Hitting the slopes: Wachusett Mountain, Berkshire East and other nearby skiing favorites
The passionate skiers and snowboarders of Worcester and its surrounding communities in Central Massachusetts enjoy the luxury of a bounty of snow sports options close to home.
Worcester is a ski town unto itself with a long skiing tradition that in recent decades has centered around Wachusett Mountain Ski Area in Princeton, about 20 miles away. But the region’s rich skiing history dates to the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s when nearly 50 rope tows and T-bars dotted the region’s hills.
The fortuitous proximity of the city and its suburbs to Wachusett — a uniquely “major” small ski area that because of its sheer volume exerts an outsized influence on New England and the larger ski industry — has made skiing and snowboarding part of everyday life here.
Think of Wachusett’s relationship with its community as like that of a small or midsized city in the European Alps that’s perched in the mountains and its residents grow up in a skiing culture. No one has to drive far to get to great skiing; it’s a short bus or car drive away. And everyone skis or has someone in their family who skis.
Wachusett is our Alps, but we also can choose from a smorgasbord of other excellent ski destinations ranging from 90 minutes to about two hours away by car in Southern New Hampshire and Vermont.
And then there’s mighty Ski Ward, plunked down in the lively heart of MetroWest in Shrewsbury, 15 minutes from downtown Worcester. It’s only a 220-vertical-foot hill, but it has thrived as a skiing and snowboarding incubator even as other small local areas in the state have gone out of business.
But if you’re looking for the best place to ski close to Worcester, it’s an easy decision.
Head to Wachusett
Just about no matter where you live in Central Massachusetts, it’s a quick drive to “the mountain,” as local affectionately refer to Wachusett, which was known to the native population before the settlers arrived as “near the mountain” or “mountain place” in the Algonquin languages.
When it snows, the skiing fanatics who populate every city and town in the region hop in their vehicles right away and zip up Interstate 190 to Route 140 through Sterling to Wachusett, or up Route 31 straight to the mountain, or across Route 2 and down 140.
Then again, even when it doesn’t snow, Wachusett’s fearsome, world-class snowmaking armada takes over. The snowmaking crew can cover every inch of the place with a skiable surface in a couple of days. November openings and April closings are common.
Geologically, Mount Wachusett, at 2,006 feet, is an official mountain as opposed to a large hill and is the highest point in Massachusetts east of the Connecticut River. Hence, the ski area’s long-running marketing tagline: “Mountain skiing just minutes away.”
By comparison other small ski areas in Eastern Massachusetts — including Nashoba Valley in Westford, Blue Hills in Canton and Ski Bradford in Haverhill — are all hills.
These days, Wachusett draws astounding numbers of skiing and snowboarding customers — some 350,000 a season, a stat that puts it on par for visitation with much bigger resorts in Northern New England and out West.
The Crowley family have been good stewards of the mountain since Ralph Crowley Sr. in 1969 acquired the rights to lease land from the state to run the area. A new summit lift will rise next year to replace the venerable Polar Express high-speed quadruple chairlift.
The ski area may only supply a compact 110 acres of skiable terrain, but it’s not a small operation. It’s a bustling complex with three modern high-speed chairlifts, and triple-chair and three surface conveyor lifts. The only other ski area in Massachusetts with a high-speed lift, Jiminy Peak, only has one.
Wachusett provides about 1,000 vertical feet (the main metric the ski industry uses to measure ski area size) of terrain. But with its high-speed lift firepower and snow grooming that is as good as anywhere in the country, it’s a modern, national-grade day trip ski destination and an important feeder area in the larger ski ecosystem.
It counts 27 trails for all abilities all lit for night skiing and a terrain park for freestylers. There are three bars and restaurants plus various snack bars, cafeteria and ski shop, a big ski and ride school, popular adult race league and dozens of activities and programs going on at any given time.
While Wachusett has two or three steep pitches, and many expert skiers and riders populate its slopes, it’s mostly an intermediate’s playground, with plenty of beginner terrain as well. In the industry, that kind of terrain is a recipe for financial success as it provide an inviting welcome to newcomers to snow sports.
And it’s an at least 12-hour operation, seven days a week.
On weekdays, the mountain’s rhythm runs in shifts, with distinct clientele and atmosphere. Mornings are peaceful, with freshly groomed snow and a few dozen regulars — many of them retired, or work-from-homers getting in a quick winter workout — booting up in the Coppertop Lounge, the unofficial hangout for season-pass holders. The scene shifts to schoolkids just after school lets out, and the place jumps with youthful energy until they go home and the night race crowd and late-night skiers start streaming in about 6 p.m.
On weekends, the best technique to get ahead of the crowds is to get there early and be on the lift line for the 7:30 a.m. opening. Ski until 10:30 or so in uncrowded conditions, then grab a stool at the Coppertop.
Looking west to B-East
The worthiest competitor for Central Massachusetts skiers’ and riders’ affections lies due west in the rugged hill town of Charlemont: Berkshire East.
It’s the opposite of Wachusett in many ways, though its vertical drop at about 1,000 feet is roughly the same, and like Wachusett, Berkshire East is proudly family-owned and independently run in the new world of corporate ski area ownership.
Berkshire East’s trails, spread over 180 acres, are nearly uniformly gnarly. A series of steep fall-line drops off the ridge of Mount Institute, whose flanks the ski area occupies under the longstanding ownership of the Schaefer family.
Its rough-hewn base lodges and, for the most part, older lifts stand in contrast to the Wachusett base complex’s contemporary look and feel. That will change next year, with the ski area’s first high-speed lift, a detachable quad, slated to rise to the summit along the famed upper and lower Comp race training slopes.
While Wachusett is a magnet for older ski racers who still love to compete, Berkshire East is the hub of youth and high school ski racing in Western Massachusetts and the training home for the ski team of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
And compared to Wachusett’s urban feel, located adjacent to the densely populated Worcester and Boston metropolitan areas, Berkshire East exudes a rural vibe. Its closest cities are Greenfield and North Adams, though it also draws from Springfield and its suburbs.
At a 90-minute drive from Worcester, and considerably closer from Northern Worcester County, Berkshire East provides the closest legit expert skiing possibilities and a more laid-back experience than Wachusett.
While B-East lacks the wide array of Wachusett’s amenities, the Crazy Horse pub at the foot of the mountain is always popping.
And for aficionados of the increasingly popular sport of alpine touring — a Nordic-alpine hybrid in which practitioners ascend on skis or split-snowboards with climbing skins affixed to the bottoms, and then lock their heels down for the descent — Berkshire East allows touring during the day. At Wachusett, alpine touring is restricted to before lift opening hours, when a steady stream of uphillers snake up the 1.5-mile Conifer Connection trail starting in the predawn hours.
When it’s time to range farther afield and cross state lines, I’m fond of excursions to one of Southern New Hampshire’s most popular areas.
The Crotched experience
About an hour and 40 minutes from Worcester (again, considerably less from the Fitchburg-Leominster area) in Bennington, New Hampshire, Crotched Mountain is another unpretentious, family-oriented gem of a ski area that skis bigger than its 1,000 vertical feet.
What makes Crotched interesting is its beguiling assortment of trails with off-kilter fall lines, woods skiing and wide boulevards spread across 100 acres. And the high-speed Crotched Rocket summit quad feels like the fastest lift in New England.
And though the feel of the place is down home end welcoming, its corporate owner is Vail Resorts, the Colorado-based giant that is the world’s biggest ski-area ownership company.
Thankfully, Vail hasn’t changed much at Crotched since it acquired it in 2019 as part of a package deal with Mount Snow and a few other ski areas formerly owned by Peak Resorts. The ample, airplane hangarlike base lodge is so roomy that it doesn’t feel cramped even on the busiest days. And Crotched’s terrain park benefits from the expertise of Vail-owned Mount Snow’s famed Carinthia Parks terrain park complex.
And complementing the Crotched Rocket is a collection of slower, older lifts still string along the base of the hill and spread out crowds nicely. In any event, Crotched is rarely as crowded as Wachusett or Berkshire East on the busiest days. It’s fully lit for night skiing as are Wachusett, Berkshire East and Ski Ward; Crotched’s Midnight Madness sessions are legendary.
One notable benefit of Vail ownership is that Crotched is a full-fledged member of the Epic Pass, the affordable mega-ski pass that enables passholders to ski not only at Crotched but also at most of Vail’s Northeast resorts (as well Vail’s many big resorts out West).
At its lowest price in the spring, the Epic Local pass was $676 for an adult. That pass provides unlimited access to Mount Snow and Okemo in Vermont, Mount Sunapee, Attitash and Wildcat in New Hampshire and Hunter Mountain in New York. For those who want to ski Stowe, Vail’s flagship in the Northeast, you have to step up to the more expensive regular Epic Pass.
To understand what a great deal this is, check out this cost comparison. An unlimited adult season pass just for Wachusett goes for $799, while the same pass is $599 at Berkshire East (though that one is also good at Catamount and Bousquet ski areas in Western Massachusetts).
Sunapee is its own world
Topping out at just two hours away on mostly superhighways, this unique ski area is the biggest mountain closest to Worcester.
Sunapee, on an otherwise undeveloped tract of state forest overlooking pristine and beautiful Lake Sunapee, is a slightly smaller version of the big resorts in Northern New England, but easily doable as a day trip.
Like Wachusett’s arrangement with Massachusetts, Sunapee is actually owned by the state and operated by Vail Resorts.
Unlike most of the northern New England ski meccas in New England, Sunapee is not really a resort, blissfully lacking development in terms of close-in large-scale condo developments hotels and other accoutrements of the standard tourist ski town.
It’s a skier’s mountain. Its 1,510-foot vertical drop, from a 2,743-foot summit, is the biggest in Southern New Hampshire and it boasts 67 trails and slopes on 233 skiable acres, giving it the most and most varied terrain of the best places to ski closest to Worcester.
Sunapee’s lift fleet comprises two high-speed quads, plus three other chairlifts and four surface lifts. There are four terrain parks and a two-mile run. The ski area is made up of four distinct zones: the long, winding runs of the main face, the sunny cruisers and glades of Sunbowl, the steep shots off the North Peak triple, and the South Peak learning area.
For disabled skiers and riders, Sunapee has one of the most highly regarded adaptive programs in New England skiing.
Where it all begins
Owned and operated by the LaCroix family since 1990, Ski Ward, located in Shrewsbury near the Northboro town line is where countless Central Massachusetts skiers and snowboarders first learned to ski.
It’s also where hundreds of teenagers and young adults from the region work as ski instructors, and where thousands of high school ski racers from Central and Eastern Massachusetts have competed for decades on a professionally managed dedicated race hill.
Ward is another of these small ski areas that seem a lot bigger. There’s a terrain park, a bar and grill, snow tubing and world-class snowmaking and grooming under the direction of owner John LaCroix, a snow-management genius who manages to keep Ward open for long stretches each winter despite low elevation and iffy weather.
In recent years, the younger generation of the family — siblings Stephanie and Mikey LaCroix — have been taking on larger roles, as have the third generation of Crowleys at Wachusett, in cousins David Crowley Jr., Chris Stimpson, Courtney Crowley and Trudy Crowley.
Ward is affordable, accessible and lapable, with a three-passenger summit chairlift and a bunch of surface lifts.
Give Ward a spin. It’s a lot of fun.
The best ski area is the one you’re at, and you can easily get to some good ones from Worcester.
Shaun Sutner writes regularly about skiing for the Telegram & Gazette. Contact him at s_sutner@yahoo.com.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Five favorite skiing locations a short trip from Worcester
