I have two friends who have really wanted to learn how to ski. And we all have a mutual friend near Springfield, MA. So we all resolved to go to Otis Ridge to teach. We opted to go for a night skiing session with $25 lift tickets. It really was quite convenient that they haven't outsourced their customer service to Silicon Valley companies. It was easy just being able to show up, purchase our lift tickets, and for my two friends, get their rentals. Or at least it was less of a burden on me, as they would have had no idea how to purchase what they needed online in advance so I probably would have had to have walked them through.
We arrived around 3:45 and even though the mountain didn't seem very busy, they were just shutting down the t-bar for the day which is redundant with the chairlift. They run it 9-4 on weekends while the chairlift operates at all times. However, as they were shutting it down, there seemed to be a problem with the chairlift. They were able to unload everyone off, but the chairlift closed and they had the t-bar back up and running in about 5 minutes.
My friend and I did a couple of runs while my other newbie skier friends got setup with their rentals. They seemed to be fixing something at the top bullwheel of the chairlift. Once my friends got their equipment, the the ski instructions began! We started them off on the flat terrain in front of the lodge so they could get used to be on skis and gradually made our way over to the pony lift. They had a carpet too and I think we could have asked them to start it, but it ended up working out just as well going to the pony lift, as the terrain was a little more substantial, but still flat. Getting onto the pony lift was a real challenge and eventually we just held them up so they didn't fall down, but eventually they got the hang of it. And the first trip down the hill was challenging, but there were surprisingly few falls on the way down.
After a while, the two friends were doing quite well so my other friend and I did some runs off the chairlift, which reopened about an hour after the problem.
There were 4 different routes down from the summit open and we did each one several times. At around 7:15, that friend said goodbye, as he had a little cold and didn't want to stay out too late. The other friends and I got some fries in the lodge and warmed up. We headed back out about 20 minutes later. There were maybe fifteen people left at the mountain including a few other people at the beginner area and the rest at the chairlift. My friends were having a blast and said they would wrap at 8 (we had an hour and a half drive back to Connecticut). I did some more runs off the chairlift. They started some snow guns up near the top and the bottom.
Every time I got to the bottom I looked over at the pony lift, but my friends were having such a great time that we all kept skiing. Finally around 8:30 I joined them for one last run and we called it a night. I watched the endless empty chairs go up the chairlift from the lodge and then two people got on, perhaps the last two skiers of the night. They close at 9.
All in all, Otis Ridge is one of my favorite ski areas in southern New England. Such a well run place with really nice staff and great customer service. I just hope that Sunday nights are the slowest time of the week for them, as they can't have been making money that night.
