Jamesdeluxe and I arranged a pre-dawn departure from NJ to take part in the maiden voyage of Hunter’s Kaatskill Flyer: New York’s first six-passenger detachable lift.
The Flyer is a beauty: comfortable, fast, and smooth. Things ran well today, with the spanking new lift designed by Leitner-Poma covering 1,477 vertical feet in a brisk five minutes. There were very few stoppages, and little confusion on the loading and unloading platforms.
I first became aware of Russ LaChapelle through his posts on the Snowjournal forum under the screen name “ThatNYguy.” In addition to his extensive nuts-and-bolts knowledge and outspoken opinions about New York’s rich ski history, I liked how he conveyed the emotions behind his passion for Empire State skiing. In 2002, Russ launched “Skiing History in New York” — a website designed to tell the stories of the state’s lift-served ski hills and mountains, both those still in operation as well as the many that had closed.
But what really fascinated me were Russ’s ongoing reports about the rise and fall of Bearpen Mountain, a ski area in the western Catskills that closed 50 years ago, and his efforts to make it accessible to skiers once again. Following is a discussion that details one man’s views of the changing landscape of NYS skiing from the late 1960s to the present.
Ron Konowitz, also known as RonKon, is a resident of Keene, NY. As a member of the “Ski to Die” Club, he pioneered many of the steepest backcountry descents in the Adirondack High Peaks.
In this newly released YouTube Video, Ron and Mike Whelan retrace the route of Irving Langmuir with this ski of Slide Mountain. An avid outdoorsman, Langmuir is credited for establishing ski mountaineering on this side of the Atlantic in 1907 on Slide Mountain in New York. Slide — the tallest peak in the Catskills at 4180 feet — was the first mountain in North America climbed and skied from the summit.
Langmuir, a prominent chemist and physicist, is probably most noted for his work at General Electric. His research lead directly to the invention of the incandescent lamp.
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