Growing up in the western suburbs of Syracuse, I remember classmates referring to this 120-vertical-foot feeder hill, mentioned briefly in the recent ThatNYguy interview, as “Mount East.”
Instead of heading off by myself to Greek Peak for Christmas Day turns, we decided to have a family afternoon, so my wife and son came along to go sledding.
Whenever I visit my mother in the western suburbs of Syracuse, I mountain bike a couple hours a day in an extensive network of trails that was originally part of the limestone Split Rock quarry, which had been in existence since the early 1800s. The only thing left is a large stone crusher that went into operation in 1903.
To transport the crushed limestone from the quarry to a soda ash plant in a neighboring village, a 3.25-mile elevated tramway, somewhat similar to a modern ski lift and considered an “engineering marvel” back then, was built. According to the Town of Onondaga Historical Society, loaded buckets coming down full to the plant helped carry the empty buckets back.
A foot and a half at home, and Greek Peak also reported 18 inches. When I drove down my unplowed driveway snow billowed over the hood and into the windshield. Subaru face shots in the driveway!
I was surprised to see a lift line up 15 minutes before opening. I got on the 5th chair. I thought yesterday was great, today was even better. The snow was light and powdery and DEEP.
I started out alone and skied top-to-bottom without stops, visiting all the ungroomed and untracked places. I ran into Marilyn on Chair 4, and we hit Chair 5 just as it opened. There was a lot of fresh snow on the trails and in the woods on the east side. I did 5 laps until Alsops and Arethusa were completely tracked out.
In The Forums