Jamesdeluxe and I arranged a pre-dawn departure from NJ to take part in the maiden voyage of Hunter’s Kaatskill Flyer: New York’s first six-passenger detachable lift.
The Flyer is a beauty: comfortable, fast, and smooth. Things ran well today, with the spanking new lift designed by Leitner-Poma covering 1,477 vertical feet in a brisk five minutes. There were very few stoppages, and little confusion on the loading and unloading platforms.
Hunter’s decision to delay the start of snowmaking operations until after last weekend’s liquid precip event had passed through the region probably helped them avoid wasting a small fortune in electricity.
As expected, the traditional opening day course of Hellgate, Broadway, Kennedy Drive to Fifth Avenue was getting pounded from every possible angle. Fan guns, tower guns and sled guns were hammering most of what was open plus Belt Parkway, Eisenhower, Madison Ave, Minya Konka, as well as beginner’s terrain on Hunter One.
James was happy to get in some warm-up turns before leaving for a seven-day trip to Jackson Hole and Grand Targhee in Wyoming.
With the exception of a stretch of firm base-building snow right after the big turn on Hellgate, the top-to-bottom run was loaded with deposits of chalky, soft fan-gun powder, including many sections that were filled with soft bumps.
Several times throughout the day, I ran into the Hunter tele posse, which was using the gunstands on Hellgate as a slalom course.
With the all-out snowmaking assault underway, it seems very likely that there will be significant terrain additions at Hunter later this week.
I wanted to wait until later in the week (when more terrain was open) to go to Hunter, but Harv twisted my arm, and I was glad I went. I always guffaw while reading about people going on WROD excursions, but with the exception of the very top of Hellgate, conditions were really quite good. Almost 1,500 verts top-to-bottom, really soft bumps on the sides, with no rocks or unmentionables to mess up your skis, so props to Hunter.
Since it was my first day of the season, I knew that I would only have about four hours of turns in my legs, which turned out to be the case, so yesterday worked out perfectly.
My WROD experience this weekend was also well worthwhile. Conditions were excellent on man made snow. 4 hours of skiing at Gore was sociable and good exercise. You make the most of what you have. Whiteface was a nice change from Gore and provided more vertical and also had excellent man-made conditions. We thought maybe we’d have more natural snow at WF, but it didn’t really snow there, though it snowed about 4 inches where were were staying near the ski jumps. My friend went xc skiing on the golf course and said it was very good.
But, but…. does it put you in the same place? So, therefore, there’s going to be 50% more people unloading in that same spot? No, waitaminute, it’s faster, so… um… damn, I forgot my high advanced math, so, um, it’s going to be a ton of people there on a Saturday and I may have to take off my skis to walk around all of the snowboarders bucking up. sheesh. Why’d they do that?
Benny – whats with the snowboarder stuff?
I can tell you why it happens but I doubt you’ll want or even try to hear..
Better you ski elsewhere..
Why what happens? Wha?
BTW, I own six snowboards. I still shake my head at how that happened, but, it did.
Hey, time for a snowboarder joke. How many boarders does it take to do a jump in the park?
Nine. One to do it, and eight of his friends to sit there and say “yeah, brah!”
Hey! I should def had asked before about the pics. Sorry!
Benny… we had a chance to speak to Brian the director of marketing at Hunter. While the Flyer is a faster ride, with increased chair spacing, the uphill capacity remains unchanged.