Belleayre Conditions

Belleayre, Hunter and Windham openings.  Plattekill targeting December 10:

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20161122/belleayre-hunter-windham-open-for-skiing-on-friday

Love Belle and pumped to hear about the opening, but will stick with Hunter for this weekend.

So originally it was just going to be the triple chair with Onteora, and the magic carpet open.  Now they've added a run off the double-double on the lower mountain, but it's not connected, so you have to walk across the parking lot to get between them.  Still, any additional open terrain can only be viewed as a plus.  Next on the snowmaking agenda should be connecting upper and lower via the Superchief.

It is a little late, but conditions were good on Saturday 11-26.  I skied two hours and called it quits after that.  From the top, the snow was in good condition.  From the mid station down, there were smaller bumps building up.  The green trail was also in fine condition (with no bumps at all).  You did have to walk five minutes between the two open trails as sno mentioned.  

A nice bonus was that it snowed an inch or two.  It is a great feeling to get out for the first time and arrive to snow flakes coming down.

I saw that the snow report says they will be closing until Friday.  

Doesn't make sense to open during a r*in event when no one will show up anyways.  Hunter and Windham will close too.

Some cold will come during next week and hopefully they expand terrain.  I'm guessing they try to connect upper and lower next.

Lookin like a nice day up here. I'm in my normal yellow jacket if anybody wants to say hello

My dad is there today.

Nice.  Looking at the cam it looks like they are blowing all over the place!  This will be our home mountain this year.  I've got day 1 down, but I probably won't get many days until Xmas.  I am excited to take the kids there this year.  Almost 6 and 3 . . . .   It should be a good season for them : )

They appear to be trying to bring the HSQ online this weekend.  They were testing it on the webcam today.  They haven't started snowmaking down there yet, but the guns are all set up, and since the terrain is flat, it takes minimal snow to cover.  It will be good to get the upper and lower mountain connected.

Hopefully they can get Upper and Lower mtn connected by weekend, and also keeping my fingers crossed that the forecast comes true.



Tickets bought, I'll be there Sunday if anyone wants to do a few laps.

Webcam this morning shows a full assault of snowmaking on the run down to the HSQ.  They also appear to be trying to open top to bottom intermediate runs off that lift.  Right now, the only intermediate terrain is off the Lift 7 mid station, and that's not a very long run.

I saw that too. I asked on their Facebook page last night when they plan on getting the Super Chief running and they said "Next Weekend, no promises", and confirmed they meant the weekend of the 17th, so who knows.

I know the long term build out plans have Belleayre building a new pump house/compressor station as apart of the expansion, but man I hope they do something sooner. Hunter will have had a top to bottom full run with the HS6pack for nearly a month longer than Belleayre getting the Super Chief online.

I hope they get Tomahawk open in the week following.  It's my favorite lift there, and never has a line.  Will help spread out crowds for the holidays.  I'll be skiing at Belleayre during my winter break, and I want to ski that lift.

Its definitely possible looking at the long term forecast. I can't remember if they have had Tomahawk open by Christmas since ORDA took it over, but thats a matter of Decembers being really tough the last number of years (even in the 13/14, 14/15 winters).

Plenty of years in the past Tomahawk has been open well before. I remember a new years eve that was just amazing about 5 years ago on that side of the mountain.

With regard to the Superchief opening late, remember that its unusual location means that it takes a hell of a lot of snow to get everything connected.  Takes more like 3 trails worth of snow to connect it to the mid lodge and base.  I also don't think they want to spin the Superchief till Roaring Brook is open.  It doesn't have a mid station and they don't want low intermediates from the lower mountain jumping on it and not knowing how to ski from the top.

I normally use that lift to take laps on anything Belleayre Run and skier's right.  Otherwise, you're better off taking the triple.  It is the only lift at Belleayre that lines up since it's the only way from lower to upper mountain.

Totally understand why they haven't yet. It was more an observation in comparison to Hunter and what its snow making capacity can do. Unfortunately Belleayre, while its made a lot of progress compared to where it was a few years, is woefully behind.

Definitely surprised how much progress Hunter has made lately.  I thought Peak Resorts would be limiting their snowmaking due to being in debt so much.

I think Belleayre will achieve sno-approved terrain expansion and open all lifts by Christmas.

Hey SalSal - I will be up Sunday solo for at least some period of time.  My wife is getting a bootfitting at about 8 am at Pro Ski and Ride (great Master bootfitter), so I am planning to head to Belle after that for the few hours it takes to get it done.  

How do we get in touch?

snoloco wrote

 I think Belleayre will achieve sno-approved terrain expansion and open all lifts by Christmas.

Hehehehe.

.....and by the way,,,,, you seem to be spending a whole lot of time scouring mtn websites all over and incessantly pouring over the net researching skiing too much !

You best not be neglecting your school work une " bigger-than-Scotty " homme ! Not even in the least little bit