Old School Trail Maps

[Ripitz]

The trail expansion killed people?

yep the north side expansion...the new trails where labeled intermediate..they should have been expert...they were steep and wide, you could generate insane speeds...problem was the trails where off of the Belt Parkway which servers beginners and intermediates.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first rode that lift. One of the trails has a steep icy headwall with a double fall line ending with woods above an opposing dogleg. I don’t know who planned that out but people died. Did they really expect a different result? God bless those souls, no one needs to go out like that.

 

[Campgottagopee]

Agreed. One of things I’ve always liked about Plattekill was how organic the mountain feels. It’s a proper ski hill that was built respectfully imo.

This is one thing I've always appreciated about the front 4 at $towe. The CCC did a darn good job.

 

[jasonwx]

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first rode that lift. One of the trails has a steep icy headwall with a double fall line ending with woods above an opposing dogleg. I don’t know who planned that out but people died. Did they really expect a different result? God bless those souls, no one needs to go out like that.

exactly.

sorry about all misspellings etc...talking into the phone sucks

 

[raisingarizona]

This is one thing I've always appreciated about the front 4 at $towe. The CCC did a darn good job.

So true. Stowe is aesthetically one of the most beautiful ski mountains I’ve ever skied.

 

[Ripitz]

The trail expansion killed people?

yep the north side expansion...the new trails where labeled intermediate..they should have been expert...they were steep and wide, you could generate insane speeds...problem was the trails where off of the Belt Parkway which servers beginners and intermediates.

I forgot about the mis-ratings. The North Face trails debuted in 2018 and they were all labeled blue square / more difficult. Intermediates from Belt Parkway and Way Out unknowingly dropped onto steep icy expert trails that never see the sun.

On the 2019 map, two of the trails, Twilight and Overlook, are shown as a black diamond in a blue square / more difficult (advanced). In 2020 they were finally upgraded to black diamond / most difficult and that’s what they are today. I remember being shocked at the lack of slow or caution signs, fencing or netting. Nothing was marked and what was, was wrong.

Another Skier Death At Hunter Mountain | 3 Deaths in 2 Months On Newly Cut Ski Runs

A 22-year-old New Jersey man was killed this past Saturday at Hunter Mountain after crashing while skiing the Twilight trail. Robert Vrablik was skiing

unofficialnetworks.com

 

[raisingarizona]

Oh damn, 3 in two months is concerning. How did those gladed areas turn out? How often are they open?

 

[Ripitz]

Oh damn, 3 in two months is concerning. How did those gladed areas turn out? How often are they open?

There wasn’t enough snow when I was there, so I haven’t been in them myself, but my friend has been and he says they’re great. He said they were lapping them with no one in sight. I don’t think they’re open all that much. The advantage of the Northside is that the snow gets shaded but the disadvantage is that it is at a low elevation.

In the Catskills, elevation plays such a crucial role in what’s skiable. It’s a different world up above 3000 feet (this is one of the reasons why I like Belleayre so much) That area lies between 1750, and 2000. There’s a little bit of gun drift in the woods there to make a dense base and then the storms kick it into play. It’s a great area to get away from the circus on the frontside, it even has its own parking area.

 

[gregmarx]

Oh damn, 3 in two months is concerning. How did those gladed areas turn out? How often are they open?

Only one of them is on the current map, and I don't think it's open often. The new-ish GM was on Storm Skiing podcast awhile back, I just listened to it the other day. Stuart asked about those glades but the answer was there's just not often enough natural snow at that spot and it didn't sound like they make an effort to open them aggressively. GM did talk about wanting to get more activity at Hunter North in general though.

I've only skied a couple times at Hunter, both late season, but ime the snow surface there is just hugely different than on the main mountain due to lack of sun. I had a weekday there a couple years ago where they didn't open North until I think early afternoon because it hadn't softened at all in the morning. It was still pretty icy after 2 or so, by which point lower Belt was mashed potatoes with sections of brown slop.

 

[Ripitz]

NY State said FU to the Slutzkys about that expansion.

If i remember correctly, they cut the x trail before they had the approvals. They were try to get to that bowl and/or the next one. I was told they were willing to trade 10k acres they owned elsewhere in the park for those couple hundred acres in order to cut the trails. A sad ending for what could have been...........

Didn’t realize it was actually ever labeled with an X on the map with the key description as “Future lifts and trails”

1986 map from skimap.org shows it as such.

 

[Ripitz]

Only one of them is on the current map, and I don't think it's open often.

Yes, wow, they dropped three of them from the map. They were keeping Niehues busy with some edits for a few years there. From what I recall the one that is remaining is very much low angle.