Home to Ski in North Creek NY

I had a crazy cool weekend. My plan was to drive to North River Friday afternoon, ski a day at Gore and a day in the woods. But for me, a weekend in the Adirondacks requires a 2pm Friday departure, and I just couldn’t swing it at work. When I got off work at 6:30 Friday night, I walked home, and pondered my options.

Gore Mountain in North Creek, NY.

I drove to Plattekill early on Saturday morning, with no set plan for Sunday. While riding the lifts I tried to work out my lodging and skiing plans on my phone. My goal was my first ever ski day at Greek Peak. With all the recent discussion about the mountain’s future, I wanted to finally experience the hill and see Hope Lake Lodge to better understand the big picture.

But it was after all a holiday weekend and I couldn’t find a place to stay close to the hill. While there was extra driving involved, the math on my Gore season pass, and the simplicity of staying in North Creek, drew me back to our home away from home.

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Return to Plattekill Mountain

In the early days, ski areas were high elevation places, where snow accumulated and trees were cleared to create an open slope where people climbed up, and skied down.

Plattekill Mountain

In the mid-1930’s, enterprising individuals — like Carl Schaefer — pushed the ski area concept to the next level. By using an automobile drivetrain attached to a pulley and rope system, they towed skiers up the slopes. Not limited to the amount of vert they could sidestep, skiers could get several runs in a day.

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NY Backcountry Skiing: Adirondacks #1

“Backcountry skiing” means different things to different people. When I started skiing, it meant skiing on state land and making tracks in ungroomed snow. At first, we followed trails marked by the state.

As we became more confident, we’d set off with a destination in mind, a USGS topo map and a compass. Other times we’d look for hunter’s paths to follow, which are seemingly everywhere in the our corner of the Adirondacks.

In the last ten years, I’ve been drawn into lift-served skiing for several reasons. For one thing makes skiing in November possible. Plus, with a young child, it’s just easier. And yea let’s face it, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. All that vert, and in between runs you’re chatting it up with friends and family. It’s easy to like it.

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