The Belleayre Blog

It has been a good winter for skiing. In the grand scheme of things, that may be a trivial thing but there it is. I’ve been a nomad this winter. I skied more then ten different hills, including four new ones. Of course nothing lasts forever. The seasons change and we must move on. With the warm weather and impending rain, giving up on the ski season this weekend would have been understandable. But I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel.

I wanted to keep skiing. Until Saturday, I hadn’t included any ORDA mountains in my ‘20/‘21 ski odyssey so I figured it was a good time to take a break from exploring and retrace the well worn path to Belleayre Mountain in the Catskills.

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I’ve never really accepted the idea of “no friends on a powder day.” The right friends can make all the difference when you are chasing new snow. They can help with the prep and planning, and they can help when things can wrong.

I’ve been lucky chasing storms over the last few years, managing to avoid major setbacks, weather delays or transportation issues. My luck was bound to run out eventually, and this week it did. But I was with the right people, and it almost didn’t matter.

Alex and I woke at 7 am in the Starlite Motel to the sounds of other guests cleaning off their cars and loading up. We quickly joined them as the new snow was going to take time to clear.

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To some, missing the Super Bowl is sacrilege. As far as I’m concerned it’s a ski day, but my eleven year old doesn’t agree. When we were pass holders at Mount Peter, we were close to home and it wasn’t issue. An early arrival and departure would give us plenty of time to ski Belleayre and see the big game.

Of all the improvements made at ORDA ski resorts this year, the one which generated the most discussion in the NYSB Forum, was Belleayre’s new gondola, the Catskill Thunder. There was skepticism of the need for a gondola and anxiety about the cost while others supported the idea with full-on fanboy enthusiasm. Super Bowl Sunday was a great opportunity to see for ourselves.

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