Berkshire East & Catamount: 3 New Lifts, Terrain Expansions

[urungus]

Bunch of new terrain opened up at Berkshire East, including new connector trail Ralicki’s Run, named after BE ski patrol director. Take hard right off the top of new chairlift and it will take you down a groomed easy intermediate slope to Minnie Dole. However once it crosses Minnie Dole the new trail gets much steeper and allows you to ski straight onto Upper Comp (dangerous intersection with Riva Ridge). This second part of the new trail is not yet open but was getting blasted with snow and patroller said they werre hoping to open it this weekend.







‘Minnie Dole ahead:


‘Blasting snow on bottom portion of new trail:

 

[urungus]

Was a great day today. Snow guns firing everywhere, big whales on UMass, Flying Cloud, and Big Chief. A few additional photos:

Bear Run:


Upper Lift Line:


Upper Liftline exit:


Flying Cloud:


The Beast !!




New lift allows even slowpokes to crank out a lot of laps:

 

[Smellytele]

heading there tomorrow

 

[RH29]

heading there tomorrow

Still thinking about Magic but likely me as well.

By the way, I noticed that Blizzard Island is no longer on the trail report. Is it still a skiable glade?

 

[Hillwalker95]

Braved the cold today. Lots of layers and just fine. Mountain skied well today. Whales on UMass and Flying Cloud and smaller ones on Big Chief. Competition was probably ROTD once the racers had finished. New fast quad is sw--ee-t

 

[ss20]

Not to be a killjoy or anything... but the desk side of my job is wondering how they got permission to open the bike trails to skiing! Those things are NUTS. Even the tame ones!

 

[Smellytele]

So much for a fuckin’ new quad. It is down today. The line for the other quad is up past the new quad! Also why aren’t they running the fucking triple?!?

 

[Smellytele]

Update the started the triple up around 10:45.and the new quad at noon. All is well in smellyville.

 

[RH29]

So much for a fuckin’ new quad. It is down today. The line for the other quad is up past the new quad! Also why aren’t they running the fucking triple?!?

Late start today, I got there after 10 and was losing my shit in the parking lot when I saw that. Spent the rest of the morning on the triple because of the lack of a singles line on the Summit Quad and moved over to the express when it opened.

Conditions today were pretty great. Only "bad" run was Grizzly at 3:45, after it got completely skied down to ice. The rest of the trails stayed intact. Mostly packed powder, wind was blowing straight up Competition and Flying Cloud keeping those trails fresh and in amazing shape all day. Glades and natural snow trails aren't ready yet but I poked around the edges a little bit, Liftline was thin for sure.

My streak of causing bad things wherever I go continues. What I'm guessing was an accident shut down route 2 through Charlemont in both directions right around close, had to make a lengthy detour along the other side of the river.

 

[Smellytele]

Late start today, I got there after 10 and was losing my shit in the parking lot when I saw that. Spent the rest of the morning on the triple because of the lack of a singles line on the Summit Quad and moved over to the express when it opened.

Conditions today were pretty great. Only "bad" run was Grizzly at 3:45, after it got completely skied down to ice. The rest of the trails stayed intact. Mostly packed powder, wind was blowing straight up Competition and Flying Cloud keeping those trails fresh and in amazing shape all day. Glades and natural snow trails aren't ready yet but I poked around the edges a little bit, Liftline was thin for sure.

My streak of causing bad things wherever I go continues. What I'm guessing was an accident shut down route 2 through Charlemont in both directions right around close, had to make a lengthy detour along the other side of the river.

Great is not a word that crossed my mind today. More like okay. Lift line was good the first few times I did it but not so much that last time I did.
The blowing of snow on comp was fun. Went down skiers left right next to the fan guns. The other trails down the face were a little slick on the upper steeper parts.

 

[RH29]

Great is not a word that crossed my mind today. More like okay. Lift line was good the first few times I did it but not so much that last time I did.
The blowing of snow on comp was fun. Went down skiers left right next to the fan guns. The other trails down the face were a little slick on the upper steeper parts.

I might be biased by the other garbage I've skied so far this season, but Cloud and Comp were both very good all day, Liftline was pretty good early, but the entrance got too sketchy for my new skis by the afternoon. I'll take those conditions any day of the week in southern New England.

 

[urungus]

By the way, I noticed that Blizzard Island is no longer on the trail report. Is it still a skiable glade?

Absolutely, it is on this years trail map and trail sign is still up. No glades are open at the moment though.

 

[urungus]

Not to be a killjoy or anything... but the desk side of my job is wondering how they got permission to open the bike trails to skiing! Those things are NUTS. Even the tame ones!

How would they prevent you from skiing a bike trail that runs through a glade ? The banked turns of the bike trails at Berkshire East are fun to ski.

 

[RH29]

Absolutely, it is on this years trail map and trail sign is still up. No glades are open at the moment though.

Yep. Was there today and saw it. That and Rogers are off the trail report for some reason, though.

Ralicki's/Upper Minnie Dole probably shouldn't be a blue, at least until the Upper Comp extension opens. Calling that trail icy is like calling the sky blue, it was probably the worst thing open today.

 

[Smellytele]

I might be biased by the other garbage I've skied so far this season, but Cloud and Comp were both very good all day, Liftline was pretty good early, but the entrance got too sketchy for my new skis by the afternoon. I'll take those conditions any day of the week in southern New England.

There is another Lift line entrance off flying cloud that skipped that crappy one.
Comp was good except that they were blowing snow on it all day so you had to ski under the guns. Flying cloud was okay.
To be honest the conditions at Whaleback were better on Saturday.
Don’t get me wrong I had fun and will go back

 

[urungus]

Ralicki's/Upper Minnie Dole probably shouldn't be a blue, at least until the Upper Comp extension opens. Calling that trail icy is like calling the sky blue, it was probably the worst thing open today.

Upper Minnie Dole has never been labelled blue as far as I know. Although Ralicki‘s is flat enough to be a blue, giving it that rating is going to get people in trouble, because once you reach the end of Ralicki’s, you are forced onto a black diamond. Either you have to make a hard left onto Minnie Dole, or you go straight across Minnie Dole, and down the so-far-unnamed (but black diamond IMO) new chute under the new chairlift. (I’m calling it “Avalanche” for now, you could also call it “Lower Ralickis”.)

I got to try “Avalanche” for first time today, it was narrow with a sketchy drop off on skiers left and there were a few rocks starting to poke through, so a good challenge and the snow was soft and it was super fun to head straight down into Upper Comp without stopping. However you need a lot of momentum coming out of Ralicki’s to make it across Minnie Dole onto Avalanche, they created up a big snow bank at the intersection to encourage people to make that hard left onto Minnie Dole. Probably to reduce the risk of 90-degree collisions with people coming down from the very top of Minnie Dole (ski patrol shack).

Looking up Avalanche, orange pole marks the top of Upper Comp:


Minnie Dole running left to right, skier is at end of Ralicki’s and about to head down Avalanche


View from the top of Avalanche

 

[Newpylong]

Marking Ralicki's a black and having it be THE way down taking a right may be the best bet.

It seems to me that they perhaps tried to pigeonhole a trail in (what you call Avalanche) that shouldn't be there and will create a dangerous intersection with Riva Ridge.

 

[urungus]

It seems to me that they perhaps tried to pigeonhole a trail in (what you call Avalanche) that shouldn't be there and will create a dangerous intersection with Riva Ridge.

Yup that is a dangerous intersection for sure, skiers will be exiting the bottom of the Avalanche chute with a fair amount of speed if they straight-line it. And the top of Upper Comp (the exit of Avalanche) has always been a place where people gather.

 

[urungus]

BTW, the trail I am referring to as Avalanche was on the map from 2000-2005 as double black #19

2002-03 Berkshire East Trail Map - New England Ski Map Database - NewEnglandSkiHistory.com

www.newenglandskihistory.com

Here’s what the entrance (off Minnie Dole) looked like, before the trees were cleared for the new lift :

 

[Newpylong]

Perhaps they will figure it out quickly and just rope it off. THey didn't actually install any snowmaking on that short section did they? It seems they just put a fan there using the water and power from old Upper Minnie.