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.
As we get ready to kick off the 2010-11 season, Jamesdeluxe takes us to Vermont’s gorgeous Northeast Kingdom for yet another ski area that I’ve read about for years, but never had the chance to visit: Burke Mountain.
Often described as “criminally underrated,” Burke looks like a perfect stop on the way north to the Eastern Townships or Jay Peak.
In this issue of NY Ski Magazine:
I first became aware of Russ LaChapelle through his posts on the Snowjournal forum under the screen name “ThatNYguy.” In addition to his extensive nuts-and-bolts knowledge and outspoken opinions about New York’s rich ski history, I liked how he conveyed the emotions behind his passion for Empire State skiing. In 2002, Russ launched “Skiing History in New York” — a website designed to tell the stories of the state’s lift-served ski hills and mountains, both those still in operation as well as the many that had closed.
But what really fascinated me were Russ’s ongoing reports about the rise and fall of Bearpen Mountain, a ski area in the western Catskills that closed 50 years ago, and his efforts to make it accessible to skiers once again. Following is a discussion that details one man’s views of the changing landscape of NYS skiing from the late 1960s to the present.
In The Forums