Hunter 2/26 - 63" new snow!

[ALLSKIING]

Insane day today. We left Thomaston, CT at about 5:15 and opted to head over to New York via 84. It dropped down to 29 this morning and I thought the wet roads up on 7 and 23 might freeze up. Our decision turned out to be the epic fail of all time.

All was fine until about 6:30 when we hit an area on 84 right before the Taconic with heavy snow. Within a few miles we were stopped. It turns out the highway was shut down. We were there for four effin' hours, almost suicidal thinking about the powder day we were missing up at Hunter. Eventually, the cars were able to navigate the endless stream of tractor trailers with the help of "toothless bitches" (inside joke). Anyway, we got to the Taconic about 10:30 and we decided to beeline it to Hunter. That southern stretch of the Taconic was nuts - trees laiden with snow hanging over the road and whatnot. Eventually the road cleared and we were able to do 70. Nobody was out.

Got to the Rip Van Winkle and the roads were basically almost dry. In fact not a lot of snow all the way to the bottom of the mountain road. Then we estimated 8", then 12", then we started estimating in feet. The Tannersville/Hunter area is absolutely choked with snow. Got to the mountain and struggled for a parking space. The 2 hour ride took us seven today! :-o

Anyway, got booted, choked down some burgers and hit the line for the quad. On the ride up, a guy told us West Side was closed. We were majorly bummed. Then at the summit we noticed a small crowd of 60 or so people waiting for the West side to open. Within 7 or 8 minutes the roped dropped! So we beelined Claire's. Hit the upper section of that and then cut over to 44. Insanity! Feet and feet and feet of snow. Lots of untracked. Dense snow, but very skiable. Spent the rest of the afternoon on the West side. We lost Grassi on the first run. He was trying to find some deep powder skiing skills. It was dumping on and off all afternoon

Brian and I hit 44 X2, Annapurna X2 and Claire's once. Z lift line was nuts most of the afternoon with almost 30 minute waits, but we felt satisfied with the skiing we got in. Hit Cliff to Racer's to finish the day. Truly epic. I'm thinking about heading back early next week after the weekend crowd leaves and bumps the place up. There will be no icy troughs for a long long time. there's a ton of natty base there.

So a day that started horribly turned into and epic treat. Ride home was smooth and quick. Got some video I'll try to throw up later. Awesome day, even though it was a bit short.

Sweet..Glad u guys got it done..Car trouble ended by bid to hunter....

 

[WoodCore]

Insane day today. We left Thomaston, CT at about 5:15 and opted to head over to New York via 84. It dropped down to 29 this morning and I thought the wet roads up on 7 and 23 might freeze up. Our decision turned out to be the epic fail of all time.

All was fine until about 6:30 when we hit an area on 84 right before the Taconic with heavy snow. Within a few miles we were stopped. It turns out the highway was shut down. We were there for four effin' hours, almost suicidal thinking about the powder day we were missing up at Hunter. Eventually, the cars were able to navigate the endless stream of tractor trailers with the help of "toothless bitches" (inside joke). Anyway, we got to the Taconic about 10:30 and we decided to beeline it to Hunter. That southern stretch of the Taconic was nuts - trees laiden with snow hanging over the road and whatnot. Eventually the road cleared and we were able to do 70. Nobody was out.

Got to the Rip Van Winkle and the roads were basically almost dry. In fact not a lot of snow all the way to the bottom of the mountain road. Then we estimated 8", then 12", then we started estimating in feet. The Tannersville/Hunter area is absolutely choked with snow. Got to the mountain and struggled for a parking space. The 2 hour ride took us seven today! :-o

Anyway, got booted, choked down some burgers and hit the line for the quad. On the ride up, a guy told us West Side was closed. We were majorly bummed. Then at the summit we noticed a small crowd of 60 or so people waiting for the West side to open. Within 7 or 8 minutes the roped dropped! So we beelined Claire's. Hit the upper section of that and then cut over to 44. Insanity! Feet and feet and feet of snow. Lots of untracked. Dense snow, but very skiable. Spent the rest of the afternoon on the West side. We lost Grassi on the first run. He was trying to find some deep powder skiing skills. It was dumping on and off all afternoon

Brian and I hit 44 X2, Annapurna X2 and Claire's once. Z lift line was nuts most of the afternoon with almost 30 minute waits, but we felt satisfied with the skiing we got in. Hit Cliff to Racer's to finish the day. Truly epic. I'm thinking about heading back early next week after the weekend crowd leaves and bumps the place up. There will be no icy troughs for a long long time. there's a ton of natty base there.

So a day that started horribly turned into and epic treat. Ride home was smooth and quick. Got some video I'll try to throw up later. Awesome day, even though it was a bit short.

Glad you guys finally made it to Hunter and got some goods! You must have been just ahead of me on 84 in fact I can picture the section you where stuck in. Anyway I'm just getting home from my adventures today and just about ready to pass out. None the less, keep your eyes open for my trip report! Plattekill was off the hook!

 

[bvibert]

This was the view on 84 at about 6:30am, unfortunately we were treated to the same exact view for the next 4 hours...

At least we were slightly entertained by the roaming weirdos while we waited for everything to get cleared up. Though I'm glad that we didn't notice naked truck driver dude until we were pulling away.

I was totally bummed to hear that the west side was closed when we finally got on the lift sometime after noon today. I was so happy to see them getting it ready when we finally got to the top. That first run down 44 made the whole trip worth it to me. Even if I did think I was going to choke to death on pow for a few moments when I fell... Great day, even though it was a shortened session my legs are cooked. The amount of snow they got up there is truly unbelievable!

I only touched bottom a couple of times on Racer's, otherwise we were riding the dense pow all day (to the best of my ability).

A couple of pics:
Greg on 44, 1st run

Greg on Purna

Greg on Racers for the last run of the day

I apologize for the crappy pics, my camera kinda sucks.

 

[Greg]

A few crappy cell pics. Vid is uploading.

Brian on 44

We need to get Brian a better matching jacket for his fly new pants. :lol:

44

Powder on Claire's

 

[Greg]

Video

It needs another hour or so:

 

[Grassi21]

FLOAT! I want more of it. I suck at it. But once I got my chit together I was having a blast. Started on Claires. I literally choked on powder on one of the 6 spills I took on the first half of Claires. Did a couple of runs on Hellgate. A few more on Heuga > Racers.

Shout out to the Toothless Girl and the topless male trucker with the big meat fun-bags.

Yay pudding!!!!

 

[WoodCore]

Shout out to the Toothless Girl and the topless male trucker with the big meat fun-bags.

Yay pudding!!!!

I won't ask! After all it was a powder day! :beer:

 

[deadheadskier]

It needs another hour or so:

hunter sucks

where are the seeded bumps?

 

[Greg]

Shout out to the Toothless Girl and the topless male trucker with the big meat fun-bags.

Yay pudding!!!!

I won't ask! After all it was a powder day! :beer:

Remember, the three of us were trapped in a car for 4 hours on 84. Luckily we had lots of entertainment watching some of society's finest. :lol:

 

[severine]

Brian has quite the fashion sense, doesn't he?! :lol:

Hey, Greg! Why didn't you include some of the footage you guys took on the highway? Nice vid, nice commentary (though all we hear is heavy breathing from Bri :lol.

 

[gmcunni]

Brian has quite the fashion sense, doesn't he?! :lol:

i didn't recognize B at first. and i have to say i LIKE those pants!

nice vid Greg. looks and sounds like you had a great time and it was worth the effort to get there.

 

[Grassi21]

Brian has quite the fashion sense, doesn't he?! :lol:

Hey, Greg! Why didn't you include some of the footage you guys took on the highway? Nice vid, nice commentary (though all we hear is heavy breathing from Bri :lol.

i will get the highway footage posted sometime today. it might be one of those, "you had to be there" moments. but greg and brian will get a kick out of it. Blizzard of 2010!!!

 

[Grassi21]

Here it is... You had to be there for 4 hrs to really appreciate this. Might still be processing...

 

[RootDKJ]

Here it is... You had to be there for 4 hrs to really appreciate this. Might still be processing...

Hahaha...damn, I don't think I would have lasted that long. I gotta ask...what was that removal of snow intended to accomplish?

 

[Greg]

Here it is... You had to be there for 4 hrs to really appreciate this. Might still be processing...

Totally a "had to be there" moment but I laughed at that vid. :lol: It was only moments later that we saw the man boob trucker. :lol: Thanks for keeping me laughing and not insane during that highway closure guys.

 

[Greg]

Hahaha...damn, I don't think I would have lasted that long. I gotta ask...what was that removal of snow intended to accomplish?

We laughed at them, but the end result was that "fisherman guy" (we had names for everyone ) in the blue car in front of us got up enough courage to go around that truck. We were then able to weave around the rest of the trucks for the next mile and a half to the Taconic.

 

[2knees]

what were they doing? was it a piss hole or something????

 

[Greg]

what were they doing? was it a piss hole or something????

See above. Speaking of piss holes....... :lol:

 

[severine]

:lol: Awesome!

 

[kingslug]

It needs another hour or so:

I was standing right behind you on the lift...couldn't miss those pants.