Berkshire East 2/9

[Anonymous]

In the morning the groomers were good but fast, Competition, Minnie Dole, and all of the Intermediate trails. Lift Line, Umass, and some of the other natural trails had a nasty crust on top and were closed. Two glades were open and both had reasonable lines. First time at the Beast and overall I was very impressed. Would like to come back when Liftline and some of the other trails were open. No bumps to be foud today with the exception of a few in the woods. However all their trails do have a good steep pitch, and its natural trails and glades make it the best in Mass. Reminds me of a smaller version of Magic, but its 1180 vertical is I believe the best in Mass.

 

[Lezek Les Debski]

Show yourself, anonymous! Berkshire East rocks my world! It about 1.5-2 hrs door 2 door from my house to there, and the best deal by far. I went there recently during the cold spell, and should've written up a post, but I was too lazy. The place is the best bang for your buck, seriously people! You have decent vert thats close to home, u have great ticket prices, decent lifts, no liftlines, the steeps, the groomers, and the cruisers, and good learning terrain and very friendly people. The only things that are really missing are bumps and major woods, but they're workin on the woods as best as they can. You can NOT beat this mountain for what it offers. I'll tell you that I drove an extra 20-30 min to go to Mt Snow the other week, only to pay $20-something more, and wait in line to get on a windy-arsed lift, and ski boilerplate, on-again off-again, windblown intermediate steeps, all because the trails were too wide. And Mount snow may have all kinds of on-mountain amenities, tons of lifts, and lots of money for snowmaking, but when it comes down to what REAL SKIERS look for, Mount Snow, and most of the other ASC and Intrawest resorts, etc. dont have it. Go BEAST! and btw anonymous, where did u get that vertical statistic? bc i couldn't find it anywhere, and just eyeballed it to be about 1000' from a topo map. <BR>~Les

 

[Anonymous]

I think it said 1180 on the trailmap. Berkshire East is pretty good, and is the best in Mass. I would take a day at the Beast over anyday at Mt Snow or Stratton, especially for the lift ticket price. Having said that I still like Magic a little better but the Beast seems to have better snowmaking and more things open. Dont get me wrong, I was VERY impressed with the resort and its amazing to me that people prefer to go to Jimminy, Catamount or Butternut. THe Beast clearly outclasses all of these resorts in terms of terrain. If I dont feel like going 30 to 45 minutes farther to Magic mountain, I'll definately ski the Beast!