Like Sharon's experience at Greek Peak last night, my son and I pulled into the lot at about 6:15 pm to find cars streaming out to go home. There were certainly still a bunch of kids on the hill by the time we boarded the Berkshire Express 6-pack around 6:30 or so, but it was never a crowd by any standard.
All of Jiminy's night skiing terrain is open. Now, let me preface this by first saying that I'm hardly a fan of night skiing -- visibility can be a drag, I enjoy views that I can't have at night, and surfaces are generally scraped off by day skier traffic. The latter was definitely the case at Jiminy last night, but the amount of cover was exceptional, especially when considering the challenges Mother Nature has thrown at southern New England ski areas thus far this season.
Decent snow could generally be found along the edges -- real manmade pp, too, not that "sugar" garbage often found on the sides of snowmaking trails around here -- but every now and then I'd hit a glazed spot that I couldn't set an edge in to save my life. I therefore skied perhaps more conservatively last night than I would otherwise, for you never knew when you'd come upon a patch of pure porcelain.
Not surprisingly, that slick stuff was most prevalent on the steeper Whitetail. It was our first run of the evening, and our last run on that trail. I was surprised, however, that it was nearly so on the gentle Left Bank as well. Skier's left of West Way was quite nice, with a few inches of manmade PP to carve turns in. The very top of not-a-glade North Glade was slick city, even on the edges, but after the first few skidded turns the surface turned nicely carveable on skier's right. Ditto for Foxes, and Lower Glade (not a glade, either) wasn't half bad. Skier's right of Grand Slam possessed enough blow-over carried by the wind from snowmaking ops in the terrain park that it was soft, but it also masked the edge of the snowmaking base and the snowsnakes hidden under only a couple of inches of white.
Guns were blazing in the terrain park along Grand Slam, as well as on Willie's Gulch, the newly "ungladed" former glade. My kid was somewhat disappointed to find the new Coyote Ridge terrain park roped off as well, leaving only a few small features in the beginner terrain park open.
After 11 runs that my altimeter logged as 10,955 feet, we called it a night at 9pm. That included time-out to eat some dinner, too -- that Berkshire Express allows one to rack up laps for some significant vertical in no time.
All of Jiminy's night skiing terrain is open. Now, let me preface this by first saying that I'm hardly a fan of night skiing -- visibility can be a drag, I enjoy views that I can't have at night, and surfaces are generally scraped off by day skier traffic. The latter was definitely the case at Jiminy last night, but the amount of cover was exceptional, especially when considering the challenges Mother Nature has thrown at southern New England ski areas thus far this season.
Decent snow could generally be found along the edges -- real manmade pp, too, not that "sugar" garbage often found on the sides of snowmaking trails around here -- but every now and then I'd hit a glazed spot that I couldn't set an edge in to save my life. I therefore skied perhaps more conservatively last night than I would otherwise, for you never knew when you'd come upon a patch of pure porcelain.
Not surprisingly, that slick stuff was most prevalent on the steeper Whitetail. It was our first run of the evening, and our last run on that trail. I was surprised, however, that it was nearly so on the gentle Left Bank as well. Skier's left of West Way was quite nice, with a few inches of manmade PP to carve turns in. The very top of not-a-glade North Glade was slick city, even on the edges, but after the first few skidded turns the surface turned nicely carveable on skier's right. Ditto for Foxes, and Lower Glade (not a glade, either) wasn't half bad. Skier's right of Grand Slam possessed enough blow-over carried by the wind from snowmaking ops in the terrain park that it was soft, but it also masked the edge of the snowmaking base and the snowsnakes hidden under only a couple of inches of white.
Guns were blazing in the terrain park along Grand Slam, as well as on Willie's Gulch, the newly "ungladed" former glade. My kid was somewhat disappointed to find the new Coyote Ridge terrain park roped off as well, leaving only a few small features in the beginner terrain park open.
After 11 runs that my altimeter logged as 10,955 feet, we called it a night at 9pm. That included time-out to eat some dinner, too -- that Berkshire Express allows one to rack up laps for some significant vertical in no time.