Berkshires feature skiing with New York accent.

Byline: Shaun Sutner

COLUMN: Snow Sports

The Berkshires in winter are an entirely different experience than skiing and riding in the rest of New England.

The region has a distinctly New York flavor, attracting a day crowd from the nearby Albany area and weekenders from New York City and its suburbs and Connecticut.

Central and eastern Massachusetts people usually know the far western region of the state for its summer and fall attractions: the Tanglewood music complex; Jacob's Pillow; the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art; and the shimmering, lovely hills ringing the bustling villages of Stockbridge, Lenox, Great Barrington and Williamstown.

But there also is fine skiing to be had in the Berkshires, a 98-mile range of 700- to 3,490-foot mountains stretching from Connecticut to the Vermont line that are the foothills to Vermont's Green Mountains.

Chief among them is southern New England's (and Massachusetts') biggest ski area, Jiminy Peak, arrayed over a windy ridgeline in Hancock, hard by the New York border.

With 1,150 vertical feet, Jiminy skis a lot bigger than it is, with seven gnarly steep runs plunging from the high-speed six-passenger summit chairlift, and a slew of serpentine cruisers for the more faint of heart. A well-appointed base village has every amenity, from open hearths to gourmet lunches and slopeside lodging.

Take a ride down Westway, a scenic intermediate run along the mountain's northern flank and you'll be practically face to face with the ski area's famed, 386-foot-tall wind turbine, the Zephyr.

While some modern wind power installations are controversial for their size, and some say, negative effects such as noise and danger to birds, I think the Zephyr is beautiful. And it's pretty quiet; what you hear is a low hum as the wind whips through the trees.

Built in 2007 for $3.9 million, the turbine supplies about a third of Jiminy's electric power. It has already spun off a thriving alternative energy investment and consulting firm, EOS Ventures, run by Tyler Fairbank, son of Jiminy's founder and operator, Brian Fairbank.

Other ski areas should take a look at EOS (www.eos-ventures.com) and what it has to offer. The Jiminy model is the way to go.

When I skied Jiminy Friday and Sunday last week, the snow was awesome, with fresh cover on top of groomed packed powder. The President's Week crowd was nothing the six-pack and other lifts couldn't handle, and I could feel it in my legs after full days hucking the steeps and racing a 10-year-old down the lower cruisers.

"Jiminy is awesome," the kid said, and he knows what he's talking about, having learned to ski at Park City in Utah.

His father was a bit more measured in his praise: "It's great terrain for Massachusetts," he said.

Resting on one of the slower quad chairlifts, my friend also offered this mild critique of this lift and another like it. For the knee-challenged, such as him and myself, the low-loading lifts force riders practically to the ground. If your knee is slow to bend, you nearly fall off every time you get on.

Bousquet has lots to offer

About 15 miles south of Jiminy, on the outskirts of Pittsfield, the Berkshire County seat, lies Bousquet, one of the country's oldest ski areas.

We skied Bousquet on Saturday. For me, it was the first time, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much this old-time, affordable hill has to offer.

It's got small cliffs and woods for off-piste fans, a few excellent steep runs over 750 vertical feet (about twice as big as Ski Ward in Shrewsbury), night skiing and riding, and a race program that has produced a lot of top athletes.

Other than the bar and grill in the Tamarack base lodge, though, the amenities at this charming relic of the early days of U.S. skiing are nothing to speak of.

The junior skiers I was with last week loved Bousquet anyway.

"Bousquet's a good little mountain," said a 12-year-old from Princeton's Wachusett Mountain Race Team. "It's not like one of those really small mountains, because it actually has terrain."

Shaun Sutner can be reached at

[e-mail]. Today-tomorrow - "Ski or Ride the Overnight Shift" at Wachusett Mountain Ski Area, Princeton. Overnight skiing and riding until 6 a.m. tomorrow. Secret Chair $500 prize at 2 a.m.; Champions for Children fundraiser; live entertainment.

Tomorrow - Special Olympics races on Wachusett Mountain Challenger trail, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Tomorrow - USASA-sanctioned snowboard slalom race at Ski Ward, Shrewsbury. Registration, 8:30 a.m.; race starts at 10:15.

Sunday - USASA boardercross and skicross races at Ski Ward, Shrewsbury. Registration, 8:30-9:30; heats start at 10:45.

Wednesday - Wednesday Night Park Series slopestyle competition, Wachusett Mountain, Princeton.

March 6 - Annual Ralph Crowley Classic open giant slalom race, Wachusett Mountain, Princeton. Top-to-bottom course on Smith Walton Trail for adults 18 and over. Pre-register for $39, $49 day of race.

March 7 - Fourth annual LaCroix Cup family race and junior rail jam, Ski Ward.