Cleary: Take the train to the mountain

Imagine being able to take the train from Lynn and, within a couple of hours, ski or ride on the mountain. This dream is a reality thanks to a collaborative effort between the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA), the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail Company (MBCR) and Wachusett Mountain, located in Princeton, MA.The Ski Train is a seasonal service that runs from North Station to Fitchburg on Saturdays and Sundays through the end of March. Each train includes a designated car that allows for easy storage of ski or snowboard equipment.Wachusett offers a free shuttle from the train station in Fitchburg to the mountain, approximately 20 minutes away. This is the second season of this unique collaboration, and the service has expanded this year to include a Saturday night train, Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 21) and Presidents Day, Feb. 18.The price of the train is $7.75 each way and Wachusett offers beginner skiers or riders an attractively-priced “Learn to Turn” package for $74, which includes a level 1 or 2 group lesson, rental equipment and lower mountain lift ticket. As an incentive to return, you also get a discount card valued at $50 to use the next time you come.Wachusett Mountain is the busiest ski area in Massachusetts, averaging 400,000 visits a season, and it ranks in the top 10 busiest of all resorts in the east. Tom Meyers, marketing director at Wachusett, explained why this is true at a recent interview.”We are within an hour’s drive of a population base of 7 to 8 million people that live in and around Boston, Worcester and Providence. We focus our marketing on the experience of coming here and the concept of your visit being an eight-hour vacation,” said Meyers.Another reason Wachusett gets so many visitors is that it has day and night skiing until 10 p.m., operating almost two full shifts of workers throughout the day. The mountain also ranks as best in the east in several categories each year in Ski magazine’s list of top ski areas in the east.Wachusett Mountain has a history of being a ski area since the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps cut two trails and people hiked up to ski down until 1961, when the first lift was installed. In 1969, Ralph Crowley had a vision to turn the mountain into a high-quality recreation area.Crowley’s family already had a successful business, Polar Beverages, but his siblings didn’t see a ski area as a viable investment, so with investor backing he put in a bid with the state and won. Tickets were $4 back then, and the mountain didn’t see any major capital investments until 1982, when the first double chair lifts were installed.The mountain is now operated by Crowley’s three children, and the family has spent about $40 million to make the mountain what it is today. One of the things that the family has won awards for and is proud of is its commitment to the environment.”We were green before it was trendy. We have always been sensitive to the environment and have a responsibility to protect it because we lease the property from the state,” said Meyers.Some of the environmental programs that Wachusett has been recognized for are a snow-making compressor system, which captures heat and heats the base lodge; recycling of waste cooking oil as biodiesel fuel used in the grooming machines; and specially-designed tower snow guns that are eight times more efficient then conventional snow guns.Wachusett has a vertical drop of 1,000 ft., 22 trails and eight lifts. It is a great place to learn to ski or ride close to home, and with the Ski Train, it is possible to get there by taking the T. Visit www.wachusett.com for more information on the Ski Train.For the New England snow report, see page C4.