Hunter Mountain Snowmaking Silk

Gun running has been a persistent topic of conversation over the past year in the mainstream media. We —the subversives at the NYSkiBlog— have taken to giving it a new meaning.

Hunter Mountain Snowmaking

Instead of an illicit trade, we use the term to describe that awesome experience of skiing top quality manmade cold silk snow under the guns at ski resorts in the Northeast. To be completely forthright, skiing under the guns today during the work week felt way too good to be legal.

The product on the slopes of Hunter was the best manmade snow I have ever skied.  It’s simple science; super cold temps + compressed air + water = pure silk. Arctic cold for days, dozens of canons and fan guns, meant that it was laid down in bulk.

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Windham’s Wounded Warrior Weekend

Many people have written heartfelt essays about the magic of skiing — how it takes us out of our sometimes drab everyday lives filled with responsibilities and routine, puts us in the middle of nature, and allows us to fly for a few minutes.

Windham Wounded Warrior

If we’re lucky, the snow will be soft and the lift lines short. If we’re extra lucky (especially here in the northeast), we might score untracked powder.

But this past weekend at Windham Mountain, the ninth annual northeastern Wounded Warriors winter event — where 31 servicemen and women who’ve suffered spinal-cord and orthopedic injuries, amputated limbs, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) came to ski and snowboard together with their families — gave me a new appreciation for skiing’s transformative power.

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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. Later in the decade another noted New Yorker, Averell Harriman, pioneered the first chairlift at Sun Valley Idaho. Skiers traveled uphill in relaxed comfort.

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