Belleayre Opens in 2013

Posted on by x10003q

Saturday afternoon I received a text from Harvey asking if I could join him at Belleayre on Sunday. This season’s early cold has allowed aggressive snowmaking and the mountain has made good progress opening terrain, so I jumped on it.

Belleayre opens top to bottom.

Belleayre’s trail report had two lifts and 11 trails open, including a mix of green, blue and black terrain. Conditions were reported as machine groomed loose granular, loose granular with moguls, hard pack and thin cover. Both the Discovery Lodge and the mid-mountain Overlook Lodge were open.

We could see a snowmaking cloud on the hill as we approached from Route 28. We parked at the Overlook Lodge and were on the Super Chief Quad in just a few minutes.

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Tagged: Belleayre, Catskills1 Comment

NY Ski Magazine: The Inland Northwest

Posted on by James Michaud

Even though I’ve written three dozen resort features over the past decade, I still have a long way to go before I’ve visited all of North America’s major ski regions, particularly out west.

Inland-Northwest-Skier

Just off the top of my head, I still haven’t made turns in California, British Columbia, Montana, western Washington and Oregon, central Idaho, Maine, or Quebec’s Gaspe Peninsula. Being based near NYC (at least for the near future), that should keep me busy for a while.

Thankfully, last March, I finally got around to a region that had evaded my grasp for a while: the Inland Northwest, located in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. Within a two-hour drive of the Spokane airport, there are five interesting and varied ski areas covering the gamut from full-service resorts to entertaining off-the-beaten-path day areas. What’s more, everything is surrounded by beautiful scenery: lakes, mountains, and gorgeous vistas, along with the cute towns of Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene. Explore:

NY Ski Magazine
Inland Northwest: Destination, Not A Gateway

Tagged: Magazine, Western US

Hunter Opening Day: White Friday

Posted on by ml242

There was a lot of talk about Black Friday this year, and the morning was exceptionally dark when I left the house at 6 to beat the crowds at Hunter’s opening day. But driving through Tannersville early was more reminiscent of a Christmas snow-globe scene then madness that shoppers dealt with in the local malls.

Hunter Mountain opening day 2013

In another contrast, there were no mixed reactions to opening day for skiing, either. The crowds that I had worried about seemed more likely to enjoy the day like a college reunion then fight for a pole position on I87 or down the aisles at the big box.

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Tagged: Catskills, Hunter2 Comments