Zand
Well-known member
- Resort or Ski Area
- Berkshire East
- Date
- Dec 20, 2020
- Snow Conditions
-
- Chopped or Crud
I reserved an Indy day for today after reading Urungus's report from opening day on Thursday's powder day. He reported almost everything being open and the pictures looked great. My enthusiasm was toned way down after he reported the next day that they had roped off a lot of natural stuff. Their snow report is so bad that Vail would be proud, so with his report from Friday being the only knowledge I had of trail openings/closings, I headed out for a half day this afternoon.
I got on skis shortly after 12:30 and made my way through the maze for the Summit Quad. While it looked like a long line, it moved very fast and even the full maze only took about 3 minutes. Liftline looked sweet from above (and I've seen it open with WAY less coverage) but I was dismayed (expectedly) to indeed see it closed. However, I was met with a couple surprises upon arrival at the top - the upper part of Minnie Dole as well as Jug were open! I was glad to see at least some natural stuff open as I was expecting to just be skiing Big Chief and Outback over and over.
After skiing around for a bit, I was just as confused by the signs at the mountain as I was from reading the snow report on what was open and what wasn't. Some trails were flat out roped off (including Liftline and lower Minnie Dole), some had tripods set up with a "closed" sign (sometimes in the middle where you could see it, sometimes leaning against a tree), and some trails had a piece of bamboo with a picture of a skier crossed out (not even a "closed" sign, just a picture) that oftentimes were easily missed. Finally, some trails that were obviously supposed to be closed (BEAST!) had no rope, sign, or bamboo. That said, I'm sure I accidently skied some closed stuff today, but didn't duck any ropes.
The natural stuff was thin for sure, you could feel rocks under foot at almost every turn. Upper Jug was pretty sweet, although I have no idea what Lower Jug was doing open. Upper Competition (nothing indicating it was closed if you entered from the left) was pretty good, and lower was some nice cruising. Flying Cloud was real sweet...much less rocky than Competition but a couple waterbars halfway down to keep you on your toes. Between 2-3:15 it snowed hard and freshened everything up a bit. No glades were roped off, but they were overall in bad shape. Tomahawk and Blizzard Island were very rocky. Horace's Grove is kind of stupid, skied fine but just a flattish bike trail. Most doable one was East Glade which was more tracked and therefore more packed in. Groomers were a bit slick due to the large (for them) crowd and limited groomed terrain, but the snow squall freshened those up.
They had the secondary Summit Triple spinning through about 3:30 which was a treat. No line, no RFID gate, and those chairs on the Quad f*cking suck so it was nice to sit on a normal chair. The Quad is a bit faster, but for all the other reasons I stuck to the triple while it was open.
Not much else to say, other than this place is the most puzzling enigma of a ski area in existence. There is NO rhyme or reason to anything they do, but the terrain is real fun with fresh snow. I was so excited to go at first, then almost cancelled my reservation, but overall I'm glad I went and had a great afternoon. LOTS of traffic on 91 on the way home so pretty sure Vermont lost whatever quarantine control they had. Planning on Ragged Tuesday. Never been, but with Spear Mountain open au natural, sounds like a good time!
I got on skis shortly after 12:30 and made my way through the maze for the Summit Quad. While it looked like a long line, it moved very fast and even the full maze only took about 3 minutes. Liftline looked sweet from above (and I've seen it open with WAY less coverage) but I was dismayed (expectedly) to indeed see it closed. However, I was met with a couple surprises upon arrival at the top - the upper part of Minnie Dole as well as Jug were open! I was glad to see at least some natural stuff open as I was expecting to just be skiing Big Chief and Outback over and over.
After skiing around for a bit, I was just as confused by the signs at the mountain as I was from reading the snow report on what was open and what wasn't. Some trails were flat out roped off (including Liftline and lower Minnie Dole), some had tripods set up with a "closed" sign (sometimes in the middle where you could see it, sometimes leaning against a tree), and some trails had a piece of bamboo with a picture of a skier crossed out (not even a "closed" sign, just a picture) that oftentimes were easily missed. Finally, some trails that were obviously supposed to be closed (BEAST!) had no rope, sign, or bamboo. That said, I'm sure I accidently skied some closed stuff today, but didn't duck any ropes.
The natural stuff was thin for sure, you could feel rocks under foot at almost every turn. Upper Jug was pretty sweet, although I have no idea what Lower Jug was doing open. Upper Competition (nothing indicating it was closed if you entered from the left) was pretty good, and lower was some nice cruising. Flying Cloud was real sweet...much less rocky than Competition but a couple waterbars halfway down to keep you on your toes. Between 2-3:15 it snowed hard and freshened everything up a bit. No glades were roped off, but they were overall in bad shape. Tomahawk and Blizzard Island were very rocky. Horace's Grove is kind of stupid, skied fine but just a flattish bike trail. Most doable one was East Glade which was more tracked and therefore more packed in. Groomers were a bit slick due to the large (for them) crowd and limited groomed terrain, but the snow squall freshened those up.
They had the secondary Summit Triple spinning through about 3:30 which was a treat. No line, no RFID gate, and those chairs on the Quad f*cking suck so it was nice to sit on a normal chair. The Quad is a bit faster, but for all the other reasons I stuck to the triple while it was open.
Not much else to say, other than this place is the most puzzling enigma of a ski area in existence. There is NO rhyme or reason to anything they do, but the terrain is real fun with fresh snow. I was so excited to go at first, then almost cancelled my reservation, but overall I'm glad I went and had a great afternoon. LOTS of traffic on 91 on the way home so pretty sure Vermont lost whatever quarantine control they had. Planning on Ragged Tuesday. Never been, but with Spear Mountain open au natural, sounds like a good time!
