Hunter Mountain, NY: 12/20/09

Posted on by Harvey

Got up at a ridiculous hour, made coffee, and hit the road at 5am. It was still snowing fairly hard and it looked like 14-15″ had fallen at our place. The county roads were a disaster, but once I got on to the state and interstate roads things were fine.

I met up with Jamesdeluxe at 6:45 at an A&P in Northern NJ, and got to Hunter at about 8:30. There was no traffic on I87 and the mountain was not nearly as busy as I imagined it would be on a weekend.

We’d planned on Hunter because, it had been COLD and we wanted to take advantage of Hunter’s well-known snowmaking capacity. It felt odd to be driving out of a big storm to ski a mountain with no new snow.

Continue reading →

Tagged: Catskills, Hunter2 Comments

Gore Mountain, NY: 12/19/09

Posted on by Powderqueen

Saturday and Sunday Pam and I spent skiing with my Adirondack pals at Gore. The skiing was very good there and exceeded our expectations. Even though open trails were limited, what was open was very good. Snowmaking and grooming was commendable. They opened Hawkeye and Chatiemac with ungroomed manmade snow.

The ski patrol warned people of grabby snow, but encouraged us to “ski it in.” So we skied it in, including the Straightbrook Glade, which seemed to have enough cover. We ventured into the woods and found plenty of untracked snow that was was about 10-12″ deep with a breakable wind crust.

Some places were easier to ski than others, but overall, it was a lot of work and we did a lot of picking our way around and over trees and snowmaking pipes that separated the trails from the trees. It was grabby and we all took our share of spills.

What I love about Gore is the community of people whose lives revolve around running the rivers, sailing the lakes and sliding the mountains. There was a potluck dinner at a friend’s cabin, with so much delicious food, banjo strummin, singing and a big bonfire where we all gathered after skiing, really topping off the day. In fact we skied and partied so hard, I didn’t even feel like going to VT. But that exhausted feeling was fueled by more skiing.

Tagged: Adirondacks, Gore Mountain1 Comment

Serious Snowmaking at Hunter Mountain

Posted on by Harvey

I’ve been invited to ski Hunter. Last time I was there, I was definitely an intermediate, so it should be interesting to see what I can do on Hunter West.

This is a perfect time to go to Hunter. It’s been incredibly cold, and Hunter Mountain snowmaking capacity is legendary. Here’s an excerpt from a TR on AlpineZone:

“They are pounding the hell out of the mountain. Clairs has every single gun on, and then some. Highlands is on. Park had all the guns on all day. K27’s on, Belt, Broadway, Ike, Gun Hill and Minya all had guns randomly go on and off throughout the day. Racer’s needs snow, but I think the wind is probably the reason they aren’t making it there. The oscillating Super Polecat on Broadway looks nice, as do the other new Polecats…”

Continue reading →

Tagged: Catskills, Hunter1 Comment