I long enjoyed Top Ten lists since the time when magazines ruled the day.
I find them fun, informative and sometimes thought provoking.
The idea of producing a Top Ten list of Catskill ski runs has interested me for many years.
With more than 50 years of Catskill skiing under my belt, here is my list of favorite Catskill ski runs.
Your comments and input on your own favorites are welcomed below.
Hunter Mountain
Hunter comes first, because I ski Hunter more often than any other Catskill ski area. Run combos proliferate at Hunter – especially on the frontside. Here are my favorites.
Here it is, The Cliff, pure Hunter front-side, top-to-bottom in the shortest, steepest route. These runs provide the skier with a feel for the steep profile of the mountain. The trail is steep, the rock wall on skier’s left is a presence not to be ignored. The trail opens up when it joins Bleecker Street, a classic connecting trail at Hunter.
My preference is to take Bleecker as it bends east to face the morning sunshine, feeding right into Eisenhower Drive. Ike is steep, sometimes bumped up and always fun. For greater challenge, try Racer’s Edge. To ease back a bit, the redesigned Gun Hill Road provides a mellower path to the bottom.
Hunter West’s Annapurna offers the most deep-woods Catskill experience of any of Hunter’s trails. Annapurna is tucked into the wilds of Taylor Hollow on the edge of the resort. Annapurna is not wide, and is unrelentingly steep with multiple fall lines to add to the fun. The bumps that inevitably form on the trail add to the challenge. Under the right conditions, this is my favorite run on the mountain – deep woods remote, steep and unrelenting.
Minya Konka is my favorite top-to-bottom cruiser run. Hunter’s grooming team really improved the trail with their groom into the headwall at Minya’s first turn. This change enhanced the flow of the run allowing a smoother transition on the way to Lower Crossover. Lower Cross is the classic northeast intermediate cruising run –it’s wide, and the pitch is consistent. After the F Chair flats, there are multiple choices to wrap up the run – each with their own charms.
Lower Broadway and Madison Avenue provide a consistent pitch straight down the fall line. The relatively new Empire Trail, is a nice, wooded hidden gem leading into Kennedy. Mossy Brook is the easiest of these runs and perhaps the most scenic as it follows the woods at the eastern boundary of the original ski bowl.
Honorable Mention
Two of Hunter’s classic steep runs warrant mention as favorites here – Clair’s Way is the signature steep run at Hunter. Period. When it’s good, it’s great. Overlook at Hunter North is a fun steep run. It’s major plus is that it’s open more often than any of the other steeps at Hunter. It receives good attention from the snowmakers and groomers.
Plattekill Mountain
Plattekill is one of my favorite mountains. Its combination of challenging and interesting terrain, good snow and overall positive vibes consistently win the day. These are my Plattekill faves.
Off the double chair, on the skier’s far right, Ridge Run and Twist offer interesting paths down the mountain. Both trails tend to follow the fall line, with some twists and turns along the way. Ridge Run is the easier of the two. They both have their highlight spots and as a significant bonus, the low-angle tree runs in this area are special. These are the tree runs that I like to ski.
Eventually both runs lead to The Cliffs, which contains my favorite on-piste feature at Plattekill. The cliff is a typical Catskill outcrop, and stands about 4 feet high. People like to jump directly off the cliff, but I love that little passageway between the rocks to the skier’s right of the main cliff. That quick left and the quick right between large rocks make this spot so much fun. It’s a simple little thing, but I love it.
The Big Three include Northface, Plunge and Freefall. All have a steady, steep pitch top to bottom. You’re getting a great challenge on any of these runs. They’re all wide enough to accommodate terrain variances (groomed & bumps) and room for racing or cruising. Northface features snowmaking and is usually fully groomed. This is also the racing slope, with room for gates as well as free skiing. Plunge and it’s companion Giant Slalom also feature snowmaking.
Recently I’ve seen Plunge groomed on one side and left bumpy on the other. This is especially fun, giving the bump skier a full run, or the bump enthusiast an easy way to enter and leave the bumps as they wish. Freefall is a natural snow trail and is a real treat when it snows. To me, natural snow runs just ski different. The natural snow is more forgiving on the skier than man-made snow. It just feels better to ski on – easier bumps, easier edging. The steady, steep pitch and the natural snow, make Freefall another favorite.
Upper and Lower Face are a signature trail, serviced by the triple chair and ample snowmaking. This is the trail that opens early in the season and stays open later into the end of the season. Not as steep as the trails serviced by the double, Face is steep enough for a fun and challenging run. There are spots for jumping if getting air is your thing. As a bonus, the summit view looking east to the Catskill high peaks is one of the best ski area views around.
Honorable Mention
Plattekill has great trails all over the mountain. Powder Puff provides a great, straight-on view of the the big three trails, which is worth checking out. Sundown to Shredded Mozzarella is a great cruiser run. The trail called Bumps off the double is one of the coolest connector trails around with its pitch changes and loosely spaced trees throughout the trail.
Belleayre
I’ve been skiing Belleayre since I was a kid. While there have been many changes since then, many of the trails remain as they were back in the day, all with improved snowmaking. Here are my favorites at Belleayre:
Dot Nebel was opened in 2001. With this new trail, Belleayre found a way to construct a trail that provides reasonably steep pitch throughout the entire run. They nailed it with Dot Nebel and this is why Dot is my favorite run at Belleayre. It’s consistently throughout the run, with some interesting bends in the trail too. Snowmaking is ample, keeping the trail open for most of the season. The western side of the mountain is more consistently steep than the rest, and this makes Dot Nebel a really nice run.
Belleayre Run and its neighbor, Wanatuska have been life-long favorites for me. From their early days as the main snow making trails on the upper mountain, they continue to attract my attention with the low-angle bumps that develop on both trails. These are great trails to indulge your inner bump skier, or to just work on your mogul skiing skills.
Peekamoose, Esopus and Onteora lie between the lifts, and they attract less skier traffic, making for better conditions and quieter runs. They’re all old favorites, all a little similar – steep at the top and more gentle from mid-station, down.
There are differences however – Onteora is a bit steeper at the top, Peekamoose runs next to the old t-bar and feels a bit off the beaten path. Esopus is a branch off Algonquin, so you kind of find it by accident. From my perspective, it pays to be a bit off the beaten path at Belleayre – it takes me back in time and I enjoy the solitude.
Windham
It’s been years since I’ve skied at Windham, but have to mention it here. Visiting Windham wasn’t in the cards this season, but I didn’t want that to hold up this article. I used to really enjoy the east peak black diamond trails.
Some of the straight runs on the west side of the mountain like Wolverine and Wheelchair reminded me of bigger Belleayre runs. They’re steep at the top and more gentle further down the run. I always enjoyed skiing Windham, and would expect to enjoy it again in the future.
Holiday Mountain
Holiday Mountain in the southern Catskills earns a shout out of respect and admiration. My hat is off to the team restoring Holiday. I used to race here as a kid, and would ski here from time-to-time. I visited recently and really enjoyed my runs down the old racing trail of my youth, Roman Candle. Not as big as I remember it, but it’s got pitch, it’s wide and it’s a lot of fun. Right next to Roman Candle, the newly constructed Hackledam was also fun to ski. It’s narrow and steep – a real challenge for anyone.
This wraps up my list of favorite Catskill ski runs. It was tough to select which runs to include and which runs to omit from the list. I’m curious to read your comments on your favorite Catskill ski runs. I do enjoy skiing the bigger mountains, but the Catskill ski areas will always be home for me.
Thanks for the memories! I first skied Bellayre in the 1950’s and was struck by the steep first pitch followed by the mellow cruiser that followed. There was a trail yay off to one side that was easy to get lost on the way back. Lotsa folks ended up with a long walk and hitchhike back. Also skied Windham the year it opened. Good hill. In those days lots of rock. And Huntah, excellent especially when the west side first opened – great sustained pitch. I’ve lived near Syracuse for forty years now and I ski locally or at Iceface and my days out west are over though I relive the ride with ski buddies daily blog – Guru Dave – report from The Bird. Again thanks for your thoughts on the Catskills.
Great review but what about Blockbuster at Plattekill?
i loved reading your article, it was very enjoyable and it brought back wonderful memories of my days skiing there in the ’80’s and 90’s. but, i have to agree with the last reviewer, Blockbuster at Plattekill has to be ranked right up there with Annapurna. it is STEEP and continuously steep from the top to the bottom.
Love it. Freefall, Plunge, Blockbuster and Twist are my picks for Plattekill. Then again, Chute is beloved as well- maybe too short to be included on this list? Great pics also!
Great list! How about at Belleayre Cathedral Brook before they put snowmaking in and groomed it. It always reminded me of Mad River Glen.
What happen to Blockbuster at Platty? Always a winner with my boards!!!!
I agree with Raymond Coleman: Cathedral Brook was revered in the 70’s. Otherwise a challenge to pick favorites at Belleayre. The short steeps at the top seem to melt together over time but the cruisers below were always enjoyable.
Cliffs was a favorite at Hunter as the far right side where the trail began to drop into 42nd Street was perhaps the steepest and smoothest stretch at Hunter. Cliffs seems to be rerouted (more safely) now. Eisenhower and Clair’s were always great springtime bump runs. K-27 was super fun when there was deep powder despite the double fall-line. The first steep step of Racer’s edge was also a lot of fun and a challenge during icy conditions. Annapurna was a love hate relationship: Great for its remoteness and unrelenting steep but annoying due to a rhythm break caused by the double fall line forcing a long right turn after every three to four turns (just a personal style preference). Annapurna was also rarely open until late season, adding to its mystique.
The old Plattekill had a fun intermediate trail to the left of the Poma lift that was bordered by high sides, reminiscent to today’s half pipes. with enough speed one could execute turns with one’s body horizontal to the ground à la Stein Ericksson.
In terms of forgotten Catskill ski areas, Deer Run was a narrow (12-15’ wide) series of steep steps with a 1,000’ vertical at the former Catskill (later Bobcat) Ski area near Andes NY. The former Big Bear Ski Area off of Sally’s Alley Road past Vega & Denver, NY had one of the steepest trails in the Catskills: Avalanche, which was advertised as 42 degrees in steepness (5 degrees steeper than Hunter’s K-27). Porky’s Gulch was also a favorite roller coaster of a classic narrow old style expert trail.
Steve, thank you for jogging my memories of good times growing up. Great article.
Nice list, Steve. I can visualize the runs as you describe them.
Would have to agree with some of the others, Cathedral Brook not only makes my list but is my all time favorite.
Hiking the ridge, the Hirschland lean-to, natural snow, skinny trail, no grooming, the Glen woods off to the side and the solitude of the whole experience makes it truly unique. If there’s enough snow it’s a 2 mile run from the Lean-to to the tracks. The mid section has been modernized but the Upper and Lower-Lower sections survived. It’s too bad ORDA delisted them. I hope they continue to maintain the old sections because it would be a shame to see them lost.
A common complaint about Belle’s runs is that they are all the same, running straight down the mountain right next to each other. Powder Magazine likened them to a pack of cigarettes which really irked me. There’s one combination that is very different; Onondaga to Horseshoe Pass to Ashokan. When linked together the run has 10 or so turns resulting in a corkscrew effect similar to Excelsior at Whiteface. It also faces more to the east so in mid-winter it catches the morning sun and softens faster than the other runs still cast in shade. It’s a fun one to rip.
Thanks for bringing us on your tour. I’ll catch you out there one of these days.
Great comments from everyone, and I appreciate them. A few notes: the old Cathedral Brook at Belleayre is my true favorite on the mountain. As it’s no longer a patrolled trail on the official ski area, I left it out of this list. As many noted, Blockbuster at Plattekill is a great run. I seem to ski it less than the other big steep runs there, so it’s just not standing out in my mind. This may simply be an error of omission on my part. Looking forward to reading more comments. Thanks.
Thanks, Steve,
Your knowledge and history of the Cats never fail to inform and entertain.
That said… no Dragon East???
I enjoy top ten lists and skiing in the Catskills, so this piece (and subsequent comments) was a fun read. Thanks all. I’d have to say Westway (Trail 44) is my favorite (although I respect your decision to go with Annapurna instead for Hunter).
Nice meeting you at Plattekill last month, Steve. My 2 cents:
Plattekill: Freefall, Northface, Ridge Run – and everything else!!
Belleayre: Dot Nebel (people who ski there a lot talk about the tree runs)
Hunter: Claire’s Way (but I am told they don’t make snow at Hunter West like they used to)
Windham: Why Not (and probably anything else off the East Peak Express chair]