I missed you by a couple days, it seems. I did my own night skiing trip to Watatic after work on Tuesday 2/24. It was absolutely necessary - I had broken one of my toe pieces 2 weeks prior at Cannon and had only just picked my skis up from the shop after getting them re-mounted with a fresh one. Doing a (rough) tele tour the weekend prior scratched an itch, as did snowboarding over the weekend at Dartmouth, but I don’t have quite the same fun as on my normal skis. Skin track was way too postholed for my liking across the field and until you hit the old access road, but quickly improves from there. I was also quite shocked just how deep the snow was - zero danger of hitting any rocks, stumps or anything else.
Had a little chat with a guy and his dog in the parking lot before I began, and met a super nice guy named Eric from near Auburn at the summit. The view off Watatic is pretty impressive for its location and height during the day, and equally cool during the winter at night - Wachusett perfectly faces it and you can see all the night skiing lights and trails from 15 miles away.
Also found plenty of powder, though I was a little shocked just how many people must have been out there earlier in the day and Monday night immediately post-storm. The way much of the trails have grown in, it’s true East Coast tight glade skiing in some areas. If I weren’t planning to either do the Thunderbolt trail or ski some Bolton backcountry this weekend, I’d probably go hit it again because it was just so much fun.
