Anyone been to... Catskills? Berkshires?

[Mom of Redheads]

Planning and purchasing for our family ski trip next weekend. (February 24-27.) My current plan is to do a 4-day, 4 mountain trip featuring Windham, Belleayre, Plattekill and Jiminy Peak.

I was planning on getting and using flex tickets for Plattekill and Jiminy - but if conditions are horrible, I could look at substituting Hunter for Plattekill or maybe heading to the Berkshires a day earlier and doing Berkshire East or Butternut.

Since most of these mountains are pretty close together, we figure one day at each place will be more than enough - especially since I expect conditions will be pretty scraped off with not everything necessarily open...

Has anyone been to any of these ski areas recently? I can still switch out a mountain since I haven't booked anything yet...

Thanks!



FWIW, I don't think this is going to be the most awesome ski trip ever, but the kids want something and we figured we'd just go close to home and make it sheap rather than blowing driving time and $$$ further north. Plus, we still have tentative plans for northern Vermont later inMarch with friends...

 

[whitewater girl]

well, looking out the window here in Sidney, New York (western foothills of the Catskills, where I work), it's brown/green out there & I think raining...at the resorts, well, they've been making & stock-piling snow...Plattekill has a webcam, as does Windham, if you want to see what it's like on the mountain...

 

[Mom of Redheads]

The reason I'm so ambivalent about Plattekill is I hear it's a great little mountain with nice trails - perfect for a family - but that they don't have the snow-making facility of bigger mountains. Assuming their trail report is accurate, the only have about 1/3 of their intermediate trails open, and only 1 or 2 expert trails... The webcam doesn't help too much in that respect...

We had wanted to try it out, and I can get cheap flex tickets, but it might not be worth the bargain if only 1/2 the mountain is even open... :-(:Cry:

 

[abc]

If there's no new storm by the time you leave home, leave Plattekill alone.

It's my favorate mountain but I haven't gone even once this year. Knowing it, I wouldn't bother until it's all open.

Bell is a better compromise this year. I'm not a big fan of it normally because I prefer Platty. But this year being the exception.

Hunter and Windham both have very good snow making. That's where you should head to. Beware of weekend crowds though.

 

[Mom of Redheads]

Thanks, abc. That's exactly the inside scoop I was looking for. We can keep our basic plan and switch Plattekill to Hunter without much effort. If I decide now, I can even get advance e-tickets to Hunter for a small savings...

The noaa forecast for the end of next week has a few days with "30% chance of rain/snow showers." Hmmm. I'll wait another 48 hours to see if anything changes I guess.

We would be at Hunter on a Sunday (yuck). But at least it's not this coming Sunday which I am sure will be a zoo...:duck:

Thanks again for the help...

 

[ski now work later]

Berkshire East is my local mountain (40 minutes from home). It reports loose granular today, but they do a great job grooming and it's never super crowded, so that's our weekend and holiday week destination. It's a great little mountain with all types of terrain and reasonable lift tickets, kid-friendly and no lift lines. This year I'm working like crazy so I probably won't be able to go until Saturday 2/25, but there might be snow in the forecast for later this week so that may work out after all.

 

[Mom of Redheads]

Current lineup:

Friday, February 24 - Windham, skiing twilight and night (kids have never done that)
Saturday & Sunday - Belleayre. Boys and DH have been but not me... scout ski days = cheap!
Monday, February 27 - Hunter. No one has been, and I hear they have the best "snow" this year in the Catskills. Waiting until Monday to avoid the crowds...

The Berkshires went out the window since DH decided he'd rather wait for a weekend there for another year with better snow?? But, you know, he's paying so he does get to vote!

That's it... I think it'll work out fine. About to make a reservation at a B7B and 3 nights in one place makes things easy... Anyone gonna be anywhere near on those days? let us know!

SNWL, I would have loved to ski with you! Another year, I guess...

 

[ski now work later]

SNWL, I would have loved to ski with you! Another year, I guess...

Yes, another year for sure!