My friend and I had no expectations but decided to take a weekday at Hunter early in the year. We got to the mountain a little before 10 and were surprised they had close to an inch of natural and people were talking about how much they had blown the day and night before. A decent crowd for a weekday and only the main mountain open with fine skiable snow. First run was the blue from the top White Cloud which was revamped two years ago to join Jimmy H. No one on it and it skied fine. Hellgate, Minya, and East Side all covered with the initial drops a little more challenging since they hadn't been smoothed out with a lot of snow. Everybody on the mountain was remarking how lucky we were to have such a great day so early in the Cats. One bonus, you forget what a great trail the Belt is when it isn't so crowded as always on a weekend. It's long fast and forgiving. They had blown a lot of snow on the North Side but were keeping it closed. Now the bad news. Every prediction was for rain to begin early the next day and be fierce and warm. As coverage was still sparse I wonder what will be left, but for one day we had a great experience. Vail seems to be really doing ok with Hunter.
