Colin's Catskills Snow and Ski Report
I'll be providing a running commentary on ski and snow conditions in the Catskills, primarily at the regions three big resorts, Belleayre, Hunter and Windham, as well as spring, summer and fall activities like hiking and river tubing.
March 30, 2008 - Another beautiful spring skiing day, this time at Belleayre. I bought a half day lift ticket, and tho there were lots of cars in the parking lot, I managed about 15 runs in a little over 3 hours - not a lift line in site! Belleayre had done a good job of grooming the 36 runs, and while it got a bit slushy by the end of the day on the lower half of the mountain in the 40 degree sun, the top continued to be good throughout the afternoon. Favorite run: Peekamouse. Belleayre will be open for at least two weeks, while Windham will close after next weekend. No news on unter.
March 15, 2008 - We took a trip to New England for the week, and tried a day of skiing at Gunstock, one of the oldest resorts in New Hampshire. 4" of fresh snow on the slopes, but it was a wet snow, and the top of the mountain was completely socked in by a thick fog/cloud all day, which made for poor visibility. A few good runs, but most of the them flatten out in the middle, making for an inordinate amount of work to keep up a head of steam, especially with the slushy condition. Not too busy (comparable to Belleayre), but I have to say it doesn't measure up to any of the big three in the Catskills in terms of variety of terrain, length of runs, vertical drop, or overall experience.
March 11, 2008 - A nice day of skiing at Hunter Mountain - 40 degrees and sunny. The icy spots were softened up by mid day making for nice runs, although there were a few slushy spots by the end of the day, the top of the mountain stayed great - a good overall day. I was impressed with Hunter's grooming - much better conditions than I was expecting. Favorite run: Jimmy Huega's Expressway
December 13, 2007 - First Ski day of the season How often do you get to get fresh tracks in a foot of powder on your LAST run of the day? Well, that's what Niki and I got at Belleayre today! Of course, it was because we 'accidently' went down a 'closed' trail, but with a foot of fresh snow on all the trails, it didn't really matter. We only skied a half day, but what a half day. Only about 100 cars in the parking lot, and it snowed the whole time, with lots of powder everywhere. I'm sure there will be lots of runs open at Belleayre and the other resorts this weekend. A great day to break in our new skis (bought at the Potter Brothers Ski Swap, thank you very much), and a great first ski day of the season - looks like it's going to be a great one. Favorite run: Onondaga into Horseshoe Pass. Hint of the day: Buy a Belleayre frequent skier card: only $25 gets you $12 off weekend lift tickets or $14 off midweek tickets, and the fifth day is free!
Niki says: Man, I never thought there could be such a thing as TOO MUCH FRESH POWDER! But seriously, as the day went on I had some trouble keeping my balance when my skis cut UNDER five inches of it. And Colin exaggerates - there were only like 12 cars in the parking lot!! OK there may have been a few more up at the upper lodge, but we didn't see them. All we saw was the back tires of all the three SUVs who left when we did.
December 6, 2007 Great early skiing on all three big resorts. Belleayre is open on 15 runs and 5 lifts with a 12"-42" base from 20" of natural snow already (we didn't get that much until mid-January last year), and snowmaking everyday with more stuff opening all the time (snowmaking today on Dot Nebel - my favorite run!). Plattekill opens Dec 15. Windham has 14 trails and 3 lifts (12"-48" base), and Hunter's website is just a pain in the ass and doesn't seem to play nicely with internet explorer I bet they lose some business as a result. I'm going to try to get out skiing on my new skis next week for a firsthand report of at least Belleayre.
November 17, 2007 - Ski Season has begun! Less than 7 months after closing for the Spring, 6" of snow in the last couple of days has enabled Belleayre to open two runs (6"-18" base), and snowmaking proceeds apace on 5 runs, with more fresh powder falling, and nighttime temps cold enuf to make snow for the next week or so. Hunter and Windham are making snow, with hopes of opening Thanksgiving weekend. Think Snow, and remember our early season 20% discounts!
April 16, 2007 - Snow keeps on coming 16" of snow in the last 36 hours, and more falling! Boy, the folks at Hunter and Windham must be feeling pretty stupid right now - Belleayre is the only mountain open to take advantage of the big 'ides of April' Nor'easter, with 30+ runs open through at least Sunday, April 22 (update - it did indeed close on April 22). Why not take advantage of our spring discount rates? - 20% off all rental rates through June 21.
April 5 - Season's not over yet! 2" of new snow yesterday at Belleayre, with more forecast today, and show showers or snow forecast for every day throu Sunday. Belleayre is making snow again, and plans to be open through April 15! Windham is closed for the season, and Hunter is limping along (open through APril 8, ti says - they gave up making snow weeks ago).
March 22 - Glorious Ski Day! What a beautiful day! The showers held off, instead we had lots of sun and blue skies all day long. It was a nice warm spring day, and I started the day with no gloves or hat, and ended up skiing in a T-Shirt! The snow was good and deep to start the day, witha a 30-70" base and the whole mountain open. The sun took its toll, making the snow very soft by the end of the day. Black runs slowed down to blue, blue runs to green, and green runs became cross country trails, I got a great workout traversing in the slush. I think I got more sun today than Niki, who was in Fort Lauderdale this week! All in all, one of the most beautiful skiing days in the East I've ever had. Showers expected tonight, but it will refreeze Friday night, when it'll get down to 25, enuf to firm up the snow and allow Belleayre to make snow overnight, so this weekend should be excellent! Favorite runs of the day: Dot Nebel & Peekamoose. although I did enjoy the jumps on Area 51 today, as the soft snow slowed things down just enough to help me stay in control on the jumps.
Mar 17 - Spring Skiing Bonanza - Huge storm yesterday. 16" at Windham, 21" at Hunter, and a season-high 27" of fresh powder at Belleayre! With temperatures all week looking good for more snowmaking, this will be a spring skiing season to remember. Belleayre closed April 8th last year, but with the base being a good 20" deeper than last year this time - look for them to be open thru at least mid April this year. Looking forward to skiing some of this fresh white stuff on Wednesday. We've still got availability for next weekend and all of April, so ask about our spring skiing discounts, and book now!
Mar 6: Instead of skiing, we went for a hike on the Belleayre Cross-Country trails. Not too many folks have been skiing thru there recently, but not for lack of snow - we left lots of deep footprints on the powdery trail. We also went sledding in our backyard - we may try to get some video up soon. Sled at your own risk, tho, as the hill is steep, and there's a tree at the bottom of one of the 'runs' a previous rentor blazed. And watch out for that bump at the end, I caught some serious air! Belleayre continues to get more of the white stuff, and make more, too (unlike Hunter, which has quit making snow for the season - the cheapskates!). With the base as deep as it is, they are forcasting being open at Belleayre thru Mid-April, and every Friday from now until season;s end is a $15 Skier appreciation day!
Feb 22 - More fresh powder. 10" of the white stuff in the past 24 hours at Belleayre. Today's stats: Belleayre: 45 trails / 28-65" base / 10" new, Hunter: 46 trails / 20-80" base / 4" new, Windham: 46 trails / 18-60" base / 5" new. Another storm coming Sunday/Monday - stay tuned!
Feb 16 - Steve and I couldn't resist the combination of 18" of fresh snow and Skier Appreciation day at Belleayre ($15 lift tix) - it's a good reminder to check out the Belleayre site for the latest discounts - as they are many and often. Though clearly a fair amount of grooming had been done in anticipation of the holiday weekend, there was a good 6-8" of loose powder on top of a soft base of groomed powder most places on the mountain, with deeper powder to be found at the edges of almost every run (as Steve can attest, as he witnessed my faceplant in 2' of powder near the bottom of Tomahawk crossing). Speaking of, the new Superchief High Speed quad seems to be attracting big lift lines (like Hunter Mountain long), so now that the west side is open, I reccommend heading over to the Tomahawk lift for great terrain on negligible lift lines. Favorite runs of the day: Blue: Deer Run, and the tiny side train thru the woods that dumps you out on the bottom section of Dot Nebel. Black: Peekamoose
Feb 15 - BIG SNOW!!! - The Valentine's Day storm may have sucked for 1-800-flowers, but it's great for skiing! 18" at Belleayre, 26" at Hunter, 30" at Windham, and 36" at Plattekill, all in one day, will make for great skiing for the President's Day week and beyond. Cross-country trails at Belleayre are finally open, tubing runs are open at Plattekill, and all the resorts will be running at full capacity.
January 20, 2007 - WINTER IS FINALLY HERE! After more than a week of sub freezing highs and night and day snowmaking, plus a couple of minor snowfalls, the Catskills resorts are at their best of the season. More snow and cold on the way, so skiing should only get better next week and into February. Belleayre (14 runs, 6 lifts - packed powder and groomed powder 15"-35" base), Hunter (27 run, 9 lifts, 10"-50" base), Windham (25 runs, 9 lifts, 6-36" base), Plattekill (4 runs, 2 lifts, plus snowtubing).
December 29 - Holiday Snow report - Finally a bit of natural snow this week - Belleayre registered 2" Wed. Belleayre (12 runs & terrain park on 5 lifts including the new superchief, 12-30" base), Hunter (21 runs, 6 lifts, 0-40" base), Windham (14 runs 4 lifts, 16"-24" base) are all open. Plattekill has opened its beginner area and tubing as of today.
December 8 - Big Three all open - after a warm week last week, this week has been great for the snowmakers, with a little natural snow as well, so Belleayre (6 runs & terrain park on 3 lifts, 8-24" base), Hunter (6 runs, 2 lifts, 0-40" base), Windham (7 runs 3 lifts, 16"-24" base) are all open. Plattekill has delayed their opening until Dec 16. Lots of cold weather ahead, which means more snowmaking.
November 24, 2006 - Ski Season has begun! (well, sort of) The snowmakers have been working this week at Belleayre and Hunter to battle the rain and warm weather. Hunter opened yesterday, and as of today have two lifts and four trails open. Belleayre has a whopping one lift and one trail open (Onteora). With evening tems in the 20's this weekend, I'm sure we'll see more runs open. Windham may open tomorrow, and Plattekill is tentatively scheduled to open Dec 3. UPDATE (Nov 27): Belleayre 1 lift 2 runs plus rail park, Windham open 1 lift 2 runs, Hunter 2 lifts 4 runs.
Friday, September 23 - Another lovely bike ride up route 37 to the Greene County line. Some fall color starting to fill in - I'm guessing peak color in mid-October
Saturday, September 16 - fall is here. Lovely fall day for a bike ride up to old Lake Switzerland. Leaves are almost all still green, but we should see some color soon.
Saturday, April 15 - Hiking season starts. Less than a week after Belleayre closed it's ski season, it was 65 and sunny, which made for a great hiking day. Did a lovely round trip hike from Big Pond to Alder Lake and back, about 7 miles. We actually didn't quiter make it to Alder lake, as we got a late start, and didn't want to get caught by darkness, but it would have been about a 5 hour hike total - fairly strenuous, especially for us soft cityfolk. Beautiful scenery all the way, and both lakes were gorgeous.
Saturday March 18 - Belleayre Spring Skiing (Colin & John) We were both skeptical about the Belleayre website's claim of packed powder conditions, although there has been intermittant light snow showers from Lake Effect (That don't quite make it over the ridge to Hunter and Windham, it seems), and like Windham, they have been making snow all week. Boy were we wrong! Great conditions all over the top part of the mountain (we didn't really ski the bottom). Great coverage on all the runs, and there was still great snow at the end of a busy Saturday of skiing. With the next week forecast for continued cold weather, there's no reason why Belleayre can't continue to build on these great conditions with more snowmaking (plus the occasional lake effect snow shower), and the folks at Belleayre seem confident that they'll be open for another 4 weeks (UPDATE - they closed April 8). Special event today: the 12th annual Pine Hill Arms Triathalon - 2.5 mile ski, 10 mile mouintain bike, and 3 mile run - great weather for it, and the athletees were still celebrating at the post race party at 11pm. After a number of apres ski cocktails, we pledged to get in shape to participate next year. Favorite runs: Dot Nebel and Algonquin.
Friday March 17, 2006 - St. Patricks Day snow massacre. (Colin) Skied Hunter today. While the base at Hunter claimed to be deeper than at other resorts, the self proclaimed 'snowmaking capital of the world' certainly doesn't live up to it's billing in March, as they haven't made one flake since President's day week. Even on the runs that are open, there are orange signs pointing you away from huge swaths of grass and dirt. In the morning the runs were icy and fast. Late morning the granular snow softened up, and I did have some good runs on the top of the mountain. Only one run on Hunter West, to be avoided. Had a fairly spectacular spill on the moguls on The Cliff, which probably has less to do with the conditions than my inability to ski moguls, although the mogul I landed on was pretty solid (ouch). Note to self - only do moguls on a powdery day (or try them at Belleyare, where the mogul fields are less, err, vertical). Skiing Belleayre tomorrow, where they have been making snow 24/7 since Tuesday (as they have at Windham). John and I will report. Favorite runs: Belt Parkway and Hellgate.
