Berkshire East, MA, 04/02/2011

[threecy]

Berkshire East Ski Resort
Charlemont, Massachusetts
Saturday, April 2, 2011

While Berkshire East had originally announced a March 27 closing date, they decided to reopen upon hearing the 1-1.5 foot snowstorm forecast. This didn't pan out, as they only received 1-1.5 inches.

Berkshire East has made leaps and bounds with their snowmaking capabilites in the past decade, though, and it showed today. Stopping at my old daily photo perch on Route 8A, I was pleased to see the coverage:

While there was very little natural snow left in West County, the snowmaking trails at Berkshire were great. Mohawk was open top to bottom with some spring showing through. Big Chief was probably the run of the day with great top to bottom coverage. Flying Cloud was also open top to bottom with good coverage, as were Upper and (lower) Competition, and Minnie Dole from Lookout down (essentially top to bottom). Outback was in good shape, as were Katie's Run and War Dance. I didn't make it further west, but Roundabout and Exhibition looked to be in good shape as well.

I never thought I'd ski Mohawk in April

Great coverage on Competition

The past two off season projects - the Mountain Top Triple and the wind turbine

Good coverage on Big Chief

Great coverage on Minnie Dole as the sun shines

Outback, traditionally one of the first snowmaking trails to melt, was still wall to wall

Bumps on Upper Competition

Good coverage on Flying Cloud

The head honchos on Big Chief

 

[gmcunni]

Looks great, would a first time ever visitor to B.E. be disappointed tomorrow (sunday)?

 

[threecy]

Looks great, would a first time ever visitor to B.E. be disappointed tomorrow (sunday)?

For tomorrow, I think it depends upon one's ability level. It was hero snow in the morning, but was bumping up in the afternoon. I haven't looked at the forecast for down there, but I doubt it'll set up, so it'll probably be softer tomorrow than today. Great coverage, very few skiers there. I believe only the Summit Triple and Top Notch Double were running. I could have saved 4 hours round trip driving and skied up here in the Whites, but today will go down as one of my top 10 late season days.

 

[TheBEast]

So wish I could be there tomorrow.....April skiing at the BEast is unheard of.

 

[threecy]

So wish I could be there tomorrow.....April skiing at the BEast is unheard of.

I believe it's only the second or third time I've skied there in April. I know B-East made it to April 1, 2001, but otherwise it had not been part of the operating model for the past few decades. The latest closing I could find was April 11, 1971, under previous ownership (which went belly up shortly thereafter).