Hunter Mtn - 3/7/2012

My favorite time of year has arrived. Skiing powder is the Holy Grail but like the Holy Grail I never find it. Spring skiing always shows up. Today was sunny with temps in the mid to upper 50s with a good breeze in spots to cool you down. I saw a lot of people in sweaters, short sleeves, sunglasses, no helmets, and even short pants. Skiing in beach weather is always awesome. Hunter still has great coverage on all the open trails. Racers and Eisenhower were great lower mountain choices today.


Eisenhower and Racer's from the HS6


Close up of Racer's


Belt Parkway

Before lunch the conditions were smooth and creamy.


Hellgate

Clair's Way and Way Out were the only choices on Hunter West. I cannot remember a season were Annapurna did not open. There were some tracks skiers left on Westway (also closed).


Clair's Way


Lunch alfresco

After lunch the snow was turning into mashed potatoes. Certain parts of the trails became very grabby.
There was no grabbiness on the bumps. I headed back over to K27.


Top of K27


Bottom of K27

K27 and Upper Crossover were loads of fun.


Upper Crossover


Broadway


Z Lift Double - top of Hunter West

Throughout the day I crossed paths with various members of an unorganized Tele Mob. It was fun to ski and ride the lifts them.


Tele Mob on Upper Crossover


Friendly Neighborhood Telemob


Base from the top of Eisenhower

The long shadows and my rubber legs were the signals for me to head home. As best as I can figure this is my 40th year of skiing at Hunter. Spring skiing at Hunter Mountain always lives up to my high expectations. Hopefully I will be back to Hunter soon.  

Hunter was great this past Saturday too...
 

Heading there tomorrow, looks awesome.

Eugene Guana was at Hunter yesterday too with a coupla other Greek Peakers. He said it was sweet.

You make a really good point. The snow always eventually melts, and even if it melts fast, most skiers should be able to squeeze in a day or two of deluxe skiing. Been hearing from people that I'm not missing much with my injury, but I can't stop thinking that I'm missing the one part of the season you can always rely on.

As soon as I saw the forecast for Wednesday last weekend I was thinking... I bet X has his eye on Hunter.

Nice, nice pictures. Thanks for posting.

Great report!

I was also at Hunter yesterday. It was bittersweet because while the hill was skiing good yesterday, it was clear that winter is over-- especially in the Catskills. The snowpack is just going to go down from here. Not having logged any high quality, mid-winter ski days in the northeast this year, I guess I am not ready for spring.

This was my first time skiing Hunter on a weekday, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The speedy lifts and minimal lines allowed me to rack up some serious vertical. I tried to ski hard all day, but by 2pm my legs were shot. I definitely need to improve my level of fitness for next season.

I worked the east side of the mountain all morning. I mostly stuck to some variation of K27, Crossover and Cliff/Racers.  


Upper Crossover



K-27 viewed from the base of the closed F lift



The Cliff


While I was enjoying the bumps on K-27 and Crossover, the snow had turned to slush on the flats below making them more of a chore to lap in the latter half of the day. I moved over to the west side, and while things were scratchy at first the warm temps softened Clair's up nicely.

I cleared my calendar for a couple hours yesterday for turns..
How could I not!?!?!

Awesome day - great turns.
Guilty pleasure because I know it's not going to last...

Awesome day today. Corned up nicely on the main slopes. DMC, I'd really like to take a few runs with you sometime. Maybe there's still time this year.

They're set for a few weeks but it does look like winter is over.

That said, look for another 18" at Plattekill as soon as we're down to grass everywhere except Tux.