Zand
Well-known member
Date(s) Skied: Saturday 2/23/08
Resort or Ski Area: Berkshire East, MA
Conditions: Limited powder, some great corduroy, and a nasty ice base under the natural
Trip Report:
Long day today for me. Woke up at 5:45 and was out at 6:15 (earliest I've left for a ski day since Sugarbush last year which was 5:00). Got there at 8, making better time than I thought I would. I had to work at 4 and really pushed my last few runs and went all the way to 2:15. Departed soon after and arrived back at work at 4:05, and stayed there till 10. Finally home now.
Anyways, I caught very first chair on the triple at 8:30 with some kid in a Beast jacket who said the only ungroomed trails were Jug, Grizzly, and as we were about so see, Upper Liftline. Decided to make it Jug for first run and headed straight over there. Unfortunately, 2 people had hit it before opening so it wasn't totally untracked, but there was still a ton of 6" deep powder (no way in hell it was 10"). At that point, I was already hitting the solid base underneath and it quickly became slick. Fun run though. At the bottom of that, I cut over to a groomed Lower Liftline which at that point was nice corduroy.
Next run was top to bottom Liftline right from the lift shack. Lots of fun at that point with lots of powder for all of the Upper half. Hit plenty of the ice base underneath, but there was still enough powder at that point to negate it.
Headed down Upper Minnie Dole from the top for the next run which was groomed and nice at that point with some powder on the sides. Attempted to hit Grizzly, but accidently ended up on UMass. Although UMass was groomed for the most part and Grizzly wasn't, UMass had a beautiful strip of powder on top of groomed on the left so there was no ice base to hit and it was about as nice of a run as you can get.
Next run, I went to find East Glades via Mohawk, but went right by it and kept going down Mohawk. It was groomed and is a nice meandering green trail, basically a shorter version of Outback. Hit the short Chute near the bottom which is a short semi-steep drop. Nice corduroy to rip up.
Went back around next run and hit East Glades. The upper part was very sketchy with rocks and stumps and not-so-great coverage. Nice steep glade that must be beautiful when there's a lot of snow. The 2nd half after Bear Run was a lot better. Some ice base underneath and was slippery, but definitely doable and not much to worry about hitting in terms of rocks. Took the last part of Mohawk to Chute to the bottom.
Next time up the triple, I met 2knees and his brother (Chris?) at the top and we headed down Upper Minnie Dole. Decided to take an easy run because it was their first run so we took Riva Ridge around to Outback. We went down and went into Blizzard Island. It was in beautiful condition, yes it had the ice base but with its low-angle the snow held well. There was a tricky stream near the end that Pat had an adventure with.
Next run, we hit Liftline top to bottom. Starting to get more slick, but still plenty of snow to make some good turns in. The bottom part was developing some nasty death cookies.
At was about 9:50, so we decided we'd take one more run and haul ass to get back to the triple at 10. Decided to hit Flying Cloud. Of course, it had that nice powder strip down the right side so we didn't really get to haul ass.
Got to the triple at about 10:02 or something like that and hung around for a few minutes looking for Madskier6. He didn't show at that point so we decided to get back on the lift and hope we'd run into him at some point. Right as we were boarding he skied into the line and said we'd meet at the top.
I won't detail the rest of the day as I don't really remember much more and am too tired to write much more, but we hit just about every black on the mountain a few times. One highlight of the day was when they fired up the high-speed double, or as Pat called it, the Kamikaze Double. Really fun trying to load it at the bottom and one time me and some other guy took a nice tumble, with me almost getting whacked in the head by a backswinging chair. Very fun chair though and it really shortened the trip to the top.
We hit Tomahawk Glades at some point which was better than Upper East Glades, but not quite as good as lower EG or Blizzard. I was tired by that point and all over the place so I didn't ski it well at all. The natural stuff got very nasty by 2 when I was hitting my last runs. Only exception was my last run down Blizzard Island, which was still in good shape.
BTW, Pat, I found the real bottom of Beast (it's right above where Blizzard starts)... a few people were coming down but it sounded like the rest of the natural trails.
Overall, even with the crappy base conditions, it was an awesome day and fun to ski with some Zoners. Don't know if I'll get back there this year, but certainly will be back once again as soon as there's fresh snow next year. Such an awesome little place.
EDIT: Just caught their claim of a 40-70" base on their website. They put Jay to shame as far as over-reporting goes. They're lucky if there's even a spot on a snowmaking trail that's near 40, but no where on the mountain is it close to 70.
Resort or Ski Area: Berkshire East, MA
Conditions: Limited powder, some great corduroy, and a nasty ice base under the natural
Trip Report:
Long day today for me. Woke up at 5:45 and was out at 6:15 (earliest I've left for a ski day since Sugarbush last year which was 5:00). Got there at 8, making better time than I thought I would. I had to work at 4 and really pushed my last few runs and went all the way to 2:15. Departed soon after and arrived back at work at 4:05, and stayed there till 10. Finally home now.
Anyways, I caught very first chair on the triple at 8:30 with some kid in a Beast jacket who said the only ungroomed trails were Jug, Grizzly, and as we were about so see, Upper Liftline. Decided to make it Jug for first run and headed straight over there. Unfortunately, 2 people had hit it before opening so it wasn't totally untracked, but there was still a ton of 6" deep powder (no way in hell it was 10"). At that point, I was already hitting the solid base underneath and it quickly became slick. Fun run though. At the bottom of that, I cut over to a groomed Lower Liftline which at that point was nice corduroy.
Next run was top to bottom Liftline right from the lift shack. Lots of fun at that point with lots of powder for all of the Upper half. Hit plenty of the ice base underneath, but there was still enough powder at that point to negate it.
Headed down Upper Minnie Dole from the top for the next run which was groomed and nice at that point with some powder on the sides. Attempted to hit Grizzly, but accidently ended up on UMass. Although UMass was groomed for the most part and Grizzly wasn't, UMass had a beautiful strip of powder on top of groomed on the left so there was no ice base to hit and it was about as nice of a run as you can get.
Next run, I went to find East Glades via Mohawk, but went right by it and kept going down Mohawk. It was groomed and is a nice meandering green trail, basically a shorter version of Outback. Hit the short Chute near the bottom which is a short semi-steep drop. Nice corduroy to rip up.
Went back around next run and hit East Glades. The upper part was very sketchy with rocks and stumps and not-so-great coverage. Nice steep glade that must be beautiful when there's a lot of snow. The 2nd half after Bear Run was a lot better. Some ice base underneath and was slippery, but definitely doable and not much to worry about hitting in terms of rocks. Took the last part of Mohawk to Chute to the bottom.
Next time up the triple, I met 2knees and his brother (Chris?) at the top and we headed down Upper Minnie Dole. Decided to take an easy run because it was their first run so we took Riva Ridge around to Outback. We went down and went into Blizzard Island. It was in beautiful condition, yes it had the ice base but with its low-angle the snow held well. There was a tricky stream near the end that Pat had an adventure with.
Next run, we hit Liftline top to bottom. Starting to get more slick, but still plenty of snow to make some good turns in. The bottom part was developing some nasty death cookies.
At was about 9:50, so we decided we'd take one more run and haul ass to get back to the triple at 10. Decided to hit Flying Cloud. Of course, it had that nice powder strip down the right side so we didn't really get to haul ass.
Got to the triple at about 10:02 or something like that and hung around for a few minutes looking for Madskier6. He didn't show at that point so we decided to get back on the lift and hope we'd run into him at some point. Right as we were boarding he skied into the line and said we'd meet at the top.
I won't detail the rest of the day as I don't really remember much more and am too tired to write much more, but we hit just about every black on the mountain a few times. One highlight of the day was when they fired up the high-speed double, or as Pat called it, the Kamikaze Double. Really fun trying to load it at the bottom and one time me and some other guy took a nice tumble, with me almost getting whacked in the head by a backswinging chair. Very fun chair though and it really shortened the trip to the top.
We hit Tomahawk Glades at some point which was better than Upper East Glades, but not quite as good as lower EG or Blizzard. I was tired by that point and all over the place so I didn't ski it well at all. The natural stuff got very nasty by 2 when I was hitting my last runs. Only exception was my last run down Blizzard Island, which was still in good shape.
BTW, Pat, I found the real bottom of Beast (it's right above where Blizzard starts)... a few people were coming down but it sounded like the rest of the natural trails.
Overall, even with the crappy base conditions, it was an awesome day and fun to ski with some Zoners. Don't know if I'll get back there this year, but certainly will be back once again as soon as there's fresh snow next year. Such an awesome little place.
EDIT: Just caught their claim of a 40-70" base on their website. They put Jay to shame as far as over-reporting goes. They're lucky if there's even a spot on a snowmaking trail that's near 40, but no where on the mountain is it close to 70.
Last edited:
