Hunter Mtn N.Y 12/08/04

[loafer89]

I just returned from a day trip to Hunter Mtn for my first ski day of the season. Despite the rain from last night, conditions were not bad at all. This was my first ever week-day trip to Hunter since I started skiing there in 1987. There are still only two ways down from the summit, Hellgate-Broadway-Fifth avenue and Belt Parkway. I started skiing at 10am and the condition on Helllgate were
soft granular bordering on spring conditions, the trail was 99% groomed flat. Belt Parkway was a whole different experience, being almost completly in the shade, the trail was a firm loose/frozen granular. and flying down the trail was made more fun by the snowmaking whales still in place.

The weather was quite warm when we arrived at about 50F at the base and 42F at the summit, but the warmth was taken back by VERY high winds of 20-40 mph with high gusts at the summit, in fact when I took a break for lunch a gust of wind knocked down several pair of skis and boards in front of the base lodge. Base depths on open trails are quite strong with more than 2-3' in most spots, there are only thin and bare spots at the base near the high speed quad. Weekday skiing is alot of fun and the place was a ghost town with maybe 50-100 skiers on the mountain, this with 35$ lift tickets.

I would post pictures, but I do not know how to post at this website.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by loafer89

I would post pictures, but I do not know how to post at this website.

http://forums.alpinezone.com/viewtopic.php?t=687

Interesting what the geographic difference makes between Hunter and Killington. I didn't see any granular snow. Most of the Killington trails had been rolled out, but it was all fresh snow with some spots showing either a crust or a boiler plate base.