Snow Business: ​Wachusett Primed For The Holidays And Beyond

PRINCETON, MA — In what has become a very familiar scenario, Wachusett Mountain has braved every wacky December weather pattern and is again primed for a stellar holiday vacation week and the rest of the 2019-20 snow sports season.

And remember, it's just about 90 minutes from greater Hartford and about 70 minutes from greater Boston.

Let's go back about two weeks. Two storms had come to the region and dumped about 2 feet of quality snow on Wachusett, which is situated just north of Worcester in Princeton, MA.

Everything was open .... EVERYTHING. The learning area was soft and forgiving. The black diamonds from the summit were fast, yet they had a good grip. The blues were cruising well. There was even a bump run all the way around the side on a trail rarely open this early in the season.

It was bliss. Santa was chuckling "Ho ho ho" on a pair of skis and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was in the midst of a gnarly shred on a big wide cruising board.

Then came a forecast that seemed like old Scrooge himself was whispering to Mother Nature ... and in a blink it was raining, pouring and the old mountain was snoring, hoping it was all a nightmare.

It wasn't, of course. It was a monsoon ... followed by ice.

When the forecast first came out, Wachusett founding family member Jeff Crowley was taking the high road and issued a challenge.

"Come back after the rain," he said. "We'll be OK."

Crowley was referring to the solid base Wachusett had been able to put down with its snowmaking system during the initial cold spell earlier in the month. It's going to hold, he promised, and the state-of-the-art grooming fleet will take care of the rest.

He was right. Once the rain and ice storms moved out of the region, the snowmakers went to work, followed by the groomers. The end result was a set of really good conditions just in time for the holiday week and the peak portion of the season. A trip to Wachusett last Saturday delivered just what Crowley said — a good experience overall.

It's really a tribute to Wachusett's growth as a player in the industry. In terms of the 1,000-vertial-drop classification, it has always offered a fun learning environment with enough blue and black cruisers to keep everyone happy with everyone riding a high-speed chairlift or modern magic carpet system.

In terms of the overall footprint, it features a base area that competes with and even surpasses most in the East.

Two additions at the base stood out last Saturday. One is an electronic message board system that now provides real time weather,surface conditions, offerings of the day and other important information from just about anywhere in the lodge.

(Chris Dehnel/Patch)

Wachusett also offers a cafeteria, full-service restaurant, a mid-mountain refueling station with perhaps the best apple cider doughnuts at any resort and other food offerings spread around the base area. But the addition of O'Brien's deck bar and grill adds another element to that base area. The patio is heated and keeps the boots warm and the stand-up heaters keep the non-skiers and riders warm and the grilled cheese platters keep the tummy happy.

(Chris Dehnel/Patch)

So ... look at the above picture and the tent in the background to the left. That's the ever-present sampling of Polar beverage seasonal offerings. The Crowleys also own Polar and are always good to offer fee tasting at Wachusett (great for those who leave water bottles in the vehicles). The seasonal flavors are featured below.

(Chris Dehnel/Patch)

For pricing and other mountain information, go to www.wachusett.com.

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Chris Dehnel is an editor at Patch Media Corp. who has been writing about skiing and snowboarding for two decades. He is a past-president of the Eastern Ski Writers Association. The Snow Business column runs throughout the snow sports season.