Victor Constant Getaway

This season, I’ve been using the NYSkiBlog Forums to find ski partners. It doesn’t always work. But with just a few hours notice, I found four partners for my first visit to the Victor Constant Ski Area. The location is so convenient to the NY metro and tickets are under $40. I guess it was hard to say no.

To step back for a minute, I’ve decided to name my current project Time to Ski NY.  My goal to ski every hill in New York on a day that highlights the strength and features of the area.

In that regard, I scored with my all of my hills this season. Dry Hill, Woods Valley and Royal Mountain were all powder days with 100% of terrain in play.

I think I picked a good days to ski Holiday Mountain and Victor Constant too. After skiing VC, I’m up to 18 NY ski areas with an estimated total number around 60 (TBD). More on that later.

First chair at Victor Constant on Fridays is at 3pm; I left our house in NJ around noon to make the two-hour drive. I’ve spent a limited amount of time in the Hudson Highlands, mostly viewing it from afar, but I love the area. The terrain is beautiful, with inspiring views.

One of VC’s strengths has got to be location. It was easy to get four ski partners, because everyone (except me) drove under an hour to get there. Another strength has to be snowmaking and grooming. When you consider the base elevation of 485 feet, the cover was very solid, for a 500′ hill in March.

Victor Constant is operated by the West Point Military Academy.  If you follow Google Maps precisely, you’ll end up at a gate for the West Point Mint, a precious metals production and deposit facility.  I knew I shouldn’t be there even before I was stopped by the MP. I quickly K-turned around and went back to the ample parking lot, on the left, as you come down Victor Constant Road.

I grabbed my skinniest skis, 86mm and walked over the to the lodge. It’s very nice, with classic decor and big windows that face ski terrain. I went inside and booted up, then back to the ticket office around 2:30.  The woman behind the counter told me I should return at 3pm to buy a ticket.

As I started to clunk my way back out in my ski boots, she said “come on back, I’ll get you a ticket. Just no uphilling before 3pm ok?” I said thank you! and no problem. I headed out to the lift at 2:45 to wait. All was still.

At 2:50 a liftie came across the corduroy to the lift shack and another followed five minutes later. It was clearly very warm overnight as they both sunk into the melted corduroy beyond their boot cuffs.  At 3:10 I was on first chair alone, and I carved it up.

Something about the snow, or maybe it was a waxing issue, I struggled to turn. At the bottom of the first run I ran into Jason and Larry (aka X) as they arrived. X had some wide rockered skis, and it got me thinking I should run back out to my car to grab my WhiteRooms to see if it helped me. It did.

On my way, I saw Junior walking across the lot with his skis on his shoulder. The five of us connected and rode the triple in multiple combinations at least a dozen times. We had a lot to talk about.

I haven’t skied with X in several years, maybe as many as ten. He was a Gore skier back in the day. Now his family has a place in SoVT, so we don’t cross trails in the normal course of our season. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Jason too. This was probably the first time I’ve skied with him outside the Cats. I see the Brownskis every season, usually at Plattekill. But at those times they are often on patrol.

Every time we came to the top, we’d get off the lift, and talk for 5 minutes. I really enjoyed it, I was a bit surprised, it seemed like the other guys were ok with it too.  Somehow, because VC is so close to home, it allowed us all to relax.  Well, that, and also the fact that we were maybe ten skiers on the hill, including the five of us.

From the top of the hill you can see distant views to the northwest of the Catskills. But I was more interested in the views from mid-mountain and below. From those positions you couldn’t see a great distance, but you could enjoy the very small nook that contains Victor Constant Ski Area. It’s a treat.

The lodge is something else. X and I went in for a burger. After dinner I headed out, and I know X did some night skiing. I don’t think any of us made it until 9pm. Everyone had a good time.

Regarding my new project, on the blog I’m going to go all the way back to the beginning, and categorize every my first post for every New York mountain first post, from the beginning. This first phase will be limited to lift-served areas.

I like Time to Ski NY.  It can be interpreted as a directive, or maybe a quantifiable asset, the time itself. This is happening because I have the time. Maybe I’ll tag it on social too #TTSNY.