Catamount 1/21/16 (snowmaking pipe broke)

ss20 said:

Time Skied: 9:00-2:30
Conditions: hardpack... pretty gripable with some scratchiness later in the afternoon
Weather: 20s, sun, some wind

The other Cat in town! Things were fast and firm. I was one of 12 booting up in the lodge at 8:45. Second chair up means first tracks . They do a nice job with grooming and snowmaking, especially considering that there was no natural. A lot more edgable than I thought. Didn't know Catamount's snowmaking system was so impressive... guns blasting on Catamount, Sunrise, a new connector trail up top, and BOTH sides of Catapult. That's a lot of fire power for a 1000' bump... Burke and Magic are jealous :razz:. At 9:30 I was riding up the main quad, and saw a water geyser on glade. Not good. Heard it was a pipe that burst, must of been a high-pressure pipe too... water was being sprayed well above the tree tops (50' to 70' is my guess of its height. Luckily this didn't affect much... the guns on a connector trail up top lost their water and were shooting nothing but air, but the rest of the mountain continued to spray out snow. Hopefully its nothing major.

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Rest of the day was very nice. Catamount certainly is far from its peak season when thing's are really nice. The mountain still skis great on artificial snow. Long runs with variety. Nice rollers on Ridge. Glade, Alleycat, and On Stage are more carvable than a Thanksgiving turkey!

With a little love from Ma Nature, and more $20 tickets (show your ski club card) I'll be back for more! Spring bumps on Catapult, Glade, Lynx, and Off Stage are the best bumps between Mass and NY (see what I did there?)!

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Abominable said:

Can you imagine being right above that on a chair when it let loose? Yikes!

Re: "mole hill in east bumf*ck, NY," given their proximity to NYC, Westchester Co., I would expect they do better financially than either Magic or Burke, no? Definitely better than Magic, that sees 20K people a year, and might be open, what, 40 days tops?

Some googling around, Burke sees 60K skier visits, Magic prays for 20K... can't find anything on Catamount but they're open every day, have night skiing, plus summer activities....

I'm not defending Magic or arguing your point, more just thinking out loud. I agree with the general sentiment that Magic could be better managed even given current revenue problems. But then I've never managed a ski area.

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Bene288 said:

I'm curious on how much they get. Would be a good statistic. Magic has it tough with Bromley and Stratton in their back yard. I've never been to Burke and don't know that area But skiing/riding is the winter economy in those places. There is not much else around Catamount, Jiminy Peak would be the closest ski area I think? It just seems backwards given the lay of the land, ya know?

I never caught much of a NYC vibe while skiing there (like you get at Hunter). But I haven't skied there in years and didn't pick up on those things as much back then. It's interesting that you bring up proximity. Catamount is almost in a perfect lateral line with Hunter. One would be the Thruway, the other you would take Rt 9. I wouldn't be surprised if they're about the same distance from NYC.

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Hawkshot99 said:

Catamount does not really have much draw from NYC. Much more a locals mtn. Lots of HS ski clubs go there for night trips and weekend day trips.

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steamboat1 said:

Skied Catamount either last year or the year before for the first time in ages. It had enough decent terrain to keep my interest for a day. Actually I think the drive from Brooklyn is a bit shorter to Catamount than the Catskill areas. Also my favorite codfish diner is right off the Taconic exit for Catamount.

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Bene288 said:

Is that the Chief Diner?

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