Berkshire East, MA: 2/6/16

I visited Umass Amherst yesterday during a snowstorm that left about 3 inches.  I liked the school a lot, and it is among my top picks, due to a strong engineering program, easy access to skiing, and a large ski club.  It is also a bit less expensive than most of the other schools that rank high on my list.  Staying in the student-run hotel that was on campus, I was positioned quite a bit further north than I usually am, so I took advantage of this opportunity to ski the closest ski area to the university, which I had never skied before.

My dad had work on Friday that he couldn't miss, so he didn't visit the college.  My mom and I drove to the ski area in the morning which was about 45 minutes away.  We got on the lift by about 9.  My dad met us at around 10 after driving up from home.  Snodad and I are skiing Mount Snow tomorrow, so that's why he came up.  Now for my thoughts on the ski area.

The ski area has 1,180 vertical and the main lift is about 3,400 feet long to give an idea of the average pitch.  The runs aren't very steep, but all have decent pitch with no runout at the bottom.  There are two lifts that go to the summit, a quad with a loading carpet as the main lift, and a triple as the backup.  Both lifts ran today with no more than a couple minutes wait for the quad and no line at the triple.  They also have a short double serving a beginner area, and another (rather slow) quad serving a separate section of the mountain to looker's right.  It has about 2/3rds the vertical of the summit lifts.  Both these lifts had zero line all day.  

I liked the ski area and would definitely be happy going there on a regular basis if I attended Umass Amherst.  I skied from 9 to 3, pretty much nonstop and was never bored.  

I want to add pictures, but it may take awhile because they're on my phone.

Pictures are below, enjoy!!

Flying Cloud


Base Area looking up


Looking down Minnie Dole

Top of the mountain


Wind turbine and lift


Exhibition


Chute

Looks like a nice hill to have so close to college.  Thanks for the report, Sno!

Petronio

It's no PC, but it's not bad.  

I like the Berks.  Not quite the Adirondacks, but not bad.  It's a good location for a skier to be IMHO.

OMG - tell me it isn't so, no HSQs, no bubble lifts and certainly not wall to wall coverage as the pictures show, how could you stand the place - it goes against everything you have ever posted.

PeeTex wrote

OMG - tell me it isn't so, no HSQs, no bubble lifts and certainly not wall to wall coverage as the pictures show, how could you stand the place - it goes against everything you have ever posted.

Actually I think his point is places like this should have all that.  Of course if they did, they'd be out of business in no time at all.  He'll learn all that when he gets his MBA

I like a change in pace every once in a while from the crowded superhighway trails.  It's always fun to ski a new mountain.  They don't need any high speed lifts there.  The main summit quad moves pretty quick for a fixed grip since it has a loading carpet.  It's only 3,400 feet long, so no need for a HSQ.  The mountain does have about 90% snowmaking coverage and groomed all of the open trails today.  I'm skiing Mount Sno(w) tomorrow to fulfill all my bubble lift needs.

Nice report. I've been to Jiminy a million times and never Berkshire East. Have you looked at middlebury college? I told my son they have their own mountain and he got really excited about it, even though he's only 13

I believe the summit lifts at the BEast have a 4000' line length, not 3400'.  

Brownski wrote

Nice report. I've been to Jiminy a million times and never Berkshire East. Have you looked at middlebury college? I told my son they have their own mountain and he got really excited about it, even though he's only 13

Expensive and hard to get into.

Two

snoloco wrote

Brownski wrote

Nice report. I've been to Jiminy a million times and never Berkshire East. Have you looked at middlebury college? I told my son they have their own mountain and he got really excited about it, even though he's only 13

Expensive and hard to get into.

Two Reasons,

Why you might want to look closer @ Middlebury.  If not, you could go Navy Special Ops. Same beat, different tune.

Ski you on the Hill.

The Beast looks decent , i need to try that sometime when we visit family in the  495 corridor , we always seem to hit Wawa or Gunstock . The Beast looks to be lower density with a retro vibe

warp daddy wrote

The Beast looks decent , i need to try that sometime when we visit family in the  495 corridor , we always seem to hit Wawa or Gunstock . The Beast looks to be lower density with a retro vibe

it's betterer.

Nice report Sno. BE is a great alternative to the southern VT areas on a weekend. Less crowds and less expensive lift tickets. Good terrain. You should hit it in a good snow year.