A
Anonymous
Guest
The snow storm got a slower than predicted start in the Berkshires. On Monday morning we had only 1" of new snow at my house in Williamstown. When I went to bed on Monday night we had about 4", but it was snowing steadily. At 7 AM this morning we had at least 18" here in valley, so I began my purposeful preparations to head out to ski. Neither of my sons, furloughed from school for the snow, were interested. (What's wrong with these teenagers? They would rather hang with their buds than ski powder with their old man!) The snowplow guy arrived at about 7:45 and cleared the uphill dirt road from my house to the town roads. Shortly thereafter my wife decided that she would go with me. I shoveled my way <BR>to the garage and we were on our way. <BR> <BR>At Jiminy the Berkshire Express six pack started up at 9 AM and the powder frenzy began. Skiers got off at the top and hurtled themselves down Whirlaway. None of the steeps were groomed, but it was difficult to get first tracks. For the most part we skied DEEP cut up powder that was as good as anything that we had encountered in Utah two weeks ago. We did get first tracks down **** *******, an easily ignored natural snow trail out in the hinterlands. It has a mellow pitch, so we pointed them straight down the fall line and floated. We also had a blast in the woods off of Left Bank. Shortly after noon the Widow White's lift opened, triggering another powder frenzy. I managed to get to Nor'easter fairly early on. <BR> <BR>At about 1:30 we ran into Josh, an excellent telemarker and a member of the Mount Greylock Ski Club. (We had hooked up with Josh a couple weeks <BR>earlier at Alta.) We were getting worn out, but I could not tear myself away from the best skiing of the year. My wife decided to go home and <BR>Josh agreed to give me a ride after a bit more skiing. Josh and his son were skiing everything that normally is not open, such as the lift line under the triple. I chased them around for another hour and a half, pushing me to new levels of powder nirvana. We skiied Willy's Gulch, the glade next to the Foxes, a first for me. <BR> <BR>Today was an amazing powder day. Tomorrow the Jiminy Peak snow report promises that everything will be groomed. "If you prefer groomed slopes, then Wednesday, Thursday or Friday would be great days to come for perfect packed powder conditions."