Hunter Mountain, NY: 12/11/11

So this early in the season it's tough to make the call where you'll be skiing even the morning of. But when I called Hunter Mountain's Snow Line, the 5th call finally got an update: "Today we will be skiing top to bottom on 6 trails, serviced by two lifts. Belt Parkway will open this morning." I was already passing Poughkeepsie on the NY State Thruway at that point. By then it had still been a tossup for me between Hunter and Windham, but choosing Windham would have meant skiing ungroomed, man-made snow which I'm sure my legs couldn't handle this early in the season.




First thing I did after gearing up and heading out, I asked the attendant if Belt was open, knowing darn well that I wasn't ready for Hellgate. He said they were still blowing snow, but yes, it was open. So off I went.



First run of the day I was following the snowmakers down the mountain as they were turning guns off for the day. And no, there wasn't a single track through the snow! And if you know Hunter's man-made powder, you know this was a treat.







A pair of snowboarders did finally pass me about half way down, which I had expected because I was stopping every few hundred feet to scrape off my goggles. I knew it was early season conditions so I didn't want to hit any bare spots I couldn't see...(I'll always be a cautious skier) First few runs skied wonderful and the top half of the mountain stayed packed powder up till I left at 1pm.

The bottom half was a different story..within a matter of I would say about 2 hours, all the powder had been scrapped away and it was pure hardpack with random holes and ice as one would expect in the early season. I never made it onto Hellgate because my legs were already killing me, but It seemed to have formed some solid bumps by noon..




(End of Belt scrapped down to bare minimum by late morning)


(Top of Belt, skied soft the whole time)

Overall, I'm glad I picked Hunter..The crowds only peaked for about an hour and the trails that were opened had pretty solid cover. I was upset that they never got D or B lifts running (on the site they had mentioned they would open D and an attendant had said B was a strong possibility too) because it really limited intermediate terrain.  Overhearing conversations about the previous day, I was very impressed the progress they made overnight...After one last non-stop run on Belt, which started to prove treacherous, I packed it up and hit the road a little after one, completely satisfied. I'm still, however, missing my ski-legs...Tomorrow's gunna hurt..

Nicely done! Crowds looked manageable and a blue sky to boot.

Nice looking report Jim.  Sorry we didn't run into you. Our day started in the dark, but by the time I met up with Harvey in Mahwah the sun was starting to coming up. We were at the mountain 90 minutes later, sometime around 8.

The weather was sunny and calm with the man made blizzard cranking on the lower mountain...



We had breakfast and headed out to the board the Flyer... it was great to be skiing again.




Groomers finishing up

Hunter was open top to bottom starting with Hellgate to Broadway to Kennedy Drive. Conditions were a packed powder over hardpack.


Right down Broadway

By the end of the morning Hellgate "headwall" was getting tougher to ski. Broadway to Kennedy was easier all day.

Eventually the Belt Parkway opened up and removed a lot of the crowding on Hellgate. The Belt had large sections of good snow mixed with uneven hard pack.


Belt Parkway





We stopped for lunch and sat outside and enjoyed the the sun...


Mmmm...turkey sandwich....

After we ate we spent most of our time on the Belt.  Kudos to Hunter Mtn and the snowmaking crew for having 2 top to bottom runs despite the warm weather.


Hunter crews start work on a lower mtn terrain park

I was right behind you guys then..i was passing through Mahwah around 6:30..would have gotten to the mountain earlier, but I'm guilty of a coffee stop at the Plattekill rest stop..

And thanks for clarifying the Belt conditions..."uneven hardpack" didn't come to mind! There were some really nice sections of it though towards the top, especially leading to and just after the turn..

Still kinda upset they didnt open D-lift..i would have loved to lap Broadway to Kennedy all day..probably would have stayed later.

I was there Saturday, skied half day. I found someone's keys in the middle of the slope. Turned them in at the lodge, hope they thought to ask. They were from NYC, had a Planet Fitness NYC pass on their key ring. They drove a VW with a Thule rack. Should have found their car and left a note on it, or I could have moved their car and really freaked them out. Na, I'm mean, but not that mean. Hopefully they learned to secure their keys better. Maybe they fell out of their jeans, or Starter jacket.

Great to ski with you Xman. Had a few extra pics I wanted to add...


The Darth Vader Sheraton

The summit of Hunter is quite a bit higher than the top of the lifts, and it's state land.  The whole mountain is huge bowl that Hunter skiers dream about it.  (The Slutzski's have tried to work out land swaps with NYS but it looks like it is not to be.)  Hunter has enough snowmaking capacity to handle that kind of expansion - maybe 80% of the capacity of Killington and 1/3 the terrain...


View toward the undeveloped summit of Hunter

This was my first chance to see where the zip runs... those zipliners are insane IMO...


The Ziplines


Xman on Broadway


View towards the backside of Windham

Does anyone know what these triplets are called...?


View from Hunter Summit

Not really crowded yesterday...




X



End of the day the steepest section of Hellgate was bulletproof. Hunter skiers have no fear. I stood at the headwall snapping pics as they just FLEW by.  One guy came up and said to me ... "taking pics of the ice?"  I said "No, just the recording the bravery of the regulars." and then mumbled "and postponing my own demise..."






Sheraton at day's end

those three peaks are the blackhead range. Black Dome, Thomas Cole, and Blackhead (not necessarily in that order).

i hiked blackhead and camped out at the end of November with a friend, my sleeping bag got completely soaked what a bad night that was!