This was written on Wednesday January 18th, due to personal reasons I decided to take a break and not post. I will be back at my regular posting day of Wednesday.
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It's Wednesday, which means it's blog day! Did you get out to ski over the holiday weekend? I sure did! The smell of delicious apple cider donuts and waffles filled the air when I spent MLK Jr day at Wachusett! Here's how the day went.
Wachusett is one of the most popular ski areas in New England, and arguably the United States. It's close proximity to Boston, Providence, and even Hartford, makes it extremely accessible. Even if you have to drive a solid 15-20 minutes off the highway to get there. the 2006' mountain boasts a 1000' vertical drop, 3 express quads, a triple and three carpets. Wachusett is a mountain for all abilities.
When we arrived we had to park in an overflow lot, and the first thought that came to mind was "holy crowded." (I'm still getting used to skiing on the weekends again.) Here's a kudos to Wachusett. There were thousands of cars in the lots today. Which typical would mean long, slow lift lines... and while that was the case the lines moved FAST! Really fast. I think the longest wait of the day was probably 10 minutes, only because of a few stoppages and ski patrol needing to send a sled up.
The snow was decent too! Coming off a quick 3-4 inch snowstorm which made the vibes and experience much more fun. The snow covered most trails from edge to edge and you can definitely tell they are cranking out snow any chance they get. I only skied two trails that were scraped off, those being Conifer Connection and Frannie's Folly. I can't say much for 10th Mountain or Smith Walton because I didn't hit those but it appeared to be good from the chairlift. .
Trails of the Day:
#1 Ralphs Run
The blue square run off the minuteman express quad is perfect for somebody who wants to either experience a blue for the first time or have a trail to lap all day. Ralphs winds it's way around the left side of the mountain and has plenty of dips and wide open terrain for somebody to practice on. On Monday, Ralph's had the best snow on the mountain. The perfect snow to carve in and if you fell it didn't hurt... too bad. This is my girlfriends favorite trail at Wachusett so it was a lot of fun to see her get better at her "French fry" turns and gain confidence in skiing.
#2 Challenger
Staying on the Minuteman side of the mountain, the gradual pitch blue square is another great run to work on those French fry turns and to cruise on. The trail stays about the same pitch for the first half, then one steeper section, flattens back out, and ends with another steeper pitch when back at the base area.
This run can get a bit scrapped off if there are racers on it or public nastar racing. Luckily with the amount of people that were there the snow got pushed back from where it was pushed away from. Personally I am usually on my snowboard, but on Monday I was rocking my Meier Skis and was able to practice at a faster speed and learn how to carve better and more consistently. Which is why I have it ranked at number two on my list.
Challenger is definitely a bit more - challenging - then Ralphs Run which makes it a great way to really get warmed up before heading to the summit.
#3 Conifer Connection to Lower Conifer
Speaking of the summit... number three on my list this week is Conifer Connection to Lower Conifer. An all time classic New England ski run!
The top to bottom intermediate run off the Polar Express Quad goes top too bottom. The trail starts out mellow with some dips and dives to start off and it winds through the upper mountain with fantastic views. Like I mentioned earlier in the blog, this section of the trail was extremely scrapped off, which could've been from the amount of people choosing an intermediate trail over an expert trail .
The trail gains some pitch halfway through before turning into Lower Conifer, the snow here was much better than the upper half of the run. Although it was a bit bumped up which made it more difficult for the beginner crowd on the hill Monday.
The views of Conifer are also immaculate, looking towards Wachusett Lake. And, on a sunny day you can see all the way to Mount Monadnock and many southern New Hampshire and Vermont ski areas.
Overall Thoughts:
I had a great few hours of Wachusett. You can now choose an all day ticket and a single or double session ticket. We decided to get a four hour session, which for what Wachusett offers was perfect. We got in roughly 12 runs in that span which was great. I personally think they charge too much money for only four hours of skiing and a full day ticket, but that's just me.
We ended our day with delicious waffles from the waffle cabin, jumped on the shuttle back to our car and called it quits.
If I had to rank the day, I would give it a solid 7/10.
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Thanks for reading!
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