Pico Mountain 2/8 and Berkshire East 2/9

This is a bit delayed, but it's been a busy week.  Eammon and I had a couple of Groupon tix for Pico mountain, so we finally used those up the past Saturday.  This was our first time at Pico, and what can I say?  I. Love. Pico.  What an awesome little mountain!  We heard some people saying that the lines at Killington were long, but there was hardly any wait at Pico!  Here's how crowded the main lift line was:


We had a BEAUTIFUL bluebird day!  Eammon has been fretting over whether he'd ever get to use his smokey lenses in his new goggles, and he finally had his chance.  The snow was in great shape.  They'd gotten about five inches the night or two before, and while it was groomed/packed down, it was still really soft.  There were barely any icy spots.  The only run I didn't like was the 49er from the summit.  It must be a natural trail, and while it seemed to have decent snow coverage, there were rocks rolling around on top of the snow.  Luckily my skis suffered nothing that can't be buffed and waxed away.  Aside from that, though, we had a really wonderful time.  We'll definitely be back!  We still have a gift certificate to Killington, but we might just use it to buy tix to Pico instead!  



Views from the summit:




I don't know if Saturday was a special event, or if they just have a lot of blind skiers at Pico, but there were a number of blind skiers with guides all over the mountain.  I can only imagine how exciting and exhilarating skiing must be to them!



A photo of the summit from mid-mountain:

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Sunday, we made another trip back to Berkshire East.  That place is still awesome in my book.  The snow was deeper this time (though still not deep enough for glade skiing) and we checked out all the black diamonds this time.  It's got a great variety of terrain for such a small place.  It's really laid back and the snow has been amazing both times we've been there.  In fact, we're thinking we might just forego season passes to Wachusett next year to get passes to B-East.  It's 1.5 hours away, but it's close enough to visit easily every weekend.  

Another sunny day!



More great views!



They obviously have a terrific sense of humor here.  I hope others see the irony of this sign:

Hahaha. That 420 sign is terrific. Haven't been to Pico in years but have had a few good days there. Nice cruisers. Such a world away from the place down the road especially on a busy weekend. Glad you had a good trip!

bumping this. Wish I could get to about two dozen mountains this weekend, and these would be near the top.

Pico is a hidden gem, great for families as most of it filters down to one base area, but some real expert trails too.