emmaurice2
Member
Date Skied: February 21st 2011 (Prez Day)
Resort: Berkshire East
Conditions: Ice, Ice, Baby (beneath a thin coat of new snow)
Report: First time at the BEast. I chose to go there because I figured the holiday crowd would be at Jiminy or further north. I arrived late morning and was able to park pretty close to the lodge. Even though the lodge seemed pretty full, I never had to wait to get on a lift and the trails weren't crowded. I loved the rustic feel of the mountain, friendly staff, friendly skiers and boarders.
The skiing was actually a lot of fun and very fast. I took a number of runs down Flying Cloud and Upper/Lower Competition, which were really fun, particularly after the sun started shining on them in the early afternoon. The groomers had done a good job on the steeper trails, it was definitely icy under the thin coat of new snow, but I rarely encounted loose granular or large gobs of ice. I went on almost all of the open trails and a great time on all (except Chute which was basically a frozen waterfall).
The trail layout is nice because if you don't want to just bomb down the straight trails from top to bottom you can wind your way across the mountain to make your runs last longer. The gladed areas and bump runs were closed (for good reason). They had a slalom course set up and I enjoyed watching people take runs through the gates.
I definitely want to go back there on a day when they've had a significant snow storm, I think it would be a blast. I can imagine spring skiing would be fun, too.
Resort: Berkshire East
Conditions: Ice, Ice, Baby (beneath a thin coat of new snow)
Report: First time at the BEast. I chose to go there because I figured the holiday crowd would be at Jiminy or further north. I arrived late morning and was able to park pretty close to the lodge. Even though the lodge seemed pretty full, I never had to wait to get on a lift and the trails weren't crowded. I loved the rustic feel of the mountain, friendly staff, friendly skiers and boarders.
The skiing was actually a lot of fun and very fast. I took a number of runs down Flying Cloud and Upper/Lower Competition, which were really fun, particularly after the sun started shining on them in the early afternoon. The groomers had done a good job on the steeper trails, it was definitely icy under the thin coat of new snow, but I rarely encounted loose granular or large gobs of ice. I went on almost all of the open trails and a great time on all (except Chute which was basically a frozen waterfall).
The trail layout is nice because if you don't want to just bomb down the straight trails from top to bottom you can wind your way across the mountain to make your runs last longer. The gladed areas and bump runs were closed (for good reason). They had a slalom course set up and I enjoyed watching people take runs through the gates.
I definitely want to go back there on a day when they've had a significant snow storm, I think it would be a blast. I can imagine spring skiing would be fun, too.
