Chasing Powder on The Tug

The lake effect storms that normally blow across Ontario and dump feet of champagne powder onto the Tug Hill Plateau have been somewhat lacking this season. Mother Nature has had other plans, sharing the snowfall in the Adirondacks, Western NY, and the Catskills. There have been small and intense bands here and there, but not what we are used to seeing coming off of Ontario in November and December.

North Slope
Snow Ridge

This was the case for until just days after Christmas. The National Weather Service of Buffalo released their highly-anticipated Expected Snowfall map. As a Tug Hill local, you could say the map was very exciting. Dry Hill, Snow Ridge, and Woods Valley saw a forecast for 12-18” of new snow.

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Russ LaChapelle: The Bard of Bearpen

I first crossed paths with Russ LaChapelle in the fall of 2010; though, like many people interested in New York ski history, I’d encountered him years earlier through his quirky, deeply personal website.

Jam-packed with information about vanished rope tows, forgotten slopes, and half-erased ski dreams, it was clearly the work of someone who cared more about getting the story right than making it look polished or easily navigable (as much as was possible with internet technology back then).

Russ LaChapelle
Russ LaChapelle — photo ML242

When we finally connected on the phone, I explained the pitch I’d made to Harvey, editor of the nascent NYSkiBlog.

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Greek Peak: Back for the First Time

With all the excellent reports that have been posted here this season, my wife and I were hoping that our four-day trip to Syracuse might be a good opportunity to score some of the upstate powder we’d been seeing on TV.

A sobering weekend forecast took that off the table and while driving north from New Jersey under gloomy skies, it looked like we were lined up for one of those “at least we’re skiing” kind of days.

But almost on cue, our luck changed while crossing the state line into New York’s Southern Tier. The clouds parted, the sun came out, and by the time we pulled into Greek Peak around 10 am, it was pushing 40 degrees with deep blue skies above.

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