We went to Jiminy Peak on Christmas Day.
We arrived at 12:30, got lift tickets, booted up and had lunch. A brief description of the place is that it is a relatively simple layout with many steeper trails going down a ridge and some easier cruisers going to looker's right of the ridge. All these trails are accessed by the 6-pack Berkshire Express as well the Summit Triple and Whitetail Quad which weren't running today. There is also a double chair called the Grand Slam Chair which serves as the race lift and terrain park lift on the lower lookers' right portion of the ridge. We took that lift a few times to look at the Alpine Slide which I left some skin on this past summer. There is also a second peak called Widow White's Peak, but that was closed today. The place is really built up with a strip mall type village at the base and plenty of slopeside condos. All the base area facilities are nice, new, and well kept which is the way I like things and there were pretty good food options for a ski area. As a whole, the place has a similar vibe to Windham and many of the trails ski similarly.
Now for the actual skiing. We got on the 6-pack lift by 1:15. That lift was absolutely flying, way faster than I though it would be going considering the wind. It got us up 1,150 vertical feet in less than 5 minutes with no wait whatsoever. The trails are great for cruising which is just what we were looking for. Cover was slightly thin with some bare spots in areas, but none that couldn't be avoided. The only thing I was disappointed about was the fact that the entire east side of the mountain was closed while it had snowcover. However, there was plenty of trails to keep us occupied and we decided that we would come back some time and ski those trails that were closed. We took tons and tons of laps on each trail. There was no line at the 6-pack and that really made a difference. We just lapped that thing on almost every single run and probably broke 30,000 vertical. Most of the trails open today were lit for night skiing, we we just kept on going after the sun went down. We decided to have dinner at 4:45 and my mom called it a day then. My dad and I decided to ski for a little longer and were going to quit at 6:30. On what was going to be our second to last lift ride, there was a transformer explosion and most of the lights went out on the trails. When we got to the top, they had road flares out to light up the unloading area. Ski Patrol told us all to wait at the top till they fixed the lights. In about 20 minutes they had restored power and the lights came back on, so we skied down and called that our last run. It was weird to be leaving a mountain that had good snow and was still loading lifts (they are open till 10), but it was a longer drive back home and we had gotten a ton of skiing in.
Now the thing that I really was concerned about is if my mom would enjoy the day. She is a much more casual skier than my dad and I and only goes max 5 times a season. She likes to ski uncrowded, groomed blues that have good snow on them. I was worried that the springlike conditions today would be a challenge, but she was fine on them. She told me that she really enjoyed the day and thought it was a great way to spend Christmas. Jiminy Peak has been on my radar for a while and I was glad I finally got a chance to ski it. We will be back when we get the chance.
I've lived in New York my entire life.
Locked
