Thunderbolt Trail

Last updated
Thunderbolt Ski Trail
LengthAbout 1.6 miles (one way, downhill) plus climb (summit is only accessible by climbing in winter. Climbing distance varies by uphill route chosen)
Location Mt. Greylock, Massachusetts
DesignationHistoric Ski Racing Trail
Trailheads Top: Mt. Greylock Summit Bottom: Trailhead at Thiel Road
UseDesigned for Skiing and Ski Racing. Also used for Hiking, Snowshoeing

The Thunderbolt Trail is a non-lift-served backcountry ski trail on Mt. Greylock, at 3491 feet, the highest point in Massachusetts. It runs from the summit down the east face of the mountain to the base via a trail that drops more than 2000 feet in 1.6 miles. Designed as a Class A ski racing trail and named after a roller coaster at Revere Beach, MA, the trail is considered one of the classic backcountry runs in North America for its combination of historic importance and its challenging terrain. [1] Vermont Country magazine called the Thunderbolt “perhaps the best-known and most-trafficked backcountry spot in New England.” [2] According to Ski magazine, the challenges included its sidehills, streambed traverses, and a section called the Needle's Eye, where “the forest crowded in so close that turning was impossible.” These obstacles served as an essential testing ground for the country's first generation of Olympic alpine ski racers. [3]

Contents

History

The Thunderbolt Ski Run was constructed in three months during the fall of 1934 by the 107th Company of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). In 1935, the first Massachusetts State Downhill Championship was held on it. In order to get to the starting line, skiers first had to climb the mountain, as the trail was not served by a lift and the road to the summit is closed in winter. [4] The race quickly gained international attention, attracting the attention of Olympians from around the world, [5] as well as  spectators by the thousands, who arrived via train from New York City. It also attracted international attention from European ski champions, as well as from propagandist politicians in Nazi Germany, who, in 1938, sent a German ski team to the Thunderbolt to prove the superiority of German athletes. [6] Seven thousand spectators lined the Thunderbolt to watch as German skier Fritz Dehmel narrowly beat Rudy Konieczny, the local favorite from Adams, in the Eastern Downhill Championships. [7]

The local trail created a ski culture so strong that 20 men from Adams – more, per capita, than from any other American town—enlisted in the famed 10th Mountain Division (ski troops) during World War II. All but one returned home. That one was Rudy Konieczny, who was killed in action on April 17, 1945, just three weeks before Germany surrendered. He is remembered as the “Hero of the Thunderbolt.” [3]

After the war, many of the 10th Mountain veterans worked in the new and growing downhill ski industry, but ski areas became lift-served, and the Thunderbolt attracted fewer and fewer skiers. [8]  Mt.Greylock hosted its last FIS (International Ski Federation) sanctioned race in 1948, after which the trail became overgrown and ultimately, fell into disuse. [4]

The Revival of the Thunderbolt Trail

In 1999, Blair Mahar, a teacher from nearby Hoosac Valley High School, led a group of students in a historical study of the race. The end product of that project was a documentary film, Purple Mountain Majesty, [9] about the trail, which won first place in the Northeast Video and Film Festival [10] and brought attention to the history in the student's backyard. But the project had an even more lasting impact, as local skiers, inspired by the Thunderbolt's Olympic-level skiing history, began working to clear debris and make the trail operational again. In 2008, the Thunderbolt Ski Runners was formed to organize volunteers, reclaim the trail, and revive Thunderbolt racing. [11]

The Thunderbolt Ski Race

In 2010, the Thunderbolt Ski Runners organized a race to commemorate the trail's 75th anniversary. [12] Other races were held in 2011 and 2014, with the most coveted award being King and Queen of the Mountain, awarded to the man and woman with the fastest combined times for ascent and descent. [3]

In 2014, officially sanctioned races returned to the mountain. The rando-style endurance races, sanctioned by the U.S. Ski Mountaineering Association, include three laps of climbing up the mountain (using skins to ski uphill, and hiking where the terrain is too steep for uphill skiing) and skiing down. There is also a shorter recreational course. [13]  

The fastest total time for one lap up and down the mountain is about an hour, [5] of which at least 50 minutes is uphill. [13] And while today's Thunderbolt skiers might take anywhere from 3 minutes [14]  to 10 minutes [15] to ski down, the fastest known time down the trail is 2 minutes, 8.6 seconds, set by Norwegian Olympian Per Klippgen in 1948. [12] In 2015, then 93-year old Steven Nowicki (he died in 2016)  one of the original Thunderbolt racers, told WBUR that while most of the skiers who set the records were dead, the records lived on. [11]

Current status and events

Today, the Thunderbolt Ski Runners organization continues to maintain the trail, working to combat erosion caused by water runoff and by too many hikers wearing ruts into the trail. Use by hikers in winter is also an issue  because hikers sink into the snow, creating large holes that can be hazardous for skiers. [16]  The Thunderbolt Ski Runners are working with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation to develop ways to better educate users about how to reduce the impact of foot traffic on the trail. [2]  

In Adams, ThunderFest celebrates the Thunderbolt Ski Race and winter in the Berkshires. [17] The outdoor festival features local eateries, local craft beers and wines, craft vendors, a chowder cook-off, music, and tours of the Thunderbolt Ski Museum. In the past, the festival was scheduled to follow the race, but more recently, it has been scheduled independently of the race. [13]

Also located in Adams, inside the Adams Visitor's Center, is the Thunderbolt Museum, a small single-purpose museum that tells the story of the trail. [18] Exhibits include films, film clips of interviews, race footage, photographs, documents, maps, race paraphernalia, and an array of historic ski equipment, including examples of the type of seven-foot long wooden skis that were commonly used when the trail was first built. [19]

Related Research Articles

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Telemark skiing

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Mount Greylock United States historic place

Mount Greylock is a 3,489-foot (1,063-meter) mountain located in the northwest corner of Massachusetts and is the highest point in the state. Its summit is in the western part of the town of Adams in Berkshire County. Technically, Mount Greylock is geologically part of the Taconic Mountains, which are not associated with the abutting Berkshire Mountains to the east. The mountain is known for its expansive views encompassing five states and the only taiga-boreal forest in the state. A seasonal automobile road climbs to the summit, topped by a 93-foot-high (28 m) lighthouse-like Massachusetts Veterans War Memorial Tower. A network of hiking trails traverses the mountain, including the Appalachian Trail. Mount Greylock State Reservation was created in 1898 as Massachusetts' first public land for the purpose of forest preservation.

Tuckerman Ravine

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Cypress Provincial Park

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Backcountry skiing Skiing in unmarked or unpatrolled areas

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Mount Greylock State Reservation

Mount Greylock State Reservation is public recreation and nature preservation area on and around Mount Greylock, the highest point in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The park covers some 12,000 acres (4,900 ha) in the towns of Lanesborough, North Adams, Adams, Cheshire, Williamstown and New Ashford, Massachusetts. It was created in 1898 as Massachusetts' first public land for the purpose of forest preservation.

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Mount Fitch (Massachusetts)

Mount Fitch is the third-highest peak in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at 3,110 feet (950 m). It is located on the ridge between Mount Greylock at 3,491 feet to its south and Mount Williams at 2,956 feet to its north. The peak sits in the northwest corner of the Town of Adams in Berkshire County. The forested summit is approximately 123 yards (112 m) due west of a local high-point on the Appalachian Trail. Mount Fitch does not meet the Appalachian Mountain Club's prominence criterion of 200 vertical feet of separation from adjacent peaks as outlined in New England's Four-thousand footers list. Currently there is no side-spur trail or signage directing a hiker to the summit of Mt. Fitch from the Appalachian Trail; however, there is a wooden placard at the summit itself. The top is infrequently visited by hikers due to its anonymity, the bushwhack necessary to reach the top and the viewless summit.

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References

  1. ↑ Bellico, Matthew (Feb 22, 2009). "Trail for the Hardy". Boston Globe.
  2. 1 2 Walsh, Mike (Jan 1, 2019). "Ski it if You Dare". Vermont Country.
  3. 1 2 3 Vinton, Nathaniel (Nov 5, 2014). "Ghosts of the Thunderbolt". SKI magazine.
  4. 1 2 Bradley, Matthew Timothy (Feb 17, 2013). "Snowshoeing the Thunderbolt Ski Run". Snowshoe Magazine.
  5. 1 2 Levulis, Jim (Feb 28, 2014). "Thunderbolt Ski Race Celebrates History Of Mountain's Trailblazers". WAMC (Northeast Public Radio).
  6. ↑ Sanders, Charles J. (2005). The Boys of Winter: Life and Death in the U.S. Ski Troops During the Second World War. University Press of Colorado. pp. 1–19. ISBN   978-0-87081-823-3.
  7. ↑ "This Saturday Ski Through History on the Thunderbolt Trail". Valley Advocate. March 4, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Snowshoeing the Thunderbolt Ski Run". Snowshoe Magazine. March 4, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Purple Mountains Majesty". Youtube.
  10. ↑ Davis, Connor W. (Feb 14, 2018). "The Ski Race America Nearly Lost". Ski Racing Magazine.
  11. 1 2 Given, Karen (Mar 14, 2015). "Skiing The Thunderbolt: A Modern Day Sport Tackles A Historic Trail". WBUR (Boston Local Radio News).
  12. 1 2 Hutton, Ryan (Dec 16, 2010). "Thunderbolt Ski Runners Gearing up for February Run". Bennington Banner.
  13. 1 2 3 Stafford, Scott Stafford (Feb 19, 2020). "Thunderbolt Ski Race Returning to Mt Greylock". Berkshire Eagle.
  14. ↑ Demers, Phil Demers (Mar 2, 2014). "Day of racing, fun in Adams at Thunderbolt Ski Race". Berkshire Eagle.
  15. ↑ Mingle, Jonathan (Feb 16, 2013). "Skiing Old Trails of the New Deal". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ Guerino, Jack (Nov 4, 2019). "Thunderbolt Ski Trail Eroding". iBerkshires.
  17. ↑ "Thunderfest". Berkshire Style.
  18. ↑ Gentile, Derek (Dec 9, 2012). "Thunderbolt Ski Museum in Adams tells 'significant' local story". Berkshire Eagle.
  19. ↑ McKeever, Andy (Oct 7, 2012). "Thunderbolt Ski Museum Opens In Adams Visitor's Center". iBerkshires.
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