Hunter Mtn Expansion Details

[Funky_Catskills]

So you don't even ski the front face? I like that racer edge trail on the front. And there is another one next to it that is pretty good....

I love Racers Edge...
But...
When I have an hour to ride - I do not. Takes too long to get to the main lot and to the chair.
I may slip over to the West and hit Clairs but generally I stay on North and just get as many runs in as I can..
It's awesome

 

[tamedog]

I agree 100%. I never was the biggest fan of Hunter Mtn, but I've been loving it this year with that North lot. It feels like an entirely different mountain over there. The trails were great yesterday with the sun blazing!

 

[Funky_Catskills]

I agree 100%. I never was the biggest fan of Hunter Mtn, but I've been loving it this year with that North lot. It feels like an entirely different mountain over there. The trails were great yesterday with the sun blazing!

Yesterday was great for the hour that I rode... hahaha..
I'm seeing the trails bathed in sun until the lifts stop turning. Going to be awesome over the next couple weeks..

 

[180]

If only Skip and TF would leave a few bumps

 

[tnt1234]

I love Racers Edge...
But...
When I have an hour to ride - I do not. Takes too long to get to the main lot and to the chair.
I may slip over to the West and hit Clairs but generally I stay on North and just get as many runs in as I can..
It's awesome

Oh - got you - thought your were talking about a half or full day session...

 

[tnt1234]

I agree 100%. I never was the biggest fan of Hunter Mtn, but I've been loving it this year with that North lot. It feels like an entirely different mountain over there. The trails were great yesterday with the sun blazing!

That's an interesting comment...

Yesterday, me and a buddy choose belleayre over hunter. One reason was. they were reporting more snow, but the other - and a reason I've made this decision in the past - is, Hunter sometimes feels more like going to the mall than going skiing. You now what I mean? Iike, it's skiing in that you are sliding down mountain, but it doesn't give you that sense of being out in nature, and that isolation and solitude....Not that you are all alone at Belleayre, but there are a bunch of trails and glades that give you some peace and quite...So while I happen to thing Hunter has an overall better assortment of challenging terrain, I often choose bell over it.

I'm wondering if North changes that? Trails look narrower, and the remote lot....maybe not the crush of humanity the main face is?

Obviously, haven't been there this season to try them out.

How much snow did they get Frdiay>Saturday?

 

[danimals]

Hunter one feels like your skiing at a mining operation.

Hunter north feels like your skiing at somewhere like bellesyre or really anywhere else

It’s totally different and it’s awesome.


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[So Inclined]

Hunter one feels like your skiing at a mining operation.

That's a strange comment, considering there is nominally no such place as "Hunter One" anymore - and the place that went by that name is the learning area.

 

[jg17]

Anyone know why they removed the loading gate arms on the lift? Seems odd that they're gone halfway through the season

 

[danimals]

That's a strange comment, considering there is nominally no such place as "Hunter One" anymore - and the place that went by that name is the learning area.

Okay whatever the Main face is called


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[da-bum]

Overlook video - nice intermediate trail...
http://youtu.be/dnRDwaNjQfE


Twilight video- great intermediate pitch..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5tu6mJFOmc

I don't think it is purely the pitch, but the length of it without a gradual runout. So if someone tries to go for a relatively fast run, they will get faster and faster and before they know it, they are going faster than they feel comfortable with, and are way too fast to control their speed. On my runs on runs on twilight and overlook, my tracker frequently says I hit 70mph (twilight is easy to do, overlook has those 2 humongous whales right at the base of the headwall that I have to somehow absorb). Its accuracy is not required, since it is just relative speed comparison (recorded speed is actually much higher, in the mid 80's, but the Trace app seems to throw out spurious readings once it gets uploaded). When I sometimes try to catch the 6 pack for a final run before it closes at 4pm on a weekday, I would straightline (not quite straightline, but still doing the equiv of super G/DH radius..not quite on ike, I don't want to fly off the jump) down hellgate/broadway/kennedy or ike and my speed would rarely go above 60mph. All those trails have gradual flattening of the pitch here and there to prevent insane speeds from occurring.

 

[Ski the Moguls]

Quick question, probably for Funky_Catskills. Is their a ticket agent at Hunter North during the week? The trail map says yes, but I would hate to park there, boot up, and then find out I have to go to the main lodge for tickets on weekdays.

 

[Bandit2941]

That's an interesting comment...

Yesterday, me and a buddy choose belleayre over hunter. One reason was. they were reporting more snow, but the other - and a reason I've made this decision in the past - is, Hunter sometimes feels more like going to the mall than going skiing. You now what I mean? Iike, it's skiing in that you are sliding down mountain, but it doesn't give you that sense of being out in nature, and that isolation and solitude....Not that you are all alone at Belleayre, but there are a bunch of trails and glades that give you some peace and quite...So while I happen to thing Hunter has an overall better assortment of challenging terrain, I often choose bell over it.

I'm wondering if North changes that? Trails look narrower, and the remote lot....maybe not the crush of humanity the main face is?

Obviously, haven't been there this season to try them out.

How much snow did they get Frdiay>Saturday?

Agree with you. We are ORDA pass holders for the above reasons. Hunter and Belleayre are equidistant from home but I can’t deal with the crowds at hunter, it feels more like an amusement park or mall.

We were at Belleayre Friday and Saturday, they got a foot at the top Friday morning and an additional 4-5” into Saturday. Skied lots of powder both days, natural snow trails woods etc.

Decided to try hunter Sunday since we bought 3x passes at the beginning of the year and only went opening day. When we got there it was sunny but cold and the trails were firm and fast. They reported 10” but there was hardly any fresh on the ground anywhere. It was completely different conditions from Belleayre’s powder/packed powder. Didn’t take long for the front side to soften up, by a little after 10 we were lapping the awesome bumps on lower K.

We checked out the north side around 11 and it was still firm and fast due to the exposure. Our overall impression is that no way should these trials have ever been marked intermediate. Some have weird double fall lines that head towards the woods and they are easily accessible from Belt Parkway. The signage on the mountain still indicates they are blue squares but they are clearly much more difficult than Belt. We had just skied racers and felt that the top section of Twilight after you go under the lift was almost as steep as racers and the conditions were much worse. Easy for an intermediate to get in over their head.

It also felt like there were lots of “hard” obstacles near and adjacent to the trail edge: large trees, snowmaking pipes exposed right next to the the trail, large rocks, trees that were cut and laying next to the trail in dangerous ways, etc. If one were to go off into the woods they would certainly be hitting hard stuff. I thought about how this is different from other mountains and it seems like other places have more “soft” things to hit at the edge of a trail - small growth, bushes, small trees, firs that have smaller branches and can act as a sort of cushion if you hit them.

With that said I’m a fan of personal liability and if someone goes into the woods it was their fault. However, it seems like the implementation of the new north side was rushed and doesn’t feel like a polished job. The steepness and exposure combine to create trail conditions that are likely firm and fast a lot of the time, and the blue square invites gapers in. We headed back to the north side around 1:30 and it was still firm and fast, on one of the softest/best days of the year. Meanwhile friends were at Belleayre and it was soft packed powder from the start that softened even more.

The new 6 pack over there is nice, fast, can get a lot of runs/vertical in a short time. But for us, the conditions are typically better at Belleayre, so that’s where we’ll stay. We do have one more ticket to hunter this year that will either get used after Bell closes or it will probably go to waste. I also didn’t like how every trail had a ~18” wall groomed in the side of it to keep people away from the edges. I understand why they need to do it but it makes the trail narrower and prevents escape from out of control skiers. Plus the berms are usually where the nice snow is!

Just my opinion, but I won’t be back for more than the occasional visit as I do like the steeps. Clearly Hunter has a corner on the city market; I heard more foreign languages spoken and accents in one day than I’ve heard all year at Bell. There were also way more people there, and Sunday was not a crowded day in terms of hunter crowds.

 

[zyk]

Quick question, probably for Funky_Catskills. Is their a ticket agent at Hunter North during the week? The trail map says yes, but I would hate to park there, boot up, and then find out I have to go to the main lodge for tickets on weekdays.

Lately there has not been anyone when I have been there. Earlier in the season there was someone but that seemed to end several weeks ago.

 

[180]

They rarely check tickets there. Rumor has it RFID and gates are coming so they can verify ticket sales for the inevitable acquisition by Vail or Altera

 

[Ski the Moguls]

Thanks. Another question. Any opinions on Van Winkles restaurant? Would it even be open for a midweek lunch? Are there other options besides the standard base lodge cafeteria?

 

[jamesbond006]

just go to mcdonalds

 

[catskillman]

Thanks. Another question. Any opinions on Van Winkles restaurant? Would it even be open for a midweek lunch? Are there other options besides the standard base lodge cafeteria?

Van Winkles is only open on Sat & Sun. Try Scotties at the summit over the base lodge.

 

[Killingtime]

Van Winkles is only open on Sat & Sun. Try Scotties at the summit over the base lodge.

Ahh used to ski Hunter all the time. Having beers at Van Winkles was the best. Great burgers too. Gotta go back some day to see the North area.

 

[So Inclined]

Van Winkles is only open on Sat & Sun. Try Scotties at the summit over the base lodge.

Chances are that Scottie's would be closed on late-season weekdays too, right? I don't think it's been open every weekday that I've been up there.
There's the new, slightly more upscale sit-down place in the lodge where the sushi restaurant used to be. That seems a slightly better option than the caff, which I'm not really a big fan of either.