Butternut: Kid-Friendly From the Summit

I can probably navigate most of the snow sports areas in New England, New York and Quebec without a trail map.

It's convenient when you typically warm up on a black cruiser, then hit the steeps before dropping into the trees. You can come to a trail or glade, recognize it and not think twice about trying it.

Alas, skiing regularly with a 7-year-old now has totally changed that thought process. That's why Butternut was a welcome destination last Sunday.

• It's a good choice for three primary reasons:
• Its location in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts is close by.
• You still get 1,000 feet of vertical from that closeness.

Butternut gives the youngsters plenty of options - both from its self-contained learning area and from the summit.

On Sunday, it was mostly summit runs. We worked all the major base lifts and skied greens like Crosstown, Nut Hatch and Cruiser that are easy for the youngsters, but offer enough pitch to make them work on the turns. It's a trademark of Butternut.

They always seem to mix well with blue cruisers, like Applejack. In fact, Upper Applejack had the best snow cover that day, so we were frequent visitors.

That's the real story with Butternut. You might think it is a small resort, but its 22 trails - serviced by 11 lifts - offer some pretty diverse terrain.

Are the lodges the lap of luxury? No way, but it's part of Butternut's charm. They are comfortable and the food offerings are tasty and relatively affordable compared to most resorts.

Oh speaking affordable, how about the $25 lift ticket?

Oh yeah … there is tubing too.

See, even when writing about it, Butternut always catches you off guard in a good way.