Plattekill 12-31-2016

Though it's been a while since I discovered Plattekill, my two sons only began skiing there last winter. They were excited to head back for our last ski adventure of 2016. I was looking forward to a day free of the long lines and crowded trails which I figured most skiers would have to deal with this weekend. We all got what we wanted.




Anybody with kids knows that you have to scale back your expectations some times in order to give them the room and time to develop. This means a lot of time at small hills, doing run after run on green and blue groomers. So we started with Powder Puff. I encouraged my ten year old to ski parallel and not use his wedge so much but it wasn't a day for ball-busting so I didn't overdo the instruction. I just let them do their thing while I skied a little faster, leapfrogging ahead and then letting them catch up.




We moved on to Sundown and Lower Face for a while and then I suggested checking out a little path off the side of one of the green trails. I don't know if it's a bike trail or was just worn down by previous explorers but it's a nice spot for a learner to experience something similar to tree skiing that doesn't require much skill. Anyway, both of my kids loved it. We ended up spending a lot of time back there.




As usual I bolted my lunch and left my kids to enjoy theirs at a more leisurely pace. Getting back out, I jumped on the double and explored around that side of the mountain. Technically, only NorthFace was open over there but Plattekill has such an open attitude towards boundaries it's really like nothing is ever closed. I didn't do much in terms of actual tree skiing, other then cutting back and forth between Plunge, Switchback and Freefall but there was just enough snow for more adventurous folks to get in there and explore. NorthFace had some big whales along one side from the snowmakers.





I checked in on my kids and found they were having a good time playing with their walkie talkies around the lodge. I left them to and skied the double some more. In the end I got about an hour and a half to myself.




Once I got my boys back on skis, it was a repeat of the morning. We rode the triple and either went left to ski Sundown or else went right to take our little path through the woods. Everybody had a good time. The snow was a little wind blown in spots, but overall really, really fun. It felt like it was about twenty degrees, a little bit overcast and windy at times, nothing that dampened our good mood.




There were no lift lines to speak of even though the lodge was as crowded as I've ever seen it. As we changed into street shoes and packed up our stuff, the après scene was off to a healthy start. The bar was doing good business and the live music had started. Everybody was having a good time




Another great day on skis.

Looked like a good time, thanks for the trip report!

Nice report.  

Petronio