Belleayre Conditions

Head South instead of North for a rare weekend in the Catskills.  Wanted to do some firetower hikes but due to local reports on seasonal road closures headed to the Overlook trail (road) to that tower. Fantastic day Saturday and a good choice.  About 200 people passed, oh yeah this is not the off track ADKs anymore.  We were the only 2 on the trail w/ micros and wow did we need them.  198 people looking at us like wow these guys suck, not falling on the ice! I guess that makes us the 1%.  Cool.

Anyway, back on thread, after an awesome stay at The Roxbury and dinner at Chappie's (or Cassie's) pulled into Bell about 9am on a rainy Easter. Expecting quiet, but not this quiet.  Based on the feedback, just hit the base lodge and parked by 20 cars in the close upper lot C.   Was the second group at the tables in the Discovery lodge.  No one, no one, on or near the Gondi at 915.  Walk on no one in sight.  

Some rain, some snow, a bit (barely) of wind, lots of fog, did I say no people?  Oh - 10am the Tomahawk Lift had 7 cars.  11am 7 cars.  12 8 cars.  1pm got busy, 10 cars.  Would park here on a normal weekend.

Really wanted to try Plattikill but Bell is free w/ Ski3.   A good day, a very good day. I suck at pix but bottom line they have much better coverage than Gore.  Only grass (a small patch) on the upper pitch of the race trail.  All lifts running except a duplicate at the base.  No lines.  think rode up with one other person, twice, on Gondi.  Tons of gapers.  

Oh conditions, firm but carveable all over upper half.  Great job grooming.  Bottom half soft, not slush.  Conditions same all day, maybe firmed up a bit.  Low 40s in the morning, high 30s early afternoon. Bumps runs never softened but the runs off the ridge (like race trail, Algonquin, rinse repeat others) all very fun.

You know what? That Gondi is not a bad idea. It worked today.  Especially when the sky was spitting crap.  The bridge worked too.   Would we be back? Not during a busy period, but end of season, good for a change. Yes we are spoiled at Gore and WF but when have the mt almost alone, it worked.  

Conditions great at Belleayre right now. Snowing like crazy.

Given the forecast for early sunshine followed by increasing clouds, I drove up early and was on the lift a little after 8:30. When I first arrived, it was 20F, when I took this pic an hour later it was 23, and we reached a high of 26 -- on April 8!!



First impressions while skiing off the Super Chief on the looker's left was that they got half of the previous day's reported 13 inches. The upper pitches were scratchier than expected; the blue pitches were nice and soft; very little new snow in the woods.



There seemed to be more accumulation on the Tomahawk side of things and I found a bunch of calf-deep spots so that's apparently where the measurement is taken? Sorry for no interesting pix, I was solo and even though Belle had a good turnout (the Overlook Lodge parking lot was full), all lifts were ski-on and the interior trails were deserted, especially those near Lift 7, which didn't need to be run.



I'd originally planned to finish at 1:30 pm but when you know that it's your final turns of the season and the conditions are so soft, I kept having to do one more run and finally called it a day at 2:15. I've said it before and I'll say it again; I love those upper Tomahawk trails Seneca, Algonquin, Esopus, Peekamoose, Pepacton. As everyone has noted, they're absolutely identical (single-black pitch up top, easy blue after mid-station), but they roll so nicely through the trees (similar to Ridge Run at Plattekill) and always put me in this Catskills Zen state of mind. I've been known to ski them repeatedly for two hours at a time -- if only they were twice as long.


Funny that no one has bothered to scrape off these stickers from the Tomahawk lift towers -- Tony has his fans!



And with that, I'm done for the season: 26 days

Belleayre skied well today.  Bluebird day, no wind, full op, nobody there and untracked powder stashes if you knew where to look. The temps stayed cool.  The conditions started out as mid winter packed powder and gradually started to turn to corn by days end.   Had a great time hanging with some of the lifties and locals on the deck.  There is still plenty of snow there

I checked the web cams today and my god they have excellent coverage still. It looks like they could have run either the Gondola or Super Chief without any issue, the base of the trails leading to them looked pretty deep.

I have to image most of the main upper trails were in great shape. Saturday and Sunday look gorgeous in the Catskills, it's to bad we couldn't get one more weekend (or probably two) but I understand the economics of it.

It would be cool if they arranged for a bus to take their passholders up to the big hill.  Get centerplate to kick in a few bucks to help with cost.  

This morning...

Belle uses avalanche dogs.....who knew?

<nabble_img src="BAB3C0B1-9FB2-42EE-A5A8-61A6B1BEB8CE.jpeg" border="0<nabble_img src="34024E11-C3A5-44DD-91AC-A7981F598CE3.jpeg" border="0"/>"/>.      Big thanks to moguljunky for luring me out to Ski this morning.

Freshies on May 1.....wow!

Great job guys. I’m pretty jealous.

Anyone know the backstory?

http://www.catskillmountainnews.com/news/2018-07-18/Front_Page/Joe_Kelly_stepping_down_from_ORDA_Board_post.html

Belleayre opening on Saturday

Just Deer Run,snow really nice compared to early season  most  years.Lots of poachable stuff all over. Light crowd .Great to be out on Snow,

Skied on Friday at Bellayre now that it is included by default on the Gore/Whiteface pass. Snow conditions were excellent snow was soft and everything was edgeable. They had a about 1/2 there runs open with probably 8 or 9 runs open from the top. The weather was ok, around freezing but there was fog in the top 1/3 of the mountain most of the day.

Belleyre seems to be a good cruising mountain, not many bumps but a bunch of groomed trails which are steep at top and flatten out.

The high-speed quad and the gondola ran all day without issue (glad we did not go to Gore that day). Being accustomed to the Gore and Whiteface gondolas it is strange getting on to the one there since you don't need to step up to get on or step down to get off

Did anyone ski today? I am curious to know how the cover is holding up!

Skied  B today  heavy rain took some base away since I was here last, open trails had  complete coverage and traction could be found if you stayed out of the middle.
 Holiday skiers all skiing the Gondi side, Super chief, mid mountain lodge side place to be .

   Skied  Deer run  yesterday once for the views, this trail might now be the most dangerous  trail in the Cats. Human missiles and newbies  plowing down this trail.  Half of the days crowd on this one trail all at once. Skiing all the other trails , you think it was mid week on a non holiday Tuesday. Families  with little ones seemed to forget Boaring Brook or just ride the Thunder and don't want to skate across the top to it

I still can't grasp that people choose where to ski based on ski lifts. I go to ski not ride lifts.

Any updates intel on conditions? I am skiing a lot less this season but I may go this weekend so any info appreciated.  

Ps- I am having a blast at copper.  Did my first hike-to terrain in 40-60 mile winds - it was blast!   Though not so easy coming from 30 feet above sea level to hiking at 12,500.  Hope to post a trip report when I am back.  In the mean time, thanks to those who shared some great Copper intel.  

Best,
D