A Walk in the Woods at Plattekill

Thirteen years ago, a noted New York skier, a friend of mine, came up with the idea of recruiting lopper-wielding powderhounds to trim tree lines at Plattekill. He asked me to promote it and recruit volunteers on NYSkiBlog, and I agreed.

We had a crew of ten volunteers that first year, and the numbers have grown. Now it seems we can count on 40 to 50 volunteers each year. I believe it’s really the right amount allowing us to split up into groups and spread out.

In my years of writing about Plattekill and promoting the work day, this is my first time contributing with loppers. My landscaping skills are limited compared to some others, but on the upside my enthusiasm runs high.

My first trip to Plattekill was in February 2010 and yet this was my first time on the hill without any snow on the ground. I’ve never had a bad day at Plattekill, and I had no reason to believe this day would be any different.

With my wife and 17 year-old daughter visiting SUNY Stony Brook University for the weekend, it seemed like a good time to drive north and experience the day first hand. Ski season is loaded with early morning starts, and I can’t actually say I love them, but they are exciting. This drive had that same feeling.

I packed up the night before, went to bed as early as I could. I used my regular ski day Plattekill alarm, set for 3:45am, designed to get me to the hill an hour before lifts spin. I didn’t see any reason to change it up for my first work day. I could have given myself an extra fifteen minutes to sleep by using my Belleayre alarm, but somehow that just didn’t seem right.

The stakes were somewhat lower than a ski day, and the drive a bit more relaxed then it is during the season. I arrived at the hill on a beautiful fall morning, with colors that were nearly done, but somehow brilliant at the same time.

In the years the event has been held, the workday has had three leaders. ML was the original. He imagined it, cleared it with Laszlo and made it happen for the first two or three years. After he moved north of the border, Jeff Crane, head of Plattekill’s Ski School lead the effort for another handful of years. Finally, now, the current head of the ski school is Roman, and he’s another great leader for the workday.

We listened to Laszlo’s safety talk, and then headed out to the double chair.  Roughly translated, the rules were don’t get hurt, cut close to ground, and be back down at the lodge for ziti at 12:30. The morning had been forecast as partly sunny, and there was some sun for a while, but you could see clouds coming in. The wind started to blow, and on the lift I regretted leaving my fleece in the car. My regret was short lived, as soon as we got into the woods and started working, we were more than warm. The weather was actually perfect for the task at hand.

Earlier in the week, I’d spoken to Roman about what he wanted to work on, and we were on the same page.  I’m all about the low-angle terrain. You can ski it more often. I just want to float. I don’t care how fast I go, as long as I can keep moving when it is deep.

It actually worked quite well, somewhat naturally. People paired up with their ski partners and picked lines they want to ski. I connected up with Roman, Dean, Brownski, Dom and Noah, Steve and Mike from Mt Peter. We were all loppers and saws, without any motorized tools.

I had both a saw and loppers, which only really works if your saw folds up for pocket carrying. I basically ended up as a lopper guy.  Mine weren’t super sharp, but I made a lot of cuts. Apparently, I do this thing where I cut whippers and small trees in pieces from the top down, while they are standing, and work my way down to the ground or the point where it’s thicker than I can cut. Branches that lie flat are easier to ski and get broken down and re-absorbed into the earth faster. The guys humored me.

We went far from the lift looking for gradual terrain. We dropped in, widening an entrance, and creating another. The first few hundred feet needed a lot of attention.  Then we came to a wide open zone with dozen lines that had been cleared and skied for several years. Farther down, we went left where most skiers continue down the fall line. Dean is one of the guys I’ll be following into the trees, so I cut whatever he asked.

It was now fully cloudy, but we were grateful for it. It was warm, in the lower sixties by midday and in the trees there was little breeze. We were all working up a sweat, especially on the steeper sections.

Following our progress downhill, but closer to the lift, was another crew with a chainsaw. Because we could hear them, we were able to keep from migrating toward the lines they were cleaning up.

We probably burned most of an hour cutting some big downed logs by hand. If we’d had a chainsaw we surely would have gotten more done.  Honestly I didn’t mind the big cuts. We rotated so nobody’s arm took the full beating.  We broke up several rotted and loose stumps, at times rolling them downhill looking to drop them into any depressions we could find.

A bit behind schedule we popped back out onto the trail and headed down the hill to enjoy Roxbury’s finest ziti. Our group was the last to show up.  I had our dog Penny with me, I gave her lunch and a walk around the yard, and then grabbed my lunch.

There were dozens of people to connect with, and not much time. (I finally met NYSkiBlog author Steve Aaron*, who took all the best shots in this piece.) Soon enough we were back up top looking for another option. In the morning we worked on the upper half of the mountain, and in the afternoon we looked for something farther down.

I was tired by lunchtime, and to be honest I wasn’t sure how much I could contribute in the afternoon. I gave it my best, and was actually surprised when it was 4pm, the afternoon went pretty quickly. It’s funny I generally don’t like walking downhill, but after thrashing in the woods all day walking a ski trail was really nice.

We gathered to toast the day with a Kona Big Wave, probably the best beer I’ve ever had from a can. Laz and Danielle gave out lift ticket vouchers for the upcoming season, at their most excellent ski hill, in the Western Catskills.   See you in the trees.

---

*Steve Aaron is an avid skier, hiker, cyclist and photographer, always armed with a camera. Steve’s landscape photos have appeared in Backpacker Magazine, Hudson Valley Magazine, NY Newsday and the Albany Times Union. His work is also featured in pieces for Ulster County Tourism, Scenic Hudson, The Trust for Public Land and other outdoor oriented organizations. Every August, Steve publishes a wall calendar featuring beautiful landscape images from the Catskills and Shawangunks. For more information on the calendar, join Steve’s mailing list.