Belleayre Conditions

[DomB]

My first time on Cathedral Brook.

Belleayre, NY: 01/16/10: The Beast

Saturday was Press Day at Belleayre, so I invited rising blog star Harvey for his first-ever ski day at New York State’s red-haired stepchild. After seeing my dozens of TRs about Belleayre over the years (and the fact that Jason and I ski there more than the other Catskills areas), he was...

nyskiblog.com

Harv - I think that post was key to me taking the kids to Belle to start our early family years skiing. Another reason I am thankful to the blog. Thank you. And thanks to James for that post.

Pre gondola, the beginner area was a ghost town.

 

[Harvey]

Cool Dom! I'm betting you saw this:

Belleayre Mtn, NY: 1/16/10

Jamesdeluxe and I were invited to attend the MLK day press event at Belleayre, in Highmount, NY. I’d never been to Belle and definitely wanted to ski New York’s mountain in the Catskills. We were hosted by the gregarious and energetic Tony Lanza, Belleayre’s Mountain Superintendent, the top guy...

nyskiblog.com

 

[Bandit]

My first time on Cathedral Brook.

Belleayre, NY: 01/16/10: The Beast

Saturday was Press Day at Belleayre, so I invited rising blog star Harvey for his first-ever ski day at New York State’s red-haired stepchild. After seeing my dozens of TRs about Belleayre over the years (and the fact that Jason and I ski there more than the other Catskills areas), he was...

nyskiblog.com

Who knew Don Boyce?

Donny’s an all around great guy. Super friendly, great skier AND instructor who is really fun to ski with and learn from. I did the weekend workshop with him for a couple years 15+ years ago back when it came with the season pass.

He got tired of the current situation at Belleayre and left 3 or 4 years ago, as did/are many long time employees because they are unhappy with the management(and the new #2 guy they just hired is only hurting not making things better!). Big loss for the Mtn when Donny left. He’s retired from his real job now and skiing during the week.

Reading your Cathedral article brings back some good memories. It’s also a stark reminder of how much the vibe on the mountain has changed and not for the good. The Beast was awesome! It ended up succumbing to an electrical fire.

The Beast is something like that would never be considered today, nor would the mountain manager or ski school director even think about skiing down to Pine Hill much less bring a member of the media down there.

Back then the priority was skiers and skiing. I don’t really even know what their priority is now, but I do know that no lift loaded until 9:45 on Monday after 10” of snow and that’s unacceptable. They were short staffed on the upper mountain lifts while multiple lifties were shoveling out the magic carpets in the learning area and the line at 7 stretched all across onteora and down almost to the lodge.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Thanks Bandit for the update about Donny and the Beast. It was a drag to learn the off-mountain revelations about Tony Lanza but the guy was a serious on-mountain Belle advocate.

 

[Bandit]

Thanks Bandit for the update about Donny and the Beast. It was a drag to learn the off-mountain revelations about Tony Lanza but the guy was a serious on-mountain Belle advocate.

I suspect many of the revelations are misinformation.

Definitely agree he was a serious advocate for the mountain!

 

[jamesdeluxe]

the line at 7 stretched all across onteora and down almost to the lodge.

During my years at Belle (mainly 2001 to 2018), I never EVER encountered a line at Lift 7.

 

[Harvey]

During my years at Belle (mainly 2001 to 2018), I never EVER encountered a line at Lift 7.

I blame Vail!

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I blame Vail!

Vail Resorts Buys ORDA for $1.2B

Vail Buys ORDA: Resorts (VRMC) announced today that it has purchased New York's ORDA the state of New York for $1.2 billion dollars in cash.

nyskiblog.com

 

[Bandit]

During my years at Belle (mainly 2001 to 2018), I never EVER encountered a line at Lift 7.

Yep usually 7 is a good place to hide from the crowds, especially with the new gondola. But none of the powderhounds waiting on Monday were happy. When the lift finally did open they ran it at half speed since there was only one lift attendant at the bottom station. This is not a reflection on the lift attendants (they’re great!) but rather the poor preparation for a forecasted snowstorm and management decisions to send lift attendants to dig out magic carpets instead of putting resources to opening the top of the mountain.

 

[Ripitz]

Yep usually 7 is a good place to hide from the crowds, especially with the new gondola. But none of the powderhounds waiting on Monday were happy. When the lift finally did open they ran it at half speed since there was only one lift attendant at the bottom station. This is not a reflection on the lift attendants (they’re great!) but rather the poor preparation for a forecasted snowstorm and management decisions to send lift attendants to dig out magic carpets instead of putting resources to opening the top of the mountain.

That looks Epic.