• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

Hunter Mtn Expansion Details

tamedog

New member
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
9
Points
0
they groom it so that there is a little lip on the edge of the trail, so if you do slide toward the edge, it will stop you instead of you going over it.

I wonder why don't they don't groom the trails on north this way, like they do on skiers right of east side drive/hellgate. forget fences and nets..
 

JimG.

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
11,988
Points
113
Location
Hopewell Jct., NY
I do have to say with Peak, the fact that they don't make as much snow leaves a bit of cliff side fence sticking out, as opposed to pretty much invisible back in the old days, plus they groom it so that there is a little lip on the edge of the trail, so if you do slide toward the edge, it will stop you instead of you going over it.

Actually it is more likely that you would get wedged between the fence and the snow rather than go over the fence.

That is exactly what happened to a friend of mine 2 years ago on Cliff. He was skiing the bumps on the fence line side of Cliff and got in the backseat. Next thing he was straight lining it between the snow and the fence. Tore his gloves to shreds stopping himself.

Freaked me out because I passed him going down the Cliff side, stopped at the halfway point to see where he was and he was gone.
 

Funky_Catskills

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
1,341
Points
48
Location
Hunter, NY
Fact - advanced intermediate and expert trails are hard for some people and inherently dangerous.. Which makes them fun...

Deal with it and take some lessons... Or stay the fuck off....
 

180

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
1,939
Points
48
Location
mahopac, ny
The fence at the top of Wayout is now part of my right side turns. All the loose snow piles up there. How about the time a bear walked up between the fence and trail on the Cliff, seen that a few times.
 

Ol Dirty Noodle

New member
Joined
Dec 30, 2017
Messages
205
Points
0
Looks like those vids are from today by the conditions, granted video will never be as crisp at the eye but I’m not seeing a real issue with either trail, a few spots I can’t tell if I’m looking at ice or shadow but I’m sure it’s a little more discernible in person. Hard to tell about pitch and how the sides are groomed so I guess I could see how people get fucked up? Idk I gotta see hunter north for myself, may not happen this season though, I’m looking to VT for the rest of my season minus Wednesday at Bell.
 

Funky_Catskills

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
1,341
Points
48
Location
Hunter, NY
Looks like those vids are from today by the conditions, granted video will never be as crisp at the eye but I’m not seeing a real issue with either trail, a few spots I can’t tell if I’m looking at ice or shadow but I’m sure it’s a little more discernible in person. Hard to tell about pitch and how the sides are groomed so I guess I could see how people get fucked up? Idk I gotta see hunter north for myself, may not happen this season though, I’m looking to VT for the rest of my season minus Wednesday at Bell.

Taken today at lunch ... It's late season - It hasn't really snowed. The surface isn't as nice as it's been but it's 100% skiable with patches you just see and avoid. I love hitting these trails at lunch. It's perfect for me to just get out and blow off some steam for 45 minutes..
 
Last edited:

John9

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2018
Messages
100
Points
18
Thank you for posting those videos. These look like trails i would enjoy skiing. watched them several times, did not see any about them that looked outside the range on the higher end of a regular blue, or a blue black.
Compared to other ski areas I am familiar with, these would both be blue black and or black. I understand Hunter is a steeper catskill mountain in general, and ratings are relative.

I am aware that video tends to make trails look less steep than they really are, even with that effect I could see the steepness. If Hunter wanted to expand true middle of the road intermediate terrain, this is not it.
 

Funky_Catskills

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
1,341
Points
48
Location
Hunter, NY
Thank you for posting those videos. These look like trails i would enjoy skiing. watched them several times, did not see any about them that looked outside the range on the higher end of a regular blue, or a blue black.
Compared to other ski areas I am familiar with, these would both be blue black and or black. I understand Hunter is a steeper catskill mountain in general, and ratings are relative.

I am aware that video tends to make trails look less steep than they really are, even with that effect I could see the steepness. If Hunter wanted to expand true middle of the road intermediate terrain, this is not it.

It's simply advanced intermediate terrain
 

Killingtime

Active member
Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
393
Points
28
Location
Long Island, NY
Taken today at lunch ... It's late season - It hasn't really snowed. The surface isn't as nice as it's been but it's 100% skiable with patches you just see and avoid. I love hitting these trails at lunch. It's perfect for me to just get out and blow off some steam for 45 minutes..
These videos are great. I've been waiting for someone to post something like this. I haven't been able to get there this season to see them in person. They don't look anything crazy and are much wider than I thought. Nice long run-outs at the bottom. Perfect cruising trails.
 

kendo

Active member
Joined
Mar 7, 2019
Messages
352
Points
43
Agree with F_C the North trails are advanced intermediate terrain. Have really enjoyed skiing them this year.

Think the biggest contributor to increase in accidents (or near accidents) are skiers and boarders using Ski Tracker or other apps that promote max speed recording and lack of Hunter staff for on trail safety enforcement. From the app store:

Ski Tracker includes the following features:
- measure and recording the maximum skiing speed.
- special feature "Fast Ride" to make a separate measurement of maximum speed, time and distance to any section and time.
- (and more . . .)



Listened to a couple teens on the lift comparing their max speed on the Belt at 46mph. They were hoping to hit 50+ by the end of the day. One was afraid of what would happen if he caught an edge at max speed. It was a weekday with minimal skiers (like in F_C's videos) but I would not like to be around them when they're straight lining any slope.

Have skied Hunter, Stowe and Telluride this year and mostly Hunter & Stowe in recent years. Rarely see Hunter staff or patrol on slope and have been nearly run over too many times (unfortunately never by BBoy!) on Ike, Racers and the Mainline.

Telluride has staff in yellow coats at many places on the mtn ensuring skiers respect signage for trail merge, slow zones, lift queues, lift unloading zones, etc. Likely not going to renew my Traveler pass for another year and will leave Hunter to others.
 

tamedog

New member
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
9
Points
0
that's a very interesting and valid point you bring up regarding the speed tracking phone apps
 

Cornhead

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 4, 2010
Messages
2,836
Points
48
Conditions at Greek were uber fast the last two weekends. I was tempted to download a tracking app to see just how fast, but I knew I'd be tempted to better my top speed. Only bad things can result from this regardless of having the trail to yourself, or not.

There is a regular at Greek who normally straight lines trails whenever possible. He's a retired engineer, and is anal about, number of runs, vertical, top speed, he claims 84mph, I'm highly dubious, waffles eaten. Well, probably not the last one. He keeps spreadsheets of his data, and straight lines to maximize his number of runs. Sounds like fun, huh. Anyway, this season he began teaching in the adaptive program. Mostly just to get a free season's pass. When I've seen him lately from the chair he's actually making turns. Maybe teaching has taught him something.

Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using AlpineZone mobile app
 

Funky_Catskills

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
1,341
Points
48
Location
Hunter, NY
According to my tracker - I average about 49 mph on a snowboard for my top speed.. and 25 for average speed. But I never purposely try to go faster..
 

drjeff

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
19,178
Points
113
Location
Brooklyn, CT
Conditions at Greek were uber fast the last two weekends. I was tempted to download a tracking app to see just how fast, but I knew I'd be tempted to better my top speed. Only bad things can result from this regardless of having the trail to yourself, or not.

There is a regular at Greek who normally straight lines trails whenever possible. He's a retired engineer, and is anal about, number of runs, vertical, top speed, he claims 84mph, I'm highly dubious, waffles eaten. Well, probably not the last one. He keeps spreadsheets of his data, and straight lines to maximize his number of runs. Sounds like fun, huh. Anyway, this season he began teaching in the adaptive program. Mostly just to get a free season's pass. When I've seen him lately from the chair he's actually making turns. Maybe teaching has taught him something.

Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using AlpineZone mobile app

When you take into account the max speeds, as recorded with reliable radar guns, not phone based GPS apps, on the world cup circuit, on some long, seriously steep, fully iced down courses, on skis that are prepared by technicians with an unlimited wax budget and the athlete's wearing form fitting race suits and who have spent countless hours in the off season in wind tunnels to further home their tucks into the most aerodynamic positions possible rarely hits over 84 mph except for Wengen and Kitzbuhl generally, that a recreational skier, on the hill the size Greek, can hit 84, can certainly be taken with a grain of salt.....
 
Top