Wachusett - 12-27-2010

[Bostonian]

Okay, normally, I don't like to rant, but today is worth the rant. This afternoon, seeing that there was no work, I decided to make an afternoon at Wa. Meeting up with some friends, I arrive there at 12pm, take a few runs. Lapped, tenth, Smith Walton, and Connifer. The snow when I got there was great. Packed powder, although it was getting blown around quickly. By 2:30 the snow was completely blown off the trails and nothing but glacier ice. To add insult to injury, riding up the chair around 3:15, it stops... not just stops, but full on shut down for a good hour. With the wind blowing at gusts up to 50 miles an hour it seemed, the chairs were a rocking, but not moving. finally by 4ish, we began to crawl... only to stop again closer to the head wall on 10th Mountain. Now it was getting cold... Finally we get to the top of the hill, and made my way back down to the bottom. Wa did offer at least free hot chocolate. So all wasn't lost, but boy... what a harsh harsh day on the hill. But I will be back tomorrow!

 

[xlr8r]

Today was definitely not Wawas best then.

I went up for a night session with my brother who snowboards. He hadn't snowboarded since 2003 so we took it easy. Did one run off the easy rider carpet, then one down indian summer. After that he felt ready for minuteman so we did four laps of that including ralphs, challenger, and hitchcock. Overall he was doing very well and was ready to try conifer next. But before that we decided to take a break and warm up in the lodge for a bit next to the fireplace at 6:30.

Sometime close to 7:00 the place went completely dark with a power outage. The only lights working on the whole mountain were the snowcats and peoples cell phones. Luckily the chairlifts backups seemed to be working as I saw minuteman still spinning very slowly. Hopefully no one on the trails got hurt when the place went dark. Talked to a girl at the ticket booth who said the tickets for the night will be good for another which works great for my brother as he will get another night for free to get back into the groove of snowboarding again. For me it ended up being craziest and shortest session at Wawa I've done since having a pass.

 

[Bostonian]

Wow...

I am glad I got out of there at 6:15... I feel really bad for Wawa, first the summit quad breaking down for an hour, and then the lights going out. I was contemplating taking a few runs after I warmed up, but decided, it was blowing way too hard. I will be heading out there again tonight though, so hopefully things will be better.

 

[keyser soze]

Maybe I'm naive, but if I get stuck on a lift for an hour in howling wind and cold, I'm expecting a bit more than a free hot choclate. I would have thought they'd give you a free lift ticket.

 

[Bostonian]

I did get a comp ticket also...

 

[The Sneak]

was an explanation given for the lift breakdown? why didn't the backup motor work? so tired of hearing about mech failures at a place that draws more skiers & snowboarders than many destination resorts. fix the problems, there is no excuse.

 

[Trigger]

I would have to agree with Sneak. Wachusett draws in alot of money and not just during ski season. They have functions, bands, events, and other stuff during the non sking season. The stuff shouldnt be breaking.But im not a chair lift mechanic so who knows what happened. I would be pretty mad if I was stuck on the lift for an hour!!