marzNC
Angel Diva
I have the opposite reaction. Fewer people do a day trip from NYC on Sundays in general. With all the talk about power problems, Belleayre could be relatively empty tomorrow. But I understand it's bit of a drive from your house.
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Catskills in NY 2017-18
- Thread starter marzNC
- Start date
Tvan
Angel Diva
Belleayer today at 11:30:
Best of Times: we skiied a good 3 hours in perfect powder conditions. Started at 8:15 and had great, uncrowded runs top to bottom on both sides ofthe mountain.
Worst of Times: if you aren’t here yet and parked, don’t bother. Cars are parked on the road allllll the way down the hill and into the nordic center. Super Chief lift is not running and only one of the beginner lifts is on. Lift wait time is about 20 minutes. We could have auctioned off our parking space in the upper lodge lot for very big money.
Overall, I’m glad we came and I’m glad we’re leaving. Also, multiple ambulances headed in with sirens on and lights blazing. Be safe out there today!
Best of Times: we skiied a good 3 hours in perfect powder conditions. Started at 8:15 and had great, uncrowded runs top to bottom on both sides ofthe mountain.
Worst of Times: if you aren’t here yet and parked, don’t bother. Cars are parked on the road allllll the way down the hill and into the nordic center. Super Chief lift is not running and only one of the beginner lifts is on. Lift wait time is about 20 minutes. We could have auctioned off our parking space in the upper lodge lot for very big money.
Overall, I’m glad we came and I’m glad we’re leaving. Also, multiple ambulances headed in with sirens on and lights blazing. Be safe out there today!
marzNC
Angel Diva
Thanks for the first hand report! Way to make use of the MAX Pass. Definitely a loss for the ORDA mountains not having that connection next season.
Wonder where the latecomers came from. Heard that the snow at Belleayre was better than Plattekill because it was less windblown.
Tvan
Angel Diva
Windham. Talked with lots of people on the lift who said Windham was a nightmare yesterday, and that they bagged it till today.
Also, new one for me... rode the gondola up this morning at 8:15 am with DH and a family of 4... mom, dad, 2 little boys...we got in, sat down, and the dad cracked open a beer. At 8:15 am?? First run?? I thought of him as we were leaving and three ambulances screamed past us toward the hill.
Re: the demise of the Max Pass puts us in a dilemma, too. We enjoyed Belleayer this year, and explored quite a bit more due to the Max Pass. I reallly don’t know what we’ll do next year. The Ikon Pass covers our two most likely trips, but not our weekend skiing. Sigh.
marzNC
Angel Diva
Makes sense that people weren't willing to go back to Windham.
Wonder if the family drove for several hours early this morning. If so, my guess is that the boys were too excited to sleep much. In that case, the father may have needed the beer after helping to get the family all sorted out and ready for fun on the snow.
How did you like the gondola? And the run down to the base?
Tvan
Angel Diva
The runs off the gondola were great first thing... got crowded and shoveled up quickly. Had more fun on the other side... Roaring Brook, Onondaga, Horseshoe were virtually empty since Supr Chief wasn’t running. Overall, conditions were about the best I’ve ever skied... right up until the wait for the lift hit the 20 minute mark. By this afternoon, things will be pretty chopped up with that many people on the hill. Cars were parked on the road all the way to the Post Office at the foot of the hill. That’s just crazy.
marzNC
Angel Diva
So you rode up the gondola and then headed over to the Roaring Brook side? I could tell that was possible but didn't now how much of a chore it would be to go along the ridge. Certainly worth the effort to get away from the crowd though.
Have heard that Belleayre staff feel as if twice as many people have been coming on weekends after the gondola was operational. Definitely a game changer.
marzNC
Angel Diva
Real time reports are fun . . . just read that the Superchief lift started running in the afternoon but then Lift 7 stopped running. The gondola was running slow. I bet Belleayre mountain operations techs will be glad when closing time arrives. It's been quite a wild weekend for folks who have to deal with both the good and bad sides of a blizzard.
sevensaes
Certified Ski Diva
I was at Belleayre today too. The crowds were insane but the snow was sooooo nice! Maybe the nicest conditions I've ever encountered since I've been skiing in the NE. Superchief opened a bit before noon but lift lines really didn't seem to get that much better with people more dispersed. Lift 7 did stop at some point and as I was leaving I heard a rumor that Tomahawk was also down? I really do think the gondola has brought more people overall and the lift issues likely didn't help with the crowding.
They left some of the blues off Roaring Brook ungroomed so I had the rare chance to play in deep powder (memo to me: needs more practice!) Jimmy at Belleayre Ski Shop thinks this storm will extend the season to mid-April, which would be nice. There's another Nor'easter coming in on Wed supposedly too though not as strong as this last one.
They left some of the blues off Roaring Brook ungroomed so I had the rare chance to play in deep powder (memo to me: needs more practice!) Jimmy at Belleayre Ski Shop thinks this storm will extend the season to mid-April, which would be nice. There's another Nor'easter coming in on Wed supposedly too though not as strong as this last one.
echo_VT
Angel Diva
i was at Hunter this weekend!
Re: no power at Hunter - we had no idea until we got there and noticed the traffic lights were out among other regular lights. it was dark, but darker than usual and then i pointed it out to my husband and he was like oh...
Re: the drive up, it had snowed in northern NJ like 1.5 ft and then all of a sudden it cleared out. there wasn't any snow, except maybe a dusting here and there. i would say 3 inches or so b/c some parts of the ground were covered. we were getting really worried. then we crossed the gorge from I-87 and then we started to see snow. then more snow. then more. it was a completely different world than say Saugerties.
Re: Saturday morning, we did our usual routine of waking up at 5:30 am to be on hill to skin up (AT) at 6 am. except we used our headlamps to get ready before sunrise. luckily we had daylight when starting to go uphill so we didn't have to use our headlamps on the walk up. we went up and did hellgate to upper crossover. i think we took minya down. it was a pillow DREAM. there were several others walking uphill. with skins and people straight up walking up with their downhill equipment. what's nice is at the top there is a lodge. there's no light, but there are bathrooms and water.
early-morning Saturday (8:30 am), picked up the LO, went to find breakfast bc our stove is not gas range, it's electric and we couldn't cook. we had a big breakfast at Selina's diner. It was such a weird morning. so much powder, and not a soul to be found. Hubs didn't have to report to work b/c of the outage (he's a ski instructor at Hunter) so he essentially had the day off. They didn't get the word out to employees that the power was down and they didn't have to come to work b/c they had no official way of communicating.
by 10 am we were starting our next skin uphill / alpine touring skiing. we did Cliff to racer's edge. it was another pillow dream. what turns! i was psyched.
we got home by 12 noon and we couldn't shower (there was water, but no hot water, and it was super frigid). changed out of our clothes and huddled in the covers in the bed where our daughter was hiding out. she had made us lots of coloring messages and such while we were gone. it was super cute. i figured out how to turn on the gas fireplace. we had it, but never used it b/c it dried out the air so much. it was tough figuring it out in the dark so i just gave up. but with the daylight i did it. then we took a nap. an hour later hubs says "the power's back on! they're running the lifts starting at 2:30! that's now! LET'S GO!"
so we hurried to get our stuff on, walk out the door - one of the shuttles picked us up and took us to the flyer which is the 6-pack. we were on the lifts by 3:10 or so. they were going to run the lifts til 5 pm, so we had to do our best.
we got on, and we did upperK to lowerK (another AT skier told us he did that earlier and it was amazing). All 3 of us had spills in the powder. it was marvelous. i was never so happy to get stuck. People helped each other out when they were stuck. It was so nice. There weren't many people out at all. Then we did hellgate to upper crossover again. we did a tree run at some point. Then we did Cliff to Dropoff. we did a run thru the terrain park i think and it was one of the lower runs that wasn't groomed yet, so it was still pillowy.
that evening we ate quite a bit since we didn't have lunch. we had dinner at one of the few places that was open was macgregor's pub. even tho power was restored, most establishments weren't up and running.
we cooked some food and packed it for the next day as we figured the mountain would be packed and it would be hard to get lunch, so we just brought our own for the day.
Sunday:
normal day. LO had seasonals, as did i. those start at 9:30 - we got up early and got to the lifts by 8:36. they had already been running the lifts with people since 8:15-20 or so. huge lines already. LO and i did Jimmy Heuga, she wanted to show me something that one of her old instructors did. then we did the terrain park at her request. then we separated to our groups. with the group, we worked on platform-skiing or two-footed skiing. then hunter west opened for the first time. we did way out. 2nd time we did claire's way to westway. westway never openes b/c they never blow snow on it. but it had a lot of natural snow. i was very early getting to it and i got to ski down freshies, it was quite good. i got to practice my powder skiing and it was challenging but fun.
in any case. we stopped for lunch at 11:30 and by 12 noon, LO was like, let's go up! that was a benefit of packing lunch, just eating and going immediately - so we went up to do a glade run and then the terrain park (again at her request).
in the afternoon we broke off into our seasonal groups again and got to do a lot of trees/glade runs that weren't marked but the locals know (our instructor knew). so we did a glade run to white out and a few others. we did so much mogul skiing. all i did was hit bumps all day. it was marvelous. even the groomed trails were amazing b/c of the snow. we also worked on smearing our turns. no edging whatsoever. all in all it was amazing.
we didn't have demo day obviously on 3/3 - and they won't reschedule it either. that's okay, i'll take a powder day over demo day every single time!
on Sunday I also saw several people with Loon jackets on. so a bunch of people from New Hampshire came down from Loon to ski Hunter! i love that.
Re: no power at Hunter - we had no idea until we got there and noticed the traffic lights were out among other regular lights. it was dark, but darker than usual and then i pointed it out to my husband and he was like oh...
Re: the drive up, it had snowed in northern NJ like 1.5 ft and then all of a sudden it cleared out. there wasn't any snow, except maybe a dusting here and there. i would say 3 inches or so b/c some parts of the ground were covered. we were getting really worried. then we crossed the gorge from I-87 and then we started to see snow. then more snow. then more. it was a completely different world than say Saugerties.
Re: Saturday morning, we did our usual routine of waking up at 5:30 am to be on hill to skin up (AT) at 6 am. except we used our headlamps to get ready before sunrise. luckily we had daylight when starting to go uphill so we didn't have to use our headlamps on the walk up. we went up and did hellgate to upper crossover. i think we took minya down. it was a pillow DREAM. there were several others walking uphill. with skins and people straight up walking up with their downhill equipment. what's nice is at the top there is a lodge. there's no light, but there are bathrooms and water.
early-morning Saturday (8:30 am), picked up the LO, went to find breakfast bc our stove is not gas range, it's electric and we couldn't cook. we had a big breakfast at Selina's diner. It was such a weird morning. so much powder, and not a soul to be found. Hubs didn't have to report to work b/c of the outage (he's a ski instructor at Hunter) so he essentially had the day off. They didn't get the word out to employees that the power was down and they didn't have to come to work b/c they had no official way of communicating.
by 10 am we were starting our next skin uphill / alpine touring skiing. we did Cliff to racer's edge. it was another pillow dream. what turns! i was psyched.
we got home by 12 noon and we couldn't shower (there was water, but no hot water, and it was super frigid). changed out of our clothes and huddled in the covers in the bed where our daughter was hiding out. she had made us lots of coloring messages and such while we were gone. it was super cute. i figured out how to turn on the gas fireplace. we had it, but never used it b/c it dried out the air so much. it was tough figuring it out in the dark so i just gave up. but with the daylight i did it. then we took a nap. an hour later hubs says "the power's back on! they're running the lifts starting at 2:30! that's now! LET'S GO!"
so we hurried to get our stuff on, walk out the door - one of the shuttles picked us up and took us to the flyer which is the 6-pack. we were on the lifts by 3:10 or so. they were going to run the lifts til 5 pm, so we had to do our best.
we got on, and we did upperK to lowerK (another AT skier told us he did that earlier and it was amazing). All 3 of us had spills in the powder. it was marvelous. i was never so happy to get stuck. People helped each other out when they were stuck. It was so nice. There weren't many people out at all. Then we did hellgate to upper crossover again. we did a tree run at some point. Then we did Cliff to Dropoff. we did a run thru the terrain park i think and it was one of the lower runs that wasn't groomed yet, so it was still pillowy.
that evening we ate quite a bit since we didn't have lunch. we had dinner at one of the few places that was open was macgregor's pub. even tho power was restored, most establishments weren't up and running.
we cooked some food and packed it for the next day as we figured the mountain would be packed and it would be hard to get lunch, so we just brought our own for the day.
Sunday:
normal day. LO had seasonals, as did i. those start at 9:30 - we got up early and got to the lifts by 8:36. they had already been running the lifts with people since 8:15-20 or so. huge lines already. LO and i did Jimmy Heuga, she wanted to show me something that one of her old instructors did. then we did the terrain park at her request. then we separated to our groups. with the group, we worked on platform-skiing or two-footed skiing. then hunter west opened for the first time. we did way out. 2nd time we did claire's way to westway. westway never openes b/c they never blow snow on it. but it had a lot of natural snow. i was very early getting to it and i got to ski down freshies, it was quite good. i got to practice my powder skiing and it was challenging but fun.
in any case. we stopped for lunch at 11:30 and by 12 noon, LO was like, let's go up! that was a benefit of packing lunch, just eating and going immediately - so we went up to do a glade run and then the terrain park (again at her request).
in the afternoon we broke off into our seasonal groups again and got to do a lot of trees/glade runs that weren't marked but the locals know (our instructor knew). so we did a glade run to white out and a few others. we did so much mogul skiing. all i did was hit bumps all day. it was marvelous. even the groomed trails were amazing b/c of the snow. we also worked on smearing our turns. no edging whatsoever. all in all it was amazing.
we didn't have demo day obviously on 3/3 - and they won't reschedule it either. that's okay, i'll take a powder day over demo day every single time!
on Sunday I also saw several people with Loon jackets on. so a bunch of people from New Hampshire came down from Loon to ski Hunter! i love that.
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echo_VT
Angel Diva
yes this is definitely true, some of the best skiing i've done in the NE for sure...!
marzNC
Angel Diva
Great stories! First hand trip reports are the best. You obviously are a family of powder hounds who had a great time all weekend in spite of the power outage. Bet that will be ski weekend your daughter will never forget.
echo_VT
Angel Diva
in many ways i would say that the power outage was a blessing in that we got to earn our turns and get some untracked pow. and the lifts opening at 2:30 allowed us to share that with our LO and she got her first taste of fresh tracks powder runs. lol yes i'm sure she's not going to forget that any time soon!
echo_VT
Angel Diva
i forgot to mention after breakfast we went to the XC ski place across the street called "Mountain Trails" and found out they were open! they just had one trail open for skate skiing so we were bummed about that. with the power out, we were thinking we'd spend the rest of the day XC skiing with the LO since she couldn't do AT with us. so we were ready to do an afternoon of classic XC skiing with the LO. we weren't sure about that evening b/c if the power was still out, we were concerned about dinner (we had no food, and there weren't any places open) so we were considering driving back to my parents in Middletown NY (about 1.5 hour drive).
we were so glad the power did come back on when it did though! it really all worked out well.
we were so glad the power did come back on when it did though! it really all worked out well.
marzNC
Angel Diva
Totally off topic but here's a short version of the story of my daughter's first powder turns.
The setting: first trip to Alta Lodge in April 2008 for the first annual North Country School alumni gathering, Marz Jr. was 7 and she skiing any black in the southeast.
The snow: the afternoon we arrive is the start of a blizzard, blowing sideways, the groomed track for the transfer tow already has a few inches so was essentially ungroomed.
A reason to boot up: Sunnyside lift (Albion side, greens) was free after 3pm and Alta Lodge is ski in/out. I wanted to know enough to help Ski School place her in the right level the next day.
The skiing: one run down the long green. She had a couple powder falls but overall made turns pretty well. No problem going back on the transfer tow.
The result: next day was a blue sky powder day, Marz Jr. did full day ski school (Level 5). By the time I picked her up at 3:00 and we did a run, she was actively hunting "baby powder" on the edges of the blue off Sunnyside. Alta had another powder hound in the making.
marzNC
Angel Diva
While it might be a surprise to some people, those who know me well won't be surprised . . . I'm at Jiminy Peak. It's snowing hard already. Started early this morning, around 3 or 4am. Sitting in the 16-20 inch zone in a ski in/out timeshare unit. 
I had a plane ticket to Boston for this afternoon, 3/7/2018, to visit my daughter for a long weekend and see a dance performance she's been working on since early Jan. Planned the trip months ago. But with the nor'easter coming on, the airline was offering free changes. So I flew to Boston yesterday and drove to the Berkshires. Don't need to be back in Boston until Thu afternoon.
I had a plane ticket to Boston for this afternoon, 3/7/2018, to visit my daughter for a long weekend and see a dance performance she's been working on since early Jan. Planned the trip months ago. But with the nor'easter coming on, the airline was offering free changes. So I flew to Boston yesterday and drove to the Berkshires. Don't need to be back in Boston until Thu afternoon.
