Temp6
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2020
After amassing as much research as I could on the area (which admittedly is only a couple threads and stories from this here blog), I was able to convince the only 3 close friends I know with touring gear to join me for a day of scouting and skiing.
The whole experience felt new as soon as we wound up on some Catskills backroads that we certainly have never been on before. Eyes peeled for Bearpen Mountain Sports, we ultimately decided to save their land for next time and stick to state forest on this mission. The lodge was dead quiet as we drove past to one of the public land access points.
We were all getting our sea legs on our first real tour of the year, and ever for that matter in the Catskills given the scarcity of a real snowpack here, so it took us about 2 hours and change to climb the 2kish vert on the longest but least incline route to the summit.
^Hard to tell but these were legit Squatch prints, size 15s with a 10 foot gait. What else could make a track like this?
Up top we ran into to a handful of snowshoers and XC skiers but only one other soul with a touring setup who also happened to be from Jersey. It was a clean Jersey sweep on the descent into the glades.
For downhill lines, we aimed for a zone we just could not stop staring into on our ascent, with perfect pitch and wide open trees it really reminded us of places far away up near the border around Jay Peak.
Magical it truly was down to about 2250 feet, waist deep with perfect density for riding. Our boards made it out completely unscathed without so much as a scratch in the wax.
On a day where you could have gone anywhere in the northeast to score amazing lift access skiing, getting in only a few thousand feet of man powered turns in a new place was surprisingly more than enough to satisfy the soul. My friends were so skeptical of how long we’d be out there that they didn’t even bring lunch! In the lot we ran into the other Jersey guy who was out there alone and he was also in the highest of spirits, cracking open an IPA and reminiscing on a rare day for all of us in the Catskills.
Editor’s Note: Photos are a mix of iPhone and very old, barely functioning Sony a6000 which is finally getting an upgrade next week
The whole experience felt new as soon as we wound up on some Catskills backroads that we certainly have never been on before. Eyes peeled for Bearpen Mountain Sports, we ultimately decided to save their land for next time and stick to state forest on this mission. The lodge was dead quiet as we drove past to one of the public land access points.
We were all getting our sea legs on our first real tour of the year, and ever for that matter in the Catskills given the scarcity of a real snowpack here, so it took us about 2 hours and change to climb the 2kish vert on the longest but least incline route to the summit.
^Hard to tell but these were legit Squatch prints, size 15s with a 10 foot gait. What else could make a track like this?
Up top we ran into to a handful of snowshoers and XC skiers but only one other soul with a touring setup who also happened to be from Jersey. It was a clean Jersey sweep on the descent into the glades.
For downhill lines, we aimed for a zone we just could not stop staring into on our ascent, with perfect pitch and wide open trees it really reminded us of places far away up near the border around Jay Peak.
Magical it truly was down to about 2250 feet, waist deep with perfect density for riding. Our boards made it out completely unscathed without so much as a scratch in the wax.
On a day where you could have gone anywhere in the northeast to score amazing lift access skiing, getting in only a few thousand feet of man powered turns in a new place was surprisingly more than enough to satisfy the soul. My friends were so skeptical of how long we’d be out there that they didn’t even bring lunch! In the lot we ran into the other Jersey guy who was out there alone and he was also in the highest of spirits, cracking open an IPA and reminiscing on a rare day for all of us in the Catskills.
Editor’s Note: Photos are a mix of iPhone and very old, barely functioning Sony a6000 which is finally getting an upgrade next week
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