Hunter, NY: Easter 3/31/13

Ski day #13

So one great benefit of my family celebrating the Orthodox Easter is that it rarely falls on the western Easter, which apparently means no crowds and cheap lift tickets! Thought it was a perfect opportunity to hit Hunter for the first and probably only time this year. I usually avoid it because if the crowds and the prices, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity this time around!

The morning started off a bit on the firm side, but the day quickly warmed up and so did the snow. I first did warm-up laps on the Belt Parkway and then Kennedy. By 11, the upper mountain blacks were all in great shape with heavy spring corn, but we lacked the typical sun of a good spring day...

Sorry for the poor picture quality! I only had my phone...


Morning on the B lift..


Hellgate.


More Hellgate




Hellgate to Broadway under the 6-pack

At 11:30, I took a lesson with Lev in a last ditch effort to tighten up my technique and get my turns under more control. He typically does private lessons, but with the lack of crowds I got a private group lesson with him! After the lesson, the 6-pack was on temporary wind-hold, but without the hold I would have forgotten to eat!


Kids were all over the mountain today, but most were advanced and seemed to know what they were doing, even better than myself..


Jimmie Heuga to Eisenhower proved to be my favorite run of the day. Jimmie was less trafficed than the other routes from the top and despite the warm temps, it didn't bump up as much as Hellgate..


Jimmie


Eisenhower

Overall it was a really great spring day on the slopes. The coverage for this time of the year was remarkable, but I will be interested to see what they will be able to keep open for the weekend they plan for closing (April 13-14). But it was nice to get out and really enjoy Hunter and what it has to offer when the crowds aren't there..

Hunta has become a jewel, I spent much time at Pico in Vt. avoiding the Killington weekend crowds and I must say Hunter reminds me of the trails up at Pico, long and  fairly open  ,  steeps, Some real tough stuff if you're up for it.  the great thing about Hunter is it's so much closer to where I live, and now I can play hookey a day  a week and the weekdays are real good, but even the weekends aren't anything like the old days. Better Skiers , no more crazies than the average place, no smell of medical mj off the lifts, [those were the days my friend], with  Two High Speed Detachables the wait times are way down ,  The snowmaking at Hunter is amazing, Mother Nature helped out this year but Hunter is for my money the best all around place South of Gore.

i couldn't have said it better..Hunter is at the top of my list for areas south Vt or ADK's..
I started skiing at Hunter in 1977. 35yrs later it's better than ever.. I was 15 in 1977..

I usually hit Belle or Windham in the Cats because of all the intermediate terrain they offer. I only went to Hunter a handful of times before now because I only recently became confident enough to have fun on advanced trails and was really able to explore the whole mountain. Hunter is very limited in intermediate terrain as most of their mid-mountain blues are accessible by blacks or by a lift that only runs on their busiest days. I'll certainly invest in more time and money there in the coming seasons!

I think Hunter keeps the B lift going all the time and this services intermediate terrain, I would hope they put in more intermediate from the top to take away the pressure on Belt parkway which is one of the great intermediate trails in the East. I just don't know where they'd have the room to cut another intermediate trail from the top. But having given up Hunter many years ago I can say it has changed for the better and is the place to go in the Cats.

C lift (triple) services a ton of intermediate trails. IMHO everything but Racer's is intermediate that C services..

B only really serves two intermediates and C only serves beginner..Hunter 1 usually isn't open to the top other than peek weekends.  D is never open when I've been and that's the one that serves most of the mid-mountain blues..

Yikes...I meant "D" lift...

Yeah.. D is rarely open -_- Luckily I don't need it anymore lol

Tell the Slutsky's they do need another intermediate or two, and how bout blowing on Annapura, I know many skiers who swear they'd give up Vermont if Annapura was open more.

D is opened every weekend and is almost always ski-on..

 IMO they should blow Purna before they blow k27.
Purna is a special trail, and if they groomed once a week to keep the bumps from become unruly , what a run..

I agree Purna is also wide enough so that they can do like Outer Limits at Killington, groom part leave a part bumped, It has snowmaking capacity, and I know Hunter made money this year, come on Hunter take note, that lift on the back side is great and under utilized,