Hunter Mtn Expansion Details

mfi said:

That trail was cut when it...snowed. Now, not so much.

Click to expand...

no, the rumour is that they worked from top and bottom and missed. But in reality back then many areas cut wide trails, Stratton, Killington and Okemo all did.

180 said:

no, the rumour is that they worked from top and bottom and missed. But in reality back then many areas cut wide trails, Stratton, Killington and Okemo all did.

Click to expand...

that's what I heard - was supposed to be an Outer Limits of the Catskills..

Skied Hunter North for the first time today. Parked at the base just after 9 and was the only one there. Had the place mostly to myself for about an hour. First impression was wow this is a nice change! Open trails skied great and unopened trails looked fun. Liftline looks the most interesting. Once people started showing up it all changed... For a midweek day I was suprised. Between the congestion at the top and the pitch of the one trail it wasn't exactly pretty. I'm sure they'll get it all sorted.

On a side note the glades i could see seemed to all be easier low angle near the bottom. Maybe I missed something?

The top glades are rated double. The area under the chair would be...sporty!

Seems Hunter has adjusted the difficulty of some trails. They've gone dark blue on the new map.

zyk said:

Seems Hunter has adjusted the difficulty of some trails. They've gone dark blue on the new map.

Click to expand...

That's not dark blue...it is a blue square with a black diamond inside it.

Must have gotten a lot of complaints....It is more accurate now though.

cdskier said:

That's not dark blue...it is a blue square with a black diamond inside it.

Click to expand...

You guys are missing the obvious....
They did it to honor "Blue Boy"

Skied Hunter North yesterday. The trail signs on top of Overlook and Twilight are blue square with black diamonds inside. I think I've seen that before but quite honestly Overlook is a diamond. The new pod adds a lot of terrain with good pitch and the trails follow the fall line more so than other terrain at Hunter which usually has some double fall line aspects.

The new lift is impressive and very quick. The new trail system is large and will require a lot of snowmaking to completely cover. I see why they starved other terrain to get it open. Still not happy about it but hoping those areas get some attention down the road.


Big upgrade for Hunter.

Hope they can cover it all.

andrec10 said:

Must have gotten a lot of complaints....It is more accurate now though.

Click to expand...

They definitely did! It is all anyone is talking about.

Overlook was not open 1/2 hour on opening day when ski patrol had to fetch a guy out of the woods with a broken femer. All the injuries pile up daily. I never saw so many sleds on Sunday. I will forever avoid that whole area on a weekend. You are constantly dodging people that do not belong there and I do not have eyes in the back of my head.

On a very sad note, Ambassador Tommy Wheels got hit very hard from behind on Sunday on the Belt, right where the new lift ends. He was knocked out for a while and did not know where he was when he woke up. For those of you who do not know Tommy he is paralyzed, uses a sitski, and works for the mountain on the mountain, and is a great man. Hear he is doing better.

He was hit from behind by a kid skiing entirely to fast for the terrain, crowd, and his ability. He and his dad apparently tried to take off but were stopped by many. I am told the kid got right up, hard to believe he could not have been hurt hitting the sitski and at that speed...……..

Be careful out there!

mfi said:

Hope they can cover it all.

Click to expand...

I'm sure there's some kind of snowmaking strategy at work there - it's just an avant-garde one. Yesterday morning the guns were going full-bore on Rip's Return, which is already more than adequately covered. Meanwhile the other trails on North - bar Overlook - were dry, and the guns silent.
I don't get it, but no one asked me.

So Inclined said:

I'm sure there's some kind of snowmaking strategy at work there - it's just an avant-garde one. Yesterday morning the guns were going full-bore on Rip's Return, which is already more than adequately covered. Meanwhile the other trails on North - bar Overlook - were dry, and the guns silent.
I don't get it, but no one asked me.

Click to expand...

With Bruce leaving, I would have to say they are figuring it out!

catskillman said:

Overlook was not open 1/2 hour on opening day when ski patrol had to fetch a guy out of the woods with a broken femer.

Click to expand...

People are going to slide a long way down on that trail, especially on days with good firm Hunter-ish conditions. Fences or netting might be the next thing they need to think about putting up, because there's no undulations or mini-plateaus in the slope to catch fallers and there's enough of a dogleg to put you in the rocks or trees if you can't stop/won't stop.

Case in point: me, debatably a dumbass, definitely doing dumbshit yesterday on Overlook. It was firm but edge-able - really great for practicing sideslips and falling leaves before letting 'er rip down the long runout. So I was having my fun doing that. Going back up the lift, I spotted a handful of four-legged creatures grazing halfway up Twilight (yet-to-be-opened-trail next to Overlook.) My eyes are ok, but not great without my glasses - what were they? They looked a little stout and dark to be deer. Bears? Here? Do bears graze on hillsides? Mountain goats? Alpine-acclimated Shetland ponies? Coy-dogs? I had to know.
So I went down skier's left on Overlook, trying to spot these mystery animals through the trees. No luck. I stop halfway down, on the very edge of the groom before the icy fringe drops off to scree and the snowmaking pipe. Pop my skis off, nestle them with some difficulty across the slope - one very nearly ran away from me right there - and trudge carefully down to the pipeline. I can just about make the mystery creatures out, higher up that trail; still no idea what they are. There's a bit of a wooded ravine between Overlook and Twilight, and I'm not going down in there. So I climb back up 20 yards or so to my skis, carefully attempt to get one back on...
...and I'm down and sliding. Feet first, so that's good. Quickly sliding off the trail (it curves gently) towards the end of the snow and the start of something ugly - that's bad. I know how to self-arrest, it just barely did anything on that hard packed stuff. Happily I was slowing up just as I went boot soles-first into the scree, with nothing injured besides my pride.
From a standstill, I went about 25-30 yards real quick. It wasn't pleasant nor anything I want to try again, but no real harm done.
However, fall at speed there on a day like yesterday, and the next 10-15 seconds of your life are going to be considerably worse. Never mind how it feels when something does stop you.

Meanwhile I'm sure they were just f***ing deer after all. :dunce:

andrec10 said:

With Bruce leaving, I would have to say they are figuring it out!

Click to expand...

I don't have any idea about that situation or how these things work. But I would have thought it's reasonable to assume the new man or woman in charge was an assistant to/trained under the previous head, and that there's no shortage of institutional memory and protocols to guide what they cover and when - new pod or not.
I can't imagine there not being a strategy. I just can't quite make sense of how they're going about it - why not fire all the guns over the last 48 hours to get those other brand new trails online, or closer to it?
But ours is not to question why...

Used to be bears, sadly they are gone now.

Hunter North aka LUDICROUS!!!!! uke:

Just a question, what other options did hunter have for new trails? Above and east of Hunter One looks like a much better place for new trails.

benski said:

Just a question, what other options did hunter have for new trails? Above and east of Hunter One looks like a much better place for new trails.

Click to expand...

That's state land IIRC. I don't know if it's officially designated forever wild, or just de facto that way. Every discussion I've ever seen about it asserts that there was 0% chance of Hunter getting to develop that land for skiing.

As it is, no one but race teams ever get on the Highlands anyway.

Terrain aside, Hunter North is a much better place for new trails if you buy into the vision of a new lodge being built over there in the future, spreading crowds out around the mountain. Even in a world where you could build a pod above the Highlands, there'd be no room or point to building new lodges/facilities at the bottom of Hunter East (nee One).

I think they did a good job with it and it will take some time to sort out the crowd confusion. Lets face it, the place gets crowded because its as pretty good place to hit a few hours north of a large population. You can't stop people from going down trails they shouldn't be on..we all did it/do it..its how you get better. Skiing is dangerous plain and simple..like riding a motorcycle in traffic.