Belleayre

[catskills]

The glade run between Belleayre Run and Wannatuska will be on the blue section of the upper mountain above the overlook lodge. Also note Belleayre Run is a wide trail that is usually half groomed and half moguls. Something Belleayre has been doing for many years. Now this blue intermediate not to steep section of the mountain will be an awesome place to learn moguls and glades.

 

[skibum1321]

completely agree with you HPD. it took me way way way too long to get into the trees due to intimidation. it is an awesome experience that should be experienced at all levels (well, not for beginners at least). stuff like murphy's at SBush (i think that's the one?) should be everywhere. this clear cutting a football field wide crap on every trail eliminates a lot of potential character and enjoyment expert tree skiers find in the woods. that type of character and enjoyment should be more readily available to people that don't have the time, motivation, or stamina to work their technique until they can survive a tight tree run.

all that said, a lot of my favorite tree shots are not excessively tight. but then again, a lot of my favorite tree shots you can hardly turn in

Murphy's is not even really a glade. It's a groomed run with about 10 trees.

 

[tirolerpeter]

Runout?

oh yea, belleayre. never skied there but the brochure looks nice

Belleayre is a fun place; just a little too much runout on the bottom for my tastes though.

Actually, I think the runout back to the K1 gondola at Killington is longer and more annoying when the lift in the valley that services Downdraft, and Cascade is closed (which, is way too often during the mid-week periods). That makes you have to really tuck and skate to get all the way back to the godola.

 

[Vano]

Does this mean that the Beast of Belleayre is not going to be needed anymore? I never actually saw it in action as I have only visited Belleayre once, and it was in early season.

I think Belleayre is a great mountain, and I would almost always pick it over Hunter, not because of terrain, but because of price and lack of lift lines.

By the way, their website still says that the opening date is tentatively scheduled for this weekend.

 

[dmc]

And the battle between NY mountains continues.... what will Hunter do to make sure Belleayre doesn't have the last say...

Hunter won't do anything until it's good and ready... Meaning until it has $$ to finance the next step...

Next thing I hear of is high priced condos going in on top of the baselodge where the observation deck is.....

Also heard that all the hotel units alloted for sale have been sold...

Probably see some expansion on the West side next..

 

[Vano]

With only 150 inches of natural snow fall per year, how does Belleayre expect to keep the gladed runs covered and skiable? It seems to me that there will be only 2 months out of the year where the glades will be worth skiing.

 

[catskills]

With only 150 inches of natural snow fall per year, how does Belleayre expect to keep the gladed runs covered and skiable? It seems to me that there will be only 2 months out of the year where the glades will be worth skiing.

Vano excellent question.

Answer same as other trails. Belleayre will make snow on their new glade trails, which will be between existing trails that have snow making. Its not that hard to point the snow guns into the woods. :wink:

 

[JimG.]

Its not that hard to point the snow guns into the woods. :wink:

Alot of it seems to end up in the woods anyway it seems :lol: .

 

[Vano]

With only 150 inches of natural snow fall per year, how does Belleayre expect to keep the gladed runs covered and skiable? It seems to me that there will be only 2 months out of the year where the glades will be worth skiing.

Vano excellent question.

Answer same as other trails. Belleayre will make snow on their new glade trails, which will be between existing trails that have snow making. Its not that hard to point the snow guns into the woods. :wink:

Thats good to hear. I wish more EC resorts did that - it can get pretty annoying in early season to ski groomers waiting for the glades to have enough cover to open.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

Vano excellent question.

Answer same as other trails. Belleayre will make snow on their new glade trails, which will be between existing trails that have snow making. Its not that hard to point the snow guns into the woods. :wink:

Well it seems then that Belleayre isn't interested in having those glade runs for long, if that's the case. There is no better way to kill a forest than to point the snow guns in its direction. Utter stupidity.

 

[Vano]

Vano excellent question.

Answer same as other trails. Belleayre will make snow on their new glade trails, which will be between existing trails that have snow making. Its not that hard to point the snow guns into the woods. :wink:

Well it seems then that Belleayre isn't interested in having those glade runs for long, if that's the case. There is no better way to kill a forest than to point the snow guns in its direction. Utter stupidity.

Really? Are the snowguns a lot more damaging to the trees than the stresses brought on by natural snowfall and cold weather?

 

[Tin Woodsman]

Really? Are the snowguns a lot more damaging to the trees than the stresses brought on by natural snowfall and cold weather?

Absolutely. When you cut glades as widely spaced as Belleayre as, it can stress the forest to begin with. Those trails are all above 3000' in elevation, so the trees put up with a lot of bad weather and rely on the surrounding trees to protect them from the wind and the elements. That's how the eco-system works. Glades, if poorly constructed, than alter that ecosystem b/c by letting a lot more wind in than should be there. If Belleayre doesn't have a forestry mgmt plan to grow young saplings around the older trees, these older trees will eventually die off and have nothing to replace them. From the pictures I saw, it looks like Beleayre has really done a job in thinning out those tree areas such that they are VERY widely spaced. So the trees get additional stress right there. Now you start blowing snow in there. Man made snow is very heavy and very dense. We've all seen what the trees on the side of a trail look like when the snowmaking gun has been left on near them. They are caked and the branches area straining to hold the load. The branches, which are also critical to protecting the tree, soon begin to fall off, leaving only the trunk and a few straggling branches left. It isn't long before the tree is either blown over, or just up and dies from the new, harsher conditions it is now exposed to. If you've been to K-Mart or Sugarbush, check out the trees to skiers' right of Superstar or skiers' left of Ripcord. They ay are dying at a visibly fast rate. Those trails have widened significantly due to all the blow in from the massive snowmaking efforts at high elevation.

There is a ton of good information (or at least there was) on this subject at www.treeskier.com, should the site ever be completed.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Below, a great post (sorry, it's in French) by one of the people, a forestry student, who helped create five new glades at Mont Shefford, Quebec this fall. It talks about which trees and underbrush to cut/not cut to prevent erosion, soil content, the importance of shade and humidity, the necessity of lichens, native vs. non-native vegetation... quite an education in glade ecology. Things none of us consider when bombing down one of these lines in the winter.

Even if you can't read it, check out the pix:
http://www.zoneski.com/forum/ftopic4212-0-asc-0.html

 

[Tin Woodsman]

James -

Any chance you can give us a rough translation? Pics are nice, BTW.

 

[bvibert]

James -

Any chance you can give us a rough translation? Pics are nice, BTW.

You can use Babel Fish to get a rough translation: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Kinda hard to follow in spots though....

 

[BUMPER]

If you have ever been to Belleayre, the mature trees are fairly well spaced. Those pic's show that they have removed mostly the underbrush. I have skied the trees there may times and it looks just like those pic's.

 

[BUMPER]

due to Belleayre's high elevation and norther exposure the 150" that falls, stays very well.

 

[JimG.]

Welcome Bumper; do I know you?

 

[awf170]

Thats good to hear. I wish more EC resorts did that - it can get pretty annoying in early season to ski groomers waiting for the glades to have enough cover to open.

Personally I think it is horrible idea, I hate snow making snow. I would rather be hitting rocks with soft snow then skiing rock hard ice moguls that had good coverage. And in a glade there is no way to spread the snow out, so either you move the snow guns every 2 hours or you have giant piles. And like tinwoods said about it killing the trees. Probably after a year or 2 of guns pointing directly at the trees half of them will die.

 

[RIDEr]

Scheduled to open on November 19th. It will be interesting since Hunter is the only one stating what type of area they are working on for this weekend.