Plattekill Conditions (2016 - 2017)

Hopefully you left some stashes for me Saturday.

Yesterday was a fun day! The whole hill was in play with the nearly 3' of snow from the storm.



I missed out on some of the action. I arrived to the hill at 9:30, and by the time I hit the slopes, the trails were pretty well tracked out. I quickly turned my attention to the woods which had yet to be pillaged.





The new snow did not ski as deep as the snow totals would indicate—and that's probably a good thing. Despite the lack of a prior base, hazards lurking underneath were few and far between.

Harvey wrote

Good pic right here. You should crop that out for your avatar

<quote author="campgottagopee">

tjf1967 wrote

and it keeps the roads free of traffic so you can fly up the highway.  Who pays attention to that shit?

Perhaps the best ski experience of my life took place in a travel ban.  It was back in 1996 I believe, 3 feet of snow and we drove up to Hunter.  

And mind you, this was back in the day when they didn't call out, TRAVEL BAN after 2 inches of snowfall.  There were almost no vehicles on 87 other than us and the plow trucks.  You'd find a plow truck and get behind it and follow it until it took an exit, then you'd find another plow truck.   The net result was nobody could get to the mountain and the following day Hunter with 3 foot of fresh snow was like private Cartmanworld - there was virtually nobody there, ski-on all day.

great day. i can't remember seeing so many double ejection face plants. there was so much snow the guy boarding the chair in front of me caught his tips and was pulled right off the chair. very entertaining.

I wish I skied like that boy.

My mistake, thought that was you.

An epic day for sure!  Was worried about travel bans but the roads were only slightly snow covered but mostly clear - added only about 15min. to my trip and some of that was due to very cautious drivers ahead of me.  Kudos to state and town highway crews - can't imagine how tired these poor people were after the storm.

The 3' of snow was fairly compressed (wind, I assume) on the open slopes so no face shots but soft as can be.  Was on chair #3 on the triple - hit one of the side trails as I wasn't sure how I would handle the deep snow and didn't want to face plant under the chairlift LOL!



Made it over to the double chair and saw plenty of untracked snow so I played around the main slopes for awhile.  Man what a show from the chairlifts - mega-whipeouts everywhere with lots of chairlift jeering but all in good fun.



Was starting to doubt the 35" snowfall claim so stuck a pole in the snow...given that there was probably next to nothing the day before I'm thinking the Plattekill snow report was pretty honest.



I stayed away from the trees early on both out of deference to those who maintain them (first tracks to the clearing crew) and because I wasn't familiar with them and was skiing alone as well.  In the early afternoon (after some tracks were made) I started ducking in.  Mostly off of Cat Track and/or Ridge Run I think. Also ventured off of Switchback which has some incredibly deep snow.



The trees were great but I did hear 3 or 4 core shots...you know, the awful scraping followed by the "ugh".  Kind of chuckled a bit - sorry.  Then there was a mountain bike trail off of Overlook - cruising down pretty fast (as you can't really turn to scrub speed) then all of the sudden there was an open creek jump.  I said "well, you gotta live once in awhile" and amazingly managed to clear it.  Tried to warn the two guys behind me but it was too late - they hit it pretty hard but made it through okay.

Did a few more runs on Plunge and tried to get into the groove - chopped up heavy powder is challenging but at least it was very soft and forgiving.  Will be soft mogul bliss this weekend.

In all, it was the best $50 I spent all year.  Spent a few days in Telluride last week and had a blast but nothing like doing a "Powder Daize" at Plattekill!  Road up the chair with a guy who traveled all of the way from Buffalo.  He tried to sneak out before his wife woke up but didn't quite make it.  She looked at him and said "really, you're actually going?"  They'll just never understand, will they?

Nice report. Nice pics. Nice creek jump.

In the future, though, if your take is "Wives. They'll never understand", you need to get out more and meet women who ski hard.

mattchuck2 wrote

 
In the future, though, if your take is "Wives. They'll never understand", you need to get out more and meet women who ski hard.

Matt , there are approx 5 in the USA..You have one of them...

Rainbow fuckin' unicorn Matt, good on you!  Of course, I'm assuming she's hot and not too crazy.

She is a looker and there is only room for one crazy person in a couple and matt has that covered in spades

So, he is an internet terrorist and MC2 = muy crazy 2 ?

Shocking.

Define "Success" in whatever way suits you. I've done okay, Internet terrorism aside.

Well then
Since wife retired from skiing just a few years ago.
Who's going tomorrow?
Anybody go today to tell us conditions?
Already got my lift ticket and I think the guy that was supposed to go is bailing.
He's missing or something.
I'll be there at the crack.

I hear she has some pictures floating around to.

mattchuck2 wrote

Nice report. Nice pics. Nice creek jump.

In the future, though, if your take is "Wives. They'll never understand", you need to get out more and meet women who ski hard.

So, um, should I get approval from my wife (of 30 years) before I go do this, do it on the sly or just trade her in for a younger model?  She's a great woman who may not quite understand but nevertheless accepts my passion for this silliness!

Me and junior got a late start, on our way. I'll be in my normal yellow jacket if anyone wants to say hi

I'll look for you.
I have mostly blue H/H jacket black helmet/gold goggles

One word
 Dedication