Belleayre: 1/4/14

This should have been a Plattekill trip report. Last week I was eyeing some deals on Liftopia. With the recent storm just a forecast, and Plattekill's trail count extremely limited at the time, I opted to buy tickets to Belleayre in case the storm underdelivered. Of course, the storm did anything but. I was locked in.

My expectations were low when I arrived at Belleayre to full parking lots, and long lines everywhere. This was only my second time skiing Belleayre, and I can't imagine the hill gets much busier than it was that day. A Saturday? During a holiday week? After a snowfall in the flatlands? What was I thinking?

Any frustrations I had quickly faded as I got to skiing. Conditions were overall very pleasant--particularly on the natural runs. Skier's right of Upper Yahoo was a mostly natural base and was memorable. I had some great runs down Utsayantha early in the day before it started to get scraped down to the dirt.


Utsayantha later in the day.


I have to give Belleayre credit for not grooming the place silly after the storm. Most places would have done much more extensive grooming during a peak period. While I expect to see the double diamond terrain left untouched, it was nice to see intermediate runs such as Esopus un-groomed since the storm. Other skiers didn't seem to appreciate the ungroomed slopes, and I could see them struggling....hear them grumbling. But it made the normally boring terrain below the steeper pitches enjoyable.


Cruising on Algonquin.


Seeing some of the other trip reports from Plattekill, I still wish I had gone there instead. I would have avoided the crowds, and gotten more sustained steeps on an all natural base. Plus I want to support Plattekill. With that said, it was still a great day of skiing at Belleayre. I'm just glad I got out to enjoy a beautiful day in the Catskills.

Looks pretty good to me!

Did you take some laps off of Tomahawk? Any more pics? Really nice report.

I took a couple laps off of the Tomahawk lift having skied Dot Nebel and Seneca. I would have taken a few more runs over there. However, the line was longer than I cared for, and it was a bit unruly over there. Lift 7 had the shortest and best managed lines from my experience. I guess I have an aversion to crowds and lines!

No more pics worth posting. Too busy skiing. Glad you enjoyed the report.