Berkshire East Mountain Resort Projects

“From a Walk in the Woods” Released 9-4-2015 The Thunder Mountain Bike Park went from a walk in the woods to a reality in less than 10 months because of the vision of the Schaefer Family and the engineering excellence of Ropeway construction, Gravity Logic, Sky Trac Quad and especially because of the daily efforts of the staff at Berkshire East Mountain Resort.

    

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Berkshire Whitewater, Monroe Bridge Release 6-14-2015…Released 6-15-2015 This is an informational video about one of Berkshire Whitewater Rafting operation.

    

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Berkshire Whitewater with Gabe Porter-Henry …Released 3-5-2015 This is an informational video about one of Berkshire East Mountain Resort’s newest recreational offerings.

    

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For nearly 40 years, Berkshire East Resort has been operated by the Schaefer family. It offers high quality skiing and snowboarding with 100% snowmaking at affordable prices. Recently, the area added a new Sky Trac Quad chairlift and the Thunderbolt, the longest mountain coaster in North America. The area has its own 900kWh wind turbine and a 400 kWh solar field that produces 100% (or more) of their annual electrical power requirements.

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Berkshire East Ski Tunes…Maintaining the Rental Skis with Dave Houghton  Released 1-26-2015  

Follow Berkshire East’s Dave Houghton as he refurbishes a pair of rental skis. Dave is one of many dedicated employees at the Berkshire East Ski Area in Charlemont, MA. He takes pride in the quality of his work in maintaining hundreds of rental skis for the area’s customers. In his own words he says, “For someone who is experiencing rental skis, they’re getting top quality skis and not some piece of garbage. All of our rental skis frequently go through the process of base grinding, the edge preparation, the wax, and the buffing. Then you’ve got yourself a well conditioned ski and we’ve got a happy customer who is learning how to make turns, learning to ski and having a great time.” It’s not enough that he’s a craftsman ski tuner, Dave is also a member of the Western Massachusetts band, “Fancy Trash” and contributed the background acoustic guitar piece “The Giving Tree” for this production.

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A MAN MADE SNOW  Released 1-4-2015  While this is a story about how snow is made at Berkshire East Resort, it is more about a young man who embraces responsibility and carries on his family’s legacy.

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COME UP FOR THE HOLIDAY BREAK Released 12-21-2014 This video was shot on Saturday, December 20, 2014 at Berkshire East. It starts out with a few shots of the new Sky Trac Quad chairlift and then goes into some footage of area manager Jonathan Schaefer as he skis down Roundabout and welcomes everyone to come up and ski during the holiday break. This was made as a 30 second commercial spot for TV stations in the Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA area.

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BERKSHIRE EAST OPENING DAY Released 11-30-2014 This is a recent 30 second commercial spot that I did for Berkshire East on their earliest opening day in the history of the area. This spot was first aired on WFSB Channel 3 in Hartford, CT.

    

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BERKSHIRE EAST’S NEW SKY TRAC QUAD Released 11-20-2014 On Thursday, November 16, 2014 I sat down with Berkshire East’s manager, Jonathan Schaefer as he spoke about the areas new Sky Trac Quad chairlift.

    

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BERKSHIRE EAST’S NEW MOUNTAIN BIKE PARK Released 10-28-2014 This short series of clips was filmed at Berkshire East, Charlemont, MA on Monday, October 27, 2014.This is a preview of a film that will be more descriptive of the resort’s new Mountain Bike Park scheduled to open in 2015.The first minute of this piece features the Green (entry level) trails and the final minute was recorded on the yet to be finished Black Diamond downhill trail.Chris Conrad of Gravity Logic (in the red jersey) is currently designing and building the Mountain Bike park trails.Thanks also to Berkshire East’s Marketing Director Gabe Porter-Henry, Racing Director Tyler Conrad and Area Manager Jonathan Schaefer for the time they spent riding so that this piece could be produced.

    

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BERKSHIRE EAST’S MOUNTAIN TOP ZIP LINE CANOPY TOUR, A DAY TO LAST FOREVER Released 10-06-2014 Have you ever experienced one of those days that was so great that you just wished that it would last forever? Well…a few weeks ago I actually had one of those days when the folks at Berkshire East invited me to film their Mountain Top Zip Line Canopy Tour. The Mountain Top Tour is the intermediate experience that is often selected as the best choice for those who have never been on a Zip Line. This program features Berkshire East guides Tony Ostroski and Ellie Massengill as they introduced Brenda Tilley, Tim Biggs and Bob Nemecek to the world of Zip Lining. Their experience was so satisfying that Brenda, Tim and Bob told me that they would definitely be coming back to Berkshire East to do the Valley Tour which is the upper level experience featuring lines that exceed one half mile in length and are 200 feet above the ground.

    

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THE THUNDERBOLT, IF WE BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME Released 10-15-2014 In the 1989 Movie Field of Dreams, Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella listened when a voice said, “if you build it…he will come.” A few years ago, Roy Schaefer listened when his sons said, “if we build it, they will come.” This isn’t about building a baseball field…it was about a family’s dream to build the longest mountain coaster in all of North America.

    

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OPENING DAY, BERKSHIRE EAST MOUNTAIN COASTER Released 10-12-2014 On Friday, October 10, 2014 I drove over to Berkshire East for the opening of the Thunderbolt, the name given to their new Mountain Coaster. There I met Maureen Flaherty of Charlemont, MA. Maureen, on the eve of her 75th birthday, had invited three of her lifelong friends to join her as they became the first customers to roll down the Thunderbolt.The Thunderbolt is now open and there will soon be more video with interviews with customers who have experienced a ride on the Thunderbolt.

    

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BERKSHIRE EAST’S MOUNTAIN COASTER CONSTRUCTION Released 9-07-2014 In December of 2013, The Charlemont, Massachusetts Planning Board approved a request by the Schaefer family, owners of the Berkshire East Ski Area, to begin construction of what will be the longest Mountain Coaster in North America. Construction soon began and the project is now nearing completion. I visited the area on August 29th as the final sections of the stainless steel track were being assembled.