Author: x10003q

Skip Barber Winter Driving School at Hunter

Posted on by x10003q

Winter driving skills can make or break a powder day. After all the discussions about tires and all wheel drive, the most important component in your vehicle is still the driver. Years of winter driving have made many of us comfortable on snowy roads.

Skip-Barber-Winter-Driving-School-Hunter-Mountain

But, how many of us have actually had any real driving instruction since drivers ed in high school? Taking that one step further, how about winter driving instruction?

Skip Barber Racing School has been offering various forms of driving instruction since 1975. Hunter Mountain has invited Skip Barber Racing School to offer a Winter Driving School event starting Monday night February 24 and continuing on Tuesday February 25.

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Tagged: Catskills, Hunter, Ski Life3 Comments

Hunter: Mid-December or Mid-Winter?

Posted on by x10003q

After two weeks of good cold temperatures and a couple of decent storms, Hunter’s ski report was touting midwinter conditions.

Hunter-Mountain-View

And it was all true.

I met up with NYSB’s Meteorologist JasonWx and daughter Zoey. We spent the morning cranking out high speed, packed powder turns all over the main face of Hunter.

Hunter-Base-Lodge

Despite the number of cars in the parking lot, the trails were empty. There was no line for the Kaatskill Flyer 6-pack, although it seemed every chair had four riders. The Zephyr Express Quad on Hunter West was also ski-on.

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Tagged: Catskills, Hunter2 Comments

Belleayre Opens in 2013

Posted on by x10003q

Saturday afternoon I received a text from Harvey asking if I could join him at Belleayre on Sunday. This season’s early cold has allowed aggressive snowmaking and the mountain has made good progress opening terrain, so I jumped on it.

Belleayre opens top to bottom.

Belleayre’s trail report had two lifts and 11 trails open, including a mix of green, blue and black terrain. Conditions were reported as machine groomed loose granular, loose granular with moguls, hard pack and thin cover. Both the Discovery Lodge and the mid-mountain Overlook Lodge were open.

We could see a snowmaking cloud on the hill as we approached from Route 28. We parked at the Overlook Lodge and were on the Super Chief Quad in just a few minutes.

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Tagged: Belleayre, Catskills1 Comment