Gaper Central

[Brettski]

Yup, I was there, you couldn't get anymore, except maybe on Monday.

Hunta on Saturday was a Gaper Central. Everyone on the planet who knew the what the word snow was, was out there.

It took quite a bit of Mountain management to avoid them. The family Spent most the day on the F lift. First time up tough it was jammed...lost 20 minutes there. Skiied down Blue Cloud and it was completley wind blow. Good spot to teach the kids how to ski that stuff. Headed down way out to check out the west side....only the z lift was running, and we lost 40 minutes on that lift line...when we finally got on the fired up the other lift....

Plus they had milky closed off for race training...no one directing traffic on the lift lines...cluess people who had no idea about what was going on...saw 4 people nailed and dragged by the lift...

Still after the first run, we skieed up to F without any problem...we never went to the base except arounf 1:00 to get out lunch that we packed. I couldn't imagine paying for luch for my family...would have been $50. We stopped at the Grand Union on the way up for some bread and cold cuts....

Never went down the Belt, but we dropped in at the bottom, and it looked like rush hour on the through way.

All in all, we did a good job of staying clear of the mess and had a great day...blue sky, no wind, and quite warm (20?).

Hunter should not have groomed everything out it caused alot of bullet proof stuff from being wind blown, the west side was a mess at the top.

Now on Friday, we hit Belleayre for the $15 lifts...many ungroomed trails, lots of pow left. Gotta admit I like the trails alot better...skiied a lot of woods...but the wind was constant...it was a stellar day

For example Minya, East side, ect, are way too narrow, and with the crowds...oye...

I had so many people dropping into my lines saturday....out of control bozos....idipot ran into my wife and ripped her gore tex shell pants...she didn't tell me until lunch...I would have made him pay for the damn things....

Anyway, I'll be going back a week from Tuesday

Oh, and the Comfort Inn we stayed at was nice

I guess I should have posted this in the trips forum

 

[kingslug]

Well I hope it's better tommorow. How was the west side?

 

[dmc]

Well I hope it's better tommorow. How was the west side?

West side is where it's at... Clairs is sweet... Purna is great... the woods around there is nice too...

 

[dmc]

Hunta on Saturday was a Gaper Central. Everyone on the planet who knew the what the word snow was, was out there.

And it's one of the busiest ski weekends of the year...

So... what did you expect?
This weekend always brings out the "mothball" crowd...

 

[AdironRider]

soooooo glad I spent the weekend raging here on campus and got my skiing in midweek during the epic conditions.

 

[millerm277]

soooooo glad I spent the weekend raging here on campus and got my skiing in midweek during the epic conditions.

Agreed....

Hunter is always mobbed on weekends, especially this one, which I believe is traditionally the busiest weekend in sking. ESD and Minya are definitely narrow for the crowds that go on them, but that is what makes them amazing midweek. Besides, I don't think there would be any way to widen them, even if they wanted to.

 

[kingslug]

West side is where it's at... Clairs is sweet... Purna is great... the woods around there is nice too...

Prolly spend most of the day back there then.

 

[MarkC]

not to beat a dead horse but if you dont want gapers and crowds go to plattekill

 

[dmc]

not to beat a dead horse but if you dont want gapers and crowds go to plattekill

Right..

Unless it's the day after a pow day - I personally get bored at Plattekill pretty fast...

 

[2knees]

the biggest weekend of the one of the busiest weeks of the year for ski resorts following the only real storm of the season for most southern resorts. I would think alot of areas were mobbed with the less talented crowd.

 

[Brettski]

Well, besides this AZer, who was there on Saturday?

Riding the F lift helped isolate us from most of the insanity....anything in the bowl on down was a disaster...Quad was a mess...

But we ran across some neighbors, about 5 families, and we hung out after. They made chili, grilled chicken, meatballs, and stuff....Hunter had fireworks that night, kids played on the terrain park....when the foreworks went off, they turned down all of the lights...

All in all a fun, if not adventerous day

 

[dmc]

Well, besides this AZer, who was there on Saturday?

Riding the F lift helped isolate us from most of the insanity....anything in the bowl on down was a disaster...Quad was a mess...

i was - I mainly rode the Y and the Z... West is best on holiday weekends...

Rode the F a few times...

The Quad is a bad thing on Pres Day... Best to stay away until around noon and then after 3..

 

[drewfidelic]

I was at Hunter on Saturday and Sunday. But aside from waiting in the herd at Z lift on Saturday, managed to avoid the worst of the insanity. The mountain was obviously crowded, but no worse than I expected. It's Hunter on a beautiful holiday weekend just after the first snowfall of the year. The conditions were excellent and the weather was nice.

We skied Annapurna on Saturday without seeing anyone else on the trail, and it was sweet. Conditions everywhere were excellent.

I skied with my camera for its first ski day, but was having too much fun skiing to take many photos, but made a conscious effort to take a few:

On the quad:

Tracks under the lift:

Annapurna:

Random skier on Milky Way:

Random boarder on Milky Way:

Base area:

________
Silver surfer reviews

 

[Greg]

Purna looks nice! Doug - that your line under the quad?

 

[dmc]

Purna looks nice! Doug - that your line under the quad?

Nope - i bet they're 180's.....

my tracks were to be seen elsewhere in the unmarked glades...

 

[Greg]

Nope - i bet they're 180's.....

Think he's good enough?

 

[Brettski]

I knew I should have talked them back into skiing down west...but after the 1/2 hour wait, they were not willing...I guess Y opened around 11:00

Wonder what took them so long

 

[dmc]

I knew I should have talked them back into skiing down west...but after the 1/2 hour wait, they were not willing...I guess Y opened around 11:00

Wonder what took them so long

On a really nice day that has a lot of skiers - the Z lift gets super crowded right after it opens.. but then mellows out..
As soon as the Y opened it became ski on

 

[mergs]

not to beat a dead horse but if you dont want gapers and crowds go to plattekill

this is where I was on Sunday. i was boot or knee deep all day long... light powder, no boilerpate, just more powder... the bumps were about the best ever, and at 3pm there was still powder everywhere you looked. we rode hard for 6 hours with no brakes, and only stopped bc our legs were turned to jelly (from the skin up the thunderbolt on the previous day). otherwise we would have kept going til they threw us out. normally i'd have ducked in the trees but there was no need, the sides were dreamy.

its prolly still good today, but you didn't hear that from me.

 

[JimG.]

i was - I mainly rode the Y and the Z... West is best on holiday weekends...

Rode the F a few times...

The Quad is a bad thing on Pres Day... Best to stay away until around noon and then after 3..

I was there...seemed like a typical holiday weekend to me.

The Belt was swarming with people...as usual.

I rode the same lifts dmc did and rarely waited more than 5 minutes...rode the singles line as necessary.

Great 4 days of skiing...tired today.