Hunter: Mid-December or Mid-Winter?

After two weeks of good cold temperatures and a couple of decent storms, Hunter’s ski report was touting midwinter conditions.

Hunter-Mountain-View

And it was all true.

I met up with NYSB’s Meteorologist JasonWx and daughter Zoey. We spent the morning cranking out high speed, packed powder turns all over the main face of Hunter.

Hunter-Base-Lodge

Despite the number of cars in the parking lot, the trails were empty. There was no line for the Kaatskill Flyer 6-pack, although it seemed every chair had four riders. The Zephyr Express Quad on Hunter West was also ski-on.

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The First Storm of The Season

The weekend snow event wasn’t really the first storm of the season. But it was the first in the east that really involved almost everyone. I love that.

Topridge-Closeup

At Gore Mountain we skied truly edgeable hardpack on Saturday, so that when the overnight storm added a foot to snow totals, things were in really good shape.

From what I saw on social media Sunday evening, this was true at ski areas across New York and the east.

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Lake Effect Opens Snow Ridge

On Wednesday I was in class at Saint Lawrence when my professor mentioned that his wife was driving up Interstate 81 on her way to Canton. He was concerned about the heavy snow in the area.

untouched powder at Snow Ridge

I thought back to reports from last year and my focus drifted away from literature towards skiing at Snow Ridge.

Back in my room after class, I poured over the NOAA forecasts and snowfall predictions for the evening and the checked  snow reports on the Snow Ridge website.

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