| >>Hunter is my home hill...I love it too, but we're in the minority here. Most people think it's too crowded and don't care for the vibe.<<
I have hardly skiied at Hunter on a weekend in 20+ years, and during the week the place is great. I always find the staff to be very friendly, the terrain varied and challenging (on the West side) and the snow conditions the best in the Catskills. Hunter on weekends? Only on Sunday, and only after March 1 when the crowds start thinning out. Hunter in March and April on Sunday can be a great experience - beautiful weather, managable lift lines (the later into March you go the lighter they get) - great Spring skiing.
Of course during the week (we may sneak away Wednesday for a boys ski day out) the place is generally empty and you can get in more vertical feet than just about any mountain I've ever skiied at. I've had 20,000 vertical feet by lunch on many occasions bombing the fast detachable quad on the front. I can actually get in 4-5 1500' vertical runs per hour when I'm cranking. I'll typically take 2-3 warm up runs on the front and then switch over to Hunter West for some steeper and more challenging runs down the double chair over there, depending on the conditions.
Hunter's negative image stems from the weekends when its proximity to NY and an active social scene can make it an asshole magnet. Oh well. Nothing's perfect. Actually most of the people there are fine, and if you take the jerkoffs with a big grain of salt and focus on the positive - and manage not to get killed by some unguided missle on Hellgate - you're fine : ). Like I said, I stay away from Hunter on Saturdays and on weekends all together until very late - or early in the season. Sundays before Dec. 10th or so can also be fairly light.
The flipside to Hunter is this: I've actually run into and skiied with a good number of outstanding skiers there. It's the only real challenging hill between NY City and Vermont, so any NY Metro Area skiier who's decent who wants to ski good terrain has few choices, and they gravitate to Hunter. I've skiied with U.S. Ski Team members, ex UVM college racers, and just all around kickass skiers who like to do the midweek Hunter thing whenever they can get away. I'm self employed so I can get up there when I want to...
I've always liked the way Hunter is operated. The one exception is the way they tend to blow snow while the place is in operation, sometimes in places that make skiing downright hazardous - but I understand they do that to make the place ready for the weekend assault, so it's a minor gripe I can deal with. Otherwise the snowmaking and grooming is just outstanding. At least that's how it was ten years ago. I just picked this up again after an eight year hiatus, so if it has changed I'll find out soon enough. |