Belleayre Mtn, NY: 1/16/10

Posted on by Harvey

Jamesdeluxe and I were invited to attend the MLK day press event at Belleayre, in Highmount, NY. I’d never been to Belle and definitely wanted to ski New York’s mountain in the Catskills. We were hosted by the gregarious and energetic Tony Lanza, Belleayre’s Mountain Superintendent, the top guy on the hill.

Tony Lanza

The day started with breakfast in the Long House Lodge, which is situated at 2500 feet, strategically positioned between Bell’s lower mountain beginner terrain and the upper mountain. Tony is extremely proud of Bell’s lower mountain terrain and led about a dozen of us, through the gentle and well groomed terrain.

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Tagged: Belleayre, Catskills5 Comments

What is a Skier’s Mountain?

Posted on by Harvey

The question started rattling around in my brain when I skied with Mike Pratt in January. He was explaining about how hard he had to push to get the three runs under the liftlines open — Dark Side, Double Barrel and High Pines. He said it was a personal goal (as opposed to a professional goal) to push to make Gore a skier’s mountain. People thought those lines were just too rocky.

What is a skier’s mountain? What does that mean? I have some general ideas. But I’d like to hear yours. I’m trying to articulate my thoughts, but I’m having a hard time getting beyond a vague concept that includes increased skier responsibility.

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Tagged: Ski Life5 Comments

Greek Peak, NY: 1/13/10

Posted on by Powderqueen

The afternoon was quiet in the office, with everyone at meetings. Emails were sent and it wouldn’t be until tomorrow that they would get read. A rare sight out the window: blue skies and sunshine with temps near 30. Two more inches of snow fell at Greek Peak in the last 24 hours. The hill was calling.

In fact it has been snowing 2-3″ every day for the last 2 weeks. A very dry and light snow. With the sunshine, the snow seemed to shrink quite a bit today, but it was a worthwhile trade-off from the near zero weather we’ve been having.

My friend and full time ski patroller, Acid Christ, spent the afternoon with me, skiing in the woods, finding fluffy stashes of powder here and there and flying down steep groomers at mach speed.

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Tagged: Central NY, Greek Peak7 Comments