Suicide Six Pilgrimage

The second coolest thing about Suicide Six is it’s name. Suicide Six. It sounds gnarly and dangerous. According to legend, it got its name when the original owner was contemplating moving his rope tow from a smaller, low pitch parcel across the road. Somebody looked at the steep face of hill number six and declared that trying to ski it would be suicide. That’s a great story.

Suicide Six

The coolest thing about Suicide Six is that it’s where lift served skiing began in the United States, all the way back in the nineteen thirties. It’s the site where the engine from a Model T Ford was re-engineered into a rope tow for the first time – in the United States at least.

Continue reading

Ski, Ski, Ski Catamount

This winter, I bought season passes for myself and my two sons at Catamount Mountain in Hillsdale, NY. Deciding what pass to buy is never easy but I was confident that we would get our money’s worth this year.

skin setup

In addition to Cat, the pass gives me access to Berkshire East (which I love) and Bosquet (which I’ve never skied).

Even better is the fact that Cat is on the Indy Pass so you can buy an add-on that gives you a couple days each at lots of other northeast resorts like Greek Peak, Magic Mountain and Jay Peak.

Continue reading

Magic Mountain: Rising Above

By Saturday morning, I was pretty much locked in to skiing Magic even though the storm had clearly favored some other hills. As the projected storm track moved around the map the preceding week, I surveyed which Indy Pass resorts might be good for the weekend.

Indy Pass tickets

The incoming snow storm was doubly exciting because I could break out my new-to-me powder skis, a pair of On3P Billy Goats I’d picked up from a fellow NYSB’er at the end of last winter. Magic looked good for a while so I made plans to visit on Saturday with my sons. I had some family business to conduct in Albany so I figured I could combine trips.

Continue reading