Tomorrow I get my new job offer in writing; got the call to come in and join the organization yesterday afternoon. What to do to celebrate? Why, go skiing of course.
So I went to Belleayre just to get a change of pace. They have received a bunch of lake effect snow the past few days, probably about 6" before another 2-3" last night. So the mountain was white and cheery as I drove into the upper lot at about 9:00am. Cold with lingering flurries and some sun.
Booted up and hit lift 7. Lots of intermediate and beginner terrain open, I concentrated on skiing Onteora which was open top to bottom and bumped up a bit. They had blown snow on Onteora last night and the 3" or so of fluff on top made the skiing very nice. Lapped that 8 times top to bottom and decided to branch out a bit.
So I skied down to the Superchief quad. A fast lift for intermediates. Looking past the flatness I saw lots of untracked snow on "reserved" terrain. So I sampled a bit. I don't know the trails in that area, but I wound up skiing the trails to the left of that quad (as you're on the lift, skier's right) over and over and was rewarded with many untracked shots in 8-10" of fresh snow. Even managed to ski Belleayre glade once top to bottom and not get yelled at. This was some fun skiing as long as you didn't ski the same track twice. Went into lunch feeling great.
After lunch I decided to go right back to those reserved runs. Holy crap they got torn up quickly! I guess I wasn't the only poacher out there today. After that one run after lunch dodging grass, rocks, and water bars I headed back to Onteora thankful for not trashing my skis. The bump lines on Onteora had been skied in some more and now the run really skied well. So I lapped that a bunch more times.
The plan was to leave by about 1:30, but somehow I managed to ski until 2:30. Could have kept going, but I decided to call it a day and head on home.
The snow at Belleayre is really good. There is alot of beginner and intermediate terrain open. They need to open more advanced and expert stuff. They were blowing alot of snow over by the Tomahawk lift. Interestingly, Belleayre does not list trails where snowmaking is ongoing.
Also ran into an old friend, Don Boyce who is now the ski school director at Belleayre. I worked for Donny at Hunter where he was the assistant director in the early to mid-90's. Great guy, great skier too. He took time off to raise and teach his kids and now he's back to running a ski school. Good choice for Belleayre. He looked really good...interesting how people who love outdoor activities age so well.
Where to ski next?
So I went to Belleayre just to get a change of pace. They have received a bunch of lake effect snow the past few days, probably about 6" before another 2-3" last night. So the mountain was white and cheery as I drove into the upper lot at about 9:00am. Cold with lingering flurries and some sun.
Booted up and hit lift 7. Lots of intermediate and beginner terrain open, I concentrated on skiing Onteora which was open top to bottom and bumped up a bit. They had blown snow on Onteora last night and the 3" or so of fluff on top made the skiing very nice. Lapped that 8 times top to bottom and decided to branch out a bit.
So I skied down to the Superchief quad. A fast lift for intermediates. Looking past the flatness I saw lots of untracked snow on "reserved" terrain. So I sampled a bit. I don't know the trails in that area, but I wound up skiing the trails to the left of that quad (as you're on the lift, skier's right) over and over and was rewarded with many untracked shots in 8-10" of fresh snow. Even managed to ski Belleayre glade once top to bottom and not get yelled at. This was some fun skiing as long as you didn't ski the same track twice. Went into lunch feeling great.
After lunch I decided to go right back to those reserved runs. Holy crap they got torn up quickly! I guess I wasn't the only poacher out there today. After that one run after lunch dodging grass, rocks, and water bars I headed back to Onteora thankful for not trashing my skis. The bump lines on Onteora had been skied in some more and now the run really skied well. So I lapped that a bunch more times.
The plan was to leave by about 1:30, but somehow I managed to ski until 2:30. Could have kept going, but I decided to call it a day and head on home.
The snow at Belleayre is really good. There is alot of beginner and intermediate terrain open. They need to open more advanced and expert stuff. They were blowing alot of snow over by the Tomahawk lift. Interestingly, Belleayre does not list trails where snowmaking is ongoing.
Also ran into an old friend, Don Boyce who is now the ski school director at Belleayre. I worked for Donny at Hunter where he was the assistant director in the early to mid-90's. Great guy, great skier too. He took time off to raise and teach his kids and now he's back to running a ski school. Good choice for Belleayre. He looked really good...interesting how people who love outdoor activities age so well.
Where to ski next?
