Hunter Conditions (2011-2012)

From Hunter this morning:

"Start of snowmaking still has not been determined.  Thanksgiving hasn't been ruled out. First priorities will be HBK and Belt."

"Current weather forecasts are hinting towards a cool down starting around the 29th or 30th of November. There is really no feasible snowmaking window before that time, based on current forecasts. Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned for updates."

Hunter is blowing tonight.

Hunter went overnight last night, and will be hammering it at every possible moment going forward.

Speculation: They'll open next weekend, but temps dropping again on Tues, wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of soft opening earlier.

Hunter's progress as of yesterday...

cool pic

Hunter's Base Cam

Hunter reported 7" at the base and "significantly more" at the summit.

Snowmaking in progress at midmountain and above.

From Hunter:

"We would like to let you know that due to recent snowfall and decent nighttime temps for snowmaking, we will be opening on Saturday!

At this point it is looking like we will use the Flyer to up/download for F-Lift, so we will at the very least be open mid- to summit. If we get some really good temps and make a lot of snow, we will obviously open top to bottom. We will do whatever Mother Nature allows, so things may change between now and Saturday in terms of open terrain. We are *hoping* to have Hellgate-Broadway-Kennedy (otherwise known as HBK or Mainline) top-to-bottom open for Sunday, and the nighttime temps look good.

We'll have pricing up on our website tomorrow, and we'll have some info from Bruce as snowmaking continues to spread out. We're also planning on getting a trail open around C-Lift so some Hunter One terrain will be available for Sunday.

Again, terrain availability is based on snowmaking and temperatures, but we will be open on Saturday... you can count on that."

Update from Hunter:

"Tonight we are resurfacing. We will have Grand Concourse, Cliff and Bleecker back tomorrow. Snowtubing is going to open at 11am tomorrow, too.
 
Nighttime temps (in the teens) look AWESOME all the way through Wednesday, at least. We are making snow at maximum capacity.  By mid-week we could see another 10 trails open up.
 
Conditions will get progressively better through the holidays. Daytime and nighttime temperatures more strongly resemble winter and after we resurface tonight we’ll start spreading out. The timing for cold nights is ideal and Christmas week is looking good."

Spring skiing in January!

With temperatures easily hitting 50 in the valley, surfaces were nice and soft all over the mountain-- even quite slushy in spots. The snowmaking base was noticeably thin on many trails with dirt starting to show through.

I spent the latter half of the day lapping the Zephyr Express in order to escape the long lines on the frontside.  Claire's was a highlight for me.

I was at Hunter too..Real pleasant skiing. I hit the West Side too early and it was slick as hell. I lapped the triple to the race course all day..

I was told that the West Side was slick early on, so I avoided skiing over there until the afternoon. Spent much of the morning lapping the F lift.

Hunter 2/4/2012

After a week of above to way above normal temps, I had low expectations about today's possible conditions.

Boy was I wrong. Hunter rocked, from opening bell to around noon.  Super soft groomers with hardly any ice to be found. All runs skied well including the West Side. After lunch large mounds of sugar were forming and became a challenge with small waist  GS skis.

It was crowded , but lift lines were more than manageable.

3.2.12

Hunter skied well this morning.. Chopped POW everywhere.
Still good coverage.  

I'm heading up there tomorrow, hopefully the rain will leave a nice surface...

Cool - My band is playing the lodge and then a bar across the street so no riding.  Love riding in the rain but not before 5 hours of drumming... :)

But I'm heading back out now.

dmc_hunter wrote

 before 5 hours of drumming... :)

 

You're a drumming STUD!!! RAWK on D....i've been trying to figure out a way to get over there sat night to watch you guys jam....just don't think i can pull it off, damdam

Sunshine, deep snow, warm temps and light crowds..perfect day

glen plake is in the building.

Very cool.

This from Jess:

"You can tell everyone that Hunter's offering 50% off lift tickets until the end of the season, to other mountain season passholders. Show your '11/12 season pass in Snowsports Services and get 50% off your lift ticket any day starting this Saturday 3/14."