Plattekill: Ridge and Twist 12/7/24

[Harvey]

From what I can tell, today was a good day just about everywhere. I mostly follow NY and VT. Many of the images I saw today had captions about the surprising snow depth.

Cats are fat.

There were places I could have skied today with lift service. But as soon as I knew I could ski today, and even before that, I wanted to skin Plattekill. Two weeks ago I skinned Overlook and skied Plunge. Since that time I've been thinking about Ridge Run.

Ro on Overlook

I knew @Roman was also thinking about skinning and Ridge Run. I sensed it. I also sensed he needed to be convinced. I was already sold on conditions because I'd watched the radar and the cam all week long.

Then RILEY drops a rando comment in my Dry Hill piece, completely OT, about skinning Plattekill on Saturday morning.

He requested 10am, and we agreed. It was wonderful, getting a full night sleep.

Ro Ridge Run, Rut Roh Rorge

We skinned — Riley, Joe, Roman and me — up Overlook. It seemed to go quickly but it took an hour.

We split up at the top. Somebody wanted trees, somebody wanted steeps, Ro and I wanted Ridge.

Ridge

Ridge was sublime. There were some tracks and some decent stretches where you could link dozens of untracked turns.

Seriously, this was two runs of 1000 vert and it might be in my top ten days. It wasn't even powder really.

But it was so turny. Oddly enough, with the uphill, I'm doing more tele.

Twist

The second lap was tough for me. After taking two or three breaks on the first lap. I needed 8 or 10 to make the top the second time. On the second run we took Twist. I was singing Chubby Checkers all the way down. When we got to Lower Twist, Riley had pulled up, and gone out onto North Face and left the bottom for us. So awesome.

FKNA North Face had been ROLLED and had 8 inches on top

to Mountain Ops.

Ro

Ro Ro

Row Row Row your boat

---

I hate to end on a downer, but we need rain. Pretty much all the mountains are out of water.

 

[sig]

Asking for a friend. How were the glades?

 

[Sick Bird Rider]

From what I can tell, today was a good day just about everywhere. I mostly follow NY and VT. Many of the images I saw today had captions about the surprising snow depth.

View attachment 26498
Cats are fat.

There were places I could have skied today with lift service. But as soon as I knew I could ski today, and even before that, I wanted to skin Plattekill. Two weeks ago I skinned Overlook and skied Plunge. Since that time I've been thinking about Ridge Run.

View attachment 26497
Ro on Overlook

I knew @Roman was also thinking about skinning and Ridge Run. I sensed it. I also sensed he needed to be convinced. I was already sold on conditions because I'd watched the radar and the cam.

View attachment 26496

Then RILEY drops a rando comment in my Dry Hill piece, completely OT, about skinning Plattekill on Saturday morning.

Riley requested 10am. And we agreed. It was wonderful, getting a full night sleep.

View attachment 26495
Ro Ridge Run, Rut Roh Rorge

We skinned Riley, Joe, Roman and me up Overlook. It seemed to go quickly but it took an hour.

We split up at the top. Somebody wanted trees, somebody wanted steeps, Ro and I wanted Ridge.

View attachment 26499
Ridge

Ridge was sublime. There were some tracks and some decent stretches where you could link dozens of untrack turns.

Seriously, this was two runs of 1000 vert and it might be in my top ten days. It wasn't even powder really.

But it was so turny. Oddly enough, with the uphill, I'm doing more tele.

View attachment 26494
Twist or Ridge

The second lap was tough for me. After taking two or three breaks on the first lap. I needed 8 or 10 to make the top the second time. When it finally came down to it, on the second lap we took Twist. I was singing all the way down. When we got to Lower Twist, Riley pulled up onto North Face and left the bottom for us. So awesome.

View attachment 26493
FKNA North Face had been ROLLED and had 8 inches on top

to Mountain Ops.

View attachment 26492
Ro

View attachment 26491
Ro Ro

View attachment 26490
Row Row Row

---

I hate to end this on a downer, but we need rain. Pretty much all the mountains are out of water.

That is a nice day.

 

[Temp6]

Freefall might be feeling a little disrespected after being ignored on such a trip twice running now!

 

[Harvey]

Asking for a friend. How were the glades?

The trees were in. That untracked stretch of Lower Twist... I wanted to get a shot of Ro from below with no track, so I jumped in the trees, to get below the first pitch, it was PLENTY deep.

 

[Low Angle Life]

It wasn't even powder really.

I'd call it foam like if that makes sense. Magical stuff in the steep trees. The kind of snow that allows you to really open it up but still be able to shut it down when those "oh shit" moments arise. It seemed to me that it was the result of the cold temps draining much of the moisture out of the snow that had fallen in the past couple of weeks with a bit of fresh to top it all off.

 

[Brownski]

Another great adventure Harv. Way to go

 

[raisingarizona]

I would have loved to be there that day! It looks so peaceful.

 

[Harvey]

It was peaceful. We would have loved it too. I actually thought about skiing with you.

A few day ago, I came across that old FTO Platty storm video. It reminds me of the descriptions you've shared, of your days at Plattekill.

I wish I could find it now. maybe @jamesdeluxe can help me.

 

[sig]

Skinned up overlook Sunday. Kept peaking in the woods, which looked real nice. I was alone and thought better of jumping in glades by myself with only a few cars in parking lot. Settled on a run down Northface. First turns of the year. A little thick toward the bottom.