Skiing Blue Hills Ski Area
Monday, January 27th, 2025
Runs: 10
Distance: 3.48 miles
Elevation: 3,314 feet
Max Speed: 25.9 mph
Avg. Speed: 8.9 mph
Moving Time: 23 minutes, 52 seconds
Total Time: 2 hours, 1 minute, 8 seconds
After our lovely, affordable dinner at the Hillside Pub, we were back at the Blue Hills! We had left my car with the skis in the parking lot, but poor Gen and Sarah had to park in the further lot. There were a lot of people coming and a lot of people going at this point, around 6:00pm. We got all our gear and headed up - it was super exciting to experience this hill in a new way! We were chilly and it was windy, but thankfully we all layered approrpriately.
Mountain Report
Base: Groomed Snow
Lifts: 4/4
Trails: 8 (Tea Party, Fenway, Tubing, Plimoth, Walsh's, Patriots, Chute, Upper Big Blue, Lower Big Blue
Natural Snow Past 24H: N
Snowmaking Past 24H: N
Snowmaking in Progress: N
Announcements: Hours are now 1:00pm-9:00pm. Night skiing/riding is open. Tubing is open today.
Truly my only complaint was the ticketing system. We went into the guest services building (the red barn), asked to buy lift tickets, but the cashier said we had to purchase them online, which is fine, but I wish it was better advertized to order in advance. The online portal was brutal and confusing to use and very in-depth. On the plus side, there were no hidden fees for an RFID card! Once we purchased the tickets, the cashier scanned our barcodes, activated the RFID card, sharpied our names onto the RFID card, and told us if we lost them it's a $10 replacement fee. We were finally off! We booted up in the lodge, and then it was time to ski!
Runs 1-4
Run 1: Double Chair - Patriots
[0.41 mi; 2:26; 348 ft; 22.1 mph max; 10.0 mph avg]
Run 2: Double Chair - Patriots
[0.43 mi; 2:51; 335 ft; 23.9 mph max; 8.9 mph avg]
Run 3: Double Chair - Patriots
[0.38 mi; 2:22; 312 ft; 22.3 mph max; 9.5 mph avg]
Run 4: Double Chair - Chute - Patriots
[0.39 mi; 2:20; 335 ft; 21.6 mph max; 10.0 mph avg]
We hopped over to the non-existent line for the Double Chair, and agreed that we would rotate who sits as a pair and who rides solo. The chairs are definitely old and rickety (installed 1978 according to newenglandskihistory.com), but the ride is short and sweet! Again, it was so cool to be experiencing the hill in a new way. The ride started in the lights but was in the dark in the upper stretch, which provided nice views to the nighttime behind. Getting off the lift was interesting, as it was higher off the ground than I was used to, so it required a little hop.
Once off the lift, we tried to get some speed to get to the top of the Patriots run, which did have a small uphill grade. Time for our first run! We followed Patriots top to bottom, which was actually lovely! The headwall wasn't too steep, but many beginners were having a tough time there. There was one patch of ice further down that I learned to avoid. Overall, the snow was good! We got lucky hitting it after a long snowmaking stretch followed by a two-day span of above-freezing temps. Runs #2 and #3 were repeats of the first, and we were having a deligutful amount of fun!
Our fourth run followed the black run, "chute," down to below the Patriots head wall. Chute was fun! I was scared that it would be icy, but it was actually very fine. Very similar to the blue trails at Black Mountain of NH, being narrow and winding. I was nervous to go down it, but I followed Sarah and it was completely fine and also fun! We then followed Patriots down and discovered a suddenly massive lift line - ah! A few school race teams/ski clubs had arrived and hopped in line. We used this as a chance for a bathroom break.
Runs 5-6
Run 5: Double Chair - Patriots - Walsh's Way - Plimoth - Tea Party
[0.44 mi; 3:20; 335 ft; 20.5 mph max; 7.9 mph avg]
Run 6: Double Chair - Big Blue Headwall - Lower Big Blue
[0.27 mi; 1:36; 331 ft; 24.5 mph max; 10.0 mph avg]
Our next two runs were about exploring the trails we hadn't hit yet. Run #5 was back to Patriots - but we noticed before the final drop there was a dark green run that appeared to be open! It was Walsh's Way, and it brought us to the top of the learning area, with possibly a park being made? It was fun to see this side, but it involved a skate back, so we were all set afterwards.
Run #6 was down the Big Blue Headwall and Lower Big Blue. There was race practice happening on skier's left, but the wide slope allowed us common folk to head down too. It skied shocking well, with hardly any ice and just a few death cookies. I actually thought that this run would be super fun fly down with good snow conditions.
Runs 7-10
Run 7: Double Chair - Chute - Patriots
[0.32 mi; 2:26; 325 ft; 22.2 mph max; 7.9 mph avg]
Run 8: Double Chair - Patriots
[0.25 mi; 2:44; 331 ft; 17.8 mph max; 5.4 mph avg]
Run 9: Double Chair - Big Blue Headwall - Lower Big Blue
[0.26 mi; 1:33; 328 ft; 25.9 mph max; 10.0 mph avg]
Run 10: Double Chair - Chute - Patriots
[0.34 mi; 2:13; 335 ft; 23.2 mph max; 9.3 mph avg]
The lift line had calmed down, and we hardly ever waited anything more than 2-5 minutes. We acknowleged that we likely wouldn't achieve our dream of "20 runs for $20," partly because of our timing (we didn't start right at 6pm) and our skiing style for the night (chit chatting and goofing off - non-deratory!), and we were okay with that! Run #7 was another lap down Chute/Patriots, and I asked Sarah if she knows how to spin around on her skis, which prompted a very silly second half of the run. I had a few successful spins! We repeated this silliness for Run #8, and headed back down Big Blue for our penultimate run after a FaceTime call with our friend, Sarah (not the skiing Sarah), which was fun and silly. While hanging out at the bottom of the Patriots headwall I noticed a kid going down a off-chute, which was clearly very thinly covered, because sparks were FLYING.
We realized it was 8:40pm and we were on our 10th lift of the night, so we called "two more skip the last" on the lift and had a lovely run down Chute and Patriots again to wrap up the night.
All in all, we had a great night! Super fun and silly. I don't think I would do the $20 ticket by myself, but if a friend asked I'd 100% do it again! If we also got a massive snow dump and the hill somehow opened to 100%, I'd absolutely go back.
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