Ups and downs at Blue Hills
CANTON -- While the classic ski trip may bring to mind moving people and equipment many hours north to higher elevations, there is a simpler and less expensive approach.
Locally, enthusiasts of the sport take advantage of every inch of vertical landscape to create places where the skiing is cheaper and more casual -- a few hours after school, or a family outing at night under the lights.
Many such "feeder areas," so called because they led people to the larger ski resorts to the north and west, have disappeared in the last half-century. But Blue Hills, a ski area as flinty as the 350-foot granite ledge it was carved out of, is still surviving.
Since its construction by the Civilian Conservation Corps nearly 60 years ago, Blue Hills has had numerous ups and downs, many relating to the wet and salty coastal climate, some the result of trying to operate a business in a public park. But as of this week, the snowguns are sending carpets of white down the seven trails from the top, the slopeside lights are on at night, the high school ski teams are in action, and the hot chocolate is steaming in the first sustained winter weather to hit the Northeast this year.
"Earlier this year it was a bad season," says Mark Pins, a spokesman for the area, which is currently leased by the Endriunas family, which also owns Ragged Mountain in New Hampshire. "But we've had ideal snowmaking conditions for the last 10 days and now we have excellent cover. We have snow from treeline to treeline, perfectly cut fresh corduroy."
But a couple of weeks ago, another problem arose that seemed to threaten Blue Hills's ability to carry on into the season. Forced to establish a reserve account of $200,000 pending the outcome of a lawsuit by a young man who skied off trail and was injured two years ago, the area's insurance company dropped its liability coverage. On Jan. 22, Blue Hills announced it would be forced to close.
Yet the area kept its snowguns whirring, confident that it could work out a new insurance deal. By the end of that week it had, and skiers were back on the slopes. Still, says Pins, where an average ski area pays about 4 percent of revenue to liability insurance, Blue Hills is now assessed from 11 percent to 26 percent for its coverage.
"That's the reason we have insurance in the first place, but they decided to cancel," Pins recalls.
The Endriunas's six-year contract to operate Blue Hills ends this summer, and Pins would not say whether the family will reapply. With such a short-term contract, operators are discouraged from investing too much money into development.
"We're not looking to make big changes," says Pins, "but there are some improvements we would work on. Right now we have to limit the number of skiers in racing programs, but if we had a racing trail and another lift, if we had an improved base lodge so someone could come up and watch their kids race and drink hot chocolate -- those are the kinds of improvements that would make the area better without major changes."
Blue Hills operators would also like to resolve issues pertaining to water rights for snowmaking so the area is not forced to buy water from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. In the last 10 days alone, Pins says, snowmaking has cost the area around $60,000.
Still, he says, the area enjoys great support from the surrounding communities, especially those with school racing programs that regularly compete at Blue Hills. In the Ski East league, schools such as BC High, Hingham, and St. Sebastian's race together, while the Mass Bay League and Independent School League send their teams into regular competition.
"The support we get from these programs and their directors and skiers is just tremendous," says Pins.
To Robbie Warren of Weymouth, who was skiing with his brother at the area last Tuesday night, Blue Hills has become a regular feature of the winter. "The best time to get here is right after the afternoon people go and before the night gets filled up," he says. "I have supper early and then get up here and get about 10 runs in before the crowd shows up. It's great."
"Big Blue" -- a nickname largely attributed to the steep main slope that drops about 350 feet from the 625-foot summit -- has seven trails when fully open. This year skiers and snowboarders are showing a pent-up need to take advantage of the conditions.
"The snow is awesome," says Warren, who sometimes stays until the 11 p.m. closing time. "On weekends a whole bunch of us come up and stay all night. So that's why it was such a bummer when it was raining all the time and there was no skiing. I think this will be good for a few weeks now."
Though its seven decades of operation, Blue Hills has developed historic roots. Penny Pitou, the first American woman to win an Olympic downhill medal (two silvers in 1960) and her husband, Austrian Olympian Egon Zimmerman, established an extension of their ski school at Gunstock in New Hampshire there. For the next 30 years, another famous Tyrolean, Hans Seisl, ran the school and a ski shop that still operates at the base of the area.
According to ski instructor Jan Raich, a Czechoslovakian who teaches at Blue Hills, the last few days have felt more like normal. "It wasn't good here earlier," says Raich as he began the walk from the parking lot to the base lodge Tuesday night. "This is better. This feels like ski season."
