Windham, NY 01/13/13

Early April in mid-January.
Driving up to the Catskills on the Thruway yesterday morning, visibility was no more than 100 yards due to fog and light rain. In a bit of a panic about the likelihood of skiing in those conditions, I called Jason, who assured me that there was an inversion and that the weather would clear up by the time I got to Windham, which turned out to be the case. It was sunny and significantly warmer at higher elevation.

Conditions were spring-like and absolutely no one was complaining about the unseasonable temperatures and soft snow. With a fair number of to-be-expected, but avoidable bare spots, it's safe to say that when cold temps return later this week, ski areas will have their snowmaking operations set to 11.

I spent the day with the Wounded Warrior crew (blog article to be posted soon) and we found that the best conditions were on East Peak, particularly Why Not and Wicked. Here we are at the top of Wanderer with enigmatic Bearpen Mountain in the distance:



Adaptive Ski Instructor Dani on Lower Wolverine





I was saddened to see that the most recent addition to the Windham trail network, "Wedgie," has been renamed "World Cup." Several years ago, they had a naming contest and the winner received a season pass. When did this happen and who's responsible?!? A final shot of the East Peak summit with World Cup and Wicked in the background:

Looks warm. I like the new view to Bearpen. Thanks for the report.

East peak... Windham skiers talk about East Peak the way Gore skiers talk about the Dark Side, Hunter skiers the West Side, Platty skiers, the terrain off the double.  Got to get back.