Mount Greylock Summit to Open May 16
The Mount Greylock Advisory Committee meets Thursday.
Although there was no quorum, the Mount Greylock Advisory Committee still met Thursday and park superintendent Travis Clairmont said the plan is to open the mountain on May 16.
"Last week, we lost all of the snow," he said. "I went from driving on ice to blowing it off with a leaf blower and here we are good to go."
Bascom Lodge will open that same week.
In other business, the committee discussed the proposed "glamping" center in North Adams and had no real concerns.
"The impact should be small and I don't think it will even be competing with us," Clairmont said. "They are two totally different animals."
Developers plan to create a luxury campground at the foot of Mount Greylock off Notch Road.
Chairman Cosmo Catalano said he was concerned about increased use of the trails but felt these impacts would be minimal. He was also worried about more use of the Notch Road parking lot.
Catalano said they may want to install new trails in the future but at this point no one has approached the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Clairmont said communication between the mountain and local emergency services has improved after a series of meetings.
"We hashed out what we need to do to get everybody notified and to get everybody on the same page," he said. "We went over what we have for resources and what we are capable of doing and it worked out great."
There were frustrations on both sides with local emergency services being dispatched to calls on the mountain that they were unprepared to handle or were unable to even reach.
Mountain staff felt because of their knowledge of the mountain and special equipment they could much easier answer emergency calls or provide important input to emergency services.
"Even if we don't go in the woods we can help first-responders find a faster route," he said. "We know the terrain."
Clairmont said now that first-responders and mountain staff are both informed of mountain calls response times have decreased.
"It has been great," he said. "We actually had a situation soon after the meetings and we had some of the best response times I have ever seen ... everything is just much better."
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