Blue Hills MA 02/20/2010

I was supposed to be at the Thunderbolt today, but since it was postponed, I've a day on my hands. The thread about areas close by not skied, provoked me to take a spin down the 8-lane to Canton/Milton Mass to the State-owned Blue Hills Reservation. I called to see if they have ski pins. A pleasant young lady on the phone said, "yes we do! And we have skiing too! A nice touch :beer:


Weighing in at a mighty 309 vertical feet, I pulled in the lot really not knowing what to expect. An explore for sure.

Parking for sure can be a challenge if you arrive much past 11am. They jam em into the diminutive DCR lots tighter than a Fitz-in lot for a Bruins game in the North End. You're definitely not out in the free range. A little mini school bus with ski carrier on the side putts up into the lot, you sit down and navigate the 1 way roads and a jug handle just for a few hundred feet shuttle :???:

First impression: The place is just chock full of beginners and a few frustrated advanced skiers who quietly would like to be somewhere else. A well run operation. They know their customers and have adjusted accordingly.

The lines got old real fast. About 10 minutes for a 30 second run.

By my third run, the liftie was visibly upset. He shut the lift and walked up and down the lanes , lecturing everyone about who the ski school lane was for in a rather unpleasant tone of voice. I've never been group lectured before. Then again, the majority of skiers seemed rather clueless (not abusive) of protocol and signs.
I never saw so many land lubbers in my life - folks with city wool coats and shoes standing around the base lodge.

I decided to warm up on the black diamonds,

I talked with a Ski Patrol doing triple duty as ticket checker and hall monitor. He advised me that this was a learning hill. Once you master the "chute" trail, you have graduated from Blue Hills and can competently move to intermediate mountains. On the radio - "yeah, the kid went into the woods off the lip and hit a tree. It's OK though, his mother was with him." His mother is a trauma nurse.

The lift lines were so agonizingly slow that by the 3rd run I was ready to leave. The ski schools had like 20 kids in each class, filled with very pleasant young women running them. Then I met Juraj from Belarus. This young fellow came with his friends last year and essentially taught himself to ski. He's quite a trooper. Out there every weekend, practicing his skid turns. I encouraged him a lot, we talked about areas he might want to graduate to. He followed my fairly quickly down through the chute, several times. Without this conversation, the lift lines would have been unbearable.

I guess this think isn't for jumping:


the patroller said the snow is about 3' deep. They put away the fan guns for the season, as the ice around the lodge began to melt in the 40 degree sun.

The chute:


This was probably the only place I can remember skiing where you could see a city outline, and an industrial complex. Convenient, for sure, 1 mile off I 93.

the lift was hugely slow and dated, probably one of the first doubles, and for the record, one of the smallest





Inside the lodge I got to chatting with a mom, with her young girl taking a lesson. This mom grew up skiing in Utah skiing nearly every day. But now she's here, aspiring to Loon in a few weeks. She told stories about her single days skiing about the west, all the guys chasing her around Vail, about how she would gauge interest in a guy depending on their skiing ability and enthusiasm. She'd ski real chutes with chest-deep powder, being scared out of her mind. Then she married a guy who doesn't ski. Go figure. Big change, but she seems to be dealing with it well.

An interesting mix of people, which made the place a lot more interesting; I would have been gone in 30 minutes if I had not been chatting. It seems a large chunk of folks come from the South Shore, for something to do for a few hours. I didn't meet anyone who planned to stay the whole day.



A well run place, with a focus on the newbie; you'll need a lot of patience, don't be in a hurry, kind of like going to someone's backyard for a picnic. It's a good niche, I doubt the snow lasts much into March, reasonably priced.

I got my pin, got back to the car, more people waiting for my spot than at a Jersey Mall.
I really gotta get out tommorrow and stretch my legs on something a bit longer.

http://www.ski-bluehills.com/

Nice, I've hiked the place before. Never skied, but it's got about a 100ft more vert than Ski Ward.

You did hit it on a Saturday at the end of Vacation week. It can't always be that busy.

How does this "area" compare to Nashoba?

Great to hear it was busy. I skied it in 2004 when the Ragged Mountain crew tried to run it and it was pretty sad. Went there on a Sunday evening and there were like three people there. Glad to hear that this crew has made snow and drummed up interest. I think it is a nice thing to have so close to the city...just wish that folks would not vandalize the place and paint graffitti as they do. :-?

BlueHills seems have few jerky adolescents, lots of supervision. In contrast it makes Nashoba look like a free for all. I think Nashoba has more acreage. (check that - no more acreage). I think the only advantage Nashoba has it that it's more inland, and the snow stays longer.

btw, I saw no graffitti and everyghing was in good shap

Hi Bill,

I started working there as an instructor this season and started skiing there when I was 5 or 6 (1960/61). What you thought was a ski school group was one of the school vacation camp groups. It may have been that you saw 2 groups together as I believe they're limited to 12 per instructor with all kids in a group being of similar ability levels. Though this very busy season I've only had 5 in a group lesson once and that was during this vacation week. It's niche is definitely the never ever/novice with a great group of ski and snowboard instructors. I'm sure we get a lot of Boston school kids who would never get exposure to skiing otherwise. A lot of the local elementary schools have after school or weekend programs there that run 7 days a week. I've had 7 kids every Monday night from a local Milton school. Started them as novices 7 weeks ago, last week we did a "race course" after which I handed out NASTAR pins and then we headed to the top. This Monday is the last night and I hope to get them down the Chute and Big Blue as graduation.

The other big niche group is high school racers. Blue Hills has training and races 3 or 4 nights a week.

The main slope, Big Blue, is steeper than anything I remember at Bradford or Nashoba. Ya, the lifts are an issue... There use to be a J-bar that ran up the left side of Big Blue, but it was damaged and removed years ago. The Chute was originally the route of a rope tow that ran to the top of the Lower Chute and they cut the new Upper to it. Because it's a DCR property only leased to the operators for 5 years at a time it hasn't had much invested into it, especially by the prior Ragged management, which was the same group that resulted in their bankruptcy and subsequent sale. It would be great if the state would lease it to someone long enough for them to justify investing some money because it's a great asset and the perfect example of a "feeder hill".

Clark

P.S. EICSL clinic for members and prospective members on Wednesday night, 2/24, at 6:30. Info on the EICSL website. http://www.eicsl.org/Blue_Hills_Clinic.html

Blue Hills management is Ski Campgaw Management LLC which has run the Bergen County owned Campgaw in Jersey for years now. Campgaw is a 260' vert hill with a view of the NYC skyline. Interesting coincidence that both of Ski Campgaw Management's mountains have views of city skylines. Anyway they do a good job with what they have in Jersey and are very good at making snow.

I night skied there a few years ago, I believe the season current management took over, and thought it skied better than I had expected. There were lift lines at the expected peak times, however the limited selection of trails were decent, considering how close one was to the flat lands and densely populated area. Believe it or not, that chairlift is not *that* old - probably one of the newer Halls in New England (note the overhead drive configuration...original Hall installs for much of that company's history are overhead drives).

Fantastic post Bill, thanks for sharing!!!!

Bill - Nice report! Love all the pics -- especially Chute since it's never been open when I visited

I've headed to Blue Hills after work a few times. It's a very different experience than Bill's. Never a line for the slow lift, few groups, no lesson crowds, usually race teams running gates. It's fun for a couple hours and certainly better than hitting the gym to me. Biggest issue to me is they could use a few more lights.

Wakeboardmom -- Nashoba is another area I've skied after work. I prefer Nashoba at night to Blue Hills. The runs are longer -- although both are hardly long -- and there are more of them. I haven't found the mayhem Bill aluded to at Nashoba at night. I usually arrive after the majority of buses have departed. Never lines, more slope choices (although race leagues take the best ones). The snow conditions during my visits have been nice. Also the restaurant in the lodge has some good beer and food.

As always Bill, thanks for the insights. You're one of the people that make this site a valuable resource !

Although I gew up with a bedroom window that could see the area, I never have skied it. Familiar with too many of the stories about the past operators.

As I frequently drive by, I will say it's obvious this operational team is much different. Also, kids I coach, and a guy I know that ski patrols there, have good things to say.

As it's not a "big hill" mentality with me, your report has pushed me over the edge, and I'm going to give it a try.
Mid-day on a Weekday that is....

puckoach said:

As always Bill, thanks for the insights. You're one of the people that make this site a valuable resource !
..

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Thanks for the good words. I love to see newbie reports, by a newtimer or an oldtimer - reporting on a resort as a newcomer is much more useful than the same old "what I did last night" report. I try to look at the overall picture, and comment on things that are different, or unique.. I'm glad I do it for fun, replete with warts, blemishes and biases. I just consider the source (like the Wawa report discussed yesterday).

So, hint, hint, I'd like to see a newbie report for other areas too - like Sundown, Yawgoo, McIntyre, any community area in Maine or anyplace that people ski or board.

Hint hint...

Clarkl23 said:

Hi Bill,

I started working there as an instructor this season and started skiing there when I was 5 or 6 (1960/61). What you thought was a ski school group was one of the school vacation camp groups. It may have been that you saw 2 groups together as I believe they're limited to 12 per instructor with all kids in a group being of similar ability levels. Though this very busy season I've only had 5 in a group lesson once and that was during this vacation week. It's niche is definitely the never ever/novice with a great group of ski and snowboard instructors. I'm sure we get a lot of Boston school kids who would never get exposure to skiing otherwise. A lot of the local elementary schools have after school or weekend programs there that run 7 days a week. I've had 7 kids every Monday night from a local Milton school. Started them as novices 7 weeks ago, last week we did a "race course" after which I handed out NASTAR pins and then we headed to the top. This Monday is the last night and I hope to get them down the Chute and Big Blue as graduation.

The other big niche group is high school racers. Blue Hills has training and races 3 or 4 nights a week.

The main slope, Big Blue, is steeper than anything I remember at Bradford or Nashoba. Ya, the lifts are an issue... There use to be a J-bar that ran up the left side of Big Blue, but it was damaged and removed years ago. The Chute was originally the route of a rope tow that ran to the top of the Lower Chute and they cut the new Upper to it. Because it's a DCR property only leased to the operators for 5 years at a time it hasn't had much invested into it, especially by the prior Ragged management, which was the same group that resulted in their bankruptcy and subsequent sale. It would be great if the state would lease it to someone long enough for them to justify investing some money because it's a great asset and the perfect example of a "feeder hill".

Clark

P.S. EICSL clinic for members and prospective members on Wednesday night, 2/24, at 6:30. Info on the EICSL website. http://www.eicsl.org/Blue_Hills_Clinic.html

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Thanks for the color, Clark. Didn't know about the "camp". The "insider poop" is always very enlightening. but I will say that about 1/3 of the lift line was compromised of "camp" and lessons people. Definitely very popular. I didn't know the history before you guys started in on this. You know, we should probably do a ski history / inside story a-la nelsap.org, except about the living, not the dead. Now's the time to strike while the info is still readily available.

Can't do the 24th - it's bound to be a powder day, no friends tomorrow

Awesome TR Bill! Great to see some of those smaller areas still operating!

I know that all of the instructors who have been there for a while, and some have been there for over 20 years, rave about the current management compared to the Ragged group. I started there when I was 5 or 6, ended up working in the rental dept. when it was in the basement of the base lodge, where the ski patrol is now, and then was on the ski patrol for a year while I was in high school and college. I'm back in my old family house in Canton so I'm only about 5 minutes drive from the hill. When I was in high school I use to occasionally walk home.

It would be great if they'd give the current management a pop at a longer term lease that would encourage them to invest in the infrastructure. Another lift would be great and maybe cutting 1 or 2 more trails, but it seems the Friends of Blue Hills have done a pretty good job of preventing any further development of the ski area over the years. There is a fairly high volume spring that runs out of the hill right under the chairlift and they actually prevent the use of any of that water for snow making. Instead a pretty fair amount of it overflows onto 138 at times creating a glacier, especially when the catch basin ices up. Seems like another case of skiing not being up to the standards of the recreational elite. Same situation applies to mountain biking in the Blue Hill Reservation... None allowed in the section from Rt. 28 to Braintree. Just horseback riding and hiking. Last time I looked it seemed to me that the horses do a pretty good job of ripping up a trail.

Clark

Clarkl23 said:

it seemed to me that the horses do a pretty good job of ripping up a trail.

Clark

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But they do it naturally! :-o

I was looking for the old JBar on skiers' right of Big Blue - that was always the ski school lift. That chairlift was slow in the late 70's when I last skied there! I didn't understand what Bill was talking about relative to the Chute until someone mentioned the old rope tow! The Blue Hill Reservation is a gem for urban folk looking to get out and explore the outdoors. Someday, I need to get down there and ski my first area - I grew up on the South Shore!

I asked what happened to the old J-Bar. They said a long gone management brought in a large tow truck to tighten up the cable. He started cranking and started pulling down the towers. He unhooked and drove away. That's all anyone knows. There is a toggle lift that runs about half the way up the hill and would service the terrain park, but it hasn't run this year. Not sure what the deal is with it. It should be possible to find a T-Bar or Poma somewhere for short money. It would be great to be able to work some of the kids from half way up the way the instructors did when I was a kid. They'd say go up X towers and get off.

Same thing with the bunny hill, now named the Green Monster. There was a rope tow that came up just inside the tree line (trail is still there) about 90 degrees to the large magic carpet. If you look over the side of the hill you can see that they've built up about 5' of snow, but for whatever reason chose not to spread it further over. There is another trail that runs way around to skiers right (Sonja) which they never used this year which would also be great beginner terrain if we could either extend the magic carpet or add another there too.

Clark

Just thought I'd mention Blue Hills is open again. Even after all this rain I'm sure there is still plenty of snow. It looks to be 5 or 6' deep in places.

Probably headed over there on Sunday to either teach or play with a pair of skis I've been having a problem getting tuned to my liking.

I'll leave a report after if I get there.

Clark