Hickory Ski Center: Opportunity Knocks

Opportunity is always knocking. The key is to open your eyes and see it.  When I woke in North Creek on Sunday, my plan was to go to Gore Mountain to ski the morning, and then head for home.

Hickory-Fire-Pit

But something happened on the way to the forum. Over coffee, a local religious leader convinced me to remain true to our faith and capture a third consecutive day of untracked pow. I headed south to Hickory Ski Center.

Driving down Route 28, the opposing lane was filled with a stream of cars with roof boxes zoom, zoom, zooming to the biggest hill in the county. I was zigging and it was feeling right.

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Chasing Plattekill Powder

At the end of this past week, I did some storm chasing.  A big low was slated to ride up the coast and bang into a big mass of fresh cold air from the Arctic.

Storm Chasing

At the same time, I was plotting my birthday ski at Plattekill.

This situation was problematic as the mother load was actually falling between me and the mountains. With moderate to heavy snows falling in the NY metro area, a state of emergency was declared by the governors of New York and neighboring states.

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Windham vs. Hercules

In 2014, the stars have aligned early for skiers in New York. The Catskills are in the bullseye for winter storm Hercules, and no one should miss out on turns tomorrow, let alone over the weekend.

Instructor-Mike-Powder

Not wanting to get snowed out, I left the city late last night, GF in tow, to make sure that we would arrive at Windham bright and early.

I’d seen their trail count increasing pretty quickly since the thaw and I had been dying to check out some of their summer improvements, which include new terrain features in the form of a blue square called Windfall and a very tasty looking gladed area just off of it.

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