Special Olympics at Wachusett

[wa-loaf]

There will be no first chair. Unless you want first chair up Monadnock, Polar and Minuteman will be running 8 AM Friday through 10 PM Saturday with no stops except maybe about 15 minutes of maintenance Saturday morning. The trails are all groomed a 3rd time during the 24 hour event so they'll be in good condition, but you won't get powder.

You know, maybe i should head back out after the kids are in bed for a little midnight skiing.

 

[hrstrat57]

wa weekends

Methinks Sunday will be a much better choice.....tho not a good choice....but I am locked into w/e only for a while.

If the new skis come in this week I will be there early....maybe 0700.....and will defin be gone by 11:00....

Your first visit to wa would be much more enjoyable midweek......I was there Monday(see my mini TR in the long running epicski thread) and it was great fun. Posting a wa TR on here is pretty redundant, Zand does such a good job with that I don't bother....his TR's are always spot on.

Riskier is right on re challenge...the only remotely challenging pitch at wa is about 250 vert of Smith Walton. Unfortunately, it is normally full of terrified wedge turners who are surprised to see how steep it is. Monday I was very lucky - caught it twice with fresh corduroy and nobody on it. Woo hoo!

In fact, Conifer and 10th Mtn are also usually full of terrified wedge turners.....esp on weekends. They are surely easy trails for most experienced skiers but have a tricky fall line in places which cause the level 5 and below skiers some reason to pause. This can result in some pretty defensive skiing for the rest of us....and a lot of frustration.

Taking Challenger out of the mix hurts....it can be a fun trail for letting them run a bit....my favorite at wa is Hitchcock, also off the minuteman lift.

 

[jack97]

It's not all on the terrified wedge turners, you have riders who have to use their boards to scrape just to bleed off some speed. IMO, the turn trajectories they make are the hardest ones to figure out (in case you want to pass them). In parts of the turns they will try to stay on edge (or partially) and once the pitch changes or they pick up speed they go to the scrape sometimes a full frontal scrape.

 

[hiroto]

So where did you end up going Paul? I was there Sunday to hook up with our former Dev team friend and the crowd was worst I ever seen. It was certainly not a good day to check out Wawa for the first time.

I was shocked to see line growing to more than 10 minutes wait by 9AM, shocked to see that line didn't get any shorter through the lunch hour, and shocked that the line didn't start to loosen up till past 3PM.

We still had a good time hanging out with our friends and snow condition was actually pretty good. We would have felt pretty guilty if we have invited a family for a first time experience at the mountain. Standing constantly in line for 20 minutes or more throughout the day is miserable experience if you are not used to it and expecting it.

 

[Paul]

So where did you end up going Paul? I was there Sunday to hook up with our former Dev team friend and the crowd was worst I ever seen. It was certainly not a good day to check out Wawa for the first time.

I was shocked to see line growing to more than 10 minutes wait by 9AM, shocked to see that line didn't get any shorter through the lunch hour, and shocked that the line didn't start to loosen up till past 3PM.

We still had a good time hanging out with our friends and snow condition was actually pretty good. We would have felt pretty guilty if we have invited a family for a first time experience at the mountain. Standing constantly in line for 20 minutes or more throughout the day is miserable experience if you are not used to it and expecting it.

As "luck" would have it, I ended-up taking my daughter to Mohawk in CT. My wife had to help her Dad out, he's looking to move, so they went house-hunting.
Sounds like we dodged a bullet. Thanks for all the good info and advise. The Wa is still on our RADAR.
Thanks for asking, btw...

 

[RISkier]

I'm very glad we ventured further afield on Sunday. We went to Wa the previous Sunday and it was chaos. Thought this Sunday had the potential to get pretty overwhelming. Ended up at B'East -- oh so nice. Longer drive but I didn't feel like I was going to go postal the whole day. Indeed, we basically ended up staying till the lifts closed.

 

[hrstrat57]

berkshire east

I'm very glad we ventured further afield on Sunday. We went to Wa the previous Sunday and it was chaos. Thought this Sunday had the potential to get pretty overwhelming. Ended up at B'East -- oh so nice. Longer drive but I didn't feel like I was going to go postal the whole day. Indeed, we basically ended up staying till the lifts closed.

Amen riskier!

Our choice of Berkshire East was a solid choice indeed. So glad I skipped wa.

Sweet little mountain that skis big!

Drive RT 2 to Charlemont, MA look left, can't miss it.

Highly recommended!

Back to wa next sunday probably.....