Hunter Conditions (2013-2014)

JP wrote

Still no Annapura , come on guys , for Irv and Orville.

They are the snowmaking capital of the world, they must blow all their trails in order to live up to that.

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It was a great day in the sunshine.  I even found a tiny bit of untracked snow

Friday the 18th was surprisingly good. Hunter had two days of rain in the previous week. Temps and humidity weren't conducive to snow making except for a short period late Thursday into Friday morning. Yet the conditions were fine if alittle slick. Actually better than the report which indicated 'frozen granular' which to me means ice. There was some but almost every trail was  better than ok. Stayed off of Clairs as the word was that it was icy, and didn't want to test the steep with the ice, The conditions were helped by the sparse crowd, left around 1pm after a good day so can't attest to the afternoon. Actually, now. as I look out on the snow showers in Jersey, if this is replicated in the Cats Hunter et al should have good conditions for the holiday weekend.

Sunday MLK fresh powder 2-4 inches, way too crowded to last, by 12:30 icy and still crowded. Hunter made some bucks this weekend that's good, but the only good skiing was pushed away by 11:30, too bad, but my next hookey day is Thursday the 30th, usually the weekdays are primo

Westway/44 is now open

Link

how was it ? [Westway] going up Thursday

2 feet of sierra cement. it was wind blown and heavy. very crowded for a friday.
not a good fresh powder day but a fun bump day.

ML posted from the day at Hunter. Looked pretty sweet from here:


Westway photo by ml242

Nice pic scottski!


Video by AB

Today skied like 2 different days.  Started out with howling winds that meant no F-Lift, no 6-pack, no D-Lift, and no Zephyr.  Only B-Lift, C-Lift, and E-Lift were open.  Conditions were horrible with windblown snow and boilerplate.  Also you got stuck in multiple areas on the trail because of the crazy wind gusts.  You almost couldn't get off the B-Lift for the same reason.  My dad and I thought about bailing and going to Creek, but we stayed.  We were rewarded later.  The D-Lift came online at about 10:00 and then the 6-pack and Zephyr came online at about 10:30.  Unfortunately, F-Lift never came online although they didn't need it anyway.

After lunch the wind died down considerably and the 6-pack was sped up to full speed.  Many of the crowds left because they thought that nothing would open.  They were handing out vouchers earlier for people to come back another day.  There were awesome spring conditions for the entire afternoon and minimal lift lines at the 6-pack.  My dad and I took run after run for most of the afternoon top to bottom on the east side trails.  For icing on the cake, they ran the 6-pack till 4:30, so we got a couple extra runs.  I will chose to remember the good from this day rather than the bad.  This proves my theory that you should wait out any issues at ski areas because they will most likely be fixed, such as the lifts opening up later in the morning after some people gave up.

What's the prognosis for this weekend?

Looks like the base is holding up pretty well at Hunter.


Photo "courtesy" of DMC

Hunter is skiing great  The snow is deep. Bumps are good. It will be a good spring hike season

mountain is holding up well

It was a beautiful morning for a walk with the dog. It's a shame the mountain wasn't open. Corn for Easter breakfast.

Easter corn was good indeed.

Fantastic pics guys thanks. Amazing depth.  Love the doggies too.

Wish I could have been there riding the flyer