Berkshire East - 2/20/06

[skijay]

Resort:Berkshire East

Date Skied: 2/20/06, 9:00am to 3:00pm

Conditions:machine made snow, hard pack snow, Sunny 20 to 32 degrees.

Trip Report:
As I pulled into the entrance around 8:45am I saw the lights on for night skiing. Was I a little late???
I drove through the parking lot and parked right up in front of the handle tow. I was kind of shocked not to see the parking lot full this morning. The first run I did was Big Chief. Nice and groomed. They were blowing snow this morning on this trail. A fun run. The next run was down Flying Cloud. Basically the same, well covered and well groomed. I think my trail pick of the day was Competition. Taking the Outback to Roundabout is a long way down. This trail makes me feel like I am at a larger resort such as Mount Snow.

Throughout the day skied every open trail at least twice. Had only a slight wait at the triple once or twice. For a Holiday Monday, it was not crowded. I was hoping the Diamond Express double would open, but there was no need for it during the day today.

If any of you are off from work, go skiing / boarding!!!!!!

 

[cosmic downhill]

Amazing! I can't tell you how many times I've heard the Beast was deserted this season.

I took my family there on a Sunday in mid-January and we got there about 10:30 a.m. and there were maybe 50 cars in the lot. I wondered if it was even open.

I think it's a nice area -- not far off a major interstate, the people who run it are really nice, decent vertical and the trails are interesting.

Anyone have insight why more people don't go there?

 

[billski]

been there

Amazing! I can't tell you how many times I've heard the Beast was deserted this season.

I took my family there on a Sunday in mid-January and we got there about 10:30 a.m. and there were maybe 50 cars in the lot. I wondered if it was even open.

I think it's a nice area -- not far off a major interstate, the people who run it are really nice, decent vertical and the trails are interesting.

Anyone have insight why more people don't go there?

Took my little tyke there in mid January, it was the busiest I've ever seen it. Perhaps 100-150 cars, I'm not a good counter. Even a 2 minute lift line..

Anyways, I did some poking around, since I asked the same questions as you. In a nutshell:
1) It's owned by the same guy who parks the cars - a cheapskate (not neg: near and dear to my heart). Not interested in spending a lot of money.
2) Apparently years ago (~20) he used to do a lot of promos in metro boston -would bring buses full of metro skiers in every weekend, created quite a mob scene. Apparently all the locals got a bit TO'd and bailed.

3) for whatever reason, he discontinued (2) and began to re-court the local crowd. Does quite a very swift business weekdays afternoons with all the regional schools. The joke amoung locals is that it is busier during the week than on any weekend.

4) He spends no $ on advertising - no "wa-wa" music on channel 7, 4 or 5, etc. No promos. Discounts are really low-key, you have to get there to get one.

When we arrived, we had our pick of instructors, which tickled with delight my daughter.

 

[cosmic downhill]

The same day I went, my brother-in-law took his 3 kids, left the Boston area extremely early to make sure he got his kids in lessons.

When lesson time came, they were the only 3 kids signed up and they had two instructors assigned to them. Talk about personal attention!