Hunter Conditions

Skied Hunter Monday and today..
Monday was much better, today was very busy and very fast , almost icy..typical Hunta day..

Skied Hunter today. Snow was nice and smooth/soft all day. Skied a lot on Belt Parkway, Way Out, Overlook, and Rip’s Return. Overlook was still nice at 3pm, which is awesome for a diamond on the East Coast. They have been blowing a ton of snow out there because the surrounding areas are totally bare, but there’s great coverage on the mountain. Hunter North/West offered some challenging terrain, with nice snow, and no crowds.

1-12-20 We skied Hunter in the afternoon only. AM weather looked too wet and windy to bother waking up early, but the sun was scheduled to shine noon to 4pm, and it did! My usual trail Belt Parkway was in awful shape. It was in the shade and icy, wet, and essentially treacherous. Hated it. Also heard that White Cloud was nasty so we avoided it.  Luckily I was meeting a new friend from Ski Diva Forums and she knew the mountain very well. She took us to Minya Konka, which was warm, sunny, 58F, and the snow was awesome. We skied all the diamonds on the south face of the upper mountain and it was a spectacular day! I even enjoyed the soft moguls, which normally I avoid. Yes there was thin cover in some areas, and bare spots, but it was still an awesome day. There were also no significant lift lines off F lift at all. Minya Konka, Hellgate, Upper K27, East Side Drive, Lower Crossover, and Milky Way were all amazing!

Hunter pretty decent today.  Much better than expected. Firmish but no ice.

Skiing with Scottski on his birthday.

Thanks for the update Harvey. I am eyeing Hunter for this Friday or Monday. They seem to be resurfacing more aggressively than Mt Snow.

NYSnowflake wrote

Thanks for the update Harvey. I am eyeing Hunter for this Friday or Monday. They seem to be resurfacing more aggressively than Mt Snow.

Say what you want about Hunter- they make snow and groom as good as just about any mountain. No disputing that.

Skied the Cats this weekend for the first time in at least 10 years.  Coming back as a much stronger and more experienced skier it was interesting to see it from a different perspective.  I skied Belle on Saturday but DomB's post pretty much sums it up, although I didn't think the snow conditions were that bad all things considering.

Coming from Belle the day before, and having been mostly a Windham skier as a kid, I forgot how big and steep Hunter is.  It's a real mountain.  That being said there's virtually no natural snow anywhere to be found in the Cats, but I have to give credit to both Hunter and Belle for how much coverage they've blown.

Conditions at Hunter were icy as I expected, but with a few pleasant surprises.  Other than the Kaatskill Flyer there were hardly any lift lines.  I tried to stay away from some of the main thoroughfares as they were just too crowded with too many out of control yahoos.   Upper K-27 to Milky Way was the ROTD for me as they had nice moguls but were surprisingly soft and edge-able - something I don't get at Gore without natural snow in the glades.  I did Claire's Way a few times which had fun whales and moguls on it, but it was extremely icy.  Other stand outs were Racer's Edge and Lower Broadway when they opened it late in the day after racing.  

One weird thing about Hunter - I guess if you want to sit at a bar AND order food you have to go to the new Hotel?

All in all it reminded me that you can save 4 hours of extra driving to the Daks or VT and still get some decent skiing in, especially when it's all hardpack up there as well.  Would I maybe get a Vail pass instead of an Ikon pass next year to have Hunter on it?  Doubtful, but I'll probably be back sooner than 10 years from now.

Thanks for the update. Heading to Hunter in the AM.

TheGreatAbyss wrote

There's virtually no natural snow anywhere to be found in the Cats

Plattekill was 100% open today with about 70% of terrain open on natural snow. A bit thin in the trees but people were dipping in.

I had thought about heading to Plattekill but I didn't see your post until after I had already pre purchased my Hunter ticket

I had also checked Platekill's website and it showed about half of the trails closed, but maybe I wasn't reading it right.   I'll be sure to check it out one day.

Harvey wrote

Plattekill was 100% open today with about 70% of terrain open on natural snow. A bit thin in the trees but people were dipping in.

No you read it correctly. Really I misspoke. Only half was listed as open, the trails that have had snowmaking.

Honestly I wasn't sure how much would be in play before I got there.  I only asked Chris one question by text: are people skiing Ridge Run? If the answer is no it means only snowmaking terrain is in play.
 
That kind of skiing is not for everyone. The guys I skied with yesterday skied almost exclusively on natural snow.

Harvey wrote

With experience at Plattekill you eventually learn that if you ski closed terrain, you are a bad person.

Until someone breaks his leg and says "the guy on the internet said that they expect you to ski closed terrain."

Thanks for the intel.  

I've been known to duck a rope or two at Gore, however it's a mountain I know and can usually sense when something will be skiable.  I know the issue is usually the one 70 year old working patrol midweek just doesn't feel like opening it.

If I knew I was meeting up with some people who know Platekill id be more inclined to do that, but if I'm going to buy a lift ticket the day before for a mountain I don't know I'm going to assume what is listed as open is what I'll be skiing.  Perhaps next skiblog Platty day I can meet up with some of the regs here

One edit to my earlier post.  Hunter has almost no natural snow on the ground but Belle actually did have a little.  Perhaps being father West in the cats helps

Fixed it for you lawyer boy.

The key is really knowing what's underneath, grass vs rocks.  At Plattekill, I'm still learning, and of course, following Chris.

Sorry for the thread drift.

Experience, my dear boys, experience.

But, as someone once said..."I ski Plattekill, every pair of skis are rock skis."

The biggest issues of opening trails with marginal snow, isn't skiing them, mostly only experts are ducking ropes, it's patrol having to get someone down in a sled. That ain't easy with rocks, sticks and brush sticking up.

Today was a tale of two mountains. The top winter with blowing snow and the bottom rain with glue like snow. There were no people on the west side at all.

Claire’s way

k27

scottski63 wrote

There were no people on the west side at all.

Apparently!

What elevation was the transition?

Thanks for the pics man.

Hunter skied well today until it didn't..
up until around 11 everything was like velvet , Ike and racers had a nice coating of man made..Then the place turned into a piece of marble..Parts of the mountain were like a nicely polished bowling ball..