Plattekill MLK Weekend 2019

File this one under the best-laid plans. At the end of last week, forecasters were calling for more than a foot and a half of snow at both Gore and Plattekill by Sunday. I only felt certain about one thing: driving in the storm early on Sunday morning wasn’t wise. I weighed the pros and cons of my choices.

storm track
If Only

Option #1: We’ve got a small cabin near Gore, about five hours away. It provides us with a good deal of flexibility at a low cost. Still, time is precious on a one-night trip to ski country and it takes a few hours to get our building warm. The drive to the mountain is 10 miles that should be driven with care in a storm.

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NYSkiBlog’s 7th Annual Meeting

NYSkiBlog convened our Annual Meeting at Plattekill Mountain this past weekend. Our 7th consecutive event, this tradition sprung up spontaneously back to 2012, when an astounding act of generosity was reciprocated with a small token of appreciation.

whole lotta love

Our agenda hasn’t changed much over the years. We arrive for first chair, ski as hard as we can for as long as we can, and then retire to celebrate the new season in our boardroom, the Plattekill bar. This year we planned something extra special — a showing of the documentary Snowfarmers with special comments from the creators of the film, Adam Carboni and Tansy Michaud.

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A Visit to Plattekill

I drove to Roxbury on Sunday. I had a variety of justifications for the trip, including picking up my ski pass. It was my only free day this week, and I could have gone to some other hills, but really I just wanted to get back to Plattekill.

Starbucks on the NY Thruway

Upper mountain lifts weren’t running, so I set my alarm for a reasonable hour. It was almost like I picked up where I’d left off at the end of last year, with a casual spring skiing approach. A benefit of the delayed start, when I took my break on the NY Thruway, the sun was up and Starbucks was open.

I knew there wasn’t much natural snow on the ground in the Catskills, but on Saturday the radar showed snowfall in the air and the slopes looked enticing to me on the Plattekill webcam.

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