By Pat Turner Kavanaugh
Snow Chronicles Correspondent

HANCOCK, MA. - In 1972, Brian Fairbank taped a promise to his telephone, “That we would create a year-round resort with the ambiance of New England. That dream has become a reality. I feel we’ve created a really special place.”

Fairbank, who grew up skiing near Buffalo, N.Y., is the CEO and president, as well as half owner with one partner, of Jiminy Peak Resort, nestled in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, close to New York and Vermont. The resort is the largest in Massachusetts.

In addition to growing up an avid skier, he early on showed an interest in mountain design. In an interview, he recalled making a topographic map of a ski hill near his home and mailing it “to Mr. Draper at White Face,” an expert in mountain design.

This adult took a pre-teen Fairbank seriously and responded with a lengthy and detailed discussion of Fairbank’s ideas. Fairbank was hooked. “I wanted to spend my life skiing,” so resort management was a perfect career.

Starting as a ski instructor at 16, he worked his way up in the business, working for a while in Wisconsin, and moving to Jiminy as general manager in 1969.

He’s been there ever since. He estimates he skis 125 days a year. “For eight of the last 10 years we’ve been open since mid-November weekends to April 10.” Once, just to prove they could do it, they offered skiing at Jiminy until May 1.

That, of course, is a testament to snow making. Jiminy can cover 93 percent of the trails and slopes with the man-made stuff, and regularly boosts the efficiency.

For this season, for instance, there are snowmaking improvements, including new pipes, snow guns and other equipment, and a new grooming machine to ensure the snow surfaces are in tip-top condition for guests.

But it’s the other big addition this year which catches Fairbank’s imagination, the new J.J.’s Lodge located in the Village Center of the base complex. Fairbank calls the lodge “spectacular. The building was created in the image of a country club.”

At a construction cost of $6.8 million, the building is old-fashioned New England on the outside, state-of-the art inside.

For instance, over 200 seasonal lockers on the lower level are accessible only through high-technology thumb-print recognition.

Also downstairs is a picnic room, Ski and Snowboard School, and restrooms.

On the main floor is a food court with specialty stations that include a John Harvard’s Express, gourmet coffee and bakery, ethnic foods and other tasty, unique options for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. There is seating for 450 people here.

Outside on the slope-side patio is an open-air fire pit, as well as a barbecue area and expanded space for alfresco dining and basking in the sun.

Levels two, three and four consist of 15 one- to three-bedroom condominiums, all of which were pre-sold within days of being offered.

J.J.’s Lodge marks the completion of a 10-year master plan, which has produced what Fairbank calls “a special place. The village is magical. You can find your kid any time of day,” because Jiminy’s 43 trails all pretty much culminate in the village.

Three of the resort’s ski lifts including the only six-person, high-speed chair in the region, the Berkshire Express, begin at the village.

Altogether Jiminy has eight lifts, starting with the Chipmunk carpet, moving through a double, two quads and three triples.

There are 43 trails, the longest two miles, plus a half pipe and three terrain parks.

Also dotting the village are the Doc Maynard building for the GETSkiing and GETSnowboarding programs, the Burbank Children’s Center with SKIwee, a playroom and Mountain Sports, and the Paul Major Welcome Center with guest services, Corey’s Cafe and more.

Right outside the Village Center is the Country Inn and John Harvard’s Restaurant and Brewery. At the Country Inn are an outdoor heated swimming pool, indoor and outdoor whirlpools, an exercise room and game room, free wireless Internet in the lobby (also at Corey’s Cafe), and 105 spacious guest suites.

Jiminy operates a toll-free reservation hotline, (800) 882-8859, for bookings at the Country Inn and also at more than 300 two-,three- and four-bedroom condos in the Village Center and the Country Village.

On the Jiminy website, www.jiminypeak.com, are descriptions of and links to and a variety on inns, motels, bed and breakfasts, a spa and resort, and a hotel in the Berkshires, one less than a mile away.

Nestled along the slopes of Jiminy Peak, is Fairfield’s Berkshire Bently Brook Mountain Club.

Some of these have ski packages and discounted lift tickets.

The bed base in the immediate Jiminy Peak region is well over 2,200, with more coming.

It’s so handy to stay on the property, though, so someone can run back for forgotten mittens.

Also available through the free reservations phone line is bookings for Jiminy Peak’s SKIWee and Explorers programs, the first available for youngsters as young as 3, through ages 4 to 6, and the latter for kids 7 to 12. That number can also arrange use of the Cub’s Den Supervised Playroom for children 6 months and older.

In the Doc Maynard building, Jiminy offers GETSkiing and GETSnowboarding, the first-timer package with lifts, a lesson and rentals for $65.

Also available are ski and snowboard lessons, group or private through the Snowsports School, which has a variety of other programs: Mountain Adventure, the weekend program for skiers and riders, 6 to 17; a Night Adult Program, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday evenings, for both brand-new and experienced skiers and snowboarders; evening Telemark Tuesdays; Women’s Winter Escape; the Tri-State (Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut) Inter-Club Race Team; and the Recreational Race League.

These programs are most relevant to folks who live in the Berkshires and the Albany, N.Y. area. Fairbank estimates 75 percent of the mountain’s clientele weekdays comes from that territory.

On weekends, he said, 75 percent of the guests travel from Long Island, New York City and northern New Jersey, Westchester County and western Connecticut.

Among special offers on lift tickets are what Jiminy Calls State Day Discounts of $5 off 8-hour, twilight and 4-hour tickets (after 6 p.m.) of $5: Tuesdays for New York and Pennsylvania residents, Wednesday for those from Massachusetts and New Jersey, Thursday if you’re from Connecticut or Vermont.

Any of those skiers or riders who have a Jiminy Peak Value Card get an additional $15 off lift ticket prices, and anyone with a Jiminy Peak Value Card from anywhere any day receives the $15 break. The Value Card costs $33. Buy it before Feb. 28 and you get a bonus lift ticket Sunday to Friday during the month of March. (Call the toll-free number to buy a Value Card, or work through the website or the ticket office.)

Other specials include Ladies’ twilight tickets after 3 p.m. Saturday and Men’s twilight tickets after 3 p.m. Sunday for $30 ($15 with a Value Card); $17 e-Coupons useable Feb. 6 or March 13; a free lift ticket e-coupon if you bring a friend for the GETSkiing or GETSnowboarding program; and e-coupons and other discounts and values if you sign up for the Jiminy Peak weekly or daily emailed snow reports.

Twilight brings up the advantage Jiminy has - 18 lighted trails for night skiing until 10:30 p.m.

Eight-hour and 4-hour tickets start anytime you want and are available every day. Jiminy sells a teen ticket for youngsters 13 to 19, as well as junior tickets for those 7 to 12, toddler tickets (6 and under) and senior tickets (62 and older.)

One of Jiminy’s real values is its location in Berkshire County, which has been called “America’s Premier Cultural Resort.”

This is especially important if someone in the couple or family doesn’t ski or snowboard.

Jiminy actually sells a “She Doesn’t Ski” package (and says, “really isn’t gender specific, but the alliteration is cute.”) This package includes two nights in a Country Inn suite, breakfast for two both mornings, lift tickets for one person for two days, and for the non-skiing person, a 60-minute massage and signature facial at In Touch Day Spa in nearby Williamstown, snowshoe rental for one day, one pass to the modern art museum MASS MoCA and a guide to local shopping. And if that person changes his or her mind, Jiminy provides a complimentary beginner package (lift ticket, lesson and rental, ski or snowboard.)

Mass MOCA, the Norman Rockwell Museum, Hancock Shaker Village, the Berkshire Museum, Crane Paper Company, Herman Mellville’s House, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art, are among nearby cultural attractions.

In addition, there’s a ton of shopping, including the nationally known Store at Five Corners in Williamstown (of which there’s a branch, the County Store, just a short walk from the Country Inn.)

Right around the corner from Jiminy, at what used to be Kelly’s Irish Alps, Brodie, is the Snowy Owl Resort with snow tubing.

Fairbank said Jiminy is adding what will become only the second mountain coaster in the country, with a cog-rail system up the mountain and a 2,600-foot roller coaster ride through the woods. Scheduled to open July 1, this will operate summer and winter.

Not a guest service but important is a wind turbine Fairbank would like to install for environmentally-friendly electric generation, which would become the first wind turbine at a ski resort in the U.S.

And where will you find Fairbank? He said his favorite run “depends on my mood. If I’m feeling zesty I do Jericho (a double black). If I want to cruise, it’s Left Bank (blue and located in a “non-speed zone”). In between I head for Rip Tide to Willie’s Gulch (both blues).”