Windham: Make Friends with a Local

After a promising start to the season, a more traditional weather pattern set in. New York skiers and riders are used to their fair share of 50 degree weather and rain in December. This year it has seemed particularly tough, forcing many resorts to delay their opening day.

Windham base area

The resorts that are open have clung to the white ribbon of death. Mountain ops and the dedicated riders who call these mountains home have not been deterred. At the first sign of cold weather both returned in full force.

On Friday, I decided to check out Windham on my way to the flatlands; they seemed to still be holding on to a reasonable amount of snow.

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Hunter: Two Days, Two Trails, Too Fun

Hunter Mountain opened Saturday November 19 with two main routes down the mountain – the Mainline and Belt Parkway. I was fortunate to ski days 2 and 3.

morning snowmaking

The unseasonable cool temps in the days preceding opening day enabled Hunter’s team to lay down plentiful volumes of high quality snow. On the two open routes, conditions resembled mid-January more than late November. Kudos to snowmaking for a great job getting the mountain open.

My first day, Sunday November 20 was cold and windy. Between the weather and the snowguns blasting, it really felt like mid-winter.

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Belleayre Opens Early in 2022

Each year the season creeps up on me. I always believe there is still time to go to the gym and get fit. Another week before I need to wax and tune our skis and boards. I can wash the old neck gator tomorrow.

Belleayre main base area

Yet the snow falls and I find myself scrambling to get out the door to the mountains. I will never take a pre-thanksgiving opening weekend for granted, but maybe if I had one more week I would have been ready. Probably not.

ORDA was ready, and they were not messing around. The weather window opened up earlier in the week and they jumped through it. Tales from opening day at Whiteface gave me pause. I agree, snowmaking efforts have really paid off.

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