I've never skied two hills in one day. Not really my thing, but for multiple reasons, it made sense today.
The contrast between Belleayre and Plattekill couldn't have been more dramatic. The differences are known to all of us, but I personally have never seen it laid out so clearly in front of me. The resources of New York State were on display, a stark contrast to the diligent efforts of a much smaller family owned ski hill. Belle had more than a dozen routes t2b, and they were blowing on at least 4 trails at once. I don't think I've seen that much snow being blown at Gore, at one time, ever.
The best snow at Plattekill was a pseudo-semi-poach of Lower Face. When I got there it was cooking in the sun.
I barely bought any beers. I was counting on Patrol to have a few, but only Brownski made it. At one point Laz got on the radio and put out an APB for Patrol and Ops to come into the lodge, for mandatory beer. It was kind of hilarious to hear all the 10-4s coming back.
The thing is, all of it sounds sad, and I saw some sad faces here, (^^upthread^^) but it wasn't sad for me.
The spirit at Plattekill is irrepressible. Facing what they are facing, EVERYONE has an upbeat, positive attitude about the challenges this season is presenting. Shannon, Laz, Danielle, Bobby C and Macker. They had two mountain rentals cancel this week. The attitude is, these rentals are our regular, repeat customers and we are going to satisfy them.
I wanted to make sure I bought Macker a beer, but after the sun went down, the temps got cold enough to blow, and he was out on the hill engaging the guns. Laz said it was now against company policy to interrupt snowmaking when they were charging the system. Laz headed out to join them, and 15 minutes later Macker walks in with his crew, we lifted a glass, hugged, and they headed back out.
I can honestly say I had as much fun skiing three trails at Plattekill (four, if you count the poach of Upper Face) as I did ripping up hundreds of acres at Belle with Ripitz. BTW Ripitz is something else, I definitely want to ski with him more.
To top it off on the ride home I had a great conversation with my 90 yo mom, about the lineage of story tellers in our family.
I think it's fair to assume, I will have more to say on this. What a great day.
