Windham, NY 12/14/14

Due to work and child commitments, I started my season late -- yesterday was Day 1, but it was a good one.

After being in Manhattan on Saturday to witness the Santa Con celebration, yesterday at Windham felt like a family-friendly version of that (no booze and open-container violations) with Santa wannabes of all ages dressed up as part of a fundraiser. It was so popular that Windham had to cap the number of participants at 300. The resort ended up presenting a local food pantry with a check for $8,000:





My son clearly ready to get on the lift:



The 18 or so inches that came from the midweek storm made conditions beautiful, soft as could be, especially on the ungroomed runs. The forecast was for clear skies, but it never happened; the upper mountain was in a dense fog until early afternoon, which kept me from shooting in-action photos:





I took advantage of zero ice or hardscrabble to bring my son on his very first mogul run: about 500 verts on the skier's left that were really nice. He didn't fall once. Almost all of the main peak was open; the only disappointment was that East Peak wasn't running.

We finished the day with my traditional stop at the Cave Mountain Brewing Company for some burgers and oatmeal stout (apple juice for him):

Hey James deluxe,
Was there too!  This year my daughters and I got in to the spirit of Christmas at Windham and all dressed up as Santa.   Agree conditions were great with lots of stuff open.  Cave Mountain is a great place.  I didn't stop this time but have enjoyed a beer and a burger there several times.

Nice report!  Apple juice...  I'm sure they have a hard cider that he would have enjoyed

Was there yesterday too -- missed the Santas, but the bumps were sweet and I got to try the new Wolf's Lair trail.

I drove down to Windham today, a long freak'in drive for me but because of the snow, I thought it would be worth it.
My purpose was to meet an old friend and ski a bit. It had be 15 years since I had been to Windham, after crawling through the ADKs the place is definitely up-scale. Valet parking, condos a plenty and $10 hamburgers. Long lift lines, lots of crowds but the snow was pretty good. My buddy had a voucher for me and I skied a few runs as we passed the flask on the chair rides. After a few laps I had a decision to make, either leave while I could still drive or crawl up in a Hotel somewhere and sleep it off, I choose the former. I left about 1PM and left the ants on the snow cone behind. It was nice seeing my friend, but I don't want to go back to "civilization" again.