't alter Big Chief much! That trail is one of the most interesting blue cruisers I've ever skied. It had great flow too.

TBH surprised they didn't make it a Black trail when they made Mohawk a blue.

Quite a difference, you know?
 

SkiMangoJazz

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Big Chief is a challenging trail for an intermediate, no question about it. I've tried to get a lot of people down it over the years. Problem is (was) that is was the only "blue" off the summit besides Mohawk and it got really scraped off on a busy day. If they could make it better it would be the first section where it turns.

Upper Cloud could definitely use some work along skier's right. The biggest weakness of the B-East is it's lack of bumps and that section does get bumped up,but it's so narrow, so double fall line and has the lift under it it. I'd love to see them make that better.
 

Highway Star

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Wow, doesn't look that hard to expand your mountain. I wonder why Killington can only shut down lifts and remove them?
 

urungus

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Berkshire East will be opening Saturday, but the new trails will not be available yet.

From their website: “We will be open for skiing and riding on Saturday Dec. 2 and Sunday Dec 3rd from 9am to 4pm. We will be offering midweek pricing. We expect to open with 7 trails and 2 lifts. We are planning on opening Bobcat as well our Summit Quad, which will service top to bottom skiing on Big Chief and Outback to Sundance, Deer Run and [Lower] Competition.”
 

urungus

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Braved the cold yesterday afternoon to finally try the new terrain. Really wanted to be able to post a positive report, but the bottom half of the new top to bottom “Thunder” trail has long stretches where it is flat and even slightly uphill, and made it more of a chore than an enjoyable experience. But there were nice views of the valley and of the windmill, which was turning fast in the high winds. Maybe once I become more familiar with the trail, I will be better able to anticipate flat sections and enter with some more momentum, but still ... the flat parts were quite long. Also despite Thursday’s snowfall, the wind had already scoured most of the trail down to the underlying frozuroy. Same with the upper part of Liftline, you could see bare ground from the chairlift. Lower Liftline looked great but was roped off. A few tracks were visible, but I didn’t risk the poach. “Jug” was also scoured off and closed. On a more positive note, the rarely open Roy’s Way was piled high with fresh snow and was probably the best I’ve ever skied it. It’s narrowness must have helped keep the snow from blowing away. “Big Chief” and Wardance skied well, I didn’t notice any of the changes to Chief except maybe the last big bump on the left had been shaved down a little (unfortunate). Upper Comp was wind scoured and a bit icy. A couple other changes I noticed were the introduction of advertising (for Yankee Candle) on the main chairlift towers and a bunch of flyers in the lodge advertising a new condo development. Not happy about either of these, looking at billboards really detracts from the “back to nature” experience. Also, in true Berkshire East fashion, neither of the two new trails had a trail marker or sign!! Just an old reused “easiest way down” banner. You’d think they would want to promote / alert people to the new terrain, but no... Big map by the summit chairlift has yet to be updated as well. Final comment is that the bra tree on Liftline is in serious need of replenishment.
 
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ThinkSnow

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A couple other changes I noticed were the introduction of advertising (for Yankee Candle) on the main chairlift towers and a bunch of flyers in the lodge advertising a new condo development. Not happy about either of these, looking at billboards really detracts from the “back to nature” experience.
Riding on a piece of machinery, at a mountain that's had trees cut down for your enjoyment, a sign detracts from the "back to nature" experience?
 
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