Plattekill 1/22/2011

Conditions: High of 12 deg, no wind, bluebird skys

So this weekend the Dew Tour hits Killinton, huge crowds media everything else. The tour is being held at bear mountain and there is no parking at Bear. As a result Killington has arranged for parking at a number of other spots and issued a map of these spots. I chose my own dew tour parking:



OK, the media coverage here wasn't as great, nor were the crowds, but we still had a great time. My wife and I woke up Saturday at 6am, checked the weather and saw that it was 5 degrees in Roxbury, was supposed to go to a high of 12. Hmm... a little cold, but we need our weekly fix and prepare to leave. At one point I did turn to my wife and said, "12 degrees, maybe we should put off skiing for this week?" she had the same thought, this did pass very quickly  and I'm glad it did. We rolled into Plattekill's parking lot around 10am and found it to be less than half full. Looked at the slope, and didn't see any ants working their way down. Looked at the lift lines, as usual, non-existent. We get out of the truck expecting to freeze our butts off and were pleasanlty surprised by the "balmy" weather. Bluebird skys, no wind, if is was in the low double digits, it sure didn't feel like it. I put on mutliple layers on this day expecting it too be cold and I was actually a bit too warm. Felt like mid 20s all day long.

With regards to conditions, good, but I thought they were a bit better last week. Plattekill did report 8" for the last 24 hours in their conditions report and I'm sure they got it, however, a lot of it was groomed out. Quick rundown of runs that come to mind:

* The Face was nicely groomed this week. Last week it was groomed but a bit on the firm side, this week it was softer and nice. Still some nice pow to be found on the side of the trail.

* Bailout was nice, but still had to be careful to avoid rocks at one point, overall not bad.

* Blockbuster was groomed all the way down, couldn't believe that one, but it was nice. Where my wife would normally refuse to do this when bumped, had no proble with it on this day.

* Bumps as usual were great, damn I love this little deciever!

* Freefall had soft bumps all the way down with a bit of firm snow in between

* Plunge was real nice with some soft pockets of powder throughout, however as we got down to where it runs into Giant Slalom, had to be careful as there was some frozen over crusty whales.

* Northface was nice, but not the same pleasure as it was last week skiing down under the guns in the nice freashly made snow. But still nice, no complaints, just last week was a real pleasure that we hated leaving behind.

* Ridge Run was also nice,as the were the pair of bookend greens.


Overall really good day, great weather, no crowds. That is one thing that does concern me, lack of crowds. Me and my wife discussed this as the one really nice thing about the mountain, at the same time, it concerns as we hate to see Plattekill go under. I do hope they get enough business to keep them going...

And for the Plattekill Challenge, here's our pics beginning with the mandatory day ticket. :)


The crowded parking lots:



Crowded slopes:



Of course, what's a pics of Platt without pics of long lift lines:


And my wife enjoying the sweet winter scenery:




 

Great report. I wouldn't worry too much about lack of crowds leading to closure. Lazlo bought that place in 1993 for a little more than $365,000. They are very smart about running the place and do not seem to ever extend themselves for improvements. I hope to head up this week for a $15 day on Wed/Thurs/Fri. The mid week storm will help make my decision.