Greek Peak: Expanding the Zone

Embracing change isn’t exactly my specialty. My life can be boiled down to a handful of things I do year in and year out, over and over. Work, eat, sleep, deal with responsibilities in summer, and ski and blog about my favorite hills during the season.

Greek Peak

I’ve been planning to ski Greek Peak for almost ten years. I certainly had my chances. From my desk at work, I’ve watched the mountain experience some great lake effect snow cycles. I remember a stretch a few years ago, when a persistent upper-level low lingered for more than a week, dropping — as they say in the Virgil Valley — “two-tree” inches a day, until it was game-on across the mountain.

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Plattekill Opens 2019

The awesome early season storm that dropped 27 inches of snow on Hunter last week, also spread the love to some of our other favorite mountains, including Magic and Plattekill. Both mountains planned to open on Saturday December 7, and both stuck to the plan, taking advantage of cold temps to save the powder for opening day.

Plattekill Opening Day 2019
Belsky and Bro

Putting the financial wisdom of this aside for a moment, it also worked for us desk jockeys, giving us another shot at skiing that great storm.

Brownski and I discussed our assignments. He’s all in on the Indy Pass this year, so he and the boys were off to Magic. More on that later this week. For now let’s just say that for me, it felt right to be heading to Plattekill for opening day.

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Thanksgiving Monday POW at Hunter

Last week, after a major rain event on Tuesday, my hopes for a great weekend of family skiing were tempered. We made the call to sit out our traditional start to the season, at Gore, after Thanksgiving.  We opted to get our Christmas tree and hang out at home.

Hunter bar before first chair

While Winter Storm Ezekiel never made it on to my radar, I was vaguely aware of a chance for redemption late in the weekend.

As the week came to a close, forecast snow amounts grew, and my plan to watch the storm from my desk at work began to evolve. As I walked out of the office Wednesday evening, I called out “see you on Tuesday!” just in case.

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