Berkshire East - February 10 2015 - pain & powder!

[bdfreetuna]

Got up there almost for 1st chair. Looked like 8 or 10" of snow fell yesterday. I knew Berkshire East had been skiing well lately and figured it would be totally lit up today.

First time on the new quad. Lift is not super fast but I was told they speed it up on the weekends. Either way much more comfortable and quicker ride than the old erector set double chair.

First run was The Jug... usually this trail is thin cover and late to open, wanted to take advantage of the fresh. I might have skied a little aggressively out the gate today. At the bottom of this 1st run I noticed I was in a lot of pain. Lower back. Not sure what I did to it but I guess I'm not the spring chicken I once was.

For the rest of the day I would be a 6-7 on the pain scale with spikes up to 8 if I moved wrong. Moving wrong included bending my lower back really in any way. My plan to "take it easy" was to ski as much untracked expert woods as possible before I couldn't handle the pain any longer. Plan worked out pretty well.

I'll let the photos do the talking regarding conditions and awesomeness of Berkshire East terrain. Woods here are most comparable to the offerings of Magic Mountain, and a few areas give Magic a run for the $ as you'll see in the photos.

Hopefully everyone else that skied there today ignored the few ropes that were put up over the woods. Berkshire East policy is basically they rope off woods because the ski patrol doesn't feel like patrolling them. Today, surprisingly this included East Glade (which was great) and a couple of the woods with no name off Mohawk (which were great).

I wrapped up skiing at 2:00pm. All my back could handle. Sitting here in the office now (30 minutes away) with an electric back heater.

So on to the pictures. I'll indicate which areas the photos are taken in.

To get here follow the path between Upper Minnie Dole and the ski patrol hut. It connects you to Outback just above the Exhibition lift.

These woods start about halfway down Mohawk, on the right. There is currently a sign that says "Ski Area Boundary" and a rope. Follow the tracks under the rope. These woods have a few good little cliffs and drops, lots of character. Those drops felt great on my back today

I think these are called Tomahawk Woods? You start going down Jug and you see them on the left.

Same as above.

Blizzard Island. The easiest and most used tree area.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Enter The Beast from top of UMass. Keep cutting across rather than going down "Beast" proper. There you will find these woods. Unusually steep in there.

A bit further down the same as above

I think this is East Glade, unless I have my Tomahawk and East Glade pictures mixed up..

Same as above, whichever it is.

Not woods.

 

[Cornhead]

Nice looking glades, good luck with your back, bad backs suck, I know from experience.

 

[xwhaler]

Damn...looks incredible. Still have never skied BEast. That needs to change.

 

[drjeff]

Looks great! Pretty sure that next Wednesday me and my son will be making our 1st trip the Berkshire East after a quick run from VT to CT and back up to VT in 24 hrs for a presentation I have to give. Can't wait!

 

[Bene288]

I was there today, definitely some good terrain in the trees. I used Tuna's map from the other Beast trip report. # 5 glades (off Umass?) are pretty steep and require some technical skiing. VERY thin however. Lots of stumps and exposed rocks. Definitely challenging.

The trees off of Mohawk were fun too. Natural terrain had good soft bumps, but the troughs were pretty much all ice. Everything was pretty tracked out when I got on the hill (9:00). But there were still pockets of fresh snow to be found.

 

[bdfreetuna]

I was there today, definitely some good terrain in the trees. I used Tuna's map from the other Beast trip report. # 5 glades (off Umass?) are pretty steep and require some technical skiing. VERY thin however. Lots of stumps and exposed rocks. Definitely challenging.

The trees off of Mohawk were fun too. Natural terrain had good soft bumps, but the troughs were pretty much all ice. Everything was pretty tracked out when I got on the hill (9:00). But there were still pockets of fresh snow to be found.

Bene sounds like you went down Beast Proper... it's basically an exposed rock trail. Next time go further past the top of that... keep going to your left across the mountain. It gets steeper, but today it was knee deep and untouched.

Berkshire East used to have the nickname Berkshire Iced. I try to avoid calling it that... but I'll just say ski that mountain when there's lots of snow or else ski it in the spring. I've skied there since I was a young'un, and raced there in high school. Lots of days on that hill... today was definitely Top 5.

Also being a Berkshire East native, I've grown up with the mantra that "all skis are rock skis". I'm sure my bases took some abuse today.

Glad you used my map! It wasn't a great day for me to try and connect with AZ'ers... especially after the pain kicked in. One of these days!

 

[Bene288]

I think these were the woods off UMass. Very comparable to the trees left of the Red Chair at Magic, as Tuna said.

 

[Bene288]

I found thin cover in every bit of woods I went into. I know I didn't hit them all, but I think I hit the best spots according to your map. I got into areas of knee deep stuff as well. It was pretty rad. I'm not bitching about the rocks, my boards were well beat before Berkshire East!

 

[bdfreetuna]

That's like 20 feet of blower pow by Berkshire East standards lol. Looks like you did find you way into those woods. I recognize that spot -- if you keep going a bit further left you end up where my photos are taken. Yep, similar steepness and spacing the Magic red chair woods, exactly my thoughts on that one.

I wonder if you're the 1 guy I happened to speak to in there who followed me in!

Edit: BTW my map needs to be updated. I ended up making some turns with another guy from Northampton and he showed me a few spots I was unawares and I showed him a few of my favorites. I'm sure there's a couple more zones I still don't even know about. They are constantly adding woods but not adding them to the map.

If the map properly reflected all the woods skiing areas on that mountain probably a lot more expert / tree skiers would seriously consider it just based on the sheer number and variety. I mean, for western Massachusetts it's pretty impressive.

 

[Bene288]

Yeah I took that line left! Very technical run. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Wish it wasn't a race day though, I can only handle so many chairs with high schoolers.

 

[Bostonian]

Man I am jealous... I was suppose to go out today there, until I found out we had significant ice damming in our house. Ended up spending the day on the phone with the insurance company and etc. Good report though!!

 

[gmcunni]

well done Tuna. hope the back heals up quick for you.

 

[MadMadWorld]

You took better pictures than Tim! The terrain looks sweet

 

[Tin]

You took better pictures than Tim! The terrain looks sweet

Savemeasammy was there?


Hope the back gets better Tuna.

Yesterday was truly amazing. Mishka commented he got more fresh stuff yesterday than his week in Colorado. We went beyond outback and the hike back was well worth it. Also followed the Zip Line routes for some great stuff. Blowing through all that untouched snow and around thin trees was amazing. The areas around Roy's Way were waist deep in more than a few spots first thing.

I lapped Lift Line 3-4 times first thing and glad I did, was the best shape I've skied it in. Glad they opened the chair before 9 too. The woods around Hemlock were still untouched for the most part when I left around 3. Some more pics...

Quite the ledge off Roy's Way.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Tin I definitely saw you going down lift line a couple times from the lift. I was thinking there was a good chance it was you based on the black skis / black outfit.

My compliments to your skiing, you were tearing it up.

Hows the hike back from the Outback / Zipline area woods? I've never gone down there but it was looking sweet yesterday.

 

[Tin]

Tin I definitely saw you going down lift line a couple times from the lift. I was thinking there was a good chance it was you based on the black skis / black outfit.

My compliments to your skiing, you were tearing it up.

Hows the hike back from the Outback / Zipline area woods? I've never gone down there but it was looking sweet yesterday.

Thanks, the pink poles are my favorite part of it. They are hard to lose in fresh stuff lol

The hike involved skiing down unplowed roads which was nice. We came out on E Rd. and then onto Hawley Rd. I don't know if there will ever be enough snow again to do it. It's low angle and thinly spaced fun but the stuff I found around Roys and past the ski patrol hut is enough to keep me busy though. The stuff around Hemlock and that area was just as nice and hardly touched without the hike back. Definitely a day to remember.

 

[Tin]

Yeah I took that line left! Very technical run. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Wish it wasn't a race day though, I can only handle so many chairs with high schoolers.

There were some tracks coming way way far left out of Beast, only a few pairs. Was that you? Was wondering how far left in it was. Looked like a longer and more open line. I only went about 100' past Beast, it was so deep and tight I didn't repeat it.

 

[bdfreetuna]

If you like cliffs keep going further out past Beast. It's steep up top, then gets a little less steep (but still tight) as you can see in my 2 pics.

Then about 2/3 way down you have a choice. There is a narrow path going sideways to the left, this is the exit which takes you over towards top of Exhibition chair. Or you can keep going straight down in which case there are legit 10 foot cliffs and it's very technical. FWIW I took the escape route.

 

[Bene288]

There were some tracks coming way way far left out of Beast, only a few pairs. Was that you? Was wondering how far left in it was. Looked like a longer and more open line. I only went about 100' past Beast, it was so deep and tight I didn't repeat it.

I followed one set of tracks left because it looked pretty untouched and a little more open, and it was for a few yards then it thickened right back up. It was extremely challenging but I enjoyed it. I got to a point where it looked like there could be a steep drop (I'm talking over 8'), so I bailed for my knees sake and started to bushwhack skiers right again into the end a little chute that was almost too steep to hold any kind of snow.

For me, probably one of the most difficult glades I've ever skied besides the red chair trees at Magic and the Darkside at Gore. One of those runs I REALLY wish I had shorter skis with a wider waist. 98mm wasn't wide enough for how deep the stuff was.