emmaurice2
Member
Date Skied: Saturday 12-17-2011
Conditions: Man-made powder, packed powder, secondary hardpack.
Light snow falling all morning...
I'd never been to Hunter before and had heard crazy stories about weekend crowds, but I just couldn't fight the need to ski any longer.
I left 1/2 hour later than planned and got to the mountain at 9:10am expecting to park out in no-man's land, however I was pleasantly surprised to find parking less than 30 feet from the lodge. I was able to get my ticket, situate the Non-Skiing Significant Other in the lodge, boot up and get on the hill by about 9:30.
There was virtually no line getting on to the 6-pack, so I was on my way. I took my first run down Belt Parkway and was thrilled that the guns were blasting snow. Even with a fair number of people scraping their way down it was a pleasant ride of M-M powder with only a few skied-off sections in the middle of the run. I did have to stop a few times to wipe my goggles. I did one more run down Belt Parkway when my legs reminded me that I hadn't skied in 8 months.
I took a break for an additional round of stretching at the base lodge then decided to see what was up the "B" lift. There was no one in line so I skied right up, ready to get on the chair when a young woman ran up beside me, carrying her snowboard. This meant, of course, that they had to stop the lift. The lifties got her out of line, let her put on her snowboard then got her situated for the chair behind me. I laughed it off. The "B" lift is a short ride, but it seemed to stop every 15 seconds for one reason or another. I didn't mind as I got a kick out of watching the young boarders trying out the rails and small jumps in the terrain parks. Once I got to the top, I made my way over to Mossy Brook which was a pleasant and gentle run with good snow on the edges, the middle was completely scraped up. Even though there were a lot of beginners and lessons happening over there, I decided I liked it enough to take another spin.
I went back over to the 6-pack and took an exhilarating run down HellGate. The right side was pretty scraped up, but the blow-over from snow-making on other trails was helping. There were some nice soft bumps on the left which were a lot of fun.
My legs were pretty tired by about 12:30 and I started making some mistakes so I was off the hill by 1pm, but I was just so ecstatic to be back on the snow. As we were leaving I noticed that the parking lot was actually getting more crowded and the ticket line was pretty long. Glad I got to experience it on an uncharacteristically uncrowded Saturday morning.
Hunter is a great hill, I was super-impressed with the amount of snow they can crank out and the variety of skiing possibilities. Since it's only about 2 hours away from me, I will definitely be back when they open up the west side, and hopefully during midweek.
No pictures, I was too happy to be skiing again.
P.S. The drive along 23A is stunningly beautiful.
Conditions: Man-made powder, packed powder, secondary hardpack.
Light snow falling all morning...
I'd never been to Hunter before and had heard crazy stories about weekend crowds, but I just couldn't fight the need to ski any longer.
I left 1/2 hour later than planned and got to the mountain at 9:10am expecting to park out in no-man's land, however I was pleasantly surprised to find parking less than 30 feet from the lodge. I was able to get my ticket, situate the Non-Skiing Significant Other in the lodge, boot up and get on the hill by about 9:30.
There was virtually no line getting on to the 6-pack, so I was on my way. I took my first run down Belt Parkway and was thrilled that the guns were blasting snow. Even with a fair number of people scraping their way down it was a pleasant ride of M-M powder with only a few skied-off sections in the middle of the run. I did have to stop a few times to wipe my goggles. I did one more run down Belt Parkway when my legs reminded me that I hadn't skied in 8 months.
I took a break for an additional round of stretching at the base lodge then decided to see what was up the "B" lift. There was no one in line so I skied right up, ready to get on the chair when a young woman ran up beside me, carrying her snowboard. This meant, of course, that they had to stop the lift. The lifties got her out of line, let her put on her snowboard then got her situated for the chair behind me. I laughed it off. The "B" lift is a short ride, but it seemed to stop every 15 seconds for one reason or another. I didn't mind as I got a kick out of watching the young boarders trying out the rails and small jumps in the terrain parks. Once I got to the top, I made my way over to Mossy Brook which was a pleasant and gentle run with good snow on the edges, the middle was completely scraped up. Even though there were a lot of beginners and lessons happening over there, I decided I liked it enough to take another spin.
I went back over to the 6-pack and took an exhilarating run down HellGate. The right side was pretty scraped up, but the blow-over from snow-making on other trails was helping. There were some nice soft bumps on the left which were a lot of fun.
My legs were pretty tired by about 12:30 and I started making some mistakes so I was off the hill by 1pm, but I was just so ecstatic to be back on the snow. As we were leaving I noticed that the parking lot was actually getting more crowded and the ticket line was pretty long. Glad I got to experience it on an uncharacteristically uncrowded Saturday morning.
Hunter is a great hill, I was super-impressed with the amount of snow they can crank out and the variety of skiing possibilities. Since it's only about 2 hours away from me, I will definitely be back when they open up the west side, and hopefully during midweek.
No pictures, I was too happy to be skiing again.
P.S. The drive along 23A is stunningly beautiful.
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