I've been skiing a variety of southern New England ski areas this winter and two have really stood out to me as great ski areas, one of which I will reveal later and the other which is Otis Ridge, my new favorite ski area in Massachusetts. I can only describe it as Massachusetts's version of Black Mountain, NH. Looks like the last trip report from here was Sam in 2016. Here we go with another!
Welcome to Otis Ridge:
I pulled in to the parking lot for the first time minutes after the 9 o'clock opening bell. It was a nice crisp 20 degree morning, and the sky was unexpectedly completely clear of clouds. I was greeted with 50's tunes coming from the speakers in front of the base lodge near the double chair. First thing was to get the ticket. There was only one person before me at the window so that was easy enough and there were no invasive questions required to get the ticket and no RFID card. I went back to the car to boot up and then hit the slopes!
The snowfront:
For the first hour, each run started with a ride up the bouncy old creaky
Poma double. It came to Otis Ridge second-hand in 1982 and likely dates to 1971 at it's original location. The guy bumping the chairs does an excellent job and it certainly isn't a 'slow' old chairlift.
The ride up:
At the top, we see a now rare floating bullwheel!
The ridge skis really well, with the runouts having enough slope that you don't need to tuck or use your poles to keep your speed up. The trail between the double and the t-bar is steep enough to please all the adrenaline junkies out there and also serves their racing course.
There's a good variety of narrow and medium width trails:
A couple minutes after 10, the T-Bar opened almost on schedule. It helped put an end to the line on the chairlift which was about 3-5 minutes. The T-Bar was built by Doppelmayr in 1962 and is the oldest overhead lift (non rope-tow) in southern New England. It runs great and certainly isn't the easiest on the steep section. That didn't stop many young kids from seeking it out. Of course Otis Ridge is one of those places where kids roam free
It's easy to get a bunch of runs in in a short amount of time. After getting a good amount in, for my last run I poached the old J-Bar line, documenting it with pictures for Remontees-Mecaniques. That lift was built in 1958.
Put it on your list. It's a bit scary that they're owned by Butternut which shut down Blandford last year. Fingers crossed that they keep it going. I did see that they are selling next year's season passes.
It was perfectly fitting that this was my 50th ski area in New England. At some point I'll do a recap, but I'm up to 13 new ski areas visited this year.
