Plattekill - Sat. 3/17/12 St. Platty's Day

First time skiing Plattekill. Caught a ride down with Cornhead and his brother. Made good time - 1hr. 20 minutes, from Binghamton, NY to Plattekill. Started out skiing above the fog/clouds. Later on the snow got somewhat heavy and mushy. What a gorgeous day. Cornhead set up his grill on the deck and cooked chicken and beef speedies. In fact he had some set aside for Harvey but we could not find him. Cornhead kept yelling out "Is Harvey Road here". Anyways the skiing was awesome but I struggled a bit in the warm mushy afternoon snow with my older too long shaped skis.

Here are some pics:
above the clouds:


Cornhead working in the moguls as we were asked to do:

More pics:
Looking over at Northface trail: (Northface skied awesome)

Deck party:

Cornhead on Northface:

LOL.  Laszlo was short a judge and asked me to fill in so I was up on Blockbuster for over two hours. (I never actually judged which was probably a good thing.)  When I came back down, I got a beer and stood up on one of the tables on the deck and yelled COOOORNHEAD!!!  I got some looks for sure. Hard to believe we missed each other.  Really fun day. I took 350 pics.  Will start to look through them asap.

I'll tell you one thing: NYSB REPRESENT.

Love those inversion pics. I think I'm in that deck party pic too.

  What a glorious Spring day at Platty today! One of my most memorable days of the season for sure. Big D, my Brother, and I left for Plattekill at 7, a half hour behind schedule. We drove through fog from Binghamton. As we approached the mountain, it appeared glowing in the bright sunlight above the fog. It looked like it had taken a body shot from the blow torch weather of late, but Blockbuster, and Northface were looking sweet. As we approached Northface from the chair, we were greeted by a stunning view of the fog cloud in the valley below.



  It was like butta. We made a few more runs, one with my Bro, on Powder Puff. He didn't have a great day, it was only his fifth or sixth time on skis. Understandably, he did not find heavy corn snow to his liking. We made a few more runs and decided to hike to Blockbuster. It was great, still a ton of snow there.


Big D on Blockbuster, above the kid building the kicker.

  Harvey, I was on the deck cooking spiedies, where were you? I would call out, "Harvey Road", every once in a while, no reply. I saw a guy on crutches, thought maybe it was you, nope, knee brace, another blown ACL. I had to give your spiedies to a young couple from Cobleskill, spiedie virgins no more. I am the spiedie ambassador.


Sorry Harvey, these could have been yours.

I didn't see a cloud, in the sky, all day. Skied in a tank top most of the day, I live for days like this. Well, off to Elk tomorrow, hope it's half as good as Platty today. Oh yeah, got to go Mule skiing in the Cats, took the shuttle over to Blockbuster from the triple, it was fun. Probably as close to Cat skiing as I'll get, maybe.

  Hey Big D, glad you could come to Platty with me today, it was awesome. Harvey, sucks we didn't hook up today. I was looking forward to meeting you. It was a great day from the start. When getting our passes, the girl behind the counter asked Big D if Greek was still open. Without thinking, he started to say yesterday was their last day. He recovered nicely and said they were having their pond skimming contest today, she bought it. Then before we left the lodge, some guy yells out, "Greek Peak closed yesterday", I ran out the door, laughing. I guess the season pass day was only for people who's hills were still open. I didn't catch that part, neither did Big D. Later when I was setting up my grill, thanks Harv, lugged my cooler and grill up to the deck instead of cooking out in the parking lot, I somehow managed to flip the regulator of the grill right off the deck. I sent my brother in street shoes down to get it. Then my brother lifted the broken cover to my cooler to get a drink, it too feel from the deck, he didn't know the hinges were no longer attached. It was funny, like what should we drop off the deck next. Luckily no one was injured in our clumsiness.

  I already started a thread on Platty, go to it if you want to see your spiedies Harv. The couple in the forefront of Big D's deck shot is who ended up with them, they loved them. I got some looks yelling, "Harvey Road, paging Harvey Road", on the deck too. One guy almost pretended to be you just to get a spiedie. Chicken and Pork, Big D.

  I just checked Platty's website, nowhere did I see mention of your home hill needing to be open to obtain the free pass...bait and switch? Hope Elk doesn't try to pull this crap tomorrow.

Hope it's cool that I merged the two threads.

I just downloaded my pics - I took over 300 and I have to say, it ain't easy to take good pics in the bumps.  I have a few decent ones, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Our very own Tbatt (Fujative) rocked the contest and walked away with the big prize - the 2012-13 Season's Pass.

The Pride of Big Bear snapped up second place in the overall.

Props to Caleb, Gunny J's boy for snagging the Dynastar Twin Tips...



Cornhead - we will meet, and I'll make good on the $30 lift ticket.

Those spiedies look primo, sorry I missed em.  Had to be more fun cookin em on the deck.

More later.

Hey guys, first of all I'm really bummed to have missed you. I had the BEST day skiing at Plattekill today, but any day is better if you get to meet some more die hards to toast with on the porch.

the undercast photos are totally rad, those clouds were burning off as I futzed with my stuff and got them from the parking lot but they were just about gone by the time I got up. Thanks for sharing.

That does sound weird about the pass thing. I was with some guys that had passes and don't remember them saying they were given a hard time or even asked about their mountain statuses. It would seem counter intuitive, if Plattekill wants to be the new king of spring and offer these deals, punishing people who bought elsewhere rather than showing off what they have is probably the wrong way to go. So hopefully there was just a miscommunication there but I'm glad you scored those tickets nonetheless.

Have to stand up for them just a little because although I'll always be a nomad skier I think that hill has it going on... and I might have to settle down one day to be a one hill kind of guy!

Anyway, A+++++++ TR. NYSB summit next year for sure!

  I'm a perennial Greek Peak season pass holder, but consider it my base of operations.  I love to travel to ski, it is a big part of the experience for me. Plattekill is by far my fav in the Cats, what a great mountain all round. I made my last two runs of the day on Northface with a guy from NYC, he owns a home in the area, he says he doesn't tell people about Platty, wants it to stay the same. I get it.

  Why were we asked if Greek was still open? It was the only reason we could think of. Maybe I'm paranoid. Kudos to Laz and company. For a mountain with a reputation for little snowmaking, they sure did a hell of a job providing excellent late season conditions in this wacky year.

  Congrats Fugative, I thought you couldn't make it? Would have liked to meet all of you. I did meet a Harvey Road member, sorry I can't remember your screen name. He was there with his son.

  Thanks for combining the threads Harv, the spiedies were yummy! It was fun cooking them on the deck, what a great spot on such a day.

Fuje was so excited about his victory he literally flipped.

 Great day out there at St Platties  We got tickets showing our Season pass and told them BB was closed ,same thing last year and it did not matter they where just taking a poll.
   Caleb did not think those moguls would be too skiable so he got the judges attention with some big air

"Great day out there at St Platties  We got tickets showing our Season pass and told them BB was closed ,same thing last year and it did not matter they where just taking a poll."

The reason why Cornhead and I were paranoid about the woman at the ticket counter asking us if our mountain - Greek Peak was closed is because: I saw last week on a Pennsylvannia ski forum "paskiandride.com" that seasons passholders from any other PA ski area would be given a free lift ticket to BLUE MOUNTAIN. BUT when a guy drove to Blue Mountain and showed his seasons pass the person at Blue said - In order to get the free lift ticket your mountain has to be closed for the season (I think there was tiny fine print that nobody noticed) so the guy purchased a full price ticket, because he drove all the way to Blue.

Good to meet you Harvey. Sorry you didnt get to ski. I will see if i can dig up some old Noname and catskill mountain pics.