HUNTER MOUNTAIN: The 2007 AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge

[Greg]

Jessica Pezak, from Hunter Mountain has agreed to take the 2007 Alpine Zone Challenge!!! This is your opportunity to ask questions, offer suggestions, or say some praise to the men and women who are in charge of the Northeast’s Ski Areas. Please post some suggested questions in this thread and we'll select ten to present for official responses.

Also please don't be offended if we edit/change your question for grammar, tone, or some other minor thing. In order to get in all of the questions we MAY merge some questions but we'll do our best to keep the substance of your question. If we don't get your question in, feel free to post a follow up after we get the results...we are encouraging the representatives follow the threads. :wink:

As always, please be respectful of Jessica and keep it civil. Also, please refrain from asking specifics about skier visit numbers, financials, demographic information, etc. Hunter needs to be discrete about certain information.

We are honored to have Hunter join us for their THIRD AZ Challenge and Jessica to be here for her first Challenge. Please take advantage of this special opportunity!

Ask away!

Hunter's Profile

Previous Hunter Responses:

2004 Responses.
2005 Responses.

 

[Greg]

A few questions.

Great job opening Annapurna as soon as possible last season. Will 'Purna again be a priority in 2007-08?

Some nice seeded bump lines on Broadway (starting at the five fingers sign) this season. Any plans to expand the seeded bump approach to other areas of the mountain?

 

[JimG.]

The trees in between Milky Way and Lower K27 were well cleared out last season, probably due more to MTB trails than anything. Well, that was a nice little glade to get your feet wet in, great for my 2 oldest sons to learn to ski trees. I took them in there as much as possible while it lasted and the reward for my boys was they got good enough skiing trees to take advantage in early April at Wildcat when we got 3 great powder days in the trees.

Hunter could use a few more gladed areas on the map. Intermediate/advanced pitch for newbies. Any plans?

 

[inhalexhale]

A few questions.

Great job opening Annapurna as soon as possible last season. Will 'Purna again be a priority in 2007-08?

Some nice seeded bump lines on Broadway (starting at the five fingers sign) this season. Any plans to expand the seeded bump approach to other areas of the mountain?

We generally make it a priority to open either Annapurna or Westway each year. No guarantees on either, but with the snowfall and conditions (even the marginal ones we received last season), we will do our best to open one. We are deeply appreciative of our advanced and expert skiers, and definitely want to get those doubles open when we can.

As for Broadway, those bumps went over really well this past season, with a lot of compliments. If you noticed, we also added a few other little areas akin to the mogul lines for the Catskill Mountain Series events...I would assume they will continue, but I can't make any promises. They were well-received and there is plenty of room for them, so I'd definitely expect to see them again this season.

 

[NJSkiBabe]

How long was there summer skiing at Hunter? And are there any pictures of it.

Also any chances for a lift to run all the way up to the top of High Line on Hunter One? It's a great trail and not always open to the top.

 

[millerm277]

How long was there summer skiing at Hunter? And are there any pictures of it.

I believe this TR is what you're looking for...
http://forums.alpinezone.com/16723-hunter-mtn-june-2nd-mtn-jam-2007-a.html


Anyway, I've got a few questions...

Are there any plans to follow through with the proposed expansion that was often shown while you were selling the KMC timeshares, I can't find the exact map, but it was similar to this

Also, while Hunter has some of the best snowmaking I've ever seen, there is always room for improvment, and some of the trails have very old snowguns, are there any plans for buying new guns/other upgrades to the snowmaking system?

The summit HSQ has been aging fairly rapidly, while I know there is a large amount of work being done on it this summer, are you thinking of replacing it or any other lifts? And if so, when would we expect this?

 

[dmc]

With the KMC doing great and new condos going in at the top of the lodge. Seems like Hunter's starting a village..

Since there will be people staying around the lodge..
Will the bar stay open later now?

 

[2knees]

Will the bar stay open later now?

Giddyup

 

[maplevalleymaster]

Is there any chance that the "Z" lift may be replaced soon? I love the trails back there, but its a long lift.

 

[catskills]

Hi Jesica,

With the new lift side lodges, has Hunter Mountain become more of a destination resort?

Although I personally like the higher 13 percent of double diamond trails at Hunter, the percentage of blue intermediate trails at Hunter is under 30 percent which is less than most ski areas. For example, Belleayre has over 55% blue intermediate and Windham has 45% blue intermediate. Obviously this means Hunter has a very different business model and is predominantly going after a different customer than Belleayre and Windham. Many of Hunter's customers I would imagine are 10+ or 20+ day per year skiers that probably live here in AlpineZone :-D . I would imagine, in general, a good percentage of Belleayre and Windham's customers are the 5 to 10 day per year skiers. My question: Does Hunter have any plans to open up more blue intermediate trails in the future ?

 

[skidbump]

Heard there was a 3 mountain ticket for bellearye,Windham,and hunter this coming season..What a great way to do a long weekend only 2.5 hours from NYC

 

[rjc1976]

Heard there was a 3 mountain ticket for bellearye,Windham,and hunter this coming season..What a great way to do a long weekend only 2.5 hours from NYC

If this is true, that would be great!

It seems that the Catskills resorts have always competed against each other rather than working with each other. I did notice some joint advertising with Hunter and Windham last year though, which was nice to see. Is there desire within Hunter management to have joint tickets or passes with the neighboring mountains in the future? Personally, I find it hard to justify buying a season pass for any one mountain in the Catskills. However, if there were ever a time in a future where a season pass worked at all four mountains, I'd actually choose that over buying a pass in VT.

 

[dmc]

If this is true, that would be great!

Is there desire within Hunter management to have joint tickets or passes with the neighboring mountains in the future?.

No doubt it would BE great!,,,

I could see Hunter and Windham ganging up on Bellayre because of their boost from the state.. I always say - my tax dollars at work when I ski there....

There's a pretty big dissagreement with NYS and Hunter about their funding of Belleayre to the tune of $400 million...
Now Hunter's also having problems from the state getting approval to drain more water out of the Schoharie creek for snowmaking..

Interesting thing is they want to use the creek from Oct 15th to April 15th... I can understand wanting the water in October to beef up November snowmaking...
But April...????!?!?!?

So my question is - Is Hunter planning on snowmaking until April 15th???

 

[JimG.]

Now Hunter's also having problems from the state getting approval to drain more water out of the Schoharie creek for snowmaking..

Interesting thing is they want to use the creek from Oct 15th to April 15th... I can understand wanting the water in October to beef up November snowmaking...
But April...????!?!?!?

So my question is - Is Hunter planning on snowmaking until April 15th???

I think they're asking for alot of extended time on each end of the request so they can negotiate down to what they really need, which would be November through end of February.

The Trout Unlimited lobby has always fought Hunter about the water they take from the Schoharie and the state has used that lobby as the excuse to deny Hunter for years. They'll never get the state to agree to let them take water from the creek past end of Feb because TU claims the loss of water exposes trout eggs in the stream.

In reality, the state is still pissed at Hunter about the Highlands cut; the Schoharie creek has been stocked for 5 decades and there is minimal if any reproduction of trout going on. Even if there is, the brown trout the state stocks is not the native species. Brook trout are native to the Northeast and I haven't seen a Brook trout in the Schoharie in the 25 years I've fished in the Catskills.

 

[catskills]

There's a pretty big dissagreement with NYS and Hunter about their funding of Belleayre to the tune of $400 million...
Now Hunter's also having problems from the state getting approval to drain more water out of the Schoharie creek for snowmaking..

Wow $400 million. I see the rumor milll is adding zeros. There was a speculative article in the the Albany Times Union a few weeks back but that speculation number was not even remotely close to $400 million.

I enjoy skiing at Belleayre, Hunter, Plattekill, and Windham every year. I think its great to see more high speed quads and lift side lodging going into ski resorts in the Catskills to compete with Vermont. There use to be a Ski the Catskills card that provided a specific number of discount days at all the Catskill ski areas. Myself and a lot of my friends have purchased that card in the past.

My personal opinion is Vermont is Hunter's biggest competitor not the other ski areas in the Catskills. These days, you can not compete with Vermont without high speed detachable lifts and lift side lodging. Vermont has set the bar very high. All NY State ski resorts are behind Vermont's four season ski resorts in my opinion. There are 1000s of cars every Friday from NYC, NJ, Philly, Washington DC, that drive right buy the Catskills on their way to Vermont. What are the Catskill resorts doing to try to increase market share as a region?

 

[dmc]

Wow $400 million. I see the rumor milll is adding zeros. There was a speculative article in the the Albany Times Union a few weeks back but that speculation number was not even remotely close to $400 million

Thats what i read in the Albany Times Union.. If it's wrong then what's the deal?

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/st...tegory=FRONTPG&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=7/29/2007
"Hunter's application comes at a time when the state is considering a proposed $400 million development project in Highmount at the state-owned Belleayre Ski Resort, which also could be upgraded in a related effort."

 

[catskills]

Thats what i read in the Albany Times Union.. If it's wrong then what's the deal?

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/st...tegory=FRONTPG&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=7/29/2007
"Hunter's application comes at a time when the state is considering a proposed $400 million development project in Highmount at the state-owned Belleayre Ski Resort, which also could be upgraded in a related effort."

The 400 million is Dean Gitter's private ownership proposal that is nothing to do with state owned Belleayre Mountain. The papers get this wrong all the time.

Here is another article.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=608084

 

[rjc1976]

What on-mountain improvements is Hunter making this year? Anything new for the skiers and snowboarders?

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Wow $400 million. I see the rumor milll is adding zeros. There was a speculative article in the the Albany Times Union a few weeks back but that speculation number was not even remotely close to $400 million.

I enjoy skiing at Belleayre, Hunter, Plattekill, and Windham every year. I think its great to see more high speed quads and lift side lodging going into ski resorts in the Catskills to compete with Vermont. There use to be a Ski the Catskills card that provided a specific number of discount days at all the Catskill ski areas. Myself and a lot of my friends have purchased that card in the past.

My personal opinion is Vermont is Hunter's biggest competitor not the other ski areas in the Catskills. These days, you can not compete with Vermont without high speed detachable lifts and lift side lodging. Vermont has set the bar very high. All NY State ski resorts are behind Vermont's four season ski resorts in my opinion. There are 1000s of cars every Friday from NYC, NJ, Philly, Washington DC, that drive right buy the Catskills on their way to Vermont. What are the Catskill resorts doing to try to increase market share as a region?

The catskills used to have alot of different ski areas and now they're down to 4 ski areas. For me coming from eastern PA..I usually drive to Hunter or Belleayre(I skied Windham alot as a teenager and it doesn't compare to the other two). I usually ski the catskills early and late season when there's no skiing in PA. I can leave early AM Saturday ski Saturday..party it up in Phoenicia or Hunter...stay in a shitty motel which are pretty expensive in that area..more than where I stay at Stowe..plus high NY lodging tax..then ski Sunday till about 2:00PM..and be home well before dinnertime..to write a report on www.paskiandride.com

If I have Friday off...I'd rather drive to VT on Friday..or better yet take Thursday and Friday off and drive up Thursday..Ski 2-3 days...and drive home. If taking a single vacation day can have me skiing at Stowe vs Hunter..I'm there. I'm a northern VT whore..I'd rather drive 7 hours to Stowe vs 3 hours to Hunter..but..I'd rather drive 3 hours to Hunter or Belleayre for that matter..than hit up Okemo or flat southern VT places..

Hunter has fast snow and a steep pitch and opening day..especially if the temps are warm...on Hellgate is exceptional better than the early season product at other resorts..not the death cookies you see at Blue mountain. Hunter knows snowmaking and 2 more high speed lifts..and a spruced up town would do wonders for them.

How have skier visits changed at Hunter since the early 90s? Locals have told me it's been dead up there the past few seasons compared to it's heyday..

Like Blue mountain, Belleayre, Mad River Glen, Stowe, and Jackson Hole...Hunter is a true ski mountain..rugged..rocky..steep,,and there are areas where if you catch an edge in the wrong spot..there can be some major carnage...I've seen people fly/slide off trails..10 feet to bare ground and snowmaking machinery more than once...

Now I want to ski so badly..it's killing me.