TR Belleayre in NY Catskills, 12/17/17

[marzNC]

As part of my ski safari Dec. 15-19 driving between North Carolina and Boston, I met up with Mr. and Mrs. @Tvan at Belleayre. We had a great time together in the morning. Good conditions, no lift lines, pretty empty trails. Not too many open trails but enough to get a sense of the mountain since it was their first time there. They have the MAX Pass and this is the first season Belleayre is included (up to 5 days).

I spent the afternoon having my first experience on tele skis. Worked with a very experienced instructor for 2 hours and had a ball.

Belle is one of the three ORDA mountain owned and operated by the State of NY, along with Gore and Whiteface. It's a bit of a sleeper because most people who make the drive from NYC go to Hunter or Windham, which are a little closer to the NY Thruway. With the addition of a bottom-to-summit gondola, that will make it more interesting for mixed ability groups that include beginner/intermediate skiers.

New fancy trail map and status sign, 13º at 8:30am. It was 30º when I left Shawnee in the Poconos early that morning.


Discovery Lodge from Lift 1, gondola cars not on the cable quite yet (base on right of lodge)


Lift 1 that serves beginner terrain on the lower mountain


Upper mountain trail, Hot Buns were very useful with temps in the low 20s

 

[marzNC]

Belleayre has about 175 acres, mostly trails with snowmaking but there is fair amount of tree skiing to keep advanced/experts happy by mid-season. Lower mountain is green/blue while the upper mountain is blue/black. So the 1400' vertical is split. The steep sections on the blacks are short on the upper mountain but a cautious intermediate would be wise to stick to blues if not skiing with an advanced skier.

Belleayre has two lodges. Discovery Lodge is at the base and is where the ski school is located. There is a parking lot (C) a short walk away and two larger lots (A, B) that are served by a shuttle bus. Right now one lot is full of gondola cars but that will change soon. Meaning within a week or two.

Outlook Lodge is at mid-mountain. You keep driving a fair distance and you can't see the mountain on the way up so most people arriving for the first time would wonder whether continuing up the snow covered road is worth it. Road isn't too steep. There are near the lodge and over by the Tomahawk lift. A true beginner is better off starting at Discovery. Possible to ski around the back of Outlook to get to the green trails, or walk in the parking lot and down an access road to the top of Lift 1. Staying on the snow is better. Outlook Lodge is above the base of the

The Tomahawk quad serves blue/black terrain and there are no services over there. If parked there, then have to have a pass or lift ticket already. Or ride the shuttle after booting up at the car. Tomahawk wasn't open yet but I'm sure it will be by next week. A signature advanced trail is Dot Nebel, a wide black good for high speed carving. Masters racers love it. I had fun there the first time I checked out Belle during late season a few years ago.

Entrance to Discovery Lodge


View from Outlook Lodge, Lift 7 triple on right has a mid-station


The Superchief high-speed detachable quad allows cautious intermediates to get to Roaring Brook, which is a long easy blue that is the easiest way back to Outlook after skiing the lower mountain. Superchief starts below the lodge, but can take Dakota to Easy In (greens).

@Tvan on Roaring Brook near a scenic view spot, quite flat on the top of the ridge so it pays to keep up speed after unloading the lift


Looking down Roaring Brook from the scenic view spot, just before lunch time. Can you spot the skier and boarder?

 

[Tvan]

Great report, @marzNC , and great photos! Thanks for sharing!

 

[marzNC]

The new gondola is being called Catskill Thunder. Going to change the mountain for intermediates and mixed ability groups because it makes it possible to park at Discovery and quickly get up to the upper mountain. Deer Run was extended so that it's possible to ski a blue from top to bottom. A new bridge was built over the road for the trail extension. The gondola will be used year round. The view of fall colors will be great.

During my tele lesson, all of a sudden everyone was looking up. There was a test happening with one gondola hung on the cable. Goes right over the teaching area with the magic carpet.

New blue base of the gondola next to Discovery Lodge


Gondola cars ready to be mounted


Testing

 

[marzNC]

No pics from the telemark lesson. Just impressions. Bottom line is that I started with zero experience and had fun for two hours getting introduced to tele skiing by a very experience instructor. Would recommend Laval Johnson for a lesson on any type of gear. He is PSIA certified for alpine, snowboarding, and nordic. Very friendly guy.

I was using my daughter's tele gear. Had tested out her boots last spring and knew they would be okay for a lesson at least. As it turned out, her boots fit better than I expected. Her tele skis are Blizzard Black Pearls @152cm (2016, 88 underfoot) so I knew those would be fine since I have the same skis @159 for alpine with 22 Design Vice Telemark bindings. Used my adjustable poles at a slightly longer length than I've been using for alpine skiing.

Although I'd been thinking about taking a private tele lesson, I didn't set one up in advance. I asked Belleayre Guest Services about tele lessons at Outlook Lodge (mid-mountain) before I booted up. They called the ski school desk, which is at Discovery Lodge at the base. By the time I stopped by the ski school desk around 9:30, they already knew that the very experienced tele instructor had his tele gear with him. By then I knew my friends were leaving after lunch, so I booked an hour lesson.

Laval Johnson has been a PSIA Level 3 Alpine instructor for decades. Also L3 for snowboarding and L2 for nordic. Nordic (cross country, telemark 1/2/3) came last so by then he had so many private clients, he didn't bother going for L3 in Telemark. What's unusual is that Laval grew up skiing at Belleayre because he was and is a local. Spent about a decade being an instructor at Arapahoe Basin in the 1990s before moving back home to Fleishmanns, a village a few miles from Belleayre.

Since I'd never even put on tele gear before, after lunch I drove down to Discovery Lodge. Luckily there was an empty space in the small lot that's walking distance because I was a little late. Met up with Laval at 1:00 and asked him to help get the boots on. Good thing because the boots have Boa lacing, which I’d never seen before. Even more important that he could help me get into the bindings. Very different process since my daughter has the older style of boot/binding, not the NTN style that are step in.

We started with basic sliding movement on flat terrain near the Discovery Lodge and the base of Lift 1. By the time we unloaded Lift 1, I was comfortable enough to make standard parallel turns to where it was wide enough to start learning more. I’ve seen my daughter ski on her tele gear not making any tele turns on blue and black terrain, including at Alta, so knew that I could get around without worry while my heels down.

By the time we got down the green, I’d make a few tele turns. Just starting in a tele lunge position and going across and turning in one direction. We spent the second hour working while using the magic carpet. I’ve always had a lazy left left/foot. Laval came up with it a drill that not only helped with the tele turns to the left, it’s going to help a lot in the long run for my alpine turns. His first idea didn’t work that well. So he tried a different idea that was perfect.

By the end of the lesson, I managed to link together a few tele turns. Just enough to know that I could play around on my own in the future.

Laval stuck around to chat for a while after we finished the lesson. I hope to get back to Belleayre in the next season or two. He is a great ambassador for the Belle ski school and Belle in general.

Not planning to switch to tele, but I probably will play with my daughter's tele gear a bit more.

 

[vickie]

I always enjoy reading reports on Belleayre. I'm fond of that mountain because it was simple, low-key, easy vibe ... the same way I like my ski days.

 

[marzNC]

From the first hand reports I've read about the new gondola, it will be hit with intermediates. The long blue from the summit all the way to Discovery Lodge has a consistent pitch. It goes over the newly constructed bridge over the access road that goes up to Overlook Lodge.

Advanced skiers/boarders who go to Belleayre with a mixed ability group or kids who do ski school should like the gondola because they will be able to start out at Discovery, and get up to Tomohawk in run pretty quick gondola ride.

 

[marzNC]

Have heard that the Tomahawk quad was not running midweek this week. Might be because the cold was keeping people away or might be the way things will be in general this season. Means that advanced skiers will have to ski the new section of Deer Run all the way to the base after skiing the blacks off Tomahawk. Gondola ride is only 8 minutes so on a cold day, might be okay.

 

[Randi M.]

We were there with a mixed ability group this weekend, but our group was really more low blue to solid black (not double black) skiers. The bottom of the mountain has a bunch of green runs but there are really only a very small handful of blues from the top. The rest of the blues are accessed only by getting through the black sections of the runs, which was not feasible for most of our group.

That being said, the blues were great. Long and windy with varying pitch. Even better, one blue run, Belleayre, was bumped up on the left side but groomed on the right. My kids and I got to play around on the bumps while my more cautious husband skied down the groomed side.