Wachusett Mt - any thoughts on it?

I'm supposed to take my family there next week to ski with friends (not my
choice of ski areas). All I've ever heard about it is negative. Having never
been there myself, I was hoping to get some feedback from people who have.
Thanks.

Davlo wrote:
I'm supposed to take my family there next week to ski with friends
(not my
choice of ski areas). All I've ever heard about it is negative.
Having never
been there myself, I was hoping to get some feedback from people who
have.
Thanks.

My biggest problem with Wachusett is the weekend/holiday crowds. It
has about 1000 ft of vertical and would not offer much challenge to an
advanced Skier. There's a fairly steep pitch on Smith Walton but the
other blacks are really of intermediate standard. Additionally, the
steepest pitch tends not to get much sun and can be somewhat icy at
times. Challenger and Hitchcock are easy blue cruisers and seem to not
be terribly crowded (folks on that side of the mountain seem to either
1) stay on Ralph's run because it's very easy, or 2) stay in the park.
The summit lift tends to get the most traffic and Conifer tends to be a
zoo -- seems folks tend to avoid the blacks and they all end up on
Conifer. If the crowds become to much, the lift and runs in the
Victory bowl are usually pretty empty -- though marked blues they're
probably just greens. The infrastructure is really pretty good. It
can really become a zoo on weekends and holidays. It's most proximate
to us so we do go there sometimes on weekends. Our coping strategies:
Get there early, get out and do laps off the summit quad. When Conifer
begins to get too crowded, we move over to the blacks which tend to
have much less traffic. We're consumate intermediates (not even strong
intermediates) and are in our comfort zone on everything except the
steepest pitch on Smith Walton. When lines get too long on the summit
quad, we tend to start running laps on Challenger and Hitchcock -- nice
runs to work on technique. We ski through lunch and avoid the lodge
during prime lunch time. If we eat in the lodge we avoid the cafeteria
and head for the sit-down cafe -- don't recall the name but actually
decent, little or no more expensive than the cafeteria, and much more
pleasent. Don't know where you're driving from, but I'd take a looked
at Crotched Mountain which has more sustained pitch and tends to be
considerably less crowded.

"SkiHound" wrote in message

My biggest problem with Wachusett is the weekend/holiday crowds. It
has about 1000 ft of vertical and would not offer much challenge to an
advanced Skier. There's a fairly steep pitch on Smith Walton but the
other blacks are really of intermediate standard. Additionally, the
steepest pitch tends not to get much sun and can be somewhat icy at
times. Challenger and Hitchcock are easy blue cruisers and seem to not
be terribly crowded (folks on that side of the mountain seem to either
1) stay on Ralph's run because it's very easy, or 2) stay in the park.
The summit lift tends to get the most traffic and Conifer tends to be a
zoo -- seems folks tend to avoid the blacks and they all end up on
Conifer. If the crowds become to much, the lift and runs in the
Victory bowl are usually pretty empty -- though marked blues they're
probably just greens. The infrastructure is really pretty good. It
can really become a zoo on weekends and holidays. It's most proximate
to us so we do go there sometimes on weekends. Our coping strategies:
Get there early, get out and do laps off the summit quad. When Conifer
begins to get too crowded, we move over to the blacks which tend to
have much less traffic. We're consumate intermediates (not even strong
intermediates) and are in our comfort zone on everything except the
steepest pitch on Smith Walton. When lines get too long on the summit
quad, we tend to start running laps on Challenger and Hitchcock -- nice
runs to work on technique. We ski through lunch and avoid the lodge
during prime lunch time. If we eat in the lodge we avoid the cafeteria
and head for the sit-down cafe -- don't recall the name but actually
decent, little or no more expensive than the cafeteria, and much more
pleasent. Don't know where you're driving from, but I'd take a looked
at Crotched Mountain which has more sustained pitch and tends to be
considerably less crowded.



Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, I have no choice but to go there. We
have friends who live right near the mountain, and they have a season pass
or something and we agreed to go - I'm sure we'll have fun. Just trying to
see what it'll be like and get good pointers like you gave me. We're going
there from RI, so it's not too far at least.