It’s that time of year again when my daughter and I make our trip east. This year we decided we would ski twilight at Jiminy Peak on Friday evening and Plattekill on Saturday. We left Michigan on Thursday morning and I had to make my mandatory stop at The Anchor Bar for some wings, while it’s not the original location,the location just off the Thruway works well and they were delicious.
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I choose Jiminy for a few reasons, it was where I learned to ski, for twilight you can ski from 3-10 and you can still ski the day only runs for a good hour and half and for night skiing they still have a lot of terrain open, finally through T-Mobile I was able to get tickets for $50 a person. As we got closer I was starting to get the feeling I used to get when I was in middle school ski club and was getting excited to ski. As we rounded the corner at the entrance it was a welcome sight to see something bigger than 400’ of vertical.
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We arrived about an hour early just because I had no idea where to go to boot up and put our bags, as a lot has changed here. Needles to say we had to wait about 1/2 hour before we could get on the lift. We went out at 2:55 and the RIFD gate opened and we were on the Berkshire Express. Things we also looking encouraging as the parking lot wasn’t very full and next to no lift line.
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It was around 34 degrees at the base, it had to be a little bit colder on the upper 1/3 of the mountain as there was still snow on the trees which made things look very nice.
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We got off the lift and headed towards West Way. As you round the bend and come to West Way and North Glade meet you are greater with what I think it is a view that is one of the best.
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The snow was firm but very easy to get an edge in and very fast. We took West Way to Lower Glade to Upper Sling Shot to Lower Sling Shot. I knew it would be a fairly easy run to get our legs warmed up a little. The pic is from Lower Sling Shot looking up at Upper Fox Run.
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After one run which was probably close to 3 or 4 runs in Michigan we felt we were warmed up to ski the steeps on the east side of the Mountain. We started with Wild Turkey followed by Jerico
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Not being used to the longer runs we both needed a water break and to cool off a little so we went into Hendricks Summit Lodge for a water and view from there is just fantastic.
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After our break we headed down West Way to Grand Slam to ride the oldest lift at Jiminy and the first chair lift I ever rode in 1975. While it only serves 3 runs to me they are 3 very fun runs. Grand Slam, Ace of Spades (which had racing on it) and John Hancock.
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We decided to head back over to the Berkshire Express and ski down White Tail and go in for some food. The line was now pretty long for the Berkshire Express, but the employees were doing a good job of loading 6 people on every chair.
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After we got a bite to eat we went back out and it was fully dark and the lift line was even longer as we figured out there had to be a number of ski clubs there.
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We made runs off of Upper Glade, Upper and Lower Fox Runs and back over to John Hancock. Even though the lift line was long the trails seemed fairly empty. Jiminy also has all LED lights and I have to say being able to see or dark spots was not an issue.
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It ended up being a great evening of skiing and we were looking forward to Plattekill in the morning and that is where things went south. I came down with a stomach bug in the middle of the night. So in the morning I knew I wasn’t skiing right away. I told my daughter I would tough it out in the lodge a while she skied and if I felt better I would join her. Well when we go to Plattekill they were parking probably close to 1/8-1/4 of a mile down the access road and the toilets were not working when we got there. So we decided to pass.
It was still a good trip. I got to see family and still had a great time with my kid at Jiminy Peak
