Belleayre: Keepin’ It On The Road

There comes a time when we have to accept that ski season might be over. It always sneaks up on me but this winter especially, it took me by surprise — probably because conditions were so good through February and the beginning of March. It’s time to savor each turn.

Last week, I was afraid I might be done. Two weekends in a row, I hadn’t been able to pull it together. I had good intentions; I was watching the Indy Pass resorts closest to me, Magic and Berkshire East. It seemed I would get rained on, no matter where I went. I didn’t want to give up but things looked grim. Then both hills announced that their last day would be Friday April 4.

Catamount was scheduled to open on the 5th but I’d already used two Indy Pass days there.  As the weekend approached last week, I was getting antsy. I accepted that I wasn’t getting an Indy day — though I did spend some time calculating travel time to Bolton Valley and the Indy hills in New Hampshire.

With my day-trip options dwindling, I decided to ski Belleayre or Gore on Saturday. I figured I would keep my expectations low, enjoy the day. Then the forecast showed the potential for snow in the Catskills for Belleayre’s closing day.

When I shared my intentions in our forum, Ripitz reached out: he was heading up too and texted me a picture of his bike loaded down with skis and gear. He is on another level. I’ve looked forward to skiing with Rip for a long time but the thought of trying to keep up with such a monster was a little intimidating. I set an alarm and went to bed. In the morning, I was surprised to have to clear snow off my car before starting north.

Driving was challenging. The snow and ice continued, it didn’t look like the plows had been through yet, and there was enough traffic to keep things spicy. I opted to risk driving in the untracked in the left lane rather than mix in with the tractor trailers and nervous Nellys on the right. Even with the road in front of me free of other vehicles, I had to keep it around fifty.

Whenever I saw somebody catching up in the rear view mirror, I would gingerly merge right but each time, the vehicle chose not to pass and dropped back or merged right themselves and each time, I went back to breaking trail. It was one of those days when you had to keep an eye on everything happening around you. I didn’t see any wrecks in real time but said a little prayer each time I passed a state trooper or tow truck dealing with somebody who couldn’t keep it on the road.

It was a whiteknuckle sensory overload kind of trip until well past the Woodbury toll booths. The snow kept coming down all the way to Kingston. Eventually I saw some plows and salt trucks and the traffic dissipated as I made my way north.

Route 28 was better. The temperature didn’t change but for some reason, it wasn’t sticking to the road anymore. My car had been screaming at me for miles that it’s collision avoidance system wasn’t functioning and to clean off the sensors so I pulled into the Stewart’s and cleared the slush off the grill. It turned back to snow as I drove up the hill to Highmount. I got to Belleayre at 8:40 am and the parking lot wasn’t crowded. There was a small group waiting for the gondola to open.

I booted up in the parking lot. The snow that had fallen impressed me, it looked like mid winter. It occurred to me, I should have grabbed a map before getting on the lift since I hadn’t skied Bell in a few years. My next thought was that it didn’t really matter.

There was snow on the ground and I would ski it. It was snowing and the top was socked in with fog. There was a decent bit of wind blowing too. Right in front of me, I saw the new magic carpet. It wasn’t there last time I’d visited. When I’d read online that they had put a learning area at the top of the gondola I was a little baffled but seeing it in person, it made a little more sense.

Most of the crowd headed down Deer Run. I looked the other way and saw one snowboarder walking off into the mist toward the other end of the ridge. On skier’s right of the lift is Peekamoose, a trail I remembered I liked. It doesn’t make sense but I associate it with Peekamoose Mountain, Peekamoose Road and Peekamoose Blue Hole. I really like the word, it’s good luck for me somehow. I dropped my skis pointed in that direction and clicked in.

The new snow was good, if a little on the heavy side. Being back on skis after missing two weeks and everything was right in the world. At the top of my second ride up the gondola I bumped into a patroller I know and spent a couple minutes catching up. I stuck around that side for a little while. I did another run on Peekamoose, then mixed in some runs on Seneca and Dot Nebel and Deer Run. Everything skied nice and the vibe was good.

I didn’t know what lifts were running on the other side but I saw plenty of people heading that way, so I followed them into the fog. My initial thought was to traverse all the way and take a cruiser around that end of the resort, sort of get the lay of the land that way, but I didn’t have the patience. I cut left as soon as I could and skied down toward the closed, and under construction Overlook Lodge.

The new Chair 7 wasn’t moving so I skied down to the Belleayre Express. That side skied just as good as Peekamoose and Seneca had. I was skiing by myself but there always seemed to be somebody I knew waving from the lift or skiing by below as I rode up.

I don’t know how many runs I did but I was surprised to see it was only 11:30 when I made my way back to Discovery Lodge to eat a sandwich and drink some water. I noticed Ripitz’s bike outside. I took out my phone for a pic and noticed a missed call from him. I texted that I was back at the lodge. After a few minutes he replied that he would head down and soon after appeared in person.

We caught up for a few minutes, then got our gear back on and headed out. At the top we made our way back to the trails around the Belleayre Express and skied together for a couple hours, hitting Belleayre Run, Goat Path and Roaring Brook. It started snowing pretty heavily again and the top was still shrouded in fog but the skiing was pretty good.

Ripitz always has some adventure in the works so the lift rides went by quickly. His description of his bike ride up from the Hudson Valley was pretty amazing. We talked about recent episodes of The Double Chair Podcast and how the show is developing, different ski areas, different skis, family stuff, work stuff. Fun skiing and interesting conversation. The dude is a good hang.

I bailed a little early before 2pm. My legs were cooked and I didn’t want to end my season on a sour note so I called it, traversing back to the gondola side. This time of year, I try to appreciate every little bit of skiing that’s still available to me. I’m always telling myself, if this is the last day of the year, it’ll be alright.

Next winter isn’t that far away and there will be lots of fun summer stuff to do in the mean time. That’s how I feel about Saturday at Belleayre. I still want to get in some good spring days if I can get the logistics worked out. But if Saturday was the end, I’m fine with it too. It’s been a good season.