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Catamount Thursday, January 27, 2022 | |
Submitted on January 27, 2022 by rocket21 ( 1390) | ||
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Session | Full Day |
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Ticket Type | Indy Pass |
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Lift Lines | 0 minutes |
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Trail Conditions | 60% open; Loose Granular, Loose Granular |
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Glades | Closed, but Birch Glade looked doable. |
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Moguls | None |
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Terrain Park(s) | None |
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Run of the Day | Shawenon |
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Food and Beverage | No masks required in the Berkshire or Catamount lodges (about 50% wearing them, and 50% of those were wearing them half-heartedly), which was refreshing. Two cheeseburgers, fries, and fountain beverage were about $30 in the Berkshire lodge. The cheeseburgers were two patties/two slices of cheese and good. The Catamount Lodge food and beverage was not open today. Nice and roomy and better bathrooms. |
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Comments | Was originally hoping to ski at Bousquet today, but they're apparently (never responded to my web site inquiry earlier this week) still enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on their employees, so I said no thank you and went further south. -12F on the drive down, but temperatures were in the single digits when we pulled into Catamount, and rose into the 20s by the afternoon under mostly sunny skies. Used my Berkshire East RFID. On the Massachusetts side, the Meadows Triple was running, which meant Echo's and Lauren's were inaccessible (if Promenade was running, then Kelli's and Ali's would be inaccessible). Bobcat, Panther, Spencer's, and Birch Cathedral were closed (no snow made yet). Holiday was also closed, but snowmaking is in progress and I suspect it will be open by the weekend. The trails had good loose granular conditions. Christopher's Leap, Turnpike, Expressway, Ripper, Ridge Run Extension, Lynx, and I think Cat's Meow were all closed and I don't think had any snowmaking yet. Fan guns cranking on Race Slope (closed). Based upon vague snow reports earlier this week, I was hoping Catapult would be open. There are some large piles, but the guns were not going (noted the crew hosing the guns up again and someone working at the upper valve house all day, suggesting they had an emergency shut down and were hoping to restart the guns soon). Ridge Run was in good shape. On the New York side, the upper portion was getting scraped by lunch time, as all traffic funnels down one area (since Lookout is not open (no snow made yet either). Glade and Chute were decent, but Upper Alley Cat and Upper Sidewinder were both scratchy. Lower Alley Cat and Fisher's Fluke were closed/no snowmaking noted. Marty's Run was okay this morning, but was closed for some reason early in the afternoon. Lower Sidewinder was okay. Shawenon was probably the best of the bunch and has some nice changes in fall line. Catamount and On Stage are the same trail at this point and were good. Off Stage was closed, but was being pushed out; I suspect this will open soon (looks like there is water actively perking up near the bottom, perhaps from a snowmaking issue). Seems like the old snowmaking infrastructure (ball valves everywhere) is struggling with the increased pressure. Seems like they ran out of construction season, as neither of the new chairlifts look like they'll be running soon. Also noted a large bulldozer gathering snow at the top of Ripper. Catamount Quad towers/sheaves are up, but the drive terminal remains in the parking lot. The Glade Triple has the comm line up and the haul rope partially on, but didn't note any work activity today on either lift. Not an issue today, as the Ridge Quad was ski-on all day. Bummer not having any of the double diamonds open, but otherwise there was a nice variety of terrain open and nothing was crowded. Despite being the southernmost ski area in Massachusetts, it skis just as big as mid-sized mountains in New Hampshire and Maine. |
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Report Rating | 2
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