Greek Peak Resort Odyssey

Skiing out west is awesome. Open glades, local wine, hot springs, no lines. Really good snow. It’s tough not to brag to your friends when you have a day like that, racking up vertical all day and night. And I didn’t even have to fly there.

Greek-Peak-Mountain-Resort-Outdoor-Pool

With the buzz building since last summer about the progress at Greek Peak, I knew that this was the season I was finally going to check out the Central New York icon.

Greek Peak has always had a mythic status when it came to ski racing, playing host to Cornell and many other New York university ski teams, but I didn’t know too much about the rest of the scene before I began to research the area.

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North to West Mountain

I packed my car in the rain and weighed my options. I was getting a late start, but with February comes a later setting sun and options, especially this year with everybody pushing 100% coverage.

West-Mountain-NY-View

I recently saw a weather guy call this week the seventh inning of the season. I guess that makes sense, because if you’re a serious skier you know that we’re deep into the game, even as we hope for solid March and extra frames.

With everything on the table, I drove to West Mountain for the first time since 2012. I’d have a night skiing option if I arrived late or wanted to grab more vertical. West is located so close to I87 that even with the weather, I didn’t think the drive would be tough.

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Hunter Mountain Valentine’s Day Pow

Once I got my skis in today’s fresh snow I didn’t want to stop, or even slow down. Lots of other people at Hunter must have felt the same way, because it’s been years since I saw such a powder-crazed group in the Catskills.

Valentine's Day Powder on Westway

Rope drops were well attended, especially on Hunter West as people clamored to get on the big terrain of Westway.

After two runs on old 44, I considered, for a moment, giving my legs a break, until I saw the rope coming down on Annapurna. The headwall was exceptional.

Hunter-Mountain-View

The storm delivered both deep and dense preventing my skis from hitting bottom on even the steepest pitches of natural snow terrain.

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