Bobby Buggs Posted February 13, 2008 Report Share Posted February 13, 2008 Thanks to dingbat I ducked out of my office today for a few runs at Berkshire East, aka Thunder Dome aka The Beast. ONLY 57 miles from my office:biggthump Parking was easy with many options. Lift ticket only $25, thanks Evil. Although not a Big area it had 3 quite good trails for carving that all ended up at the main lift. I was quite surprised to see how much more snow they had than my completely bare back yard. Conditions were very good with real packed powder and some man made. There was the very limited shiny patch in the 1 High traffic intersection from people skidding before they made their decision but none of that was found on the steeps:eplus2: Over all I have to say its a nice place to bang out some runs or work on technique. One improvement would be a high speed chair. If they were to put that in it would be the perfect place to train for ski racing or Carving. If there is a gathering of carvers at The Beast I will try to go for sure. I can see me keeping my board and boot bag in the Ridgeline for some sneak out mid week turns:1luvu: dingbat,Thanks for the call and motivation It was SO worth it. Hope to hook up with you soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dingbat Posted February 13, 2008 Report Share Posted February 13, 2008 I was quite surprised to see how much more snow they had than my completely bare back yard. Conditions were very good with real packed powder and some man made. ........ Thanks for the call and motivation It was SO worth it. Glad I didn't steer you wrong.:D This is their secret: "Closed Wednesday [2-13-08] due to icing and hazardous road conditions. We did receive 6-8 inches of snow on the front side of the storm and plan to open tomorrow at 9am." If skiing on it is going to screw up the snow, they just don't let you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powercarver129 Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Berkshire east has been my home mountain for all 7 years I've been snowboarding. While they're not the biggest place, i have grown to like it quite a bit and I think that they're overall a great mountain for the value. (Check out this deal: On saturday nights, 3 people=$39, 4 people= 49, 5 people= $59, etc... that's like 12 bucks for 6 hours of riding!!!) Anyways, it is a great place for practice for sure. Competition, flying cloud, exhibition, big cheif, are the best runs that are commonly open. If you're lucky, you'll get mini dole, Umass, grizzly, and the beast which are fantastic, fun, and relatively challenging trails. I just wish they were open more! Yeah the lifts are slow (I think it's 8-9 minutes to get up to a pretty low summit) but I can deal with that because I have literally NEVER waited in line to ride the lift. NEVER!!! That just makes up for everyting! I mean go to killington or okemo or something... yeah they can get you up three times as high in the same amount of time but you wait for 15 minutes in the lift line! I go to berkshire east and I ride non stop, no nonsense, no BS for a solid block of time. I am very impatient because I always want to get the most runs possible and B-East allows me to do that all the time. I have to say that in the past 7 years i've been on the snow, I have never once seen another hardbooter up there. I myself have actually just started this season (only been on them twice!) but I'm loving it so far. As with any place, you get a few weird looks but that is the least of my concerns when I'm tear-a$$ing down the hill linking perfect, agressive turns on a race board!! Anyways it's a place I really recommend especially during the week, becuase you will literally never wait in line (unless it's a ski race day for the local schools... after 3:30 the main lift could get busy). You will enjoy it though. Tip: use the blue lift to the left of the main lift (if open) if it does happen to be a race day. It goes to practically the same place, it's much faster, and it only serves people who know what they're doing. I'm glad to hear that SOMEBODY is going to berkshire east, and a hardbooter at that! I would love to see you or any other HBer around there:biggthump You can't beat the value and they've got decent snow. Maybe some of you veterans could show me what I'm doing!! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Buggs Posted February 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Well after today I will wait for dingbat to give me the and I will be dropping in there a bunch. I agree with everything you said. I liked Competition, and big chief the most and I did cut over on lower chief to Comp. Good stuff for sure. You might see a couple rouge Evil Sports stickers there next time you get some lunch:eplus2: I will let you know next time I can get there. Ding, tell us they didnt get to pounded, I could have run a boat in my back yard today:nono: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dingbat Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 I have to say that in the past 7 years i've been on the snow, I have never once seen another hardbooter up there. Hey Powercarver, I'm up there 3-4 days a week (nights and weekends). This is my first year on hard boots as well. There's an other guy from BOL I met up there a couple of weekends ago who frequents the place and Dan, the owner of Trail's (formerly Clark's Sport Shop), is up on occasion. He's the guy who got me into hard boots. Drop me a line and I'll meet you up there. -Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dingbat Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Ding, tell us they didnt get to pounded, I could have run a boat in my back yard today:nono: Sink a boat is more like it. I got 8"-10" on my front lawn down here in the valley. It compressed to about 4" with the rain today. I'm guessing they faired better up there. Tomorrow will probably be slush and crust but I'd bet it's worth the trip again by Fri. They should be blowing all the snow they can to get ready for President's week. Considering that, Friday should be good for sure. I'll be up Sat afternoon to see for myself but if you're planning on heading up before then, let me know and I'll put a call in to one of the fellas and get a report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powercarver129 Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 I am going to try to get up there saturday but no promises. I'm really surprised to see that you're up there 3-4 times a week because I really have never seen a hardbooter there... hmmm haha and the website is so out of date that they're giving the conditions for opening week!! anyways I really hope that it didn't completely wash out, where I live was awful too. We need some colder weather and fast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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