Keepin’ it real, fun and lighthearted for the girls.

Jiminy Peak, despite being in the Berkshire Mountains, consistently offers a very long ski season, comparable to most of the large resorts in southern Vermont.  They blow a great deal of snow and maintain a consistent snow product across the hill.  For this reason, I tend to keep my eyes out for their “E-Coupon” deals that they run every so often throughout the season.  For us, Jiminy’s snow making prowess allows to get a day out skiing early in the season before Plattekill opens.  So, December 2, 2012 was just one of those E-Coupon Sundays.  If I recall correctly, just $25 for a lift ticket.

This was the first day out for the season for my girls and I have found over the past 7 years since my oldest first started skiing, that the most important thing is to keep it fun and light for them.  2013-2014 will be my youngest daughter’s fourth full ski season and my oldest’s seventh.  They have definitely inherited my ski gene and are, no doubt, already hooked.  (For life, I hope!).

The mountain was offering about 10-15 “trails” for skiing, (unfortunately, I did not note the exact trails that were open) which provided about 4 distinct ways down the 1100′ vertical.  The high speed six-pack provides the heft of the uphill capacity and does a good job alleviating lift lines on most days other than holiday and mid-season big weekend days.

 Although Jiminy’s snow quality is usually very good, even through early and late season, in my opinion, the terrain is a bit boring.  The mountain offers a nice, fairly steep pitch, especially for southern New England, but they groom almost the entire mountain every night.  Sometimes, a single run (or at most 2) will be left to bump up, but they are relatively short and unimpressive.  My biggest gripe is that just about every trail is cut pretty much directly down the fall-line of the mountain.  There are few, if any trails that follow the contours of the mountain, which, I feel, provides a more enjoyable and varied ski experience.

Even early season, as can be seen above, the trails are generally covered edge to edge with a nice, skiable surface, at least in the mornings.  Of course, being early season, the Jiminy regulars and pass holders were out to get their share and with only about a dozen trails open, some undoubtedly got scraped down by the afternoon.  Despite the sun never making an appearance, the weather was o.k., as it wasn’t overly cold and all four of us had a nice, enjoyable first day of lift-serviced skiing for the 2012-2013 season.

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About 6″ of heavy wet snow fell on the still leaf-laden trees of mid-autumn.  The trees were not happy, many completely snapped, others were leaning over at unnatural angles.  Sandy had just blown down some two dozen trees in the local woods that were blocking the network of trails.  Plus, there were even more blown down on some of our single track trails that my buddies and I have made over the years. (Mostly my buddies, but I have/do help as well).

Fresh snow always has a way of making things brighter and happier.  It was beautiful outside.  Plus, the adrenaline pumps a little extra fiercely the first time you click into the bindings for the season.  My backcountry cross-country skis have old school, three-pin bindings and my boots are also the soft, duck-billed 75 mm norm of old school telemark gear.  This set up is similar to light duty tele skis, since they have a full metal edge.  But, they are extremely light and much softer and they also have scales under foot on the base.  Either way, there is nothing like gliding on two planks.

Luckily, we did not lose power after this snow storm, but we had lost it for 3 nights after Sandy the week before. We were obviously lucky on both accounts as the damage after Sandy in this area was extraordinary, but that’s for a different blog entirely.

The trails run through the local woods and one surrounds the reservoir.  All of the trails, even some of our single track mountain biking trails that run between the older, more established trails, serve as excellent cross-country ski trails.  Here, are my tracks as I make my way around the reservoir.  I was probably out there for about 2 hours and made my way through most areas of the woods.  The snow was very heavy and by the end of the morning, had started to stick to the bases (and the tops) of my skis, which made them heavy and I started to feel it in my upper hip area being the first day out.

I was extremely happy to have had the opportunity to get out on skis, in fresh snow, before Thanksgiving, without even having to drive anywhere.  The ski season is off to a good, early start!